15th May - Zano's got some exercises

Zano seems to be calming down again!

Zano doing his exercises

Jo left us with some exercises to do – I have to walk Zano in hand over some poles on the ground to get his muscles working in his hindquarters. Apart from trying to attack a couple of the poles (maybe he mistook them for snakes?!), he seems to be enjoying it!

Jo, the physiotherapist, said that Zano has tremendous range of movements in his joints but no muscle to control them. This means that when he’s back in work he’ll be fab for dressage because he’ll be really flexible, but right now he’s like a half tonne bambi! That explains some of his clumsiness, too!

Relaxing afterwards

It’s really helped thinking of him as a much younger horse. He can be quite clingy at times and at others like he’s trying to dominate, which is quite babyish. I wondered, too, if he was a bit unconfident – he’s had a couple of yard moves, and since his latest move he’d been asked to do more than he had done for quite a while. All in all, it’s been a big change for him, and he can’t speak to let me know how he feels about it all! So, I called a manufacturer of herbal products and, when I described Zano’s behaviour, she suggested a calmer to help him relax and start to feel more confident.

So far, it seems to be working wonderfully – phew! Poor Scampi, Marlee’s grey pony, has been in the wars this week. He came in very lame and we all thought that it might be laminitis, which makes ponies’ hooves really sore. He’s had it before and it can happen if a pony scoffs too much rich grass. He’s kept in a paddock which is purposely quite bare, with plenty of well soaked hay to eat, so it didn’t seem to quite add up.

But, when Jason the farrier popped in, he removed Scampi’s shoe and had a bit of a prod around and found an abscess! So, he cleaned it all out and then poulticed it to draw out any infection and bandaged his hoof up. Poor Scampi – I’m sure he’ll start to feel better now, though! In the meantime, he’s joined Zano on the ‘no-riding’ list!