Skeptical Pony

So TC, Sunny, and I have been on this adventure of trying to figure out how to apply the things I learned from the clinic I audited a week ago. 

It's so funny to see the difference between Sunny and TC in how they handle new things. I mean, none of this is new information since we saw it a year ago at the bombproofing clinics. TC sees a new thing as something to investigate and throw himself at. Sunny sees new things as things to quietly pretend don't exist until he's forced to admit he hates them. 

He looks way fancier in pictures lol

So when I told TC that I was completely changing up the way we did things, he was totally on board. He immediately threw himself into it and was thankful that the work seemed easier for him to do. He let me work on his shoulders and only on Wednesday, day three of the work, did he let me know he was body sore. 

Still, TC has been super on board with the new protocol and hasn't said no yet. But he almost never says no to anything, sometimes to his own detriment. 

Sunny, on the other hand, gave me sad pony eyes when I worked on his shoulders a bit. Then when I asked him to change the status quo undersaddle, he said absolutely not. 

Now, I can definitely *make* Sunny do things that I can't with TC, given that I am maybe 8% of TC's bodyweight while Sunny is probably a little more than half the size of him. But I have been trying not to do that to him since I can't imagine how unnerving it is. Sometimes when I lean over to open the gate he shifts his weight in a way that TC doesn't. 

But he was quite resistant to something that should be relatively easy at the walk, so I did help him find his balance point on the left foreleg after I abducted it. Just momentarily to see if I could convince him it was a superior way of moving. He was a little concerned at first but wow the balance change made a huge difference. 

Keeping him upright while tracking right has been
really hard for him, especially in canter

In the truck on the way home from the clinic, Kate and I discussed horses with uneven pectorals. She suggested that swapping leads in front of a fence could be the horse shifting their weight to engage the stronger pectoral. I mentioned that every time Sunny has exploded after a fence, it's been when he's swapped in front of the fence from the right lead to the left or he's been on the right lead and sproinged over the fence to swap onto the left lead and then explode. 

When riding him on the flat on Monday, I could feel the difference between the pectorals. He is very confident shifting his weight from the left to the right, which suggests the left pectoral is stronger. This would make sense because cantering on the right lead, he leans inward. Coming to a fence, if he's leaning too much, I bet he'd be frustrated and think to swap leads. 

In addition, that stronger left pectoral will stand him up over the right shoulder, but the weaker right pectoral would not be able to stand him up over the left shoulder. Is it just that he happens to be weaker on the right pectoral? Probably not. His left shoulder is rotated inward and likely stuck there. He can't abduct the left front leg easily. If his left shoulder is rotated and stuck, he's probably interfering with his neck there. 

Pony has always had some neck issues, silicosis
is no fun for him, but with work he's been way
more comfortable in a dressage posture, but his
tendency is to curl

The clinician talked a lot about horses being stung by their poor biomechanics, getting a zing when the neck gets pinched by the shoulders or when there's a twist in their hind end. I'm thinking that Sunny will get a sting in his neck (which is already weakened due to silicosis) and that may cause him to shift his weight and explode after fences.

With some work manually on his left shoulder and then utilizing both the exercises I learned at the clinic and some of my own ideas as a dressage trainer, I was able to get him to shift his weight. He was not pleased, as I said earlier, but he's getting a little more willing to trust me. With that weight shift, every single fence was relaxed and easy. The distances were just there, he never swapped leads or launched over the fences. 

He also just seems freer in his movement. He's not a particularly free mover. He rides rather baroque in his movement and has very little swing over his back or oscillation in his neck. The more I think about how that all ties in, the more convinced I become that his left shoulder has been pinching inward on his neck for quite some time. The lack of oscillation, well, freezing his neck has helped him avoid the pinching feeling. The lack of swing through his back can be explained that way too. I'm super curious if I'll find more swing and more oscillation with this work, and if he may end up riding a little less baroque over time??

Helping him figure out how to shift his weight, you
can see how comfortable he is weighting his right front

I'm excited to have him to play with right now too. He makes me appreciate TC's willingness to try new things for me. But he also makes me excited to see how I can help him out a bit more. He's always been this really great trail and grandchildren pony... until he isn't. He's got a good explosion that is rather unnerving. I'm hoping that those explosions are just due to him being stung by his left shoulder. The way he acts during them is pretty telling, given that he usually flings himself to the left. 

Hopefully I can help him with that and he'll become a happier, sounder, pain free pony!