Sorting Out Sunny

I was excited to have the clinician stay through to Monday because I was eager to get Sunny looked at too. With his silicosis and obvious neck issues, I was hoping that she could give me some information about him.

Not sure what we were talking about
but he's so cute!

Just like with TC, she worked on him for a while on the ground with the bodywork. Sure enough, Sunny has some pretty significant nerve pain in his neck! This is something I’ve been suspecting due to his weird behavior. He is so protective of himself and he has random explosions, especially after jumps, that feel like he’s been stung by a bee or something. He has this panic button that gets hit in those explosions and he feels terrified in the moment. 

She did a bunch of work to help him out but she thinks he has some neck arthritis going on that will probably always affect him. That’s most likely due to the silicosis. She didn’t think that he was impossible though, she thinks that we can fix the explosions for sure, he’s just going to need some help. 

I only have potato quality screenshots from his
ride because the person with the nicest phone had
to run! But any video is appreciated

I got on and what a difference between Sunny and TC. I could tell that Sunny felt better, but TC was way less protective than Sunny was. I had to take a lot longer to help Sunny find the softness and the posture that TC just gave me the moment I implied that it would be a nice thing for him to do. 

But when he did start to let go, he felt SO good. Sunny has always had kind of a clunky way of moving. He’s not a big mover and doesn’t have a lot of suspension, so you’d think he was smooth to sit, but he’s kind of not. 

He felt so much looser than he normally does

Now though, he felt smooth to sit! I encouraged him to lengthen his step, something he’s not really been able to do, and he was hesitant but did end up lengthening his stride a bit! Good pony! 

He was not nearly as excited as TC was, but that’s okay. I sent the video to my mom and she said “he looks more comfortable” and he really did seem that way. He seemed a little happier and a little more relaxed, which was great to see and feel in him. Not everyone is going to be a drama queen like TC I suppose. 

Such a good pony

I’m super excited to keep doing the same work with him and to see how he feels. I figure if we stick to it through the winter, maybe he’ll feel good enough to jump in the spring without exploding. If I can swing it, I’ll ride remotely with her on him too to just keep an eye on his progress. 

Punted Down the Path

Day two was at Kate’s barn. I ended up staying at the ranch Sunday night to Monday so that I could get an early start. This time I loaded up both horses. I’ll talk about Sunny later though. 

Most interesting creature first

TC was very excited to go to a place with the pony! The pony hates him though... Sunny is skeptical of most horses (except Riot, somehow Riot has been deemed acceptable by Sunny), but Sunny especially hates TC. I think because TC is chock full of problematic optimism and therefore doesn't care that Sunny doesn't like him. If there's one thing that Sunny hates, it's friends who don't care that he hates them. 

Because the trailer is a bit small, Sunny had to go in first so that TC could have the large rear spot. So, I put Sunny in first, loaded TC up, and then Sunny squealed at him. Worried that TC somehow was able to poke Sunny's butt, I looked into the trailer and saw that the most TC could do was… look… at Sunny. Sunny thought that this was unacceptable. And knowing both of them, TC was probably staring at Sunny the entire ride to the facility while Sunny squealed and stomped his feet at him. 

This horse has always been so out behind, there
are things I want to change about his hind end still
but this is much improved! Not a cart horse anymore

When we arrived (luckily for Sunny it was only a 15 minute haul), I took TC out and put him in the round pen, then grabbed Sunny. I swapped them out and Sunny hung out in the round pen while I took TC over to the clinic. He got worked on and the clinician was super excited to see that he was feeling really good on Monday after the work on Sunday. He felt so good that it wasn’t very long before she asked for Sunny and had me get on TC. 

I handed Sunny off (I will discuss him later) and then took TC to the trailer to tack up. I came back and we started our ride! 

All the connection issues he's ever had went away
except a slight inclination to curl

We managed to get the fabulous walk that we had the day before back right away. He felt so loose and the work felt easy. We worked on the same exercises as before, but things progressed even faster than the day before. Things that I had to slowly work toward the day before were accessible from my seat. 

He felt so good that we were told to trot! And I’ve never had the horse pop into trot so excitedly on the first try. He’s been really hesitant to trot sometimes, but not this time. He needed way less aid to get him going and no aids were necessary to keep him going. That was mildly terrifying, he was just so ON and so immediately responsive. I didn't realize how much he has been just low key behind me until he wasn't. 

She had me do the same work that we did in walk in trot. TC was on it. It didn’t take too much aid to ask him to maintain his new posture, it was like he was thinking “FINALLY I can MOVE now!” 

