What's Up with Riot?

With TC at the ranch, I've been able to hang out with Rico a lot, which has been so fun! I've taken him on walks and groomed him a lot, as well as doing some of the pillar work with him. I'm trying not to push that on him because 1) he's generally fine physically and 2) I've made it my mission in his retirement to not make him do anything and a lot of the time the only thing he wants to do when I come in to do pillar work is to do his tricks and get treats, so that's what we do. 

Most of my interactions with Riot involve pulling
the pony away from him lol

Sometimes I feel bad for Riot because he's last on my pecking order for attention. I've kind of heard my parents talking about how Riot isn't doing all that well lately, but with how insane work has been, I've been kind of letting them deal with it. From what I gather from having conversations and glancing at him occasionally, he's just been a little foot sore. 

Earlier this week though, my mom asked me to help her by looking at him. He'd been standing very oddly for a while and it was getting worse. They put shoes back on him to try to give him some more support (he goes barefoot for the winter when the ground is soft but he's always needed them back on in the spring and it's tough to figure out the timing for that). But then when he wasn't better, the vet recommended injecting his right hock, which they did. He's also been wormed, been tested for allergies, and had his blood run (all fairly normal and we removed anything he was mildly sensitive to). 

The farrier came out on Wednesday morning and said that he was very uncomfortable getting his trim behind. My mom mentioned that Celeste was coming soon, and the farrier said that bodywork would be great for him. In the mean time, my mom asked me if I could look at him and to please get him on Celeste's calendar. I said sure! 

Riots bizarre mountain goat posture

My evaluation, as someone who is NOT a bodyworker and not even CLOSE to being one is that he's pretty compromised and there's very likely some pain involved. I don't know horses who stand like that for funzies. Typically horses stand like this when they have heel pain, he doesn't respond to hoof testers, but that is still an option. 

I palpated him and it was pretty apparent that his lumbar area was really rough. This top photo honestly doesn't show how bad it was, but there's basically no muscle there and his glute sticks up in an odd manner. It was very tight. His shoulder was also super tight. Surprisingly, his chest is fairly wide and his underneck wasn't as rigid as I expected it to be. 

From there, I used my massager all over his body, focusing on his shoulders and his lumbar area in the same way I did daily for TC when he was early on in his pillar work. Riot definitely thought that was wonderful and wiggled his nose as a thank you. 

Next, I started pillar one and found that he was very willing to do so. I alternated between pillar one and having him do a belly lift and then a butt tuck. We did that for a while until his back didn't look so bad. Then I started pillar two and he started to stand more normally. 

After some pillar work

I decided to do TC's PT exercises to see if Riot would let me. He let me take his left hind across his body and even seemed to relax into it with some licking and chewing. His right hind though? Not so much. Same with the front leg exercises. He let me stretch his right front all the way out comfortably, but didn't like it when I took his left front out. So, clearly something is going on with that diagonal pair of left front to right hind.

My mom came out to ask me how things were going and what I thought. I told her that I thought we should treat for encysted worms and for hind gut ulcers just in case. Both of those can cause major pain in the hind end. 

We are then putting him on a low dose of prevocox to see if we can at least stop the degradation. I'll be working on him whenever I'm down there and Kate is coming out this morning to look at him too (since she *actually* has lots of bodywork experience). 

And he sees Celeste in the next couple of weeks! My dad is going to be there so that he can learn how to do the pillars with Riot and hopefully we can get him feeling good. My dad really would like to ride him and Riot loves to go out and do things. 

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! 

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! 

Finding More Explanations

Thursday of last week was TC's second time being worked on by the bodyworker from this post. I've been doing his exercises twice a day whenever I'm down there, but I have been taking more days off from the barn since he moved into his pasture so that I could work on my burn out. So while I'm sure they'd be more effective if I'd done them every day, I was hoping that 4-5x a week was good enough. 

When she got there, I was nervous though. I hadn't seen massive changes in him, but the things she'd found were kind of subtle anyway. Plus, I'd had a setback with the saddle situation realizing that while he loved the butterfly saddle, my back hated it. 

Riding this horse bareback is horrible

Turns out that she did see some progress, so that's good! 

The one thing I definitely noticed was that the clicking in his jaw is now gone. She said that it would go away with his exercises and it FUCKING DID. Amazing. Still getting the vet out for a dental though. 

