Almost Home

I decided to leave Elvis at the Fair Hill therapy center for the month of April. I wanted to give him one more month under their watchful eye while he graduated to hand-walking and turn-out in the round pen. If something happened and his hock started to swell again, he could go back into the cold seawater spa straight away. And in fact, that happened twice. They aren't really sure why; maybe doing something in his stall or the increase in walk time, anyone's guess, really. The swelling wasn't bad but Bruce Jackson felt it best to get the swelling down quickly. ( Look who else has made good use of a cold seawater spa. Elvis is in good company!)

He is enjoying his time out in the round pen and gets to hang out with the other horses in the neighboring pens. The other day, all three of them decided to roll, practically in unison. It was fun to watch. "Hey, good idea! I'll join you!" And I was glad to see that he didn't struggle when he went to get up so the leg must be feeling better. He will rest that left hind, as you can see in the picture, but he is putting more and more weight on it and seems very comfortable in his stall and during his walks.

Tony, one of his favorite grooms, walked him for me the other day (the video is below). I haven't seen him walk in 2 weeks and was very pleased to see that his stride looks pretty normal. He seems to move just a tad short on that leg but I am really hoping that will improve once the walking time increases more and we can start long-reining him. So, one more month down, who knows how many more to go. I am checking out a rehab place that is closer to home and will probably move him sometime in May. It will be nice to have him closer and start doing the next steps of physical therapy myself. Hope I'm up to the task....