A Good Day in the ManeStream

This has been a good day.

First, three not-quite-sound horses were moving better when I finished working with them than when I started. One of those horses had a very challenging groundwork session last week – the “thou shalt not, not, not drag yourself forward with your forehand in ANY transition, nor shall you chronically fall in on a circle” session. We were both hot and tired after that one, and I was sore the next day from holding him up so he could feel the difference when he actually rocked back and found his engine. He’s an older guy, and may have never been taught the mechanics of self-carriage, so I worry a bit about him.

After the session, I wondered whether I had overdone the work a bit, worried he might be sore the next day. Wondered whether he would be unhappy to do this week’s work. But today, he met me at the gate with a loud nicker, then proceeded to show me he remembered all we did last week and could choose to rebalance and carry himself with about 1/65th the effort from me to help him.

Then, one rider got to feel how the work she did could take a stiff, sore horse and – with some ground exercises and a simple mounted session – turn him into a happy puddle of swinging, light, happy muscles. And another rider had a personal breakthrough, realizing that she lost control of one side of her horse on a circle because she checked out of that side of HER body. I “prescribed” an exercise for homework, and will await further brainstorms.

And, if that wasn’t enough, the owner of a chronic founder horse I recently massaged really made my day by telling me the horse is feeling better than he has in ages. Even the vet noticed how much softer and more comfortable the horse looked when he came to do fall shots, and generously attributed the change to the bodywork. (And this is one of the old-school vets, some of whom can be downright nasty about massage and other newfangled techniques.)

All that, plus blue skies and sunshine. Yes, it was a very good day!