Off to a good Start!

So yesterday Dan got a massage by Kathleen. She was amazing!! He was a bit on edge and bored so he made her "dance" with him. She was awesome and just laughed at him. I got annoyed, but... He wasn't being naughty, it's just... he wasn't being good. He was just sooo fidgety and mouthy. But he definitely was much more calm and relaxed when she wasn't in a tender spot. The good news is that his butt and pelvis feel great! Yay! I've been working so hard on that. The bad news (or maybe good news) is that his right scapula is adhered to his body wall. Oh hey... that sounds familiar. Like mother, like son. I sort of suspected that because of all the reactions and restrtictions I get when I work on him, and what Amanda and others get when they work on him. It really is a puzzle and really does require all the pieces. I think he needs fascial work and chiropractic work and probably acupuncture too, but... apparently he also really needed just good deep tissue massage. He was not a happy camper about it, but he also never said a firm no. He was fussy and wiggly and kept lipping at Kathleen, but he never bit and he never got angry. Just very fussy. He did almost rear twice, but he never got nasty with her. I'm so proud! But yep... there was a lot of work there. So I'm much more hopeful again that we can all work together to get that unadhered and get that swing phase working better again! 

So today... we went to ride!!! We were going to meet Liz at Harbins and go for a long walk since they are having the show at Ashland. But she had to cancel. And I wasn't sure how the footing would be at Harbins since it poured here last night. And I also am not too sure where to trot at Harbins and we are finally allowed to trot, so by golly we will trot! So... we went to Ashland. It's always nice to see friends and catch up. We started out on our usual track to the small lake because we wanted to stay away from the dressage arenas and XC field. I put the jump bridle on and the jump saddle on because.... we weren't going to swim because of his injections and because I figured he might be rowdy. :) (He wasn't... bad!). We started off okay and there were no issues other than multiple branches in our path. One we had to go around but most we could walk over. A few looked jumpable but they were tiny enough that we could also walk over. So we kept going. We got to the magical spot and did 1.5 min of trotting. Ahhhhh... He felt a little drunk at first, but then he got his rhythm and swung along. He felt good! Of course he usually feels good on straight aways. We got to the hay field behind halfshire and walked a little bit then trotted the last 1.5 minutes. Then we walked back through the school house path and he trotted up that hill a tiny bit. Oops. Then we got back to the creek crossing with the branch at the top in the path. I thought... it would be fun to jump that, but nope.. we're not allowed. And I had loosened the reins, partly because we've been on the buckle and partly so he could lower his head to go down the hill. Well... stinker must have read my mind because he took his nose down low and cantered off! I didn't want to pull him up right in the middle of the hill or at the "jump" because it was slick and he had the denoix shoes on behind which are more or less slide plates! So... I let him canter and he jumped the little jump. I pulled him up right after. But it was fun. It was so fun. Then of course later I had to trot a bit to make sure he was still sound. :) He was! Then we headed home. Ooopsy.... 

 The photo on the left is the little branch we jumped. :)