Pincushion

We had the acupuncturist come out to do some work on Curly this afternoon.

The other day when I was brushing our boy I noticed that he has quite a bit of back pain and since no one has been riding him, that had me concerned. I've already written about how I think some of his behavioral issues may be related to pain and poor saddle fit; seeing that he's in pain even when a saddle hasn't been on his back for a while has me thinking that there may be some other underlying problem beyond just the saddle.

Anyway, I thought we would try something a little different to take care of this.

The doctor placed several needles along his spine and one at the base of his mane. Curly did not really resist during the process, but I won't say he enjoyed it either. I'm just happy that he didn't try to kick or bite!

If you look real closely, you can see a couple of needles along his back...

The needles were left in for about 15 minutes and when they were pulled, many were bent into a "c" shape. The doctor briefly tried to manipulate some of Curly's vertebra back into alignment, but the horse wouldn't relax into the process.

On his next visit electrical currents will be added to the needles. And hopefully after the third visit Curly will no longer be in pain and his back will be healthier.

All of this doesn't give us the cause of the pain, though. I need to remember to ask the doctor about that next week....

Gingerbread Man

Farrier came today to take care of both horses. Since the appointment was at 3:00 I had to go out by myself - no big deal....or so I thought!

Curly was easy to bring in - he always is. Just walk up, throw the lead rope over his neck, put the halter on and head on out. And E says that Monte is just as easy, if not easier. He'll actually follow her with the halter barely on and her not even holding the lead rope.

But that's not how it went for me.

I walked into his pasture and he's immediately on alert mode - head up, watching. So I play it cool, meandering back and forth, not looking at him directly. As soon as I got within 6 feet of him he would charge off with his head and tail held high. I swear he was singing, "Can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!"

We played this little game of his for more than 20 minutes before he finally wandered over to the watering trough and waited for me to put his halter on. Geesh! What a little stinker! (But I have to admit that I was smiling during this whole thing. He was pretty cute with his sassy little attitude.)

Sooo, finally both boys had their hooves trimmed and were released back to their fields. Curly's shoes were removed. His conformation is not the most conducive for being shoe-less, but the farrier and I agree that it is something we should try again. The hope is that he can go barefoot during every winter. Cross your fingers!