Less Restricted

TC saw his acupuncturist for the first time in a couple of months and I'm still bummed that I wasn't able to be there. Unfortunately (well, they weren't unfortunate) the SO and I had made plans for the afternoon and so instead, my mom offered to meet the acupuncturist because I was giving one of the slots to her to use on Riot. 

I got an update by text and then got his sheet a few days later. It was a really good update!

First, she said that TC was the most relaxed she's ever seen him (she has only seen him at my old barn, this was the first time seeing him at the ranch), which is really exciting for me! I love that he's relaxed at the barn and I feel like he's getting a little bit better about bodywork these days. 

There's so much to do to take this and turn it back
into a Third level horse but I like where we are!

The other exciting thing was that his right shoulder had the least restriction, even less restriction than his left shoulder! I'm not sure what is causing that, there are a lot of variables at play here. First, he's in pasture, so he is moving around a lot more (he walks back and forth from his pasture to his stall at least 5x/day if not many more than that). Second, he's not being ridden in my saddle anymore, which I'm fairly positive was causing some of the shoulder issues in the past. And third, I've been doing those exercises that the new bodyworker gave me! One of his exercises specifically gets the right shoulder more up and mobile. 

TC had a little bit more tension and a trigger point in his deltoids, which are in front of his shoulder at his mid neck. I think that's just him using them for the first time in like, years right now. He's packing on muscle in that area so I bet he's just a bit body sore there. 

He also had some right side SI/LS issues, which again is interesting as the left side (if I'm remembering correctly) has been an issue in the past. I'm wondering now if he's just using his body more symmetrically and so that LF/RH diagonal pair is struggling a bit with that? Who really knows. None of it was serious or anything. 

The final exciting thing was that he apparently let her do his stifle points without freaking out. The first time she tried getting his left stifle done, he wouldn't let her do it. The second time he was uncomfortable at first. This time he was apparently fine! We've been climbing hills more regularly now and he has a small hill in his paddock that he has to climb every time he comes in from the pasture, so maybe that's helping! He definitely feels super sound to me. 

Can't wait to see him gain strength for the collected
work again! 

I'm so glad I have these amazing professionals to help me get TC back to where he was (or, let's be honest, better than where he was before). I'm excited that it seems like we're on the right track right now. Between the move to the ranch, more hill work, not using my saddle anymore, the new bodyworker, and my wonderful acupuncturist, I think we are on a roll here. 

Looking back over the last year of confusion, treating for ulcers, changing supplements several times (I didn't put this in the list but the Platinum CJ has been amazing for him, his coat has never looked better), seeing multiple vets, multiple trainers... I've felt crazy a lot of the time. It's not totally obvious and it took me a while to see what the problem was and took me a lot longer to figure out what was causing it (still not totally sure lol). I feel really grateful to have all these people (and my friends and family) who believed me and are willing to work with me to help TC feel his best. 

Can't wait for another acupuncture session and to get a saddle so I can feel this amazingness for real!