Saturday, September 02, 2006

good news

the high probabilities are that her poll is out - i didn'tknow that could give a horse a screaming headache .... so will ring my favourite horse physio monday morning (once i've checked i've got the correct number for him....). was recommended to go to david peat, vet in barnard castle but i have no transport for molly and would have to get a recommendation from my vet, i expect ...

and I rode her, in the arena.

she didn't want to go in - and this was ajudged to be a stress reaction, given that the last time she was ridden in there i fell off. but she calmed down and we did a lot of walk work with teacher watching her reactions on either circle.

the plan is to keep riding her in walk and calmly; given some massage to try on her neck muscles to try and help her relax them; mount in the arena (and if necessary just follow her round with the stool - teacher hadn't seen that performance before ....)

then (after having to buy a complete set of tyres for the car - i'd discovered a slow puncture in one and the man said the rest were on the verge of illegality, ouch ouch ouch!) went up in the rain to pay queenie's keep. didn't see queenie as allison was at work not at home but we had a good long chat.

we agreed that something had gone adrift in molly's original starting; interestingly - i mentioned molly's assymetry and we agreed totally that it is identical to queenie's and therefore is congenital - may be able to sort it if we ever get some correct work into her - but that was interesting. it had really struck me this last week how similar molly was to queenie in that respect, as it is really obvious with a lunge roller on - clearly not straight one side to the other ... i know some would say i should look at a wow saddle in that case, and reflecting on that it may well be that i need to think more about shimming under the treeless ....

Molly's daugher is sold on and is doing really well - out at dalton show last week, new owners well pleased with her, went on wagon first time ever like a lamb

and queenie's been hoolying around the field like a good 'un, along with the others ...

so overall, i'm a lot happier, if a lot poorer!!!

2 comments:

Jean said...

Ouch. The occiput is in the poll area and when mine goes out I get a terrible headache. I can't imagine it would be any different for a horse. PJ also had problems there and when he did, his work was very erratic.

I would suspect there may be other vertebrae out as well since one usually causes sort of "sympathetic" reactions from others in the spine.

If you find the right person to fix her up, I think you are going to be really surprised and pleased.

Claire said...

thanks jean - i know a really good back man, does all the racehorses at middleham and so on, so i'll be ringing him tomorrow. qualified horse and person physio. and there's a bowen person in durham as well ...