His core is actually engaged, what a miracle

We played with asking him to push forward down the long sides and his trot got SO NICE. He popped way up in front, something that I’ve long thought I was feeling on him but now realize that I’ve never felt on him. At one point, he got so excited as we passed another horse that he transitioned into a slight passage like trot with his front end up even higher. 

I had my clicker with me and so I clicked a fair amount for the various things he was giving me. TC was so smug about it, which cracked us all up. After the first click it was like he said “about time” and took his cookie with the most hilarious facial expression. From then on he was on fire. 

After some big medium trots in each direction, he started to get tired, so I opted to be done for the day. We talked about the plan going forward and I’m so excited because she offered me remote lessons! She seemed to really love TC and thinks we have big things ahead if we stick to this work. I told her I would need some hand holding, especially in the smaller arena at home and without a crowd of people for him to show off in front of. 

Glancing into the future, I'll go into more detail
later but I'm not riding him this far up on purpose

I put TC in the round pen to relax while we worked with Sunny, but once he was loose, he decided to see what his new body was capable of. He played and played and played. I haven’t seen him play like this since he was a baby! I mean, he and Rico will trot and canter around together in pasture sometimes, so he does play I suppose. But this was a different kind of play, like he was experimenting with his body and getting excited to feel what it was capable of. 

He bucked a lot, galloped around, stopped, reared a few times, pawed a lot, and he even played with a weird Spanish… trot? type thing? I don’t know how to describe it but if I could get him to do it inside a passage, it’d be an eight at least. 

We ended up having to pull him out of the round pen because he got kind of sweaty and gross. Luckily he was happy to hang out with Kate’s assistant in the corner while I rode Sunny and then we were on our way home! 

I can't get over how excited he was about all this,
he was so focused but also so joyful

I’m SO excited about this clinic. It was definitely life changing for us. I’m excited to have my horse back and to have found at trainer to help us through this critical time of rebuilding him. I'm so unbelievably grateful and hopeful right now. 

Finding the Path

TC and I finally got to see the clinician from this post last weekend!! I’ve been so stoked to see her and to have her see TC. It’s been great to do what we can without her help up until this point, but it feels a little bit like neither of us really knew what we were doing and we were just winging it. Like, he's improved so much, but I knew that this clinic would make or break this work for us. 

No regrets, best clinic I've ever been to

Unfortunately as we were coming home from the Working Equitation clinic, my trailer started to smell like burning, never a good sign. It has an appointment in early December to get that looked at, I think it's the bearings on the right rear tire. Luckily, being at the ranch makes borrowing my mom’s rig super easy, so on Sunday afternoon, I pulled that out from behind the barn and put all of TC’s stuff in it while he watched me. 

TC has hauled in that trailer once or twice, it’s big and a lot nicer than my trailer. I didn’t realize how much TC was attached to my trailer though, because when I went to get him, I got his halter on and then he made a bid to leave and I let him go just to see what he would do. He galloped full speed from his stall to the middle of his pasture. Then he turned around and looked at me with confusion. I guess that’s par for the course for this horse, or maybe it's a regression to his younger self. When in doubt, go very fast away from the thing that confuses you. 

I went out to get him and he loaded just fine, but I warned the clinician when we unloaded and walked into the arena that he might be a little emotional that day. 

He wasn’t though! I don’t know if he got all of his emotions out about the trailer with the gallop or whether he was just being a silly creature. Or maybe he saw his best chaotic gray friend (Kate’s horse) and thought that this place was going to be very inclusive of chaotic gray horses. Or maybe he just loved the long horns next to the arena because they reminded him of home. Who knows. He was super chill there though. 

I don't know if you're aware, but that
is not my trailer - TC

She knew a little bit about us because we’d chatted at the last clinic. I told her that I’d been encouraged to ride him in a way that I’m now thinking has been damaging to him. I’ve been encouraged to drive him into a heavier contact than the one he prefers, I’ve been encouraged to narrow his shoulders to make him more steerable, and I’ve been encouraged to hustle him over tempo to get him more responsive to my leg. 

I told her that vets, chiros, and many other horse professionals have pronounced him totally sound and just chocked his lack of muscle up to a lack of a muscle building supplement or just needing to get him fitter or his breeding. Friesians don’t have good top lines, I’ve been assured, just keep riding him, give him this supplement, but remember that he'll never look like a warmblood so don't worry about it. But I can’t shake the *crazy* idea that horses are supposed to get easier to ride and better muscled as you move up the levels. That my Third level dressage horse, despite his breed, shouldn't have a sunken back and an upside down neck. 

