MIA and now stuck in Las Vegas

Beyond the strip, there are lovely places to visit near Las Vegas

Steve and I have been at a trade how in Vegas since Tuesday so as well as being horse-deprived, I was completely ready to be home in just a few more hours now. Unfortunately, it will be a few more hours at least. Due to some poor planning on the part of Alaska/Horizon out of Santa Rosa, our flight has been cancelled. Seems like they could have told us this before we checked our bags, but I will rant more later.

While I'm waiting, I'll amuse myself by giving an update on the Thoroughbred Twitch situation.

Monday before we left, I got the boy out and did some acupressure on his shoulders and some massage on his neck before taking for a quick warm up in the round pen. He had a little heat in his left shoulder, but I went ahead and saddled him anyway, planning on some light work at the walk just to see how he was doing. I used my wither-cut out wool pad and tried to be sure to leave space over those touchy withers of his.

He warmed up fine--rather exuberantly, actually. Then when I went to check the pad, the slightest pressure from it made him twitch, so I switched to Peter's fleece pad (also a wither cut out but open in the front) and a blanket on top of that.

I got on and we walked, just walked. I encouraged him to just move as he wanted, as he was comfortable, trying to get him to swing out and stretch through his shoulders. I got some of the twitchies whenever anything touched his neck--my hands, reins, whatever--but he would keep walking through it. Could have been heat and flies on top of whatever is going on, too.

After I got off, he had an odd sweat pattern on that left shoulder, so I unsaddled him there in the arena and took him to the wash rack to cold hose him. As I hosed him down, he gave me some good releases--blowing, licking his lips and good shakes. Then I took him back in the arena where he proceeded to roll very effectively on both sides. Very thoroughly. That is the first time in awhile he's rolled on both sides, so I'm hoping that helped him.

Of course, now I've been away from him for four days, I've had a chance to worry and fret some more. He got a break, so that may be good, too. Katie was going to work him for me, but I haven't had a chance to talk to her to see how he's doing. Except to hear he's had plenty of grain in my absence.

My vet wants to do x-rays and Karen thinks that's a good idea. I halfway agree, I just don't know that I can afford it right now, so I'm adopting a wait-and-see attitude. Keep massaging, keep stretching him, keep working him lightly, keep cold-hosing any heat. See where we are in a couple weeks, then make the next best decision I can make for him.

Luckily, he seems more uncomfortable than in a lot of pain, which gives me the head space to figure this out and help him the best I can without draining my bank account. Sometimes reality sucks.

The massage

Bar sort of relaxing under Karen's ministrations. Only sort of.

Bar allowed about 2/3 of a massage but told us what we needed to know.

Basically, more massage work is needed (which I can do), along with some stretching and saddle pad changes. My saddle is actually okay fit-wise, we just need to work on making sure the pad isn't adding wither pressure.

We are also going to look into acupuncture. No, really, and here's why.

Karen has worked on Bar a lot. (Yes, he is spoiled, hush.) All performance horses can benefit from massage, just like any professional athlete. Only most professional athletes don't have to carry flopping weight around. Horses do, and racehorses do it at tremendous speeds (though jockeys don't flop much).

Every other time she's worked on him, she can work all the way around (despite Thoroughbred dancing) and get him to finally relax. This time, she worked the left side and he was fine. Feisty, a little impatient, but fine. The second she touched the top of his neck on the right side, he very nearly turned into a horse I didn't recognize. He didn't bite, but he either pulled completely away and acted like he might bite, or rammed his big brown side into Karen, all the while kicking out with his hind legs. Not at us, but behind him and into objects. He also got increasingly agitated, and not in a "I'm bored and want dinner" way. We corrected him, of course, but he still made it very clear that while some areas were okay to rub, that spot up high on the right side was OFF limits. Off. No touchy.

This is not the first time Karen has worked on Bar. It is the first time she recommended acupuncture, so I'm listening. She described the sensations she was feeling while she worked on him in a couple ways, both equally plausible based on the things I've felt in my own body. Massage is a great tool, but if something--an energy pathway, a nerve pathway shooting pain messages, whatever--is stuck in the "on" position, massage backfires by basically pouring hot water on it. The other thing that could happen is that the massage awakened something that had been shut down to deaden the pain. Either way, Bar was not letting her monkey with it. Nope. No way.

Yes, I know. This sounds new age and hokey. But. I'm a firm believer in the healing properties of massage and acupressure. I've used both on myself and on my animals (cats, horses, dogs) and seen clear and obvious physical results.

I also saw the same energy level change that I've seen in Bar after one of his twitchy episodes. Much agitation and (almost) fear. Prior to this, Karen has always gotten some level of energy discharge and relaxation in Bar. (Lena falls asleep about half-way through, of course.)

So bottom line is--yes--I'm willing to consider acupuncture for Bar. Why not for myself? Well, here's the thing. I know when my back/neck/hips hurt, I can (and do) stretch, do yoga, go for a walk. I can manage my own pain and reason about where it came from and what I can do about it. Bar can't. All he can do is get grumpy about doing work, or worse--buck me off because I don't pay attention to him hurting.

Is the price of body work worth my own safety? Oh, I'd say yes, yes indeed it is.

Lena Rey and acupressure

When Lena was an only horse, she got all the benefits of the massage class I took at the JC to learn how to work her muscles and use calming points to help channel her qi (or chi).

And she liked it. A lot.

Every morning--back when I could wear jeans to work and therefore stop at the barn before going to the office--while she finished her grain, I'd work on her body just a little bit. It was a way to see where she was--both physically and mentally--each day, as well as check her body for any anomalies that might have cropped up overnight.

When Bar came along, my focus shifted--particularly after I became his sole rider--and Lena started missing out on her body work more and more.

The thing is, she really responds to it. I get licking and chewing and yawning when I work on her. Where Bar is still in the "I might have to bite you for that" phase, Lena relaxes into it.

One of the more dramatic reactions Lena gave me was after a trail ride. We'd ridden pretty hard and they were tied up to the trailer afterward when she started swinging from side to side, pacing and pawing. I went up to her and hit what are sometimes referred to as the "calming points" (such as this one) and within minutes, her head was down and she was relaxed, still, and yawning.

Tonight she reminded me I haven't been giving her quite enough love--love in the form of massage and acupressure, that is. She was being her normal alpha-mare self while I was graining the three horses--Sammy, Bar, then her. Yes, I go in that order in an attempt to teach Lena that pawing, pacing, and running her teeth up the pipe panel will not get her grain any faster. In fact, just the opposite.

By the time I got the her pen, she was STARVING (despite the hay she'd already been eating) and proceeded to inhale her grain--tossing it around in big sweeping circles with her nose, and pinning her ears at her mostly oblivious neighbor.

Until I started on the acupressure.

The chewing slowed. The eyes drooped. Her whole body seemed to sigh and release whatever energy was humming around in there.

This is particularly good for her in light of her colic history, so I'm making a mental note to try to spend that time with her at least a couple times a week. It's particularly rewarding to work on Lena because the response can be so immediate and so obvious. Bar is another story for another time.