Diary of an Anxious Horse and Protective Mummy - Part 3
With the anxious quirky one proving he can be fairly sane when presented with a black moving floor, it was decided that next time the water would be introduced.
So, the next day on to the treadmill he walks, blissfully unaware that water would soon come running out of the jets around his feet. This is a horse that hates getting his feet wet and has a meltdown if anything changes in his life (high maintenance doesn’t even begin to describe him!) so I was just a little bit worried about how he’d cope with running water gradually creeping up the sides of his hooves. Now, I should point out that there is an automatic safety cut off switch on the Salt Water Treadmill in case of panicking horses, but this was rendered obsolete as was my needless worrying, the big eejit seemed to quite enjoy splashing his way through his exercise routine. With the first of his treatments with the water successfully completed, New Hatches Livery and Rehabilitation Centre could now start following the three week (yes, three weeks!) injured horse treatment plan as devised by my vets and Bronny at New Hatches. This three week plan entailed the water becoming deeper and the duration on the treadmill increasing. Each horse will have their own personal treatment plan taking in to account injury, amount of time off, how fit/toned you’d like them before you get them home etc. I needed my boy to be gently introduced to work as he’d had about nine months off was sporting the most magnificent pot belly and had weak back and butt muscles! I also didn’t want him to come home overly fit as he has an enormous rodeo buck and has a propensity to bolt if scared (I’m really selling him to you aren’t I- hahaha!) so for my sake I needed him to be a little bit unfit but strong enough to cope with being ridden again – such a fine line.
Well, his treatment plan was for him to be put through his paces every other day on the Salt Water Treadmill and as previously stated the duration and water level gradually increasing over the three weeks of his stay. Everyone with a vested interest in this extremely talented horse were keeping everything crossed that this low impact, fittening and strengthening treatment would prepare him for ridden work without him going lame. So did it work, find out in the next instalment!
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