Thursday, July 29, 2010

of bits and necks

usually, when the poll is out, one thinks that that causes various resistances

is that the case when the resistances were there in any event in a horse that, in its previous life, had been ridden etc. in a bit that hurt her?

been thinking about this all day, jean!

but think about the history - it's the same as her thing with gates, she remembers what happened when she was 6 months old, and IMHO the thing with bits is the same, she assumes it's going to hurt even if it isn't any more...

i think probably the poll being slightly out wont be helping, and obviously i've emailed the physio to come and see .. but i can't sensibly think that'll make much difference, in the scale of things...

at least she'll eat bute!

1 comment:

Jean said...

Sorry to get you all confused here.

In my experience, horses have long pain memories. I am sure that was a major issue with PJ who had chronic need of chiropractic/acupuncture.

If, at some point, even when she was first bitted, Molly experienced some pain, now, minor pain could trigger an overreaction.

If your physio has some massage techniques, etc. you could do on a regular basis to keep Molly comfortable in her neck/poll/jaw area, it could go far in helping solve the problem with the bit.

As I said too, if vertebrae are out, she could easily have a headache and that too could make her fussy about things.

My friend had a TB who could be totally hysterical to handle. One day when my chiropractic/acupuncture vet was there he treated that horse. When he went in the stall the horse was frantic, pulling away from every effort to touch him. The vet very gently managed to make one adjustment in the horse's neck and there was an instant change. The horse dropped his head and heaved a big sigh. It was incredible.

Since horses do not have a spoken language to communicate with us, they have to use other means. Molly is one lucky lady that you try hard to listen to her.