Hip Cracking

Rusty had a visit with the chiropractor tonight. He was not a big fan of the chiro work, but I think he'll be happy with the results. The chiro adjusted his sacrum and pelvis first. They were the most out of place and were probably responsible for most of the stiffness and lack of freedom in the rest of his body. Rusty spent most of the adjusting time trying to figure out how to best bite the chiropractor, preferably grab his jacket and distract him from all the ouchy adjusting.

The chiro said that it is very likely that this will be an isolated problem and we won't be looking at long term need for adjustments. Which made me happy! He also said that it should make a big difference in his attitude and in his overall freedom of movement. I'm not to ride him for a few days and then just some light work after his next myofascial work.

It was pretty incredible how all the little things I had noticed over the past few months all made sense with what was going on with his hips. The bobble in his left hind coming down from canter to trot was due to that right hip being stiff so the left had to compensate. He would only take a 1/2 step with his left front when backing, again due to the right hind not wanting to bear too much weight and lacking flexibility. His giraffe neck and bucking routine, obviously doesn't feel good to move forward with some fool riding you when you can't use your hind end. His sides and girth area being super sensitive were related to the hip thing too! I guess when the hips are out and the horse is compensating by dragging themselves around with their front ends it causes all sorts of crazy sore spots in weird places.

I'm really looking forward to the new "adjusted" Rusty. The chiropractor made good points about how even when we remove the physical pain we're still left with the mental barriers that might provoke similar behaviors. We will have to work to rewire his reactions to gain some positive behaviors.