Lena gets a spa day and Bar tolerates magnets

Yes, I know. My horses get more massages than I do but always for good reasons. Calabar needs one, but he is not a good patient. Lena needed one and she is a good patient, so it was her turn today. Why did Lena warrant a massage?

Well, it goes a little like this. BANG!! Thump, thump, thump. BANG BANG BANG! Kadiddididah, kadiddidah. BANG BANG BANG! (Yes, I did make up that word, but if you sound it out and you've heard it coming from your trailer, you know what I'm talking about.)

When we came home from our trip to Slide in May, we put Lena in the front of the trailer. Normally, Calabar rides in front because Lena tends to scramble. Actually, she always scrambles and nearly always bangs up her hind legs.

As it turns out, this time was no exception and she also ended up jamming her butt into the side of the trailer and apparently tweaking her spine in a couple different ways. Even though Lena has been moving fine, I wanted Karen to come out and take a look--mainly because a little corrective care now is better than Lena Rey hurting more later.

 Note to self: Lena likely won't get over the aversion to the front bay of the trailer so (at least for now) she rides in back. Calabar seems to be okay with that and has been loading without a hassle so this will be status quo until further notice.

Ahhhh... butt rub.

Lena was mostly relaxed--with only a couple minor "no, don't touch there" spots. (Right scapula was the most sensitive) and did a full-on cat stretch during the laser part at the end of the massage. Karen even commented that Lena's neck looked longer and the muscles there look really healthy--no doubt thanks to the dressage work Allie has been doing with the spotty mare.

Karen did great work and pretty soon there was yawning. Big, jaw-cracking yawning.

Letting out the toxins

As she worked, Karen and I talked about her business and how it's evolved from just massage to leg and foot care to proper training and riding. Karen says it has all built on itself as she realized it's all inter-connected. Good foot care and proper, balanced riding means less of a need for massage--so in some ways, she actually tries to work herself out of a job these days as she focuses on some of the other aspects of a balanced horse.

Karen also takes each horse into consideration. Lena was fine being manually massaged and manipulated in the cross ties. Bar? Not so much. Last time we tried, teeth flashed and even connected more than once.

Today, we went to him. There are no pictures because I was holding his halter and being nuzzled (a lot) while Karen used her laser/magnetic therapy on his withers. That's all. Just his withers--and just the left side at that.

He has developed a sweat pattern up over his left scapula of late and it was time to have it looked at. Knowing Calabar doesn't like being trapped in the cross ties and has a hard time with pressure of any sort, Karen took the laser beams to him.

He managed to hold still for a whole 20 minutes and the twitch that is not caused by flies was a little bit better at the end of it all.

We call it junk in the withers. Calabar calls it his own personal baggage that he might let go of someday.

Lena says he has no idea what he's missing.