Investigatin' (add videos)

 I had my lesson with Kelly E this morning. Lyric was a good girl and loaded right up and we got tacked up and headed to the arena. I did my in hand warm up... we backed up, we did turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, jogged in hand... And then it was our turn. Kelly had brought a lunge line too. Ha ha! And a lunge whip, which.. apparently I need to buy one because Lyric was way more forward than at home. Anyways... Kelly lunged her first and honestly said she looked pretty darn sound. I agreed. She did notice the subtle head tilt and her occasional desire to slow down and be a slug. But, the lunge whip helped with that. Honestly, that's the most tracking up she has done at the trot! 

So then she wanted to investigate some things... so she put draw reins on her, but put them on like side reins. She attached them to the girth under her belly, ran them through the bit, and then attached them to the girth up by the saddle billets. And then she lunged her again. And, Lyric was a little more chompy at first, but her mouth quieted the longer she went. Tracking left she looked pretty darn good. And tracking right... she looked a hair funky at times, but it was definitely not as bad as it was under saddle the other day. And she was only doing it intermittently. It got better the longer she went too. So... Kelly said that she felt like that was good because she felt like she wasn't "broken" longitudinally. Which, also means that her kissing spine seems to be managed, at least at the moment. She felt like the longitudinal compression wasn't bothering her. Yay! That's helpful because... that IS what bothers Dan. So...yay for that. 

So then she took the side reins/draw reins off and got on. She walked a good bit and felt what I was feeling, although not exactly. I was telling her I felt like I had to shove her right shoulder to the left and hold her nose to the right. She disagreed and thought that I needed to ask for more bend and get her to listen to my right leg! She picked up the trot and Lyric looked pretty darn good. She had a few steps of "not quite right" tracking right, but only a few and overall she looked pretty darn good. Kelly said she felt like tracking right was worse, but she only felt a few steps of funky. She thinks, based on what she saw and felt and what I told her, that she's tight in her left sternum/ribcage/thoracic sling/lower cervicals, and doesn't want to stretch that out. Which is why she has the weird head tilt and feels worse tracking right. Interesting... because I had told her that the scapular injections made the biggest difference soundness wise... but I had also shockwaved her sternum area at that time too! So, maybe she's on to something. I meant to shockwave her tonight as Friday was her final one for her lumbars, but I got distracted with flowers and planting. I'll do it tomorrow and I'll go ahead and do her sternum too while I'm at it. Plus, I'll continue to do fascial work and body work on her neck and poll, but also add in her ribcage now too. 

Anyways... she said she thought that I should keep riding... but be more insistent in my contact and more insistent that she bend around my right leg. She said I could do therapeutic lunging first... put her on the lunge... then ask her to come in to a smaller circle and get bend in the nose/neck but use the whip to help push her barrel away. Do one circle on "bend" and then let her go back out and be straighter in her body. She also said when she's being ridden that she wants to keep dumping on the forehand... and that's probably the rooting I'm feeling. So... don't let her. Ask with the leg and body position so she stays on her haunches. And then, I can let her stretch, but when I let her.. not when she roots. So... we'll see how that works. 

After that, I hopped on and we headed out for a trail ride. I felt sort of bad as she had lunged a fair amount and it was so hot and humid but... I figured a nice long walk in the woods wasn't a horrible idea. She was a little fresh too so we did a tiny bit of trotting in the XC field. We also walked through the water complex, over the small ditch and up and down the baby bank. Good girl! We continued on our hack and got to the end of the field by the lake and the two geese with their 3 baby goslings were there.. We walked past them and they were chill.. and then they started following us! Lyric and I were walking to the lake and she kept stopping and looking back like "they're following us, aren't they? WHY... WHY are they following us"? ha ha.. I don't know baby girl.. I don't know. But they seems happy and content so carry on. Then the one little baby one tried to eat a flower! Awwww. But then Dad did eat it, so... apparently that's what they do. Anyways.. Lyric and I got to the lake and I let her splash around a good bit. She had fun. The geese went in the lake a little farther up from us and I joked that they were excited about the "wave pool" Lyric was creating. It was like at White Water when they ramped up the wave pool. Ha ha. 

We carried on and did some hills and just had a nice time in the woods. I'm so proud of her. She got a hose off and then loaded right back up to go home. So... I'm not sure what this means... I do feel less panicky about her being neurologic. Kelly didn't say she felt that. And honestly, she didn't really feel neuro today to me either. Or look it. Although she did lose her hind end once while lunging, but mildly... and it looked like a typical patella catch. And then she did lose her hind end hard out on the trails trotting, but..... terrain.. .fatigue??? She also tripped up front slightly once while lunging. I don't know if I need to do what Kelly says.. what Liz says... both? I do feel like she needs my support and help, but then I also understand her having to figure out self carriage. But I do think she feels way worse the "less" I ride her. Meaning, if I don't micromanage and support her, she feels awful. But if I help her and have more contact... more direction.. she feels better. So, maybe I should do 3 of 4 rides with more help and assistance and then 1 of those rides... let her cope on her own and figure it out without me helping. Or maybe I do that every ride, but only 10% of the ride. I don't know... I guess I'll have to play around with it and see. And it may depend on her and that particular day. She may tell me that she really needs help on a certain day and may feel better on her own other days? I have no clue. But I'll keep trying. And then I guess we'll keep doing hills for fitness before I decide what to do about a vet visit. I don't want to jump the gun and waste money, but I also don't want to miss something because I'm thinking it's weakness. So... we shall see I guess.

Good girl though! And man, was it nice to be back behind those ears out in the woods again. And just in general. I'm kind of sad that Kelly rode today and I didn't. Ha. Hence my trail ride though.