Give him time to settle back into work and to stop anticipating–everything from pain to “yippee we are cantering!” And also build some muscle and strength.
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Turnout, grazing helps. Keeping the back warm. Mine is always better in the warmer months. I also like this stretch where you have their front end higher then back end. Flattens out their back well. Western saddles seem better. Joint support to keep them healthy. Equinox. Poles and lots of walk warm up. I do about 10 minutes or walk warmup before even getting on. If I just get on he is rather pissy.
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Any ideas on why he’s forward going rather than a slug (sooo behind the leg) like he was previously? Not complaining and I hope it’s a good sign but idk.
There definitely is a bit of tension but it feels like excitement/anticipation more than upset type tension. Hard to know a hundred percent. When he was behind the leg before, I almost felt like that was a different type of tension. He was WAY more spooky when behind the leg than he is now. Which I mean makes sense too. He also roots on the bit less now than before.
Thoughts? Is this a good sign or just a total different issue?
I know this sounds dumb but I’m just trying to help my horse. He’s continued to seem to want to work. Meets me at the gate, practically puts his own bridle on and no issues tacking up or mounting. But still trying to get him 100% (which I get might not happen ever.)
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It could be that he’s realized things don’t hurt, or are at least not uncomfortable, when he moves in certain ways now
What do his ears/nose/eyes look like during this? Those can tell you whether this is anxiety, or feels good
Ears are the easiest for a rider to assess - loose and floppy, or attuned back to the rider? Or more like tense and “pinned”?
The method I have succeeded with is relaxing my fingers. I keep them curled, relaxed enough so the action in the horse’s mouth comes through to me. I only give rein aids when the horse’s head is coming up and back (this happens at the trot too, it is just a lot more subtle.) My hands are ALWAYS ready to move forward when the horse gives me any indication that he/she needs more rein.
Using this method the lesson horses I ride develop soft, responsive, relaxed mouths which feel and react promptly to my hand aids. As the horse moves faster the horse voluntarily increases the strength of his contact, the intensity of the rein aid may need to be increased briefly in time to the horse’s stride.
Because of my MS I do mis-estimate the needed strength of the rein aid (i.e. for me my hands become heavy.) IF I keep moving my hands in the direction of the movement of the horse’s mouth the horses tend to forgive me. If I do not listen to the horse the horse then proceeds to hand evasions of the tongue, mouth, lower jaw, poll and throatlatch. This tension also effects the movement of the horse, too much inappropriate rein aids directly effects the movement of the horse’s forelimbs. Of course everything else is effected but there is at least a millisecond lag to that response. The base of the tongue is muscularly DIRECTLY linked to the scapula and the humerus.
Breath, relax your hands, time your hand, leg, seat and balance aids to where the horse is in his stride at that moment. You can do this.
Never pinned! His ears are always forward or flicking back to me. He’s always got a good attitude. In the past they’ve flopped. I would say he’s not relaxed enough for flopping yet. But not tense or tight ears either.
I see plenty of horses going around with pissed off faces but his is not one of them. He’s a jolly guy.
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Is this into a relation to him being forward? Or you talking about the rooting? The rooting is not because of unforgiving hands or anything. It’s more of a symptom of uncomfortableness in his body. It’s getting less and less since treating his back. He’s not one to be naughty so it’s kind of his go to way of expression.
He does it with everyone, professional riders and me. But like I said, thankfully getting to be more rare now 
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I think that lack of forward and rooting come from similar causes. Back involvement is one of them, a major one of them and it is very good that you got it treated.
At its deepest level of musculator the back is knit together with a complex web of little muscles that link vertebra to each other AND to the spinous processes of from one to five (?) vertebrae forward toward the head. If these deep muscles get unhappy because the muscles over them do not work right these muscles are ideally situated to misalign the spinous processes of the vertebrae.
Sorry for the technical novels.
I will say his neck is his way of expressing his opinion at all times. Hard to explain unless you’ve met him and then it makes sense 
.
For example, He loves the farrier and usually falls asleep at the beginning. But when we are almost done He always loses interest and wants to play around. He tries to swing his lead rope around like a jump rope. Same when he’s tied for awhile. Boredom sets in or if you are something he doesn’t like, he will maneuver his head and away where he’s testing to see if he’s actually tied lol. Not sitting back but testing it very intentionally.
He’s a total goofball. Lol.
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you know, we just need another video of the goober so we can see his new movement! 
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Yeah I’ll have to have my trainer grab a video.
Still talking to the vet and probably going to spring for SI injections but he’s got hind shoes on now which hopefully is helping. Still not 100% in my opinion but it still feels like we’re always inching forward. Small steps.
