Today I want to talk more about TC's hind end mechanic that Kate pointed out. I had more time to think about it and ride him through it over the weekend and it has really connected the dots for me.
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| On Saturday we went on the trails! |
As a recap, TC has this odd mechanic in his hind end where his right hind will sweep inward under his body, stiffen against the ground, and then his left hind "pole vaults" over his right hind and appears to be stepping short as he unloads his right hind early.
There are three other things that I think are relevant to this:
1. When TC pees, he cocks his left hip rather than stretching out evenly on both hind legs.
2. TC has had a "weak" left stifle, where if he doesn't get enough hill work for 4-6 months, he will go hopping lame on his left hind (stifle ultrasounds clear + hasn't happened in a long time)
3. When grooming, TC often lifts his right hind and wants me to scratch it in a location I clearly am not able to reach (I've long thought this was sciatica)
In addition, TC has the following kind of odd patterns undersaddle:
- Lateral work has been historically difficult for him, especially haunches-in (in both directions, but especially in one direction but I can't remember which one)
- He wants to fall out over his right shoulder, especially tracking left, if you block him from doing this, this is when the balking is the worst
- He struggles more to bend to the right, he would rather fold his neck in at the base than really bend through his body, if he can't fold at the neck, he'd rather bend the other way
- When tracking right, if he thinks we might change directions and go left, he throws his right shoulder aggressively inward, shortening his neck so that he can look the other way
- His left canter has been tougher to pick up, but his right canter has/had this weird dropping/retraction of the base of his neck in the downbeat that is super odd to me
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| Not into the view that day |
One of the things I've been thinking a lot about is like... I don't necessarily have to know why it happened, I just have to see the pattern, recognize the pattern, and change the pattern. I tried to figure out the WHY behind my hip injury, but that didn't really help me at all in recovering. Instead, we figured out what made it hurt, what didn't make it hurt, what structures were weak (so I could strengthen them) and what were tight (so I could loosen them). And now I'm much better, and 0% closer to understanding what caused it.
So for TC, I don't want to chase the why, I've spent a LOT of time doing that. I think all of the above are related, certainly. But I don't care what caused what or if there is a secret other thing that caused all of it. I care about fixing it.
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| It's hard to get him to stand still for conformation shots generally, but this is where he is right now |
How to fix it though. Well, I'm starting with where we are at now - sweeping the leg, stiffening it, pole vault. And then considering where I'd like it to be - taking weight more evenly behind, lowering the right hip when tracking right, reaching with the left hind. And finally, trying to connect the dots so that it's a clear path forward for both of us. Mostly to prevent me from asking for too much too soon and him from getting defensive.
My first steps I think are to get him tracking straight in a straight line and in order to do that, I need him stepping up into both reins evenly and willingly. That will help me gain more influence over him and start to feel where the weaknesses are in his body.
After that, I think my goal is to address the bending weirdness. Normally I'd want to address that in a circle, but given how much he can pole vault on a circle, I decided to stick with the shallow loops Kate had suggested after our first ride. This way I can work on my feel for when he does this, since I really have no feel for it after all these years with him doing it. It just kinda feels like him.
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| I took video with Pivo in the corner, the video quality is TERRIBLE so I'll be looking into a different location. My goal is to take video once per week to check in |
From there, we can move onto circles, and also some bending exercises. Eventually I want to reintroduce lateral work in a way that encourages him to take weight on his right hind and to also encourage him to step through with his left hind. But I think all of that right now would be way too much for him and it would be counter productive. I think if I make the work too hard for him, he's going to immediately fall back on old patterns. I mean, same, it literally took me 9 months to rebuild my squat, and most of those 9 months were spent with the 45lb bar and a band around my legs. But hey, once I could squat pain free like that, I packed on the pounds way faster than I thought.
And I think that's why the connection piece is so important - I've got to have more influence over him in a way where I can actually feel what is going on. And he's got to give me some of his body to actually influence and learn that it will be fun and not excessively difficult.
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| He felt better than he looked, but he looked better than he did on Monday |
Anyway, we've started this protocol, mostly working on the connection to start, and it's going well! I definitely felt some progress over the weekend, with the connection piece coming earlier in our rides and more consistent. And our shallow loops feel much better and more controllable laterally. My primary mantra has been "even into both reins from both hind legs," focusing more on the channel between his left hind and left rein and his right hind and right rein, rather than imagining an X over his body (left hind to right rein and right hind to left rein) which I think is too sophisticated for us right now (and would encourage the pole vaulting).
When turning right, I've encouraged his hind end to stay a little to the inside of the turn, since he tends to fall in with his shoulder and twist his hind end out. We've also worked a lot on flexion to the inside, rather than folding the neck. And to the left, I'm making sure that my outside leg (right leg) isn't too far back, since that's something I like to do that definitely makes this worse. I'm also riding him a little straighter than normal this direction so that I can keep him weighting both shoulders evenly.
The forward is still tough, but it definitely improves by the end of the ride and I'm working a lot on actually STAYING to the outside of him rather than trying to connect to him by meeting him where he is, since when I do that, he seems to wilt away from me. That's super hard since I want to just get in there and ride him. But it's been really helpful to focus completely on drawing him out to me rather than me sinking into him. It takes longer, but it does work and he will step out to meet my aids by the end of the ride. And then he gets lots of praise!
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| Still a long way to go but definitely a better shape than our first ride |
Again, I could lament about how long this will take, or how much is still wrong. But in September when I went to the vet, I wasn't sure I'd get this feeling again. Not just how he feels to ride, but the feeling of looking forward to riding and working on all this stuff. I'd kind of been concerned that the partnership between us had been broken, and that even if he felt better, I wouldn't have the patience to work through all the baggage and behavioral stuff with him and we'd backslide. So it's great to feel like this so soon after getting back undersaddle.
I only have four more weeks left before I leave the country for three weeks. Previously I was like... a little bummed I'd miss three weeks of potential rehab, mostly in the sense that I'm worried he'll gain weight or whatever. But now I'm bummed because I'm genuinely going to miss riding during that time!
He looks good in your screen shots. It’s nice to see you riding again.
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