Seeing the ChiroVet

My memorial day holiday began at 6:30am when I left so that I could be at the barn ready to go by 7:30 for my ChiroVet. She's my former vet who does chiro and acupuncture full time now and she's fabulous, I just adore her. It's only a 42 minute drive, so I did my normal "if you leave the house before 7, you get Starbucks" routine (which used to start "if you leave the house before 6" but we're in weird times) and was there in time to brush him off before she got there.

TC loves her and turns into an absolute asshole when she's around. I think he can't handle how much he likes bodywork so he wants me to be in on it too, but I reject his assumption that I would enjoy being bitten and poked at by his nose. So TC's bodywork sessions are always filled with me pleading him to just focus on his own shit and to leave me alone. Pretty sure the chirovet thinks I'm a terrible trainer. I sound like the mom of a terrible child "he's just over stimulated, he is normally so good at home" while I grin and drop him off at daycare to get some alone time away from him.

Ranch views

The results were excellent, IMO.

She checked his teeth and his saddle fit and said neither were the problem here. She said to get his saddle reflocked because it can't hurt at all, but she said it wasn't a bad enough fit to be causing him any pain or to be causing the muscle wasting.

She backed up what Tanya said - he's just not built to do what he's doing right now. She mentioned that I might be hitting his physical limit and I got SO SAD, but then realized that... it's actually okay.

He's already schooling enough of the basics of the Grand Prix to suggest that it's a possibility for him. The changes are coming on beautifully and clean with nothing suggesting he couldn't do ones, the piaffe is pretty solid in hand and strength will make it strong undersaddle, the passage is an obvious possibility for him, and the pirouette canter is nearly on the spot, we just need to turn, and a full pirouette is only six strides. A lot of what needs to happen for the Grand Prix is just time and confidence. We've gotten through most of the hard parts, now it's the details.

This tiny bird let me get very close to it

So I asked her what to do. She said to do what Tanya said - keep riding, keep focusing on building muscle in these harder areas for him, make sure his nutrition is dialed in, and stop overthinking everything. She said she's seen friesians with more muscle than he has, so it is obviously possible, but they just simply take longer to develop. He had from September 2018 through July 2019 "off" where I just exercised him essentially. Then I had to rebuild him for the last half of 2019 and first half of 2020. I had a trainer change during that time and you know, a global pandemic is going on.

She found what she expected given his conformation, he's very tight in his shoulder and low neck, making it even harder for him to lift through that area. Had one rib out (which he was VERY excited for her to put back in place, as he yawned a ton and whipped around to stare at her while she did it), a little out in the sacrum and lumbar area, but nothing too extreme. So the problem is his low neck and his shoulder. She didn't think he had any adhesions or anything there, just that his breeding made him rather tight in that area.

She gave me some stretchy-type exercises for him to do before I get on him, designed to loosen up his shoulder. Then she said that if I noticed a huge difference, to have her out in a month. I did see a huge difference, so she's definitely coming back. Depending on showing and what's going on in June, I might bring her out every two weeks for three more sessions, she said that's what it took to get rid of severe adhesions, and while she doesn't think he has them, I figure it can't hurt to treat him like he does. This could 100% be the issue we're facing.

More ranch views

I felt way better about the whole ordeal after seeing both her and Tanya. I just have an off breed (he is half warmblood, but his neck is all friesian!), a horse who is going to find this work way harder than a horse who is built differently. And that's okay. He's not going to look the part for a long time. He's going to take a while, like Tracey said when I bought him, he's going to take a long time.

So, the plan is to ride him with this in mind. Continue to work hard and make especially sure that he's using the correct muscles, not just feeling good, because he's getting so rideable that he feels good no matter what. I've been using clicker training the last few rides which has made a huge difference! And then have her back out a few times just in case he's got some adhesions in his front end that is making it tough for him to lift through his withers.

And I'm definitely buying something purpose bred next time! I love this horse beyond all reason but he's a tough one for me. I just need to trust my trainer and myself a bit more I guess. And worship the ground that ChiroVet walks on.

Seeing the Chiro

TC saw the chiro vet on Tuesday last week!

I forgot how brilliant she was. She asked how he was doing and I basically just said good and gushed over how much he'd calmed down and how fun he was to ride. Looking back, it'd probably would have helped her to have me tell her that his left hind was the problem child. But you know, priorities.

She had some really good feedback about how he was looking that gave me a lot to think about.

More trail pictures because I have nothing else, I need to take
more pictures in general

First of all, she hadn't seen him in a couple of years (we were in another area and then she got hurt) and says that he's filled out a TON. She liked his weight and put him at a 5.5 on the body scale. I tend to have him more like a 6.5, but I do like that he's a little less heavy, he's a big horse and the less weight down his legs, the better. She didn't want him to lose more weight though, so I'm going to put him on some alfalfa pellets I think. Just some more calories because his work is getting significantly harder.

Muscle wise, she says he looks great, he's really well muscled and the only spot she thought he looked a little scrawny was the base of his neck. I told her 1) he's really only been back to full work since July and 2) that's a known problem area and we're on a really good program to get him stronger. She said given he's only been back to work for two months, he looks amazing!

She asked what he was on supplement/medication-wise and I told her. She said she wanted to check on the vitamin E I'm feeding him because she wants him on more of it. She says the horses that struggle wtih coordination often get better with a lot of vitamin E, so I'll up it with her help soon. She also thought giving him adequan this fall is a good idea. I also think that, but I also got wind that Part 2 of the L program is going to cost me $2100, sooooo we'll see.

Wasn't too sore from this trail ride, which was quite long

Onto the chiro itself. He was out in his poll, which he typically is. And he was also out in his neck. She said that turning his head right must have been tricky and I admitted that he honestly feels pretty supple to me sooo yeah. He definitely does like to throw his head left though. She thought his neck in the walk looked less swingy side-to-side than it should have been.

In his back, he had a couple of ribs, but the main issue was his pelvis. The left side was tipped forward and downward while the right was tipped up and back a bit. She put it back where it belonged and it immediately looked better.

From there, he was pretty done and so she did some acupuncture and he visibly relaxed while she did it. I don't know much about acupuncture but it's not like it's extra money and he seems to like it quite a lot. And whatever TC wants, he gets (within reason).

It was beautiful but I am glad I work in air conditioning lol

When she was finished, she showed me a cool psoas stretch but unfortunately it requires two people to do it. I'm sure no one wants to come to the barn with me at 6:30am to do it with me every morning. But she did say that his psoas is probably VERY tight all the time, it's common in dressage horses to get it tight and then to feel restricted behind. So, given his conformation and career, he's likely to have a fucked up psoas muscle. But when someone is around, I'll be asking them to help me with it for sure.

Overall, it was so good! She said he wasn't bad enough to need a chiro appointment regularly, so I figured once a quarter was probably good enough, maybe taking winters off because #horsetrainerlyfe (my budget is going to shrink significantly due to rain cramping my style).

Happy ears

I rode him the next day and just did a stretchy day. Then it was back to full work on Thursday, Friday, and a lesson on Sunday! More about that tomorrow.