His right hind was much improved and so we got to work on his left hind. He has a tough time straightening it behind him, meaning that he, I dunno, probably doesn't use it as much as he uses his right hind. He also stands a little weird when he pees and she got to see that. I asked her about it and she said it was all related to his left hind. So now, for the next month, we work on that. 

I seriously cannot sit his trot to save my life without
the structure a saddle provides

Just like in my last post, he got a bit itchy on his right hind leg as he usually does, but for the first time, he also got itchy down his left hind as she worked on him, so that was interesting. I've seen less itchiness from him overall, which I'm hoping is good? 

TC also was a little nippy as he usually is with bodywork. But this time he transitioned between being nippy and yawning a bunch! So that was surprising, I know he's yawned a bit with acupuncture, but it's not his go to behavior. I'll be curious if he yawns more at his next acupuncture appointment (next Sunday!).

Another interesting moment came when he started taking big deep breaths and snorting. She thinks that he's got some issues with tensegrity that leads to some problems with his breathing. She pointed it out to me last time and I've noticed that he really doesn't take deep breaths ever and he's very prone to holding his breath. This time he finally let go enough to take two or three really big breaths and he snorted a lot, so that was fun to see. 

My back gets quite round riding him bareback
because I'm protecting it pretty aggressively with
my abs, too much of a crunch but whatever

She thinks he has some gelding scaring, I guess? I haven't read much about it but I don't doubt there is something going on in his hind legs that the vets don't see other than the surface "he doesn't use his left hind in the same way as his right hind but he's not lame" so I'll run with it. We are just getting his hips and hind legs more mobile and hopefully that helps. 

This time she did also get to work on his neck a little bit. He was VERY concerned about her getting near his neck and the way he reacts makes her think that there is something going on in there that he doesn't want to "talk" about. She finally got in a little bit, but had to be quick and light to make sure he didn't tense up again. I think I'll work on some behavioral stuff in the cross ties for this, teach him to lower his neck on command so I can get him more comfortable being in that posture in general. 

I love this posture though, this is what I'm after
all the time and when we get him confident here,
we will start lifting the front end

Once again, we got a good list of exercises to do. She wants me to continue with all the work we're doing but add in two exercises for the left hind and another exercise for his shoulders. Then she comes back in a month! 

I'm really excited to see the changes. We have a saddle trial coming up from EQ Saddle Science, so hopefully that gives me a solid two weeks with a saddle that fits him (and then I'll either start the buying process or give it back and say thanks but no thanks) so I'm curious to see how much I can start feeling undersaddle. 

Currently we're doing a lot of clicker training with the long lines and bands, trail riding, and then some short bareback rides. I don't really want to use my saddle until it's seen by a fitter. But it's all good because it's giving me more time to do his exercises each day that I'm down there! 

Crystal Balls and Itchy Ponies

On Monday, TC saw someone I'm going to refer to as an equine physical therapist. I don't honestly know what she'd call herself, maybe just a general bodyworker, but I'd call her a magician if that didn't sound so strange. 

When I was trying to figure out what was going on with TC, Kate directed me to a facebook post by someone in our area who had a saddle fit problem and this bodyworker had given the rider lots of exercises for the horse and the change even just in the first month was shocking. The most exciting part was that the horse looked SO MUCH like TC did. That's what led to me trying the Pegasus saddle, but I also emailed the bodyworker to see if she could come out. 

It turned out that Kate already had some slots for an earlier date, so handed one to me and I kept my original slot two weeks later. The first one happened on Monday and then she will come back out in a couple of weeks. 

Before and after pictures

I have to admit, I really got my hopes up. Luckily she absolutely delivered so I didn't have to talk myself down. I'm still SO excited about it. 

The first thing we did was take some pictures to look at his symmetry. She showed them to me and wow, the horse is NOT symmetrical. His entire body is curved to the right. 

She then evaluated him, reading him like a freaking book. It was a little eerie, to be honest. 

"Is he busy in the mouth?" yes he is, he is nearly constantly fiddling with the bit, especially if it's not his turtle top, the only bit he's not constantly chomped on (he still chomps but not ALL the time). 

"Is he tough to steer?" yes he is, he's absolutely tough to steer, I joke about that all the time but let me tell you, he is absolutely not a normal horse to ride. 

"Does he tilt his head sometimes?" yes in the lateral work, especially the shoulder in to the right.

"Is it tough to get his right shoulder up?" yes absolutely, we've been working on that with acupuncture. 

