Good news

On Monday we had the vet out to check on Basse's leg to see if the ligament had healed at all since her last visit at the end of July? We'd already discussed that if the ligament still looked like it did in July then we would have to seriously consider pts for Basse as the winter's in Finland are just too tough for the horses' legs. Keeping in mind that this was the same vet who in July told us that she wouldn't even try to give the horse more time off because he'd already been off work for so long, you can image how surprised I was when this time she went "wow, it's healed really well!" 

Apparently in the scans you can see clearly that the ligament has healed and there is no distinct tear to be seen! Obviously we still have a long way to go towards having Basse back in full work and we'll see if the leg can cope with work, but the fact that it looks so good in the scans means that we get to move onto the part of the rehabbing process! He's lost all his muscles and is generally very stiff (8 months off work will do that to you...) so not only do we need to build up the strength in the ligament by slowly increasing his workload, we also need to build up all of his muscles! I'm going to do the same routine as I did with Vallu this summer slowly increasing the amount of trot and canter by 5 minutes per week as it worked really well with him. So this week we're doing 5 minutes of trot - which has absolutely exhausted him, poor boy! Next week I'm planning on 10 minutes of trot, then the following week 15 minutes. With Vallu I we introduced canter work at this point, but because Basse's canter has always been his weakest pace I think we'll do trot work up to 30 minutes (so in 6 weeks) before I even try to canter him. Basse is also going  to have the physio come treat him every 2 or 3 weeks to try and sort out his neck/shoulders/back/quarters (e.g. all of him!) He really feels like he needs an intense few months of helping his muscles feel better.

But at last, some good news for Basse! The last few weeks leading up to the vet visit have been absolute torture for me as I've been fearing the worst whilst praying and hoping for the best. I was so relieved when she said that the ligament looks good I cried with happiness! I now have both my boys back in work ♥︎

My favourite #fatunicorn