More investigating

 lesson. BRRRRR. 9:30 am and windchill of 19. but not too bad in arena. tacked up quick and hacked along edge of XC to get to arena. wanted longer walk warm up but didn't get up early enough. did a lot of stretchy trot on the buckle once in arena. she started out sluggish and bracey and lost her hind end at least 6 times. Hard!! Like made divots in the arena hard. cantered her and she got better and only lost her hind end once (after we jumped the grid a time or two). felt more forward and happy after we cantered. 

rule outs: muscle myopathy, cold and tight, tight in general, KS, stifle stuff but seems more neuro than stifle, neuro, ??

then did canter poles and was game to reach for them. then slowly raised small jumps. talked with jacel. Jumping off hind end... really sitting and pushing. jumping straight. jumping out of stride. So... not inclined to think hind end, despite the falling out. and odd that she gets better with work and jumping, which again... doesn't lend towards hind end issues. did notice that when the jump got a little bigger, she got a bit fussier and starting pulling rails with front end. so.. leaning towards front end issues, and suspect more up high. definitely didn't want to bend left today...  did bendy line off right lead and was beautiful. did it off left lead and struggled (though to be honest, so did Smarty and Funny later, so may have been the line more than the left lead for this particular situation). always landing right lead. and at one point, in slo mo, appears to be slow in her cranial phase of left front. 

so.. still leaning towards left shoulder/scapula/cervicothoracic/cervical as main culprit, but... ?? 

very good girl. tried hard and was taking jumps out of stride and never once balked or got nappy. rode the barrel, inside leg to outside rein, but kept the reins super soft and never asked for a frame or any particular shape to her head. Just asked her to move her barrel and helped her soften that way. 

went for a quick hack around the lake. trainer brought a huge group to XC school and two kids were out riding bikes in the Xc field before they started. lyric was looky but brave. they whizzed down the hill to the heron lake and got her on high alert but were nice enough to wait to do it again til we got past. walked around the lake and then went home 

photos: cold lesson

videos (jacel showing her left bendy line deviations and her jumping).


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