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 7, WEDNESday
Bad weather early this week, so Doc had a couple of days off. Owner said he was very unsound for his young rider yesterday and didn't really warm out of it like he has been doing. I don't like the fact that his right fore has stayed swollen from knee to fetlock. It's not puffy like lymph; instead, it's hard and lumpy like the hind legs. The swelling has resisted owner's traditional treatment -- furasin and DMSO applied in sweat treatments.

Bodywork routine today didn't show much new. Right hip is the biggest stuck spot, very tight at the tensor fascia/glute intersection. Doc was great in the in-hand work today, rocking back willingly and moving off softly. Good boy! As I generally do, I put him on the short line for a little while, just to manage a few walk/halt transitions and see whether he appeared more sound when he was balancing himself on the circle. Pretty stiff and definitely off on the left fore (that's right, the swollen one isn't the one on which he appears to be lame -- don't you just love trying to figure out horse gait problems?!)

Doc seemed to have some energy to use, so we did a little free longeing at walk, trot and canter. Trot didn't particularly improve even after canter; this is contrary to his usual pattern, in which all the gaits improve after a bit of canter. I didn't like the look of his movement at all -- something subtly different today from the other times he has looked off. My gut feeling was to minimize concussion, so I ended up just leaving Doc turned out to choose his own exercise. He stood at the fence and watched workers doing some construction on the pens where he usually lives. He and his neighbors are in the barn for a week or two while their portable panels get replaced with good solid pipe set in concrete and welded.

Week 7, THURSDAy
Massage and kinetic bodywork for Doc today to continue our exercise-with-minimal-concussion regime. I just love the ground exercises for that very purpose. I can spend 20-30 minutes with a horse practicing balance and using the muscles of self-carriage without ever having to cringe at him pounding the ground with his joints.

Still, I'm concerned with the way Doc's body feels to me. It's hard to describe, but he somehow seems less interested, less connected in his body. He goes through the motions just fine, including the little bit of lateral work, but it's like his muscles haven't got the tone they had just a week ago, his body doesn't have the same vitality and spark.

Week 7, FRIday
More of the same today -- a bit of massage and then walking, walking, walking. Release the throatlatch a couple of degrees to the left, rock back to release the shoulder and step off with the left fore into very gentle left bend. Halt, and repeat on the other side. Then make the bend change without stopping, asking him to rebalance and start to swing his barrel even more. Rocking his spine while in motion, first from the withers and working farther back. Swing into a slight rope walk. Swing into a wide arcing walk. He's unusually cooperative with all of this -- none of the head-tossing I often get when he thinks he's being asked to do something too hard or unusual (though by now, he's got to be getting used to my requests of him being a bit different than he's been used to!)

Bad weather expected for the weekend, so I'm guessing this will be all the work Doc gets this week. Might be good for him to have Saturday off from his rider. I hope he looks better on Monday ...