"Is he hard to keep fit? Do you notice him breathing a lot?" I had to think about that... then I told her that now that I thought about it, I've literally never seen him take a deep breath. When she was done working on his diaphragm, he took a huge breath. 

I tried to take conformation pictures but he was
mostly looking like a donkey

There was way more too, just casual things she'd say, even just to him "you find it tough to push off evenly behind, don't you, those glutes don't fire at the same time, huh?" while I'm sitting there just like, wow, I wish I'd found this person way earlier in our work together. I am going to have her work on my horses forever, she's stuck with me. 

She worked on every part of him. She addressed his head (his eyes are literally off center because of... something, when she got done, his eyes were more symmetrical, I don't want to be mean but he honestly looked cuter afterward lol), his shoulders (the right one is stuck forward and down, left one stuck up and back, no wonder I can't steer him), his back (lumbar moves well, ribcage not so much, sacrum not at all), his ribcage (she noted that he had trouble breathing in, as I said above), his hindquarters (glutes don't fire at the same time, right hip is up and stiff, left hip is jammed down), and basically everything but his neck. He wouldn't let her into his neck. 

She told me that he was hiding something in his neck and that generally, he doesn't like to talk about his issues. This is why my sweet, wonderful horse starts to bite people when you do bodywork on him (it's all very gentle! No pulling, hard adjustments, anything, it's just physical therapy-like exercises with zero force, she says she only offers the stretches to the horse vs making them stretch). He was AFTER us for making him think internally. Do NOT make me think about my body, it's easier to ignore it and be a clown. This tracks with what my acupuncturist and the BEMER ladies say about him! And honestly, he's been the toughest horse to gain influence over undersaddle, he's very protective of his body.

This is the best one so we'll run with it. And honestly
he is already looking better than he did before!

We have lots of homework, twice a day exercises for before and after riding. Then she comes back in two weeks and she will evaluate how far we got and give us more things to do. She says it's good to front load these visits so she can figure it all out. She doesn't yet know the root cause because she thinks it's his neck, which she says directly relates to the sacrum, which has almost no mobility, but as I said above, he won't let her touch it. So hopefully he lets her in next time. 

I'm really excited to see how things progress with this stuff. I like that it's all stuff I can do for him, and then she comes in to evaluate and give us more exercises. 

On a kind of related note, my HSA is apparently going to start costing me money to maintain, there's not a huge amount of money in it, so I figure I'll just spend it down this year rather than pay the fee. So, I'm going to start doing my own physical therapy again because as my horse gets more symmetrical, I don't want to screw him up! 

TC's physical therapist said that the way he looks and acts, she can tell that the way I ride him helps him rather than hinders him, buuuut she also mentioned that he might have sciatica down his right leg (it's always that leg that he's itchy on and I never seem to find his spot, coincidence?) and that's the leg that I have sciatica on. So hopefully as we both get better, we'll help each other rather than potentially giving each other our problems. But it's nice to know that she doesn't think I'm doing any harm by riding him. 

Trying Out the BEMER

So L has been using the BEMER on Dante for a while now and we've joked about me sending her my acupuncturist and her sending me her BEMER lady. Well, she won, because her BEMER lady was coming up to the bay area (with another BEMER lady, all the BEMER ladies!) and L put me in contact with her!

We texted back and forth a bit and it was so affordable that I figured I'd do all four horses at the barn. I'm trying to make TC's stay at the ranch as pleasant an experience for my parents as possible and some of that is treating it like a co-op and dedicating time to taking care of the place. But some of that is just spending money doing things for their horses that they wouldn't normally do. Like acupuncture and the BEMER! 

I rode Rico on Saturday and he was
perky!

I've used a BEMER once myself and didn't feel much difference in my body. But I'm lucky in that I don't have any chronic pain or bad joints (yet). I hear a lot of people swear by it though. My mom, ever the skeptic, looked it up and saw that it was a registered medical device, so she gave me permission to try it out on her horses. 

She even came up and grilled the ladies a bit, which is her go-to whenever I bring anything other than traditional vet medicine into the program (she's nice about it don't worry). I dunno, life is short, this isn't going to do any harm so at worst it's an expensive (but enjoyable) conversation while my ponies got attention and at best, it could help them out! 

But after having it put on all the horses, I've decided it has to do SOMETHING given how they all responded, and they all responded differently, which made it enjoyable and at times, hilarious. 

