Fail to prepare...prepare to fail!

Given that I recently e-mailed my Chiropractor to make an appointment for Faith, I decided that it would be a good idea to prepare Faith for some of the things that she will need to expect during a chiropractic treatment.

So after giving her a good groom on the yard, I practised running my fingers lightly over the vertebrae of her spine, and over the top of her pelvis. I then repeated this a few times, being slightly firmer each time. No problem.

I then started stroking down the dock of her tail in a kind of ‘milking’ action, each time exerting a little more pull on the dock, not enough to really give her tail a stretch, but enough for her to be very aware that I was doing ‘something’ with her tail. Again, Faith was perfectly relaxed about this and even seemed to enjoy it.

Then I needed to work on getting her used to someone standing on a step beside her, as my Chiro, being a very petite lady, always brings a box to stand on, even for working on ponies like Tilly. So I got my mounting block out, which is just a set of plastic steps with two levels. First I put it on the ground in front of Faith, and we did a little targeting with it. Then I got on the first step, and gave her some scratches over her poll and the top of her neck. Then I moved it halfway down her neck, and did the same, then got up on to the top step. At this point, Faith discovered how entertaining it was to nibble the buckles on my boots!

So we worked like this until I got to just behind her shoulder on her off side, at which point I decided to start working on the nearside. She was absolutely excellent until I got to the same point behind her shoulder on the near side. She wasn’t so much tense as just wanting to step back and put me slightly in front of her shoulder. So I moved up towards her head a bit more, and gradually worked my way back to behind her shoulder again. Once I had got on to the top step, and had one second of her standing still, she got her jackpot and we called it a night.