THIS IS AN ILLUSTRATED EXAMPLE OF HOW EASILY A HORSE CAN TURN UP-SIDE-DOWN
This is a picture of my 4-year-old
Andalusian/Thoroughbred. Notice how lovely his back is,
though he is basically undeveloped
We moved our location the next year and I was incapacitated for about 6 months. During this time I send Touche' to a trainer who rode him in the mountains for 6 months. This was very good for his mind, but not the development of his back. When he came home, he was basically UP-SIDE-DOWN. Riding him was what it must feel like to ride a camel. One part didn't know what the other parts were doing and he was extremely core-weak. Looking at these pictures, does it even look like the same horse?
Note the top-line, and what has happened to it. Note the beginning of ligament damage both in croup and in front of the withers. How many of your horses look exactly like this???? And worse! This is the beginning of, not only the Sacro-Sciatic Syndrome along with all the pain that goes along with it, but this sets the horse up for imbalance, for mis-use and dis-use of the engine (the hind quarters), puts him on the forehand and will eventually cause him to become lame.
Fortunately, because this is a young horse, he is easily repaired. But it really has taken about 1 year to really put him back together and to start to build the strength he needs for the work he will be doing.
After I did my standard Non-Force Chiropractic work and Equine Acupuncture, I started in a program of long-reining. At first, this was a calisthenic excercise to strengthen his Abdominal Muscles and his Iliopsoas muscle. I describe the start of a Calisthenic system of long reining in my e-book, "Long-reining Made Simple." In doing this, I am only paying attention to stretching the top line, keeping his head on the circle and concentrating on encouraging the inside hind leg to step under.
I have been able to start riding this horse correctly and he is truly the most thrilling horse I have ever had the privilege to ride. Now we can start the fun work, and I am getting help from my friend and trainer, Bill Biggs, who is unquestionably one of the best in the world in understanding how the horse works.
This horse has
gone on to a brilliant career as a
three-day-event horse.
