Good morning!
So are you making cavelleti to do this physical routine? I was thinking about your vets advice, and I think walking over caveletti... or logs for that matter, would be good because they have to lift the hind leg high, and doing that repeatedly might help to limber up those tendons. I am not sure what your vet said, but I think it'd be important to enforce they only walk over it, I don't think it would be as useful if he is the type to want to hop his back end over. But 3-4 of them in a row, within a stride or two along one arena wall... with a rest in between but repeated again several times, is actually a pretty good workout. Not because it's physically hard, but because it's using a new muscle group.
Aren't Jet (choctawsquaw) and Truly (FrogInABlender) due about now?
That is exactly what my vet said doing cavalettis would do. You are forcing the horse to lift that leg, rather then swing it out to avoid bending it.
But one difference in what you are saying vs. what she said. She said we need to "tightening" the ligement and build the muscles. The reason it is locking is the ligaments have slack in them and the muscles are not strong enough to hold the patella (knee cap) in place.
That is why she said if the exceriseing doesn't work she would then try blistering the ligement to create scar tissue to tighten it up.
Last resort is clipping it, which she said she does not like to do.
What do you think??? Sound right or have you heard they need to be "loosened up"??
Becky
Well I just got kicked out of the den. They are watching lotr3. All I did was comment that the little creature needed some underwear and say "look at the horses" to my grandkids.