catembi
Well-Known Member
I have been using Anne since 2006 when Catembi was seriously ill, & her accuracy should have stopped astonishing me by now.
Lately, I've been having some issues with Summer.
Increasingly stressy
Always grumpy-looking
Had a v v spooky hack when she shied so hard at nothing (not at all like her) that she went half down, I fell off & she ran home. I caught her at home & got back on, but she was spooking & snorting etc etc every few strides all the way to my dr lesson (6km) all the way through it & all the way back.
She has bitten me hard, unprovoked i.e. not feeding treats, ponies not nearby.
Impatient to mount
I booked a session with Anne, telling her no more than the above & probably not all of it. She said:
The darker of the two (very recently bought & "properly" fitted) saddles is pinching her
She has been getting more & more tense because of it
It's got worse as I've done more with her (I was redundant for a month so had a month to play ponies)
She has been biting etc as she's frustrated that she's been trying to say that something's wrong & I haven't picked up on it
She has been getting headaches as a result of holding herself badly
So then I got out a properly qualified physio whom I've used before, a fully certified professional person. I just told her the physical issues, then she told me the following:
Jumping saddle (brown) is fine; dr saddle (black) is very tight & pinching (where S said it was pinching)
She started working with her & I had to go into the house for a bit, & when I came out, she said, 'look how much she loves this' and was massaging her forehead. She did actually love it & do an ecstatic face when usually she is grumpy. She found that S loves all sorts of head massage. I had said nothing at all about headaches.
So, yeah. Boswellia for headaches & I've been shown how to massage her to help her. And saddle shopping again! A nuisance because out of the two I prefer the dr saddle. But every time she's been 'naughty', it's been in the dr saddle. Including That Day when I fell off - I'd been riding more in the dr saddle. That must have been why she was 'naughty' every step of the way when you'd expect her to be tired after 12km & a lesson.
I know I sound batty, but I thought the 'bad behaviour' was down to too much food, not enough work, getting fitter etc etc & have been looking at one or two other horses, thinking that she was too much for me. When all along I was putting the pieces together wrongly. And she was unexpectedly (to me) totally fine doing a polework/jumping lesson on Sun that involved hacking to somewhere she hadn't been before, i.e. new route, in the frost, meeting a load of other horses, in a spooky arena. I was expecting ructions & she didn't put a foot wrong - and she was in the jumping saddle.
Anyway, we shall get the dr saddle sorted or replaced, keep up the massage and see where we are!
Lately, I've been having some issues with Summer.
Increasingly stressy
Always grumpy-looking
Had a v v spooky hack when she shied so hard at nothing (not at all like her) that she went half down, I fell off & she ran home. I caught her at home & got back on, but she was spooking & snorting etc etc every few strides all the way to my dr lesson (6km) all the way through it & all the way back.
She has bitten me hard, unprovoked i.e. not feeding treats, ponies not nearby.
Impatient to mount
I booked a session with Anne, telling her no more than the above & probably not all of it. She said:
The darker of the two (very recently bought & "properly" fitted) saddles is pinching her
She has been getting more & more tense because of it
It's got worse as I've done more with her (I was redundant for a month so had a month to play ponies)
She has been biting etc as she's frustrated that she's been trying to say that something's wrong & I haven't picked up on it
She has been getting headaches as a result of holding herself badly
So then I got out a properly qualified physio whom I've used before, a fully certified professional person. I just told her the physical issues, then she told me the following:
Jumping saddle (brown) is fine; dr saddle (black) is very tight & pinching (where S said it was pinching)
She started working with her & I had to go into the house for a bit, & when I came out, she said, 'look how much she loves this' and was massaging her forehead. She did actually love it & do an ecstatic face when usually she is grumpy. She found that S loves all sorts of head massage. I had said nothing at all about headaches.
So, yeah. Boswellia for headaches & I've been shown how to massage her to help her. And saddle shopping again! A nuisance because out of the two I prefer the dr saddle. But every time she's been 'naughty', it's been in the dr saddle. Including That Day when I fell off - I'd been riding more in the dr saddle. That must have been why she was 'naughty' every step of the way when you'd expect her to be tired after 12km & a lesson.
I know I sound batty, but I thought the 'bad behaviour' was down to too much food, not enough work, getting fitter etc etc & have been looking at one or two other horses, thinking that she was too much for me. When all along I was putting the pieces together wrongly. And she was unexpectedly (to me) totally fine doing a polework/jumping lesson on Sun that involved hacking to somewhere she hadn't been before, i.e. new route, in the frost, meeting a load of other horses, in a spooky arena. I was expecting ructions & she didn't put a foot wrong - and she was in the jumping saddle.
Anyway, we shall get the dr saddle sorted or replaced, keep up the massage and see where we are!