Bodywork galore
Today was so cold!!!
I had Patrick first thing in the morning so I got up and got the ponies in and fed and noticed that Lyric was missing a hind shoe. I may have missed it last night because it was dark by the time I fed, but... I'm assuming she lost it in the shenanigans last night. But no big deal as Patrick was scheduled anwyays. :)
So he showed up and when we got to her I noticed she had scrapes on her knees and then on her nose. Girl! And then I noticed that one of the straps on her blanket chest looked like it was almost frayed through. Hmmm.... I wonder...
Anyways, Patrick got her shod and I told him the great job he had done and showed him the x-rays. We did switch her to frog support pads in the front, which may offer just a little more give for that one front foot which was almost too positive. And she seemed a bit more comfortable in the hind end today although when Russel was finishing her clenching she did reach out and nip.
After they finished and my fingers and toes thawed out... they were so cold and painful!!! I walked up to the arena to set up my pole exercises again since they had gotten moved to make a grid. As I was walking up there I figured I would go check the gates to see if I could find evidence of what happened last night. The first gate was fine... but as I hit the second gate, up by the hay feeder... I saw it. It wasn't the gate, but the fence post and fence line next to the gate. From the looks of it... I think she must have ran headfirst into the fence... bounced back off it, and then stepped on a shoe. The top bar (which is a big round bar not just a board) had popped off and rolled a good 4 feet. The wire is bent out up at top and the guide wire to help secure it was loose. And the fence post itself was still standing but there was about a 3" gap where it had been pushed hard enough to rock it loose! And her shoe was on the side the bar was not with a bunch of scuff marks. So I'm guessing she either tried to stop and slid into it or scrambled back as she hit it. Good golly!!!
So after I got that semi-picked up and got my arena exercises set back up, they were all hovering. I'm assuming because they saw the fanny pack. ;) I grabbed Lyric since her rehab is a priority and we went to work. We started with a pillar walk and she was good. Then we did the serpentine over the ground poles. Then we backed up for 30 steps in 10 step increments. She's getting better at that. She still shifts slightly to one side but it's not a hard swing, just a slight drift. Then we did the three raised pole serpentine. Then we did the tail circles and the head circles... Then I did some cookie stretches. Then I took her blanket off and put the figure 8 polo wrap on her. And I noticed that her right chest had three scratches on it. Good gravy girl!! THROUGH your blanket!! No wonder she almost knocked that fence down! Then we trotted in hand/lunged for 3 minutes and I had her trot over the single raised pole. Then once I had her trotting over the pole without feeling like she was gonna flail too much, I trotted her over the 6 raised alternating poles. The first time through she walked but then after that she figured it out and trotted. We did that 10 times. Good girl! Then I lunged her another 6 minutes without poles and then we did the serpentine ground pole a few more times to cool down. Then I tried to get her to stand on the balance pad but she didn't really want to but we did some postural work and tried to get her to stand with her left front forward. And then she wanted cookies so I managed to sneak in some rocks! She would shift forward and shift back, engaging her core and pectorals but not moving her limbs. We got a good 15 seconds or so of rocking. Neat! We quit with that. Oh, except on our way out of the arena I had set up two poles on the hill so she did walk over those too. Only once though.
They got a bit more free time while I ate lunch.. during which everyone rolled in the red clay (with blankets on at least.. I guess) and then Lexi came to do bodywork. So they got locked in their stalls with aflalfa again. We did Dan first and then I decided to do Lyric. I felt like since she was being treated and hopefully starting to feel better that it would be smart to get Lexi to work on her.
Lexi had brought her new puppy and Lyric was enthralled. She was just watching Effie entertain herself! I should have gotten photos, but I didn't. Not sure why. Effie was adorable though, so I can't blame Lyric. Plus, she likes animals. She likes the cat at Jeans. But anyways, Lexi said that Lyric actually felt pretty decent in her back (she darn well should!! Ha ha) but she noticed some tension/restrictions behind her scapulas and below her withers. So she spent a lot of time there. Lyric was a very happy girl and really enjoyed it. So yay! Hopefully that will help too. Lexi and I talked about things and we both kind of agreed that my plan of no pessoa but equiband and figure 8 polo wrap and specific exercises in hand and lunging til the end of February and then doing the "contact" work in the saddle was a decent plan. So... fingers crossed. I'm hoping that I can get Liz to help me with her too!
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