Doc's Introduction
Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9
Doc's Decision

Horse Anatomy Reference

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Doc's Life or Death Decision
A Rehab with a deadline

Week 1, Monday                                                        
Doc's first day of physical therapy, so to speak. First, documenting the "before" situation in still photos and video. Here's what he looked like at the walk and the trot. This will give us a pretty objective comparison when it's time to decide whether he's doing well enough to return to some kind of work.

Next was a basic bodywork evaluation. One of the most obvious issues is that Doc's pelvis is not straight.  Tape spots in the photo below show the locations of his ischial tuberosities (his seatbones). As you can see, the left is much lower than the right. And if you could feel, you'd notice the muscles on the left side feel less toned, mushy even, and you'd have to go in pretty deep to even find the bone. I'd say pelvis is down and forward on the left. We'll see what the chiropractor says later this week.

I found that Doc's neck was very tight -- nuchal ligament, rhomboids and traps. Just look at the photo at left and you'll see the line of shadow where the muscles (and fascia) are locked down in front of the top edge of his shoulderblade.

There is a raised (and probably calcified at his age) area at the start of his lumbar spine, just in front of his sacroiliac joint (also called the croup). He can raise his back pretty nicely with a little encouragement -- upward pressure at the midline in the the girth area. Not much side-to-side motion in that area -- his "waistline" is pretty stuck. But given his pelvis subluxation, I won't really be able to asses or work on this until after the chiropractor has done his work.

Doc's hind legs are quite swollen from the hocks down, a chronic condition for him. And his hindquarter muscle tone is pretty bad, with deep depressions from atrophy in glutes and tensor fascia and slackness in the hamstrings. All pretty typical for a horse who has been doing more pulling with his forequarters than pushing with his hindquarters. The question I have to help Doc answer is can the hindquarters still push.

My first task is to prepare Doc's body to get the most benefit from a chiropractic adjustment. I'll work to make the muscles elastic enough to allow the bones to move and not to force them back into subluxation. Did some work to stretch the nuchal ligament and to stretch and release some of the tension in the rhomboids and upper traps. Shoulders got some attention, with gentle opening of shoulderblades. I spent lots of time on the ribs, trying to remind Doc he can breathe deeply and expand his barrel. Percussion on the big hindquarter muscles to try to wake them up and give me some tone. Trigger points across the loin area to be sure the back muscles weren't shut down. And attempts at motioning the hindquraters side to side while asking him to lift his barrel a bit.

Then we did some ground exercises. He seemed to remember the basic kinetic bodywork exercises he learned a year and a half ago when I was working with him monthly. I got quite a bit of head-tossing when I asked him to release his poll by pressing gently away from me on the throatlatch while keeping his nose turned ever so slightly toward me. He was pretty happy moving forward with this released for a slight left bend. Right was harder -- he could do it standing still, but when I asked for forward motion, he only wanted to back up at first. We walked S-turns and did an exercise where I rocked his body from the crest of the neck to the withers to influence him either to ropewalk or to swing his legs out wide. All of this was to remind him he could lighten his forehand and rock back on his hindquarters just a bit, without actually "making" him do this work. It was all his choice.

Next exercise was my "rock back to go forward." Simple to do. Start out standing in front of your horse, facing his face (only if your horse isn't a striker or biter.) Grasp the noseband of a snug-fitting nylon halter on both sides of the nose, just in front of the metal rings that attach the cheekpieces. With your back soft and your feet grounded, send energy forward from your sacrum so your hands press the halter noseband gently on the horse's nose. Wait to feel the horse shift his weight back (he may or may not feel the need to step backward at this point -- either is okay). Take a couple of deep breaths, then send energy back through your sacrum to gently create a slight pressure on the part of the halter noseband just above the horse's chin. Wait until the you feel the horse rock his weight forward. Again, he may feel the need to take a partial step. That's okay. You'll be able to modulate your energy and pressure to help the horse learn to just shift his weight without moving his feet.

When you can rock the horse easily back and forward from this front position, move to one side and grasp the noseband of the halter with two or three fingers pointing down just in front of the ring. Keeping your horse facing ahead with his spine mostly straight, ground yourself and send energy back through your sacrum while you gently stretch back the elboww of the hand that's on the noseband. Wait for the horse to rock back. Reverse the process to invite him to rock forward. Practice until you can easily rock the horse back and forth over his feet without him feeling the need to move his feet.

Then it's time to move. From your position on the side of the horse, rock him back on his hindquarters, then invite him to rock forward while your feet take a couple of steps. After a few tries, he should follow you forward. Then try rocking him back and then stepping off without so much of a forward rock. You should start to see him lift his withers and drop his head and feel him push a bit with his hind legs to initiate forward motion.

Here's a short video of the rock back exercises, so you can see Doc doing this exercise (and see his evasions -- throwing his head and trying to fall through the balancing exercise onto his forehand.) This is such a great exercise for reconnecting horses from back to front -- gentle but powerful. Even though Doc makes a few "editorial comments" by tossing his head, you'll see clear signs that he is anything but stressed-out by the work. And it works quickly, even on a horse with pretty serious soundness issues. Just compare Doc's walk and trot after he did these ground exercises one time (and the elapsed time between the first set of videos and the second was just a half hour.

Week 1, Wednesday
Chiropractor comes tomorrow to put Doc's backside on straight. Today was a repeat of Monday's bodywork and groundwork to be sure he's prepped to hold his adjustment. I liked the tone a bit better in his left hamstrings, and the right side was less tight. That should help his pelvis stay in place.

Groundwork was a bit easier, too. He did the rocking back and forward without so much head-tossing and his bending work was better on both a large and a small circle. I turned him out for a bit in a ring that had just been dragged in hopes he'd decide to have a nice roll, but he opted not to. I know it's a bit of a challenge for him to get down and up. Tomorrow should help that.

Week 1, Thursday
Doc was happy to see the chiropractor, and his body was so helpful that about half the adjustments happened during the range-of-motion exam. I prepped him this morning with just about 10 minutes of bodywork, mostly inviting tone into the big hindquarter muscles to help ensure he will hold the adjustment.

His pelvis didn't go completely back straight - not a big surprise considering how far off it was -- but you can see from the photo that his ischial tuberosities are much more level. That should be a big help in getting his posture and movement straightened out, then we'll see just how sound his body can get. I expect we'll see the chiropractor one or two more times before we determine what Doc's new "normal" will be and confirm that it sticks.

Note: The photos in this diary entry have been altered to preclude their use in spurious claims of wrongdoing on the part of those involved in the valuable and necessary treatment of this horse. More info. on this issue here.

Week 1, Saturday
Nothing like having your backside on straight -- well, straightER, at least. I see some improvement in Doc's stride today. It's not longer, but I like the rhythm better at the walk and the trot. What I don't like is the odd jerk up he does with his left hind in walk/trot transitions. I'm not fast enough to get a still shot of it, but I do have some video. I don't see any reason for him to need to do this to get into the trot; I suspect it's a compensatory movement pattern from some past issue. It needs to go away, because it tends to give him a reason to dump onto the right shoulder. I'll have to figure out a way to reprogram his transition.