State of the Stifles

You are getting two posts in one day. This was supposed to go out a few weeks ago......

The vet came out two weeks ago this coming friday. At the time we got homework to do stifle strengthening and refrain from canter for two weeks. From there I am to let her know if he's getting better or if we should check the joint for something more serious. I have tried to avoid analyzing his muscles or overthinking. We just set to work doing lots of polework, walking over hay bales, rein backs, and even road hacking. Today I took at a look at those pesky quads and he sure looks bigger. It is actually shocking to me that you can make visible changes in less than two weeks. Trainer came today and was of the same mind to see if she could tell a difference. She noticed it too!! The left quads are better than the right but we both are bigger. She walked him to and from and his stifles seem more stable. He also much much straighter. It was like riding a shoulder in to keep him straight to the right. Today we rode some actualy shoulder fores at the walk. They rode like normal grown up horse shoulder fore. He's offering to stretch down more at the trot. He carries himself very upright and it moves into uptight easily. He's the first horse I have had where I think "Go on the forehand and poke your nose out!!! Anything, just get loose." He gets a really nice stretchy walk and I can actually feel his back come up. Our lesson ride today was very short because he was spot on right off. He had to use his brain a bit to get through one of the pole exercises but figured it out quickly. 

My friend over at Equestrian Journey is doing a really great series about stifle excercises. If you have a youngster odds are they could use a little quad work. The stifle is such a complicated joint it actually scares me. I would venture to guess more horses could benefit from quad work.