I ended up getting a local horse guy to help me move Fox. This proved to be very enlightening. The first thing he and his wife said when they saw Fox was ‘do you have trouble with his feet?’ That is an obvious yes. Then they asked ‘how is he to canter?’ He’s fine on a straight but on a circle he has some real issues. They ended up telling me he is disunited in his back end. I must have looked a little confused so he said, ‘he’s out somewhere and it’s probably making it uncomfortable to do some things.’ YAY just what I wanted to find out. Apparently one side of his butt is bigger than the other too though I couldn’t see it even when I stared at it for ages.
The loading was really interesting to watch. The woman who is a Tellington-Jones fan had Fox’s head and the guy was behind. They noticed pretty much straight away that Fox had no yield when pressure is applied. So yay, I got something right. It took a bit of back and forth and Fox got a few cracks on the butt but eventually he was going in and out like a pro. I have yet to try if I can repeat this.
When we arrived at the new place, Fox blew up, arched his neck and flagged his tail so much that the woman asked if he was part Arabian LOL. He was also pulling me around so the guy took him off me. He was quite fierce with Fox but it did sort him out. We put Fox in the round pen so he would be safe in case he decided to be an idiot. He calmed down quickly so he got some dinner and hay to last the night and that was it. Not too eventful at all.
So now I am faced with trying to sort Fox’s back end out. They recommended a massage woman but I’m going to ring around all the local horse ‘fixers’ and find out what they have to offer before I make a decision. I feel a bit bad that I didn’t notice but neither did 2 farriers, 3 instructors or other horse people who have seen Fox. All it took for the people who helped me was to see Fox walking towards the trailer.
Which means Fox’s behaviour problems may in fact be partly due to him being uncomfortable.
We will see how this pans out.
Don't believe everything you hear right off the bat! Get a second opinion from someone with some formal anatomy training. I once had an instructor tell me my horse needed a chiropractor because his ribs were off balance. She knew this because when she touched each rib she felt was affected, she could feel the pulse in HER temple with the other hand. Duh, you can feel your pulse in your temple regardless of what your touching. LOL! Much luck and good wishes!
ReplyDeleteThanks for that advice, it had crossed my mind too. Thats why I was going to call around, describe what's going on and see what they have to say.
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