Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Figure Eight

Today Queenie had a visit from an Equine Chiropractor. She wasn't quite sure what to think of the ordeal. She had a funny look on her face the whole time. I guess she had a rib out and some issues with her back and front left shoulder. I am supposed to ride her on Wednesday and see if I notice a difference in her movement. She is coming along so nicely. I have her doing some liberty work on the ground and have been working on 20 meter circles in the arena. Our trainer suggested a chiropractor because Queenie is having trouble lunging to her left and picking up the left lead in the canter. Maybe the rib and the shoulder thing contributed to this problem. She is a young mare, only four, so she could still be figuring out her body and how it moves with a rider on her back. The chiropractor suggested using a "Figure Eight" on her while she is in her stall. The video clip shows you what a Figure Eight looks like. Her owner Robyn is leading her to see how Queenie reacts to the contraption. Basically it is a system made of two polo wraps that go around her body and gets her used to bringing her back end up under her. It is supposed to help the horse think of their body as a whole unit. I had never heard of it or even seen it, but I guess it makes sense. In this lower picture, you can see her trace clip. She ended up getting a partial clip instead of a full one.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never heard of this either and I thought I knew everything. LOL. I hope it works for the horse's sake.

Rising Rainbow said...

I have never seen this either. However, I know that running the line around a horse's back legs like that when you are long lining helps get the horse more underneath itself. So this makes sense to me.

From my experience a rib and a shoulder problem would definitely affect how a horse was working. However, you will also have muscle memory to work through and the horse's fear that working correctly will hurt must be dealt with as well. Depending on how long the mare was out, it could take some work to convince her to use herself correctly. But in the long run it will be worth it. The horse will be much happier and more responsive. Working with horses with issues like these has taught me way more than the easy ones.

I'll be looking forward to hearing how it goes.