This Post Brought To You By Back On Track and Surpass

 

Modeling his lovely scarf. 

Not really. I'm not cool enough to have sponsors. But if those companies want to sponsor me that would be GREAT. Have your people call my people. 

We all know that horses are trying to maim and/or kill themselves pretty much constantly, and despite his long-running general soundness and very sensible nature, Dino has done something weird to himself. He has somehow re-aggravated a previous shoulder injury by... I don't know, walking through the mud or rolling or getting kicked in the field or sleeping wrong or perhaps the moon was in the wrong phase... really the possibilities are endless. 

Last week I noticed he felt not quite right under saddle, and when I looked him over I saw visible muscle fasciculations in his right shoulder, as well as the biggest muscle knots I've ever felt on a horse. Super. So I threw him on the lunge to see what he looked like, and what he looked like was lame on that right front. 

Cool, cool. 

Enjoy these fun stills from our tackless ride the other night.

Since then, with input from our vet, we've been Surpass-ing and massaging and Back On Track-ing and stretching and keeping him moving on the lunge and with short, easy rides. The movement definitely seems to help him work out of the tightness of the muscle knots, and I can affect and sometimes diminish the fasciculations by pressing on the knots during massage, so I'm pretty confident that's where his discomfort is coming from. Our vet will hopefully be out later this week to lay eyes on him and do some acupuncture and/or chiro, too. 

In the meantime, I repeat to myself how much I love horses and how much fun they are as I rub Surpass into my pony's shoulder so vigorously it makes my arm sore. Thankfully, this regimen seems to be working and he gets a little sounder every day while the visible muscle spasms get a little less... extreme. Looks like you're going to be getting some posts on how I bring the old man back to work after a long break!