Lesson with Liz

Another great lesson with Liz! As usual, when we first started Liz watched him and touched him. She felt like he had fascial restrictions on the right side of his neck. He was struggling to bend to the right. So she did some work and recommended that I adjust him and do some fascial work for him. (If I put my left hand (recieving hand) on his right neck.. that will help). She also felt like his right stifle was unhappy. Yep.. I feel that too. But she did say that overall she thought he felt very happy and good. Yay! She even got on him to show me a trick for getting the bend on the right. And she said that his walk and body felt happier and better than even 5 years ago when she sat on him. So that's encouraging!! And not to worry.. she only walked and she wore my helmet. And Dan was super. 

Anyways.. she wanted to sit on him to help explain something to me that I wasn't getting. So she had him walking to the right and pulled the reins up taut and put them in one hand. Then she slid her right hand as far forward down the reins as she could reach and held her hand there on the right. It wasn't pulling him... but it was a barrier. Like a side rein kind of. It created an encouragement to bend because if he was bent, then it was soft and if he got straight or counterbent, there was a little bit of pressure. But not pulling him! And I had to keep my inside leg on to encourage bend. And when we track right, I really also have to put my left leg back a bit to keep him from swinging his haunches out to cheat. 

So then we did the same thing in the trot. Kind of. I had shorter reins today and asked for bend. She did make me sit the trot. And it hurt at first! He was a bit bouncy and that wide twist was killing my seat bones. I did find that if I slid back a little bit in the saddle, it was much better. I kind of wish I had gone one seat size smaller on the saddle because I feel like maybe that would have made it easier. But.. I could manage to sit the trot if I kept him a little small and stayed in the back of the saddle. Which, wasn't too hard to do. We also played with my stirrup length but I think we ended up back where we started. Which, included my right stirrup being one hole shorter. Yep.. that's still a thing. But honestly, I'm wondering if it's less to do with my crookedness and more to do with saddle slip from him being essentially kind of lame on the right hind. Regardless, they felt and even looked even when I was a hole off. Odd. Oh well.. We'll keep an eye on things. 

 

We did some canter work too. And it was nice both ways. The left lead was harder today. He didn't want to pick it up and then almost ran us into the jump. Goober! But we did get a few good steps that way and a lot of good steps on the right lead. He felt rounder and more supple in his canter! Yay!

So then we called it quits. He worked hard and was trying but was getting fatigued. Liz suggested that I start him on Adequan, ice him if possible, and then I threw out shockwave. She still thinks that he's not bad enough to try osphos yet. She thinks I should keep that one in my back pocket for "last ditch effort". 

 

So... it was a good boy and we had a good ride, but.. yeah, that stifle is going to be our limiting factor.