Alfie – 10 year old Warmblood

Afie is a 10 yr old warmblood used for showjumping, he came to Field equine for 7 days as part of his rehabilitation plan following interspinous ligament desmotomy ( kissing spine surgery) 7 weeks ago having 8 spaces operated on.

Whilst in resident at Field equine he has received 6 treadmill sessions ranging up to 20 minutes in duration, using a pastern level water 2.5 and a 2 % incline this is to encourage more core and hindlimb engagement, we kept the water low throughout his stay to prevent hollowing in the back.  Prior to his stay with us Alfie had never been on a water treadmill before so we started off with shorter sessions to acclimatise him before building the duration.

Alongside the treadmill he has also done 6 days in ground work with sessions consisting of in hand warm up, long reining work and lunging in the menage up to 40 minutes duration, using the equicore band system with both abdominal and hind limb bands, over a mixture of flat and raised poles.

He also received medical grade IV laser therapy on his thoracic, lumbar and sacroiliac regions using 10 watts for 1000 seconds. This has aided in helping to relax and be more comfortable to help his way of going, he has previously been reactive on palpation in his lumbar and sacroiliac regions and before surgery he was very reactive through his back.

We measured his muscle growth in the trapezius area and the mid thoracic region at the beginning of the week and at the end of the week. At the end of the week the measurement has shown that both muscles have changed with the trapezius muscle growing and widening and the mid thoracic has dropped slightly which would align with the weight loss. The growth in the trapezius muscle shows that he has been engaging his core correctly and working in a more rounded posture. Visually he can be seen to of lifted through his topline and has increased tone in his abdominal areas, with a more rounded shape to his gluteal region. We have suggested to his owner to add in more protein and fibre along with a muscle supplement to his diet to aid support and growth in his muscle now that is in harder workload. He will continue his rehabilitation at home, with long reining and lunging before commencing ridden work once he has had his next physiotherapy session and saddle checked to ensure this is fitting correctly to the change in his posture.

We weighed Alfie at the beginning of his stay when he was 508kg and then at the end where he weighed 499Kg he was fed on dry hay whilst in residence and his own feed.