The Team worked well together, and while there were disagreements here and there about how to best proceed as everyone was essentially playing a guessing game with Bobby's one in ten katrillion disease (actually seen in a whopping .4% of horses, so basically it's everywhere), everyone communicated and I was able to bounce ideas off of ALL THE PEOPLE.
I think it's imperative to build up a network of trusted professionals. It took me a few years to pick and choose who I was going to use when, and I dropped one of those team members after I put Bobby down--not because of the work she does which is fantastic, but because of more personal reasons--but I feel like I now have a solid list of people to run through whenever I hit a problem with my horse.
Bitches, it's time to start checking them off one by one.
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| listen, donkey. put the side eye away already. |
As planned, I started off my conversation with BM on Friday morning before my lesson about the persistent bald spot on Opie's right side. He's still showing no signs of soreness along his back. I, however, have been having screaming pain from my right hip to my knee lately. Are they tied together? Is my saddle causing both of those things, or is it bad riding on my part?
BM readily jumped aboard to see what we were working with.
As soon as I got on, I told her I felt like my right stirrup was shorter because my ankle felt like it was being jammed down more when I flexed and I instantly started feeling the cramping crawling up my leg. BM watched me for a minute and said it actually looked like the right stirrup was longer. Well, fuck.
I stopped so she could get right in front of us which worked better once Opie got his cookie and put his head back on straight because Opies deserve cookies for standing still for eternity while his rider flops around on his back. (I've also maybe just created a monster that expects cookies for anything and everything. Not even sorry.)
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| needs a cookie for being a penguin. |
With some shifting around and standing in my stirrups, I sat back down and BM and I both felt my stirrups were even. BM thought what was going is that Opie's bigger right shoulder pushes the saddle to the left and I'm unknowingly compensating by stepping more into my right stirrup and using it to keep the saddle centered. My Mattes pad is shimmable so sticking a shim on the left side to lift it a titch for the time being is an option.
We got sent out on a circle to start our lesson which immediately devolved into "What the fuck are you doing with your hips, Opie?"
It started with him dropping his right hip lower than the left as he went around both directions, and then he was like, "JK, now it's my left." BM stopped us again and dug under his quarter sheet to see if she could feel anything. On his left hip he had a huge band of knotted muscle, and then she later discovered a big knot ball on his right butt.
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| walks in the sun seem like a good remedy even if it's only 25* |
We worked through a little of this and a little of that to see if anything changed his way of going. He didn't feel off to me at all, and BM said he didn't even look off--it was noticeable only if you were standing behind him trying to find a problem.
I ended up jumping off and BM flexed his hocks as a hip drop could be a precursor to issues there. He trotted off sound though, so once I got home I scheduled an appointment with a new massage lady for Wednesday evening.
Opie is only five, but the kid raced thirty one times in his career before going right to the hard work of being a dressage horse. I've had body work done on my horses for less of an excuse. Hopefully she can get his muscles some relief and get him a hundred percent comfortable. I don't want him to have any excuse to not do his best under saddle.
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| would prefer to just not be under saddle at all, thx. |
If the massage doesn't get the results I'm looking for, I'll move on to Farrier to talk to her about hind shoes. Also still on the docket is the mother fucking dentist who rescheduled on me an hour before he was supposed to be there and still hasn't been heard from. To me, the teeth issue is at the top of my list of things to be addressed so not being able to get Dentist here again has been extremely frustrating.
We did get our vet appointment out of the way. Of course it was the day before the lesson so when she asked if I wanted her to check anything specific on him I was all, nope! He's perfect! #false
Vet loved him though and couldn't stop gushing over So Smol, Such Cute, Much Manners (ground tying party trick ftw). She said he officially has a dorsal stripe which I was curious about whether it would get classified as that. #adorbs
He also has mild aural plaques in his left ear which I got a prescription for--along with an added note on the end to remind me he was SO CUTE OMG in case I'd forgotten.
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| i should just shove twenties down your throat instead of carrots. |
I've officially hit the Over It stage of this winter and going out to the barn to ride has been more along the lines of crawling and whining and throwing a tantrum. Hence the jump saddle above. Sometimes you've gotta crash through some crossrails for variety. Opie was on board. He was also on top of a pile of poles at one point when he literally jumped into the crossrail instead of over it, but...well, he'll get there.
Probably.
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