Tilly and I have been out of sorts this past week. She had Tuesday off after my lesson with laura and then I long lined her on Wednesday. I could see then that she felt a bit stuck but I figured the intense collected work from earlier in the week had her jammed up.
On Thursday I felt the same thing the moment I placed my seat in the saddle. She was stuck and struggling to move forward with power. After a nice long trail ride, we cantered softly in the grass on a loose rein until I felt her energy return. I gathered my reins and let her choose the frame. She wanted to bring her back up but could only do so in the more open stride. This continued through the weekend... any time I asked for collection, Tilly would drop her withers and chest... Lateral work helped. On top of that, my mid back was feeling very sore and I struggled to support Tilly.
We needed a new set of eyes on the issue and Laura was very helpful in helping me formulate a plan today. She could see irregularity in the right front and left hind, and Laura also noticed that when Tilly was in motion, my saddle was twisting off to the right. I decided to call our integrative therapist, Nicole Barry - she knows Tilly inside and out.
As usual, Nicole helped immediately, even long distance! She gave me a couple exercises to help Tilly's ribs - a section of her body that seems to displace regularly. I could feel her muscles spasm under my hands from the treatment and Tilly began licking and chewing - a horse's sign of release. (http://www.kbrhorse.net/tra/lickchew01.html) I'll keep up this work all week and I'm looking forward to seeing Nicole at my next lesson with Laura on Monday.
On Thursday I felt the same thing the moment I placed my seat in the saddle. She was stuck and struggling to move forward with power. After a nice long trail ride, we cantered softly in the grass on a loose rein until I felt her energy return. I gathered my reins and let her choose the frame. She wanted to bring her back up but could only do so in the more open stride. This continued through the weekend... any time I asked for collection, Tilly would drop her withers and chest... Lateral work helped. On top of that, my mid back was feeling very sore and I struggled to support Tilly.
We needed a new set of eyes on the issue and Laura was very helpful in helping me formulate a plan today. She could see irregularity in the right front and left hind, and Laura also noticed that when Tilly was in motion, my saddle was twisting off to the right. I decided to call our integrative therapist, Nicole Barry - she knows Tilly inside and out.
As usual, Nicole helped immediately, even long distance! She gave me a couple exercises to help Tilly's ribs - a section of her body that seems to displace regularly. I could feel her muscles spasm under my hands from the treatment and Tilly began licking and chewing - a horse's sign of release. (http://www.kbrhorse.net/tra/lickchew01.html) I'll keep up this work all week and I'm looking forward to seeing Nicole at my next lesson with Laura on Monday.
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