I’m confused - you’re riding this horse
why not just turn out, work in hand, work on lunge (or long lines), until horse is no longer “very tight & sensitive” & reactive?
I realize this is veering away from half pad considerations, but am truly surprised that your vet & therapy team are wanting the horse worked under saddle
Nope, not working now and did not after he presented the first time with stiffness (after the incident in the dry lot.) He was off for a few weeks and then gradually brought back to full work. He was going very well until last week after his flu-rhino booster. An hour after the injection, we were warming up and he was head bobbing in the trot. I got off immediately. Thankfully my vet was still there so he was able to take a look right away. Our initial thought was stiffness secondary to the vaccine but when he didn’t snap out of it with in a few days we started looking deeper. He hasn’t been ridden since his booster but has been gently lunged, hand walked, normal turn out- all the things you described above. Other than that he is on vacation until everything clears up.
Keep a mind open to the thought of fractured withers–it’s pretty common for a horse to chip the top off the spinous processes over the wither area in an accident like that.
Can be a big deal, or not a big deal, depending on the severity of the breaks and where the chips end up.
Thankfully his withers are sound and have never been an issue- the vet has given them a good check.
We repeated an IR laser treatment the afternoon. He is still not crazy about his poll being worked with but he did relax as treatment progressed. His back was considerably less sensitive tonight than on Monday.
The original intent of my post was not to find a pad that would fix my horse. Quite the opposite. I recognized that my current pad was worn out and was curious to see if anyone had experiences, good or bad with the Acavallo pad. It looked interesting so I was curious. I want the big guy to have a comfortable set-up on his back when we ARE ready to return to work.
