After I returned from trail riding I decided to see if I could get Duke to load in the trailer. I had the trailer backed up into a "dip" so it didn't sit very high off of the ground. I didn't expect him to be bad, he has a pretty good temperament, but I never expected him to load this well!
Sorry for all of the clucking and poor camera skills. I'm not the best at running a camera and a horse at the same time.
I'm hoping to start hauling Duke off property a little bit so here in the next few weeks he's going to have to learn how to get in with the trailer on level ground. This means he's going to have a pretty high step up and down!
My-o-what? Yep, that is what I was saying too. A while back Duke got caught up in the temporary fence so I decided to call a chiropractor to take a look at him. I have used chiropractors in the past however lately when I've heard people talking about them the name Trish kept coming up. After talking to some friends I finally got a number for Trish and scheduled an appointment.
Trish isn't your typical "crack'em" chiropractor. She works more on soft tissue manipulations and what she calls myofascial release or MFR. I must say when she was working on Duke I wasn't overly impressed as it looked like she was just touching Duke softly and not really manipulating anything. Oh how I was wrong!
Prior to the fence incident Duke's back legs were nice and straight but after the incident his back right had started to toe out. He seemed lethargic and just wasn't Duke. I mentioned the leg to Trish and before she left it was straight again! Trish worked on Duke 3 times and he's back to his normal ornery self.
I now have Trish working on Lucy. I've always had issues w/Lucy's back right leg but since she isn't blatantly lame the vets don't seem to think it is a big deal. Within the first session Lucy was walking better, more freely in the back end then I've ever seen her walk. I'm so excited to see how Lucy will perform next year now that she is feeling better.
Here is some information about MFR.
Myofascial release is a manual therapy technique that is used to elongate foreshortened connective tissue and muscle. Fascia is another term for the connective tissue of the body that forms a three-dimensional system of support, cushion, and movement. The fascial system forms a web from head to hoof surrounding every muscle, bone, organ, blood vessel, nerve, and cell. Actually, muscle is made up of 98% connective tissue with biochemicals attached that produce a shortening of the connective tissue strands (contraction). When the horse is acutely injured or sustains repeated trauma from training, the fascial system tightens as a protective response. Over time this can lead to poor muscular biomechanics, altered structural alignment, decreased strength and endurance, and produce overuse muscular compensations. Resultant is decreased performance and functional capacity of the horse. By elongating the fascial system we can restore the efficiency of this system. Therefore, restoring the natural abilities of coordination, strength, and power to the horse. During treatment the therapist identifies areas of hardness or tenderness and applies a gentle pressure into the tissue were the restriction is felt. This is held for 90-120 seconds following the releases through the connective tissue barriers. We have had great success with this treatment approach especially when utilized with other treatment techniques such as joint mobilization, therapeutic exercise programs, and modalities. The combination of these techniques are beneficial in creating pain free movement for the horse.
Here are some before/after videos of a horse I found on youtube (I have no clue who this horse is) that received treatment using MFR.
Here is the same horse after MRF.
Lucy isn't where this horse is YET but she's sure feeling better then she did. She's striding out further then she ever has (just not quite as much as I'd like).
I get to have Trish work on me tomorrow so I'm excited to "feel" what Lucy feels.
Last week I decided to make the move and wean Duke. He's just a little over 4 months old but he's very independent and wasn't spending a large amount of time nursing. The drought has been hard on all of the horses and I didn't want to tax Lucy's body anymore then I needed to.
On Tuesday, MIL came over, loaded Lu up and took her to her house. All of the while Duke was munching on his grain and never even noticed. He's been very good about Lucy being gone and is adjusting well.
Wednesday I went over to MIL's as Black had managed to cut up her leg (we still haven't figure out what happened). Poor Lucy! Her bag was full and streaming onto the ground. It must not have bothered her too much though as all she seemed concerned with was when she was going to get more food.
Duke got fitted with a new DUH halter on Thursday. It is a bit too small so I need to check to make sure they have it tagged correctly. It is supposed to be a weanling. He doesn't have a big head so I can't see him needing a yearling halter already.
Shedding AGAIN!
Sunday the boys and I went to visit Lu at MIL's. She was drying up well so I decided to go ahead and saddle her up. Would you care to join me for a ride?
Yep, I saw Lucy's signature ears. lol I really won't complain though. I can't tell you when I rode her last and I'm guessing minus the bb ride a few weeks ago it was well over a year ago. She was a pretty good girl.
After my ride Ty wanted to ride. He loves Lucy! So much I'm afraid I'm going to lose her to him in a few years.
I about fell down laughing when I heard him say "Lucy! Don't make me use the spanker."
After his ride he "informed" me he needed to wash "his" horse. I'm not sure who had more water on them at the end of the bath - him or Lucy.
I had a nice, relaxing ride on Cat last night while DH and MIL were off getting hay for MIL. They returned just as I was finishing up my ride. I tied Cat to the PP while MIL and DH rode around in the arena. I'm not one to sit and watch so I decided to hop on my trusty steed to see if she was still trusty.
It felt so weird riding her again. She isn't built that much different then Cat but she is built just enough different to make it feel really weird going from riding Cat to riding her. Riding her reminded me why I love her so much. She acted like she'd never had any time off and immediately started to tuck her head to the halter pressure.
Ty was sitting on the mounting block whining that he wasn't getting to ride. After about 10 minutes I got tired of listening to him and saddled Lu up with his saddle. He does a pretty good job with Lu and she does a pretty good job taking care of him. If my cell card wasn't full I would've gotten a video as it looks like she's walking on eggshells when he rides her.
Duke had been over pestering Cat but decided it was time for a drink. He wasn't sure what that "thing" on Lucy's back was so he just followed her around a bit and then went back to pestering Cat.