Sunny being sleepy

I told them a little bit about each of the horses and they expressed interest in doing Sunny first, given his history with silicosis. He's doing really well after two acupuncture appointments and the traditional vet medicine that my mom has done for it. But again, can't hurt! 

He immediately fell asleep before the blanket was even fully on. He had a yawn or two and a lick, but he mostly just snoozed in the cross ties enjoying himself. 

Riot was next and I haven't written a ton about him on the blog. Relevant things to know about Riot are that he's highly emotional and very skeptical, his main goal in life is to not upset anyone and to not be murdered by the dangerous world he lives in. He's also lived a very simple life with no boots, no blankets, nothing on him other than a saddle, bridle, halter, and some fly spray. So Riot thought that I'd brought these ladies in to potentially murder him if he did anything wrong and he began to feel all the feelings about it. They were so sweet to him and he eventually relaxed and we got some licking and chewing but I think he's probably still wondering what the actual fuck happened to him on Friday while he was wearing all those clothes. 

He did relax after a while

I had them do Rico next because he was in from the pasture and TC was trying to be the center of attention as always so he was definitely going to be in and easy to catch. 

While Riot was getting done and Rico was getting out, they had me sit on the BEMER so I was stuck and they put Riot back and took Rico out. Rico was kind of sleepy, slow moving and somewhat relaxed in the cross ties. They put the boots on, the blanket on, and focused on his neck as well (I told them he had neck arthritis). We chatted about Rico's history as Rico started to relax and yawn a bunch (which is not his normal MO so that was cool). He seemed like he might just fall asleep like Sunny. 

But then about half way through, Rico slowly got brighter and brighter until we were basically wrestling him to keep him in the cross ties. His ears were perked and he was pawing and poking me with his nose. He looked like he'd shed 10-15 years and was acting like he used to when we'd go to new facilities and people would tell me where the round pen was so I could longe him (I always just jumped on lol). 

It honestly made me so unbelievably happy. In that moment I was thinking "I should buy one of these things just to put it on Rico every day so he can be happy" and I talked myself out of it. Maybe. But that's how joyful he seemed to me. All I want is that horse to be happy every single day.  

So much yawning

TC was next and he was very ready to be the center of attention as always. Like the acupuncture, TC decidedly ignored the BEMER and tried to entertain his new audience to the best of his ability. He pawed incessantly, he smiled at him, he did his shoulder lifting trick. They were a fabulous audience and just loved him. 

Luckily for everyone except me, I had to jump on a meeting with my boss to figure some stuff out, so they got to do TC alone. He's always better when I'm not there so I'm sure he was much better. They seemed very in tune with all the animals (Ruby included, she and the other lady were so cute together hanging out) and apparently TC was very communicative with them. I agreed, although I'm not sure what kind of communication they were talking about. To me, he just seems very interactive, you can always tell what he's thinking or feeling and undersaddle you get a lot of feedback from him. In comparison, Sunny seems like a closed book to me. It was kind of cool to see someone else think the same thing about TC, even if it's not in the same way. 

Look at this skeptical animal, they
had just started, he was confused

I rode TC after his session and he was very different. Now, it was cold and windy, I'd just upped his LMF Gold because he was starting to get lazy, and it was dusk so all the squirrels were running around. So I think regardless of what happened to him in the BEMER session, I was going to have a nutty weirdo on my hands. 

After spooking a lot, he did settle into probably the best trot work we've had in a long time. Was it the BEMER or just the fact that his trot is always better when he's higher tone? Don't know. But like I said, it can't hurt and the horses all seemed to enjoy it in their own special way. 

I rode Rico the next day and he was pretty perky. Again, BEMER or not? No idea. He went out with Riot and he hadn't been out in a while so maybe he was just excited. 

Overall, I think I'd do it again given that it's affordable and can't hurt! I figure it's like the CBD I take for my anxiety. Is the science bulletproof? Nope. Is it going to work for everyone? Nope. Could it be mostly the placebo effect? Absolutely. Am I going to keep taking it because it helps me regardless and can't hurt me? Obviously. 

Rico and Sunny Get Acupuncture

 As I said yesterday, all three horses (poor Riot was left out, sorry Riot) got acupuncture at the beginning of December. I went over TC already, but Rico and Sunny also got done!

 
I mostly wanted to get Rico looked at because I have started riding him again. I'm riding him twice a week for about 20 minutes mostly walking and trotting, it's not much but I'd like to see him get a little fitter so that we can do a little bit more. I'll write later about why I'm doing this but the point is that Rico has gone from being retired to being mostly retired and I want to make sure he's comfortable. 

