Lunge Day

 Today was farrier day and lunge day. 

I told Patrick all that was going on and that I had no idea what her problem was. I showed him the photo of her standing over the trough. And then we had pulled her shoes by then and were discussing whether we wanted the pads again or what and I was explaining that I thought that she needed wedges because of the NPA but that I also felt like she was potbellied looking and stuck in flexion. And that the wedges were maybe making her more in flexion... so I was trying to show him how I wanted her back to look and she shifted and stood square (barefoot on all four) and suddenly we both looked at each other and were like "Like that?!"... So.. hmmm... okay... then I grabbed my angled wedge surefoot pad and stood her on it, and her posture got worse again. So... we decided to go back to flat pads with frog support but Patrick was going to trim her toe as much as he could to eliminate the negative angle without a wedge.  So.. we'll see what that does. Her feet are looking good though and she did look like she actually had some more heel growth. So... ??? :) 

I ended up just lunging her today because I wanted to give her some time to recalibrate plus she was still not quite right the other day. So I took her into the arena and did some massage on her front end. I had read something at lunch about the thoracic sling and the whole slew of issues it creates and how massage and some exercises help. So, I spent a little bit of time massaging her. Her right back dorsally up by her rib heads was lumpy feeling. And she was a little angry/upset with the massage there. I really didn't do much either. And I'm not even sure what I was doing, but... I did get some releases so yay. We did some shoulder stretches. And then we did some pillar work in hand... some turn on the forehand and haunches. We did some leg yielding and shoulder ins while walking and some leg yielding while trotting. Then I lunged her at the trot. She started out stiff and short and choppy looking. But not lame, although maybe a slight head bob. I still think she looks way worse tracking right. We did some walk trot transitions and trotted the poles two times. The first time through she landed on it and scrambled. Oh, and she rolled her hind fetlock once while lunging too. It was tracking left but I don't know if it was her inside or outside foot. I didn't lunge her too long since we had done some groundwork too. 

So... hopefully we'll get her figured out and back to happy under saddle. I'm not sure if I'll ride in between now and her vet appointment... or if I'll alternate lunging and riding.... or if I will try to get Nancy out sooner... I have no clue. It will be interesting to see if the shoeing change helps at all. 



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