Asher does step ups all the time too! He loves them 
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He looks so proud!!
Some trotting from last night. This looks a little better than he has been, little less choppy.
I also audited a Jec Ballou clinic this weekend and she was wonderful!! We dog eared some exercises in her book for Charlie.
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How are things going?
Ok I think for now! We have been doing Jec Ballou workouts now for a couple weeks and had our longest streak of 11 days with no trips or stumbles until Wednesday this week. Nothing catastrophic, just a small buckle trotting off the driveway onto the grass. I have been riding him twice a week for the last two weeks and our rides have been really good. He’s up to 8 minutes trotting (4 each direction) and that has been no trouble at all.
We are signed up for an eval at the local rehab barn later this month for some acupuncture and anything else she may recommend. They do Chiro there, water treadmill, vibe plate, salt room and BEMER (which I already have).
It’s hard to gauge if the Jec stuff is helping his proprioception and fitness to some degree making him more stable or if the Marquis helped more over the last couple weeks. I am tracking things daily which is really helpful at least. I got him some knee boots for if were out on gravel, but they don’t stay on really well. Maybe need to try another brand/style.
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He is the cutest!
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I’ve read this thread with interest; sorry I misssd it in the summer. Something inexpensive that may be worth trying is a cheap pair of rubber bell boots on his fronts to help him improve is propreception. This helped a lot when rehabbing our young AQHa ranch mare whose main symptoms were front tripping and having difficulty picking loping off/getting lead. All seemed to point to her ability to pay attention to her fronts and lift her shoulders.
We also longed her with a rig that had medical bands on it, similar to Pessoa but not rope and nothing holding her up front. Again I think the rubber medical bands around her belly and butt helped her know where her “parts” were, for lack of a better word.
We also treated for 60 days with Marquis, not having seen much improvement till week 4. For Vitamin E, save yourself some $$ and buy Emcelle from Custom Equine Nutrition; it’s the same stuff as the little green bottled elevate but so much cheaper per oz. Plus you can get a pump.
Good luck and hope to hear news of improvement soon!
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Already on top of that!!
Here are some videos lunging today on the grassy knoll. He’s been doing really well with the hill work!
Trotting to the left:
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Trotting to the right:
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@StormyDay any thoughts?
Fall photo shoot!
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He definitely looks way better than when you started! I still see the tiniest bit of him ‘protecting’ himself when he is trotting; every once in a while there’s a step where he hesitates. This could just be residual from his laminitis. I was told it can take a year plus for everything to heal back to where it’s supposed to be, but to not let that stop me from working my horse as usual as long as they didn’t get soreness. It worked out for both cases of laminitis I’ve dealt with.
This is kind of a weird idea… have you considered putting weighted leg wraps on him? They sell ones for joggers that weigh 3-5lbs. They make the horse really learn to think about their feet. You could put them on him when he is lunging for a few minutes each way. It might teach him to pick up his feet more and strengthen those muscles that do that so when you are riding he naturally picks his feet up higher (and hopefully is less likely to trip).
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They make weighted bell boots that are used for this purpose. It does work on building and expanding shoulder/joint movement.
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Sorry just getting back to this. I definitely see the protecting thing from time to time. I think the jury is still out whether or not our spring event was truly laminitis…the first episode as well as they both happened after more physical work than he was used to.
We went to the rehab barn today and had his first of four electroacupuncture sessions. They loved him and he zoned out several times during the treatment. He was 100% less reactive to the swipey-tools (I have no idea what they are actually called 
) after the treatment and was pretty ouchy especially at the poll and down the neck before the treatment.
She was throwing out ideas and PSSM came up. I wondered about this at one point. He does get the Unbeetable Forage Only which does have alfalfa in it, but that’s the only thing we’re off there on. She said it’s easy enough to send off a hair sample so I’m thinking of that just to know.
She also mentioned Plasma Rich Platelet injections as an option to steroids. She said they do a TON of that with the “fat hunter ponies” with decent results. I’d love to hear more about if anyone had experience.
And she mentioned a short trial of Equioxx to see if I notice any improvements from there too. The vet we’re currently working with threw that out as an option too.
I’m not going to introduce anything new until after that, but he’s been doing pretty well!
Please see FRANKENPONY
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Small update on things. We extended the time between acupuncture sessions to three weeks; he was trip-free (that I saw anyway) for 13 days, then the frequency increased a bit at the end of the second week.
Right before our appt last week, I noticed that an existing splint had blown up quite a bit. No lameness, no heat, no swelling, but when we went for the acupuncture session, the vet recommended splint boots for turnout/any work, ice/voltarin which we’ve been doing. I put some pressure on it last night and he’s not reactive so hopefully it’s done all it’s going to do for now. At the time, she said we could do X-rays but it wouldn’t change her recommendation so I’ll see what she thinks when we go back the 20th.
We also started him on Equioxx last Wednesday to see if we notice any changes. Hard to really tell at the moment since he’s had some down time with the splint, the holidays, we got absolutely slammed with snow, AND I ended up with covid. I did do some groundwork with him last night and asked for a little trot and a canter transition each way on the lunge line to see how he went. No tripping and he seemed to be moving comfortably so we will see.
Im really hoping 2025 will give us a break, but not getting those hopes up too high 
REALLY hoping the splint won’t require surgery.
I feel like I should have invested in bubble wrap.
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Ugh. I needed to invest in bubble wrap and wound spray, I think!
It’s my opinion that these lightly neuro/somewhat clumsy types get injured easier than their more normal counterparts. However, it’s also my experience that youngsters (like… under 8 years old) tend to just get banged up for no reason. I guess they haven’t learned yet 
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Jingles for a self-healing splint. I’d X-ray it next time the vet is out if it’s still bothering you, but that’s just me!
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You’re not kidding. I’m more and more convinced that what we thought were laminitis issues were actually this neck stuff.
Any general recommendations on dealing with splints? Our vet said keep things to a walk until he’s not reactive…which he doesn’t seem to be, but I don’t want to push things either.
High splints have always been a “damn, that sucks” but not a big deal kind of thing, at least in my experience. It ends up being cosmetic. Grundy has two gigantic ones and I think I have a hunch where they came from (I believe they, without training her to them, hobbled her to be able to saddle her, but I can’t directly prove that).
Low splints can be problematic.
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Dang he’s cute. Something about the face of a fjord that is so endearing.
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Very glad to hear that, thank you! This is my first foray with splints so I’m on the learning curve at the moment and of course thinking the worst.
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I call them the Build a Bears of ponies 
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It really makes you wonder! My first horse was a TB who was always coming in with some little nick or scrape. He never did himself any serious injuries though–until he broke his leg in turnout around age 18 and had to be put down. He was schooling PSG and showed 3rd Level, so he was pretty high-functioning, but I do wonder if there was anything physical going on. This was before neck x-rays or any of that stuff. He was also extremely tough about water jumps when his previous owner and I tried to event him, and difficulty with changing footing is another thing that makes me wonder about neuro issues.
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A bit of good news! We had our December acupuncture appt today (3 weeks from the previous visit). We started him on Equioxx Nov 27th and he’s had no trips/stubs or buckles since.
The plan is to up his workload a bit, see if he continues to stay solid, if he does, cut back the Equioxx to half a pill/day and see how he does with that. The vet thinks we can start to extend his visits out to 8 weeks…so we’ll see how things go!
Zen Pony
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