Twister's appointment with the therapist

No matter what I thought going into this, I am now a believer in everything this man can do. Troy Brandenburg was recommended to me by Jodi (THANKS so much Jodi) and I got lucky that he happened to have a visit scheduled to this area so quickly.

He knew the minute Twister stepped off the trailer where his problem started. It started in his withers, but that has caused a lot of other problems. The top pic is him using accupressure on Twister's neck which is super tight because he is a cribbing fool.

This is the reaction he got when Troy first attempted to work on his withers. Anyone that knows Twist knows this is NOT him. He is the most docile animal to walk the earth. He just hurts that bad. Troy was amazed that he had not really hurt someone, with as much pain as he had to be in. That is a tribute to Twist's good character that he has not. The times he has acted out had to have been when the pain was simply unbearable any longer.
This is the laser he used to loosen up his withers and release the tension in him. Twist was calmed down by then--it was so interesting to watch Twist do exactly what Troy said he would do. He explained that Twist would hate virtually everything he did to him at first, but that if he pushed through it, Twist would realize it felt better and he could give in. That is exactly what happened, although sometimes Troy would hit another sore spot that Twist was not ready for and he would go batshit again.
It was actually kind of hard to watch--not Troy forcing him through it, I was grateful for that. To know that Twist has hurt this bad for years, Troy says probably since he was very young before we owned him, and we chalked it up to being spoiled, makes me feel terrible. I almost cried when Twist would sigh like he felt great relief.
He has stretching exercises, some with will really help his withers specifically and some that are just good for every horse.
This is the magnet therapy he got---they had some juice running through them. Twist fell asleep wearing it, it felt so good.
He even got it on his neck, which he really liked.

We have to change a bunch of things, give up my impact gel pad and get something with really really thick fleece. My Circle Y needs reflocked, but my Cook saddle is ok for the time being as long as I pad him really well. He is on a rehab program that starts today, I plan to put him on the hot walker to start. That requires me to gut that area out there and Barry to remove a tree the size of a semi from the area---Twist is not quite ready to be jumping over things like that in his condition. We already did our massages and most of our stretches today.

I learned SO MUCH from this man, I am so grateful to him. He will see Twist again when he is back to see how much I have kept up on his program. Because his problems stem from some wierd wither conformation, we can not fix it all, but we sure can fix a lot of it, if I keep him fit up and really strengthen his back. If I do what he said, we should see a huge difference in two weeks.

Lets hope.
Now out I go to see how the hotwalker rejuvenation is going. He will hate that, Twister HATES the hotwalker with a passion. I might put Sly on with him to keep him entertained.

On a good note, THREE times today, I have seen Twist spontaneously lope across the field--once even to come see me. That is not like him. Troy said over the next two or three days he will feel progressively better, and I think it might already be happening