Progress on Rue’s Body, and Kindly Turning A “Dull Horse In To A More Responsive One”
At the beginning of this year, I committed personally to stop using the dressage whip in my sessions with the horses. As I mentioned before, but will mention again, even if I was using the whip/wand to stroke or touch a part of the horse’s body in an effort to “bring awareness” to that area, the tool itself still had/has an underlying threatening connotation, and I am wholeheartedly trying to step away from that with my horses.
It’s exactly as Warwick Schiller states in podcast after podcast, that after you “see certain things, you can’t unsee them.” For me, after learning about behavior theory and more specifically, operant conditioning, I can’t un-know the affects a whip or wand has on a horse. And more so, the threat is even higher if that horse has been trained with positive punishment in the past, which I find most horses still at this point in history have.
Opting to completely do away with use of the whip has really challenged my growth. As many have said time and again, horses naturally want to move, so if they don't, what is really going on?
After reading something Anna Marciniak wrote about the liver of the horse becoming sluggish and therefore discouraging willingness to be energetic and willing, I decided to do a liver detox on Rue. I bought a supplement from Second Vet called SV EQ Tension Relief, and fed that to her twice a day with some alfalfa pellets. It only took a short period of time for her to look more alive in her eyes.
Though her physical body still had some limitations, I could see the energy in her body was improving. Her life force was improving.
It took some time for her to get through that supplement and then I decided to support the liver by detoxing the kidneys next. I bought #37 Kidney Support from Silver Lining Herbs and put Rue on that twice a day along with alfalfa pellets as the carrier. On this supplement, she became incredibly shiny! I took that as good feedback that her kidneys were being cleansed and therefore enabling her body to more efficiently filter toxins.
In addition to the nutrition changes, I have been doing quite a lot with her physical body as well. I continue to stay on top of her "micro trims" weekly, and sometimes even bi-weekly if I am really trying to change something in regards to her balance. For example, her toe on the front left tends to grow longer than the rest. Occasionally, I will only focus on rasping that toe beyond the white line in order to prevent the perpetual cycle of the toe growing longer and longer than the rest. But that will be the only adjustment I will make in a day, and then I will leave it alone with the others. As my friend and mentor Britinee suggests, sometimes it is important to make one small change at a time so the horse has time to adjust. And it is very important to me that Rue not be tender or sore from a trim, as I prefer to keep her moving and in work, and also believe movement is essential for every horse.
Once I groom her and do her micro trim, I then try to spend some time utilizing my SureFoot pads. I believe these are very helpful in getting the leg with the club foot to release tension, as club foots are typically a by product of too tight ligaments and tendons, or too much tension is present in the limb apparatus. For a while, I was double stacking the right side (the club foot side) to really try and bear the load for that leg, and she would have some rather intense releases. Lately, she has not wanted it double stacked, but has been ok with one pad under each front foot. She is only staying on for a brief period of time, maybe 30 seconds, and then she is compete. I am fine with that because about a month ago, she would stand on them for ten minutes at a time, so I feel as though perhaps we are making progress and she doesn't feel as much of a need at the current moment.
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Just a couple of weeks ago, Rue was still having a hard time offering leg yield to the left in right bend. And the coolest thing about positive reinforcement training, is that because I know her motivation is typically high (especially when I have carrots), I could assume that she wasn't leg yielding because she either couldn't or it was uncomfortable.
I also had made the observation in our preparations of School Halt, that when I ask her for it in bend left, no problem. She can easily stand even behind or slightly up and under herself with the inside high leg, rock back through her pelvis and free her forehand. But in right School Halt, she had a hard time maintaining right bend and rocking back.
Fast forward to our osteopath session with Deb Davies just a little over a week ago, and Deb gave me some insight as to what was going on in her physical body. One side of her pelvis was stuck up and the other side was stuck down, and get this... she had two ribs out under her right scapula (shoulder blade!). Go figure. It literally all comes together and makes perfect sense it we understand that the horses are trying to tell us something.
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The sessions following gave me further hope. Since then, she has been much more willing to leg yield to the left in right bend, and on top of that, School Halt right is now in correct bend and she is developing true strength to "sit." It's so amazing.
The last exciting piece I want to share is in regards to her belly lifts. Typically, when I would ask for them, she would seemingly be uncomfortable and try to walk away. But ever since Deb adjusted her, she now wiggles her nose like the horses do when a friend is itching their back, as if the belly lift now feels good instead of uncomfortable. Also, as of late, when I am currying her before our sessions, when I reach right on top of her flank on the right side, she brings her haunches to me and completely leans in to the motion, wanting me to curry her more deeply. This goes on for about 5-10 full minutes, and her upper back right behind the scapula and below her withers twitches excessively. It's been incredible to watch. Though she would rather I not stop, when I finally do, she typically does a huge yawn and body shake. She has really big releases and its just amazing (and fun!) to see.
I've incorporated some brief massage and stretching around her scapula and lats, and she really loves that as well. As soon as we march off to the arena, her shoulders immediately seem more open and she has a much larger range of motion when in the session. Just from a little pre-session massaging from the hands of a non-professional. It's so cool!
Last but not least, I should add that on the ground, she is still unwilling to trot, but I am trusting her judgment and know that she will offer when she is ready. I think a lot of it has to do with the accuracy in which we are performing simple things, even the walk gait. Its been difficult for her to maintain true bend in both directions and so I need to be okay with giving her body time to adjust.
I rode last week, and she was immediately responsive to all of my aids. Much more than ever before. I have been riding in a bitless bridle so as to not give her any reason to slow down, and she offered an abundance of forward, even on a day when the "feels like" temperature was over 100F. I was really pleased. Our ride ended up only being about ten minutes long, but she was so lovely, soft and responsive that I felt it would be a disservice to ask her to perform at this quality for any longer. She exceeded my expectations!