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Forgot to mention that he was back sore the other week when I was tacking up. Mildly sore but disappointedly sore. My trainer walked up and I told her. And she said oh yeah I bet he is sore! Apparently her and a boarder witnessed him running at a full gallop across the pasture, deciding to rear up and play wild stallion and seemingly get his front feet hooked on another horse. She said it did not seem like that was his plan and he looked very bewildered. Then the other horse panicked and started running with my horse’s legs hooked onto his back. So he kinda tumbled off the other horse, awkwardly.
Dude!! Lol. Spending a lot of money on his body and like a typical horse he is not careful at all. Thankfully the soreness was short lived 
🫣
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Without seeing him, it’s hard to say, but I’d generally say that more forward is a good sign here, even if there is still some tension.
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I left my phone in the barn darn it, but he looked pretty darn good today. My trainer did do most the riding today just to play with the canter a bit (I’m still coming back for my own accident.) but he was so mentally settled today. He wasn’t as forward as he has been but he wasn’t sluggish either. He was very relaxed though and just happy. Today he had his floppy ears on at times. Even though it was a little breezy (jackets flapping on a jump standard) and there were some roofers on a house adjacent to the ring.
Regarding the rooting my trainer was saying that she feels like it’s more of an opinion when he’s told, “No” lol which is something I would agree with. It doesn’t seem to matter what he’s doing or if it’s on a loose rein. Transitioning to doing something different seems to be the biggest trigger. But it lessens as the ride goes on and it’s not constant. Just occasional rooting.
Happy today. I’m excited to see how he’s going to look after the SI injections (Even though I’m not excited that we have to do that but it could be a missing piece in the puzzle)
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Well the other day my daughter and I rode him. He was a perfectly behaved pony. It wasn’t a long ride nor complicated but I was proud of them both.
Then yesterday my trainer ride him and he was AWFUL. Ugh. The arena we were in backs up to a neighborhood and there was one person mowing their lawn and then another person in the yard using a tree chipper (is that the word I feel like my mind is alluding me for it right now.) So on one side it was super loud. Did he care about that? No. But on the other side of the arena where the jumps and stuff are stored he was literally having a meltdown. So tense and afraid. Then he spotted some people quite a bit away and was pretty scared of them too.
Trainer worked through it and finally he was walking around on a loose rein but man it wasn’t easy to get him there.
Glad we have that vet appointment on Tuesday. I’m getting pretty discouraged. He was also really forward and tense but I’m usually inclined to think spooking equals discomfort… Especially when it’s so hard to work through.
Not to mention I’m the most broke I have been in my life this year because of many circumstances that have kind of come up.
I guess we will just see what happens after next week.
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Ugh I’m sorry. Hopefully it was just a bad day? Horses can have those, for reasons unknown.
However, I feel this way about spooking as well - especially for horses that have a history of being chill. There’s “forward” and then there’s “running away from pain/anxiety”…
Spooking at unreasonable things (things that the horse usually wouldn’t spook at, not necessarily things that humans find unreasonable) is a yellow flag to me. Something is up - pain, pinching, allergy or feed change, etc. Or maybe there were coyotes in the woods and no one got sleep last night lol.
I hope you find answers, but don’t underestimate the value in backing off and giving him some time to work out anything minor. Robaxin, turnout, and light, low pressure stretchy work can do a lot especially when you’re not ready to spend $$$$$ at the vet.
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Well we already have a vet appointment anyway so keeping that.
And yes maybe just a bad day but I felt this way before he was diagnosed. Like he made progress, like a normal horse and then just suddenly got very inconsistent.
I think frustrating part of horses is what’s bothering you now?! Could be a million things, like you said.
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There was a lot going on and I think it would have been valid of him to say the neighbors using a tree chipper and the other one mowing the lawn behind trees (so you could just randomly see him pop up) was too much. That would would be fair.
The stuff on the other side was a little much. But my trainer also wondered if it was just SO much noise and commotion that it made him insecure about assessing everything else. Because he couldn’t hear anything else.
Idk maybe. I’m watching it. Maybe it was just an off day but I am watching it.
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I really sympathize with you - my KS horse is retired because I just couldn’t do the rollercoaster anymore. We’d get one thing under control and something else would fall apart, or life would happen and I’d miss a couple days of working him, or the weather wouldn’t cooperate and he’d just get… weird. I’m still trying to get him comfortable in general, but honestly I just couldn’t do the ups and downs with him anymore. I’m also not made of money so I hit a wall of financial resources (especially since the horse has become rather dangerous to load and haul).
I hope for your guy that it was just sensory overload and he will be back to “normal” asap!
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