Animals & Wildlife Magazine

Back to School, and the Longgg Story of Julius's Back...

By Kc2610 @kc2610
It's 4.30am and I really can't sleep any longer. The only explanation is that I must be too excited (maybe?) for my first day of college today! Yes, that's ride, Casey is going back to school!
If you're thinking "wait, you are supposed to be in Germany..." then yes, I know, but I've had to come back to England for two weeks to do an introduction to my second year of A levels at Cirencester College. And why am I going back to college? Well, I regret leaving Hartpury halfway through my A-levels because I've had a first-hand taste of what it's like to not have things go to plan, and nothing to fall back on. For years I have wanted to go to the Royal Agricultural College, so I figured I may as well get myself there while I have the chance, rather then regretting not going later on. So the only way to get into the RAC is to finish A-levels, and since I live in Cirencester now, it makes sense to go to Cirencester college.
I'm actually pretty excited about going back to college, even though I will completely be the new girl... I will be joining lectures where everyone has been together for the past year, and I am the newbie that walks in and tries to find the most harmless looking person to sit next to. Haha no it won't be that bad, I'm pretty good at fitting in to my environment so not too worried.
I am disappointed to have to be away from Germany though, as the riding was really going well and I was on a roll. Thankfully I know Seb and Chad are in good hands with Leonie so I know their work will keep moving forward, which is especially important for Seb!
I thought I could get over my no-riding blues by traveling out to where Julius is staying to ride him after college, but that I can only do for this first week as next week his in going in for a surgery. It's a pretty interesting story how his surgery came about actually, especially interesting for anyone who has wondered about kissing spine and how it can be helped.
Pretty much since Julius arrived in the Northern Hemisphere things have been very up and down for him. After everything that he has been through (travel, illness, colic) and from having time off from these things he has never been able to come back into work completely, and so his back has gradually weakened. I have known that he has had a slight bit of kissing spine since a few years ago when I was told by I think a chiropractor, but often it never doesn't affect them if they are strong enough to support it with their back muscles. Well, I could tell that he was getting sorer and sorer in his back, especially after the colic surgery with 3 months off. He wouldn't want to walk forward when I get on and he would arch his back as if it was painful. I also felt he could never truly work through, something was always stopping him from having that 'swinging' motion.
You may remember me going to the "Horses Inside Out" conference back in early March, where Dr Sven Kold talked about kissing spine. He said exactly the symptoms Julius had, and said that it may not be a huge problem for the horse but there is something that is limiting them from getting to their full potential in training. Well that was Julius, and after having physios, saddle-fitters and vets check his back for muscular problems and tightness and never having any success, I decided to do an X-ray.
I did the X-ray at Bushy Equine Clinic (Breadstone) in late March, and yep, the x-ray showed kissing spine in 3 vertebrae. The options were to inject with steroids to stop the inflammation and reduce pain, or to do the surgery. The injections are only a temporary measure but was used to see whether the horse improved after having it or if there were too many competitions coming up for the horse to be out of action recovering from the surgery. The surgery sounds scary, especially since the spine is involved, but it is actually a new, non-invasive technique that seems to have a high success rate. Instead of the horse being put under general anaesthetic and chopping away big chunks of vertebrae, the horse is only under local anaesthetic in his back and the procedure is done with him standing up. Only a slither of vertebrae is shaved off, just enough to stop the bone grinding together.
I though the smart option would be to inject with steroids first to see if there were any improvements in Julius's work, and the amount of pressure I could put on him before I felt he was in pain. After the four-day rest after the injections I brough him back into work and definitely noticed a difference. I enjoyed him so much in those couple of months after the injection, it was like what I could ask him to do was limitless. Piaffe, passage, tempis, everything was there and swinging. That is Julius for you, always obliging to do everything I ask of him if he can physically do it (only a small reason for why I love him so much!!).
I was so pleased he was no longer in pain, but didn't want to think about when the injection would wear off... It was all going well until just before I left for Germany, when I noticed him being a little off-ish to get on and so I tended just to take it easy with him and hack out alot to ease the stiffness. When he moved back to Cheltenham Dressage with Sue Mcmahon and Gary Mckenna when I left for Germany, they noticed he wasn't feeling quite right, and didn't look right on the lunge. Thinking it was either a back problem or a hock problem, they took him to the vet (Busy Equine) with mom and they did a lameness examination.
The vet couldn't see him looking too lame but noticed he wasn't moving quite right. When I saw him I thought it was definitely in his back, as it looked like the energy was stopping coming through just behind the saddle and the hind legs were active but the energy not being directed over his back. It looked like his pelvis and lumbar area was just locked.
To find out if this problem really was in his back once and for all, I came back to England earlier last week so I could ride him at the vet so everyone could see what he was like under saddle. To me, he felt like typical Julius but just stiffer and out of work (as he had only been lunged in the Pessoa lately, until we know what the diagnosis is). Although he didn't feel the best he has felt, it was sooooo good to finally ride him again. It's just like sitting back in your favorite armchair or putting on an old pair of slippers. Amazing.
So after I was satisfied I had worked him enough to remember the feeling, we injected his back with local anaesthetic (ended up being 14 needles... Ouch! Sorry Jules!!!), left him for half an hour then tacked him up again to ride. The idea of this was that he could not feel any pain in his back, and so when I rode him if that is where the pain was he should be a lot nicer to sit on and less resistant. Well yep, he was immediately swinging a lot more and comfier to sit on.
So, it was decided that since it was pretty much proven that the problem is in his back, we need to do the surgery. Another option would be to keep injecting with steroids and combine that with work to get his back stronger, but his muscle building ability isn't the best anyway and I am not there to work him as I am in Germany. So it is a perfect time to do the surgery, as by the time I am back in September he should just be coming back into work and ready for me to take back on!
I can go to ride him around for fun this week, but only until his surgery next week and then he will have to be off and just be fed loads of carrots :) I think to prevent myself from having meltdown I will book in some lessons at Talland to go jumping and a couple of schoolmaster ones with Pammy. I hear they have a new Grand Prix schoolmaster there.... ;)

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