Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Yayyyy....Validation!

(The view from the new place)

I was letting my imagination run a little wild...


But I have not lost my 'touch' for being able to feel if something is wrong or not.


I have also found an absolutely wonderful new equine chiropractor.


I am soooooo happy!

I do have horses that are in real need of chiropratic adjustment, so it's wonderful to have found someone that I know can get them all lined out again.


Thank you everyone for your positive comments on acupuncture as well. I did let her provide that service for Moon at the end of his manipulations and he certainly did relax for quite a while.



Now, for clarification about Moon's adjustment...

See that back? The chiro said that back was the nicest back she has had her hands on in over three years!...

No sore spots, stiffness or damage. His spine is straight, strong and he has superior and equal limberness on both sides. Moon showed no reaction to the flexion test in his left hock and only the slightest of reactions to the flexion test to his left stifle. He had no reaction to his flexion test on his right stifle and again, the slightest of reactions to the flexion test on his right hock. The vet was amazed at how straight and true Moon traveled.

Now, you may ask, what exactly was the reason I thought he might need an adjustment?

Three years ago, I let my niece run Moon at a couple of rodeos and she is not the greatest of riders. She let him run strung out, which of course Moon took full advantage of. At the last rodeo, he left the gate in the wrong lead and when he went to switch leads at 1st barrel, he hung his toes in the deep wet sand and pulled both stifle muscles. He was out for nearly a year recovering. It was actually thanks to Mrs Mom and some very specific exercises that she gave me that helped to bring him back the next spring. Hats off to you MM!!

Every since then, I have often wondered if Moon did not also rotate his hips when that happened. I could never see any indication that that was so, but Moon is a stoic horse. He has little reaction to day in and day out work. He is equally well-leaded and changing leads is supremely easy for him. Annoyingly so. Due to the way he travels, it was really difficult to tell if he was just being annoying with his natural tendency to want to flip his hindquarters out or if he was actually in pain and he was just trying to get things done as easily as possible.

The answer is...

He was for the most part, just being the major pain in the butt he is.

The vet was able to get the smallest of pops out of his left hip and two equally small pops out of his sacreal. She said it may free him up some, but probably minimally, if it was at all noticeable. Mostly, it probably just felt good at the time-LOL.

One other little thing has bothered me about Moon the last couple of years as well. When riding in the pasture, he has the most annoying habit of hanging his head off to the right. Always too the right. Again, it's one of those things that nothing other than that tiny detail was telling me he was 'out' anywhere. Moon really likes to turn around and go back the way he came, so I contributed a lot of that to being annoyingly concerned about going home. But I wondered...

The vet found one good pop in Moon's neck on the right side and a corresponding pop in his poll on the left side. He is slightly stiffer in his neck flexion to the left than he is to the right.

Again, nothing major and the vet said that I may or may not notice a difference, but that I should work specifically on neck stretches in both directions until Moon can comfortably bend his head, while it is perpendicular to the ground, to at least slightly past his shoulder. Preferably his hip, but that will take some time.

Hmmm...I have been wanting to add some flax to Moon's diet, guess I will be investing in some of those flax treats.

The rest of Moon's leg flexions were perfect. No sign of anything.

The vet was very complementary of my farrier...

LOL-That would be me.:-)

She loved the fact that I run my horses barefoot.

She was also very impressed with Moon's manners and the ease of which he handled all of the manipulations(He was on his very best behavior.:-), so we had a great conversation about training well rounded individuals and what a difference it makes. I love being able to show people that not all barrel horses need to be super-freaks and Moon is a fine ambassador.

The only thing the vet said is that she wished he had more padding on his hindquaters.

Me too sister...Me too. I just don't think that is in the cards for Moon. We will continue to work on figuring out a way to get him to fill up back there, but I'm not going to worry myself sick about that anymore. The horse is what he is.

14 comments:

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Great news ! Glad it worked out . Better to check than go on wondering . We had a visit from Kevin of Blue Equine (he is an osteopath ) to work on my friends gelding , funny all the places he was out I would have thought he wouldn't be able to move at all ! Tough buggers these ponies!

cdncowgirl said...

That just sounds good all around! :)

Voodoo was travelling with his head slightly tipped to the left. At first I figured it was just one of those annoying "looky lou" habits. That is until I started taking lessons and he was doing it in the indoor arena while bored out of his mind going in circles. Turns out he was out in the atlas area.

Flax - love it! Good for the ponies and makes them so shiny. I buy big bags at the feed store of whole flax. Then I grind it up in an old coffee bean grinder and toss it on top of their grain. I never grind more than a day or two's worth at a time though as I've heard it loses potency once its ground.

City girl turned Country Girl said...

That is SO great!!! I am thrilled that she had such great things to say about him!! And I must say 2 other things that absolutely thrilled me about your post, the shout out to *bare feet* I agree 100% that's the way to go! DD's new horse is shod but we will work on that...And secondly AMEN to showing that all barrel horses aren't super-freaks!!

Oh and I love the view ;)

Mrs. Mom said...

Excellent news!

