Is back soreness after work (or voluntary play/exercise) typical of KS rehab, or is this a sign that my horse isn’t ready to start rehab and/or has another complication?
Now that my gelding is non-symptomatic with EPM and causing trouble from boredom I have begun trying to rehab a second time for his KS (T14-16). My plan was to spend the first 4-6 weeks ground driving and lunging on the flat, adding in equibands around 3 weeks in. Assuming all went well I was going to add in pole and hill work after that, gradually increasing difficulty and begging adding in some under saddle work early May. However, whenever I work him, or he plays hard in his pasture, he comes up back sore around T5-8. Sometimes it’s as small as a little tension and slight shifting away from pressure, but other times it escalates to a full body flinch.
I’m not sure if this is typical, especially as he has only been in light work for the past 18 months, and I should keep him working through it or continue as I have been and not working him (aside from his own antics in pasture) until it isn’t sore. I know it’s better for KS to keep them in work, but I worry about another EPM relapse if I stress him out from being sore. I have not talked with his vets about this yet as they are both on leave at the moment.
I will put a more complete medical history and timeline below.
Horse is a 12 year old OTTB gelding I bought in May of 2020. Looking back he probably started having mild neurological symptoms around January of 2021, but my trainer (whom I have since left) and I attributed to him being unbalanced. He started having significant back soreness and some intermittent front end lameness in July of 2021 and was subsequently diagnosed by x-ray with KS in T14-16. Beginning in August treated with shockwave, robaxin, and 6 weeks of groundwork rehab before slowly introducing work under saddle again.
The ground work rehab went great, but he was definitely uncomfortable staring back under saddle, so we did another 3 weeks ground work and tried again. We were just starting to move towards semi-normal light work at the walk and trot with some attempts at canter when he began having meltdowns again. In June/July he began showing significant neurological symptoms including temporary asymmetrical loss of control of his hind limbs and head shaking and he was diagnosed with EPM.
With my vets encouragement I treated with a round of Ponazuril and then turned him out in a pasture to be a horse and hopefully unwind. He finally appeared to be symptom free in December, and around that time the barn owner started calling me saying he was bored and causing trouble so I started working him about once a week, weather permitting.
My guy takes a snooze and absolutely loves it.