Yes, I’m going to bore you with the crisis that is my horse.
So, we’ve finally decided that Melody needs a chiropractor, she’s been off ever since our farrier did her, but it turns out it isn’t her feet, it’s her back. We think she wrenched herself away from him to get at a fly and pulled something, which was the final straw for her back.
She’s had back problems since I got her two-years ago. I noticed about a month ago she started refusing fences, something she hadn’t done in months (since her attitude problem at the indoor where she fell down after a jump, then the next time proceeded to tear the jump down with her feet). We just attributed it to me, I’m so used to her just running at jumps and not listening to me at all, now she listens so we summed it up to mis-communication, which is probably part of it.
One other time when she was in a refusing phase, it was her back and she got a massage, and then was all better. That’s why I’m thinking part of the refusing is from her back. She’s also very tender from her withers down to her flanks, she practically jumped out of her skin when the dentist grabbed her withers to hold on to her. She’s always been very sensitive, but this was bad.
More evidence, she carries herself with her head in the air, she can go down into a frame, but after a day where she does a frame nicely the next time you bring her out she’ll refuse to stretch into the frame which makes me think that her being in the frame is hurting which is why the next day she won’t do it because she’s sore.
So this Saturday we’re getting an equine-chiropractor out to adjust her…hopefully find out what the problem is and get it fixed. I’m so sick and tired of not riding my horse, I think 'm going to go crazy!
Ouch, sore backs make for big problems, but its cool that you figured it out and can get something done about it. I hope she gets well soon!
And trust me, I know how you feel about riding. I haven’t ridden a horse in months and I feel like I might die
I have my show gelding done every 8 weeks and it has done him wonders. He has better muscle gain on his topline and just moves a whole heck of a lot better. Good luck with the chiropractor.
Basically there isn’t a part of my horse that wasn’t sore. Among the list of things was out of line ribs, her femur was screwed up, and basically she was a sore sore horse.
By the end of the session though she wasn’t at all touchy about her withers which an hour before if you touched them she would be hanging from the rafters.
We’ll have to see what it did, I’m going to get on her Tuesday, basically walk around, maybe trot to see if she’s sound again.
That’s awesome! I hope she goes back to normal for you, or maybe even beter than she was before. It sounds like she really needed that work done on her.
Well I rode her Tuesday then again today. She is 100% sound. I don’t notice a HUGE difference in her, but she seems a lot more willing to stretch out than she was before. Still insists that she was never taught to bend, but that could just be her being defiant.
I think my confirmation that she is better is that she was like her old self today, ready to leap in the air at the slightest provocation. Started crow-hopping when two horses in an adjacent field squeeled at eachother. Then she decided to leap into the air in mock surprise when she saw my trainer adjusting a jump.
So yea I think she’s feeling tons better, next week just to confirm it I’m going to take her over a little jump and act like I don’t know how to ride, see if she jumps it like her old self, or refuses.
Yesterday I took Melody over a jump, only once because I don’t want her screwing something up. But anyway, first I trotted over two poles set up as an itsy-bitsy cross-rail, (the poles were about 5" of the ground). She stopped at it the first time. My friend Toni told me the look on her face was priceless, akin to ‘you can’t be serious’. Which is quite like her, over the winter she tore a jump down with her feet because she was in a mood, 5 minutes before that she fell down ontop of me after she landed funny off a fence.
So I made her walk over it, then the next time she decided to leap over it and go running away…something she likes to do when she’s bored. So then I decided to just see what she would do if I took her over a little blue box that was set up, max height was maybe 2’3"…easy. She ran at it and leapt over it like her old self. ::dance::
This really proves nothing, but it was nice to see her enthusiastic about jumping. We’ll just have to see if the refusing thing continues once we get her jumping again.
Well hope the chiropractor helps your horse out! 
(Iknow it hwlps my mom. 