I will have to get that book. It is possible I will be grounded for awhile…even if not, it will be moving into winter and no indoor. Charlie looks happy.
Kyra does step ups too.
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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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