I got a few stretches to do with Shyloh to help her relax and looses up her rear end muscles. I want to be extra careful, though and not over stretch her. First, I walked her in the arena each way a few times, just to warm her muscles up. I don't want to stretch cold muscles, it is not good for them.
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| Wait. You wanna do WHAT to me? |
Then, I took her front legs, picked them up and did three circles with them. With the back legs, I pulled one forward, did three circles, pulled it back and did three more circles. But, I was cautious not to actually pull, I just kind of lifted, just to see where she is at. I think Shy really liked it because by the time I got to her back legs, she had her hoof cocked and waiting for me to lift!
After the warm up and stretches, I took Shy back into the arena and did some in hand walking over poles. Shy likes to walk over poles, so this was easy for us. I did an in hand trot twice, in both directions.
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| Blurry walking! |
Then I tried some at liberty walking over the poles. . .
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| Is Shy gonna do it? |
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| Is she hiding behind the standard or veering off course? |
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| Ah ha! Something much greener caught her attention! |
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| Shy likes grass waaay better than walking over poles! |
And that pretty much sums up our day. We will increase our walking and trotting time over the poles and ease back into riding soon. Shy is scheduled for a massage sometime this week.
Oh, and a nearby city granted our barn permission (pending our signatures on some document so we don't sue if our horses get hurt) to use their hill for some hill work! Exciting!
Let me know when the massage is. I'll come up and get one too!!! Do they use one of those massage tables?
ReplyDeleteShould be on Thursday. No tables, the horses are too big :)
DeleteMy boys used to get the leg circle stretches. I think they liked them, too.
ReplyDeleteI laughed about your quest for a hill. I felt the same way years ago when I lived in coastal SC. The best we could do was a bank someone dug out next to a field. It was probably about 8 - 10 feet high. We trotted up and down that over and over and over again.
Where our barn is, it is farmland, so it is flat. Well, Michigan is mostly flat anyway, but some cities have a small sledding hill. Glad we found one, now we just need to organize a trip to it!
DeleteEverything you're doing should really help, plus the hill-work! I bet you see a difference in her after the massage, too - maybe you should learn some massage techniques yourself, so you can give her a warm up massage before her stretches. Aero's mum used to keep having pelvic problems & I got a horse massage book to try & help, can't remember the name tho
ReplyDeleteLuckily, Kathy from our barn is also an equine masseuse. I can definitely ask her for some tips!
DeleteLooks like a fun day. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd that is very cool about the hill! I know hill work can be very helpful for building proper muscle and balance.
cheers,
Mary
Yay for hill work!!!! That will be perfect! Walking up hill and even backing up hill are excellent workouts for their backs and haunches. :D
ReplyDelete