Well Adjusted

Stitch had his osteopath appointment yesterday. Overall, he was pretty good, although he was losing patience by the end. The kid has the attention span of a gnat these days when he isn't getting worked.

I told her that I had jinxed myself when I made the appointment and said there was nothing wrong with my horse. He heard she was  coming and has been lame behind for the last two weeks. Initially, I was sure it was the right hind, but the last couple of times I've popped him quickly on the lunge I've been thinking the left hind was also looking wonky. He doesn't look as bad on a straight line as he does on a circle. 

She got right to work and found that his sacrum wasn't even. I'm sure I'm going to get this wrong, but I believe it was that his left side was tilted up and his right was tilted down, and the illium was jammed the opposite way that it should have been, and that his L6 was stuck in extension because of it. 

Or something like that. 

She found him to be stiffer on the left, which ties in with me seeing him off on the left the last few days. I asked if this all would tie-in with a slip and she said it's the kind of injury she sees after a trauma.

Everywhere else in his body was great though. Some good news at least!

She worked some hopeful magic and is optimistic that his sacrum area is no big deal. Stitch is to have 3 to 5 days off with handwalking and then see what he looks like. She said she usually schedules a follow-up appointment for 30 days later, but if he comes round in the next couple of weeks she doesn't need to come back.

So fingers crossed that she is a miracle worker!

If he isn't looking significantly better by mid-September I'll get him booked in at the vet clinic. Based on how long my knee has been taking to heal, I'm comfortable giving him time for a soft tissue injury to feel better. 

He went back into the field right after his appointment, only to be hauled back in a couple of hours later for a training opportunity I couldn't pass up.

Stitch got to meet the mechanical cow.

For those horse people who have never been around horses trained on cattle, this stuffed cow is attached to a wire system that is stretched along a side of the arena. At a previous barn, it was permanently along a long side and was controlled by a human on something similar to an exercise bike that was pedalled forward or backwards to control the direction of the cow. That cow was red and called Buford.

This barn has a fancy version that is operated wirelessly by a button held in the human's hand. It's not up all the time- this was the first time I have seen it set up in the arena, and it's sized to be set up along a short side of the ring. Thus it has to be pulled down and put away when not in use so that no one clotheslines themself or their horse. I don't know if the cow has a name.

Whenever I saw it used in the past it was for cutting horses to practice with. The barn owner today was planning on just getting her horse used to the motion - she has plans to do some sorting or penning, not cutting. 

I could not turn down the opportunity to torture expose my horse to something new. I didn't think he'd lose his shit over it - he loves the cow roping dummy that gets pulled behind the quad. But this one moves faster, the clips jingle, it bounces when it stops, and the wire make a whirring noise when it moves, so who knows how he would react. Especially after I spent 20 minutes leading another horse around the arena who went into full dragon mode as soon as she set foot in the arena and spotted the cow. I didn't even get to the move the cow part with her, we ended when she could walk about 20 feet past it and not threaten to run me over.

Stitch walked into the arena, straight towards it, and stopped about 4 feet away with a "that's different" look on his face. When he got a cookie for taking another step forward he was all "I like this game". 

He never got close enough to it to put his nose on it - I probably could have got him there pretty easily, but he didn't need to be that close to it or the wires.  I thinked we walked past it once each direction and then I started moving it. 

Stitch kept his eye on it, but more in a "hey, that's neat" kind of way. He had no problem standing and watching the cow or walking behind or past it while it was moving. We were in and out within 15 minutes.

I was very glad that I went back out into what is possibly the hottest day of the year to drag my horse in from the field to see his reaction (or lack thereof) to the mechanical cow. Next time, maybe I'll try to ride him past it.