She worked on him for a while and TC kept interrupting after almost every release to go roll and think about things. I think all of the bodywork I’ve done with him this year, from chiro to the PT lady to my amazing acupuncturist… I don’t think TC would have let her in as much as he did without them slowly chipping away at his ridiculous exterior shell. But he was not a clown, despite having Kate and her assistant there (both of whom he loves to show off for), he just trusted that she was going to help him because of all the fabulous bodywork he's had this year. 

Kate got the most magnificent photo of him

After she worked on him, she asked about his behavior under saddle. I didn’t know what she meant so I told her his history, he had about a year or two of bolting, then two years of leaping and bucking, there was a week when he was younger when he just stood up on his hind legs. But now, he’s pretty damn good. And he always takes me with him, I trust him completely even when he's being a loon. 

She asked me if he’d do anything naughty that day and I said no, he gives his rider ample warning and both Kate and I would be able to see what was happening from a ways away. She then asked to ride him. 

The farm was BEAUTIFUL and had
these amazing cows

No one rides this horse. I mean, I do and he gives my niece pony rides sometimes. I put some friends on him when he was younger. And Kate has ridden him. But I've balked at putting people on him lately due to his current issues and I've always balked at putting professionals on him (other than Kate). 

But with her, I just said “yep!” with no hesitation, and she hopped right on him. 

She walked him for a while and asked me some questions about his training. Then she trotted him and I think his girth was too loose, or he was worried about her (she's pregnant and he's totally that horse who will value your unborn child over your demands, he is very careful with my niece), but he was very tentative in trot. 

While she was riding, I saw the way he held his neck and it was just awful to start. He takes his third vertebrae straight back to the rider’s chest and the bottom of his neck is completely rigid. But she slowly worked through things with him, helping him find a better posture, dissecting what he was doing with his right hind, which was very stuck. By the end he was lifting beautifully through the base of his neck and seeking contact. He looked stunning. She then hopped off and put me on. 

It was mostly walking on Sunday so these are from
Monday

Immediately I felt like I had my horse back, but a much better version. Like if you had combined Rico and TC and given them a shot of vodka or a couple dozen muscle relaxers. He felt so loose and his aid system was completely normal. She had me do some of the exercises I’d been trying to do on my own, but they were much easier after she’d shown him how she wanted him to do them. The walk we got out of doing this work was so magical. There was video taken but I haven't gotten it yet. I'm so excited to see what it looked like. 

Then we talked about his right hind. He has a significant gelding scar on that side, something that PT lady found and that she said caused sciatica on that right hind. He has always been super itchy back there but no matter where I scratch or how long, he never seems satisfied. Itching is just a low level of pain, so I think he feels a little tingly sensation and thinks he is itchy. 

She said she thought the same, that he might have a little sciatica in that leg at times, but that we could fix it by teaching him to abduct his right hind while tracking left.  

If you're wondering, this winter is definitely the
winter I give up trying to wear my nice boots, I
don't want to stretch them out over my multiple
pairs of socks or thicker breeches

She gave me some exercises for this (because of how damaging the exercises can be without doing them under instruction first, I'm not going to write about them, but she does distance sessions so feel free to get her info from me) and we got his right hind leg under him and, surprise surprise, under ME. Then he lost it. I’m so used to riding him with a trailing hind leg on the right side that it took me a second to figure it out. I felt it first in my left seat bone, it felt like his hip was up. I told her that and she encouraged me to also focus on the right side. As I brought his outside hind leg out, I couldn’t feel anything, I kept asking and then he filled the right side of his back in a way that I realized he’d never done before and when I felt that, she said YES! And we went forward out of it. 

We worked up to doing it at the walk and I started to feel the vacancy on the right side rather than having to infer it from what was happening on my left side. It’s easier for me to feel things on the left than the right due to my own SI injury (something I’ll be fixing this spring when I’m on the SO’s amazing health insurance woohoo). Feeling anything on the right was so exciting for me, because maybe it’s my SI injury (I’m sure that contributes to it), or maybe it’s just the fact that my horse has never been able to put his right hind where it needs to be. 

He looks nice though, despite my attire 

We stopped after that and I was glad to. We were going to see her the next day anyway and I didn’t want to push him after going through so much in the body work. 

She told me that there was nothing wrong with TC physically and that I'd done a fabulous job with his training, he just needed help finding a different posture. I believed her. Hearing it from vets and other body workers was fine, but it was hard because no one told me WHY he looked like this, they just told me to keep on keeping on. She had clear reasoning for why his body looked the way it did. And she showed me the path to fixing it. So I could finally believe that there was nothing physically wrong with him. There were answers and there was a plan. Finally!