Glad those stifles are holding up too. Hats off to you, girl, for following through on everything to get him back sound and ready to go!

Now, let's see you guys kicking ass at the next race! :)

Dena said...

Gee BECs I can't tell that you like your horse. Uh uh..not a bit.
*snork*
I buy my flax with added Omega 3 in the baking goods isle of the grocery store. Costs me a whopping $1.85 and no tax added.

Unknown said...

That is so great.

Flax is wonderful. Buying the whole seeds is really cheap too!

Unknown said...

I'm so glad you went for the whole enchilada. I'm sure Moon is relieved too - although he may never let you know it.

My horse was out at the "atlas" too, I wonder how that even happens.

Make me want to go in and get adjusted. :)

Cut-N-Jump said...

Isn't it great getting unbiased feedback about your horse from someone who has no idea who, how or what brough them this far in life, and it turns out to be- YOU?

I just went for my first ever chiro appointment on Tuesday. Holy CRAP! The cracking and popping noises my body made was incredible. There was one adjustment that I swear, every disc from tip to tail POPPED, and it was THAT loud when they did. It felt and sounded like a zipper being done up.

As far as the flax seed goes and all supplements really, a naturalist showed me something several years ago that blew my mind. There's a name for it and I forget what it is, but it is simple to do and doesn't cost you anything but a little bit of time. You will need a helper or second person.

Place a small amount of the grain, supplement or whatever in your hand and against the horse. (Their side, hip or neck works well for this.) Raise your other arm straight out. Now have your helper try and push your outstretched arm down. If the horse needs the supplement- your helper will not be able to bring your arm down. If the horse doesn't need it? You can't keep your arm up.

Simple as that and now you can spend your money wisely on only those things your horse really needs. It's as close as you will get to the horses telling you "I don't need this, instead I need that."

Truthfully- I thought the woman was completely Whacked when she explained it to me! Being the one with my arm up and out, not being able to lower it or keep it raised depending on what we were 'testing' made me wonder about the energies involved and how things like that worked. Give it a try if you don't believe me. What have you got to lose?

Sherry Sikstrom said...

CNJ, you are talking about Kinesiology (sp) it is very cool!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Dena...I dislike that pig 99% of the time. LOL

It's just nice to know that I can go back to torturing him and not feel bad that I may be torturing a horse in pain. I have some very convaluted morals don't I? LMAO

CnJ-I have heard of that before. Meg and I will have to try that. Kinda sounds like fun.

I just took everyone off of almost all of their supplements. Still feeding the basic mineral and vinegar though. Love how soft and shiny everyone's hair is on that.

I was thinking of the flax treats because I will need to do stretching exercises daily with Moon. The added fat would be good for him.

Danielle Michelle said...

Yeah for the back news! I wish mine was that great! lol

Didn't know you ran your guys barefoot. Love it when you can get away with it. I absolutely refuse to shoe my one mare. I swear it'll ruin her forever.

Out of curiousity - where did you find your chiropractor? Local over there or did you have to have her come in or haul to her? I'm looking for a good one. I used one out of N. NM once and wasn't so impressed.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

DM-She is local to the Delta area, just down the road from me. I hauled to her this time, but from now on, she will schedule me in when she comes up and works on reining horses for Poplin Performance Horses. I don't know if she travels very far, but she may know of someone over in that area(that she thinks is competent).

Pop me an email and I'll ask her when I talk to her in a couple of weeks.

LuLo Designs/Blue Eyed Tango said...

Moon reminds me of Slick a little, his top line is nice (shorter than Slick's) and I like how he's put together overall (some horses just don't gain in the hind)I wouldn't worry too much he's nice looking. Slick's hind quarters are really starting to fill out and muscle up as we've been riding him nearly every day minus the weekends. Collection has been the focus and I think that he has just had to work up under himself a lot to develop those muscles and that's what made his back sore. He had tightness in his poll/Atlas and pelvis... also pulled his head up when we put the saddle on/off him and mounted up. I have a flex saddle and no obvious rubbing from a bad fit. His eye was showing tension and he got cranky a few times which is so not like him ....something was up and it was his back. His top line is a little longer than Moon's and I'm hoping that this will not be a continual problem, however, at this point, I think it was just from under development of his hind end but who knows? His chest is also muscled up as well as his neck, it's amazing how quickly he filled out and now looks like an adult. Oh also after the adjustment his eye became soft again and you could just tell he felt better... he acts differently. Never had the acupuncture done on any of ours and this was the first adjustment on any of our horses.....$110! Can you imagine doing all six? We'll only do it if there's a definite problem. I went to my Chiropractor to get an adjustment and he couldn't believe how much money people will spend on their horses' adjustments but not themselves! Makes no sense to him! Horse or human, if we're out of whack, affects us! Love the barefoot and love the proof of a barrel racer that's NOT a super-freak!

Anonymous said...

Has anyone tried soybean meal? I started my mare on it and her top line and rear have filled out greatly. She was always a little bony looking (she has really high withers) but with the added soy she has filled in around those areas tremendously!