I got Sunny looked at as an early Christmas present to my mom. Sunny has silicosis and has had some degeneration in his neck, she's always worried about his balance and strength, so I figured that we'd get some good information about that and hopefully make him feel better. 

Facebook memories reminded me of this 11 years
ago when Rico was heading off to rehab for his
suspensory and when I didn't think eating food was
necessary for my own existence

Sunny went first as my mom was babysitting and my niece went down for a nap right as we got started, good timing, baby! 

Sunny immediately showed TC up by having fabulous flexibility through his shoulders, but his neck showed some resistance turning to the left. Weirdly enough, when she tested out his hind legs, he showed that he wanted to lean right with both hind legs, indicating a restriction back there. 

He seemed to LOVE the acupuncture, he yawned a whole bunch and then fell asleep during the treatment. She did the same electro acupuncture thing on Sunny's lumbar area, as he was also sore there. She and my mom chatted about saddle fit and we have more information about what kind of saddle my mom needs for her security vs what kind of saddle Sunny needs to fit him better. 

By the end of the treatment, he was standing up MUCH straighter, like he looked a full hand taller. That was INSANE. At that point I didn't know how much better TC felt and while I was impressed with what she found on him, Sunny's treatment was the first one that had visible changes the moment she was finished with him. 

Sunny's evaluation

Sunny, see the weirdness on number 6 with his hind end?

Now, while all this is happening, Rico was surprisingly envious. He stood at his door staring at us aggressively. It may seem like this is just what my horses do, because TC stares aggressively at people who he wants to pay attention to him, but it's very unlike Rico. Rico is kind of a wallflower in comparison to TC, he and I are much more alike that way. We prefer to observe from afar. But Rico was very curious and seemed downright giddy when I got him out. 

Rico's case was very interesting as while both Sunny and TC had a bit of pain in their lumbar, normal for riding horses, Rico's pain was in his thoracic area, directly under the saddle. He had almost no ability to lift his ribcage with the belly lifts and showed some pain in the base of his neck. Apparently a lot of warmblood dressage horses show pain there, so it was not surprising. 

As he got worked on, Rico got a little worried. In his older age, he's lost a lot of confidence. I think it's that he doesn't feel as spry, so is probably aware of the fact that if something came after him, he probably couldn't get away as easily. He especially doesn't like that there are noises outside the barn sometimes, so when a car went by behind the barn, he got a little nervous. But, apparently there's a point on the horse's forehead where, when poked by a needle, it calms them right down. And when Rico got his poke, he immediately relaxed. I asked whether we could just leave it in permanently! I'd just take it out to ride him. 

Oh Rico, you've lived quite a life

Rico also had a huge physical change. She worked on his thoracic area under the saddle and did the electro stuff there. Then she did another belly lift and we heard a big CRACK and from then on, his sway back was WAY better. His neck also improved visibly over the course of the treatment, with him being able to bend it better in both directions. 

Her recommendations for him included the equiband, and I don't ride him in spurs, so I might bring that over and ride him in it to see how he handles it. I haven't been using it as much on TC recently because he's been feeling pretty good in that department lately, so it's good timing to try it out on Rico. 

See number 5 for his thoracic issues, I mean he has a
lot of issues being 24 years old, a GP dressage horse and
a preliminary level CDE horse and casually jumping around
4' courses his whole life

I rode Rico a few days after the treatment and didn't feel a huge change, but he did stretch down quite a lot during that ride, which he hasn't done in a long time. I've yet to ride Sunny but I'll ride him today I think. I doubt either of them will feel completely different to me because I'm not actively asking them to work against their resistances like I am with TC. Neither of them are as in tune to me as TC is and they are both rather quiet horses who probably won't run away with me because they feel good, unlike some gray weirdos I know. 

Generally the acupuncture was a huge success. We are definitely doing this again, in a perfect world I'd love to get her out once a month for TC and then have her do Rico every other month. My mom is sold and wants her to come back out and do Riot and maybe Sunny again. I'm so excited to have found a bodyworker that works for TC! Our chirovet is great, but I have never felt this kind of a change with her. I think it's just a matter of finding the right person for the horse and I think TC picked his person. 

