The Worst Experimenter

For someone who studied experimental psychology, you'd think I'd be a better experimenter! But I made a mistake this week. 

Feeling really good!

Those neck muscles, we have so much to do but
I'm glad to see him using muscles he hasn't in
a long time! 

I've been trying to figure out why TC's been muscle wasting for a while now. Things are definitely getting better, he seemed to be getting a bit better since moving to the ranch and I committed to riding in working gaits for the last month trying to help him build up the strength. Then last week I tried riding him a liiiitle bit more collected and everything fell apart. So better since the move (and why, no idea), but definitely not back to where he was. 

Kate and I were chatting on Thursday while I was over at her barn and she offered me her saddle to try. It'd make sense if his saddle was pinching him or ramming against his shoulder, can't have good posture with that issue. Kate's got a really unique saddle, it's a Pegasus Butterfly saddle, it has a tree with two hinges so it adjusts itself to fit almost any horse. We figured that it would fit him pretty well (it did, it was a beautiful fit) and if he went the same, then it was clearly not the saddle, but if he went better, I could look into either buying one or getting my saddle refit. 

Go pony!

Definitely could not control him a lot of the time

I rode in it on Friday and Saturday and WOW what a change in TC. He felt amazing. He felt like his old self! Super easy to connect and almost always up through his back and wither. I showed the videos to Kate and she noted that his shoulders were way more free too. He was SO excited too, he really felt great. 

By the time I got done with my ride Saturday, I was committed to buying one of those saddles. 

Then on Saturday night, I remembered I made another change on Thursday night, I switched TC's supplements. Daaaamnit. 

I couldn't really sit the canter

Feeling great, finally

He's been getting smartpaks for a while now but one of his muscle wasting symptoms is also having kind of a trash coat (he's been treated for ulcers and since then, has been on an ulcer preventative and hasn't been in crazy hard work). I decided to swap his smartpaks out for Platinum Performance CJ to see how that goes. 

I've known a few horses to go a bit nuts on Platinum. He definitely has a lot more energy on it, and I can't imagine that'd be from the saddle. So is his posture better because of the energy? Or is it unrelated and his posture is better due to the saddle? 

Remembering why I called him baby Totilas when
he was younger lol

He felt like his beach ball self in the canter

I don't want to pull him from the Platinum, obviously, but I can try riding him in my own saddle again and see what that looks like. Buying a new saddle is definitely in the cards, but if for some reason he just wanted to be on Platinum, that'd be easy! 

If he doesn't feel as good in my saddle, I'll go snag Kate's saddle for my Tuesday ride (her day off), and order TC his own saddle. 

As much as I don't necessarily want to buy a new saddle right now, it'd actually be cool to have a saddle that fits basically every horse. That means that TC and my new horse can share a saddle. I rode Sunny in Kate's saddle last weekend and it fit him beautifully. I could ride Rico in it too (they have a special pad that fits it to sway back horses). 

So really, either way it's a win! 

Smooth and Shiny

So this year, I noticed that TC's coat was real shit. His coat has always been pretty smooth, not shiny, but soft to the touch. He's gray, so I understand that it's going to be hard to get him really shiny, but I do like petting him without him feeling like he's one of those wire-haired terriers, you know?

I thought it had to do with the fact that he was clipped for the first time this winter. The clipped coat didn't look great, but Rico always turned a nasty mousey brown color when he was clipped and never remained very velvety for the duration of his clip. His coat always grew back nice and shiny though. TC's did not. 

Not a shiny creature

I tried brushing him and bathing him with conditioner, but while I was scrubbing him, I also remembered that for most of his time with me, he's been on California Trace. It's a hoof (and trace mineral) supplement, relatively cheap, but a bit annoying to get a hold of (aka it's not in smartpaks). Unfortunately I ran out early into quarantine and just ignored it. Quarantine, after all. That was right when TC was shedding out, so his coat came back real ugly.

It took me a couple of months to realize this, but in early to mid May I figured it out and put him back on it. I also put him on Omega Horse Shine for good measure.

I wanted it to work immediately and it didn't, obviously. The first day I noticed it was working was the day that chirovet came, on Memorial Day. I had given him a bath the day before and he'd rolled because of course he did. I didn't want him to be disgusting for her, so I brushed the hell out of him to flick off the dust. Then I pet him and I was shocked at how smooth and soft his coat was. Sure, a lot of that was the bath the night before, but it was just shampoo and he didn't feel like this after his last bath. 

He loves rolling in his paddock, boo TC

So as much as times are crazy right now and I'm still working on getting TC's topline to look like he's actually working as hard as he is, I can at least pet him and not be grossed out by his coat! He's staying on Omega Horse Shine and California Trace indefinitely I think. I didn't realize how much I liked his soft coat until it was gone!