Taken A-back

Taken A-back

Faith had her first visit from the Chiropractor today. Once again she gave me cause to say how desperately proud I am of her.

I explained to my Chiro, that I wanted to just take this treatment slowly, as I wasn’t sure how Faith was going to react, and that if she had to come back three times to complete a treatment, then that is what we would do. My priority was that Faith should find this a positive experience. I explained to her that while Faith could be quite a reactive horse, she is inherently a very, very gentle soul, and I didn’t want her scared. Not that I thought she would be, as my Chiro is an absolutely lovely lady.

Well, having done all that build up, Faith stood, quiet and relaxed like a little poppet. She gave the Chiro a good sniff all over, and had a little sniff and nibble of her wooden box that she stands on, and that done, she was perfectly happy to let her get on with the job.

Faith was brilliant with all the tail work, brilliant when my Chiro stood on the box and worked along her back. She stood like a rock while she had her neck ‘tweaked’, and even did some absolutely brilliant belly lifts!

All the while, I was of course clicking and treating all this saintly behaviour. About fifteen minutes into the treatment I felt the need to explain to my Chiro that I was clicker training Faith, and it wasn’t that I had developed some kind of nervous tic. I nearly fell over when she said; “Oh yes, I thought that was what you were doing, I wasn’t just being polite and not mentioning it!”

So the upshot is that her back is absolutely fine, and her pelvis is nice and level. She does have a few tight spots around her hindquarters and inside her thighs, as well as the little bit on her neck that needed a tweak, other than that she is in rude health. But there is nothing there that I can’t work on and help with a bit of massage, and nothing that isn’t perfectly normal for a young horse hooning about in the field.

So we agreed that she should have an appointment every six months until she is started under saddle, at which point I will start the usual three monthly routine.

But I am endlessly proud of my little Faith, and looking forward to helping her loosen up her tight muscles through massage.