TC Gets Poked

To start out December with a bang, on the first, Kate and I held an acupuncture clinic for our horses! My fabulous friend and client runs Topline Vet Therapeutics and I've been dying to have her work on TC, Rico, and Sunny. And we coordinated to get a few horses at Kate's barn. 

It was such a fabulous experience! TC was first and this blog is mostly about him so we'll start there. I'll write about Rico and TC in my next post because that was also fascinating. 

Happy pony waits for acupuncture

I mostly communicated that I wanted TC to feel more comfortable lifting through the base of his neck and his thoracic sling. That's been a huge thing for this horse to overcome throughout his training, so any help on that would be great! 

She started by going over his body and seeing where she found restrictions. It was pretty amazing what she found with not very much information (mostly because I forgot to tell her some things). TC's old weak left stifle showed up in this exam and apparently his right shoulder is not nearly as flexible as his left, which is also not very flexible. The horse is NOT naturally flexible. 

Another place she found slight tightness/pain was in his left lumbar area. She says that most horses, due to riding them, have lumbar pain, so was happy that he only showed it on one side and it was fairly mild. He also was not restricted in the base of his neck like many horses are (especially warmbloods apparently), but WAS restricted in the first three vertebrae. He found it harder to flex those vertebrae to the right, which is exactly what it feels like undersaddle. 

She did some stretches and said that he lifted his back well with the belly lifts and that if I told her I did them twice a day, she'd believe me! I basically never do them though. But I'm glad he's so flexible back there! She also pulled each front leg out and he was a little more resistant on the right side than the left. But that stretch often shows pain in the base of his neck and based on what TC did, she didn't find any pain there (vs that's where Rico had his neck pain). 

TC's diagram

With all of that information, she started by working on him with a massage gun to loosen him up and then began with the needles. TC took it well until she got to the left stifle where he had a CRAZY negative reaction, popping forward in the cross ties and looking a bit shocked that she'd poke him (after he's been getting needles in the rest of his body). That surprised me because he has been super sound on that left stifle for a while now, it was mostly a problem as a five year old and he kind of grew out of it. She was able to go back to it later on and he was fine though, so that's good! But maybe we need to continue our stifle exercises forever even though he's totally sound. 

She mostly worked on his lumbar and his right shoulder though, which he seemed to appreciate. While the other horses (more on them next) relaxed with the acupuncture, TC wouldn't relax because he kept trying to help her out and wanting to be involved. She'd go by his butt and he'd lift his hind leg to see if she'd scratch his butt cheek. She'd go by his neck and he'd turn and stare at her (like he does when I braid him, it's not helpful). He's just ridiculous. 

The plan for TC

She wanted him to have a day off the next day, so I gave him that and took the day off myself. I was itching to find out how he felt, so I got up first thing on Thursday to go see how he was. 

HE. WAS. AMAZING. 

Wow what a freaking difference. First, his bolting has definitely gotten way easier for him and I found that hilarious. He positively dropped to the ground and ran off with me during our first ride. Apparently this is normal for horses! 

Too excited to be feeling so good

But outside the squealing and running away with me, he feels REALLY good. He felt way easier to connect, easier to keep straight, easier to get to lift through his thoracic sling, and easier to steer. I really couldn't believe it. 

It was just easy for him and he definitely felt better. More relaxed but also more powerful, like there wasn't such a blockage in his neck to get the power to connect to the bridle. Since then, I've really felt like I'm able to ride him more up and out than I used to now that his neck isn't so locked. 

I've obsessively looked back through pictures of him over the years and WOW lifting through his thoracic sling has not been his strong point ever. He has definitely struggled with it more this year and that's what's causing me to feel weird about how he's going, but looking back through pictures made me feel better that this is something he's always done, it's just more extreme this year. But the rides that have occurred since the acupuncture visit have definitely been better in that department. We have a long way to go and he may never look as "filled in" in front of the withers as Rico did (Rico still has a ridiculous cervical trapezius in retirement lol), but we can make sure he feels good enough to use the muscles when I set him up well for it. 

Lifting so nicely here!

So with this and the fitness schedule, he's feeling amazing as he's coming back into work. I've implemented a few changes in the way we are going and what our training situation is like. More to come later as he's getting back in shape. 

I'm so happy to have a fabulous acupuncturist now! Hopefully we can bring her out once a month so that we can continue working on TC, it's one of the best decisions I've made this year I think. 

Tomorrow we'll talk about Rico and Sunny! They enjoyed their visit VERY much and showed huge changes too.