Cob Jockey

About a month ago, CGP was out of town when I came over for my usual ride. She said something was off about him and wanted me to feel it for myself, and asked if she could have her bodyworker and chiro look at him.

This day

Mary came with me, and spotted it almost immediately as I pulled him out of his turnout field - "He's carrying his tail to the left again."

I have many pictures with which to illustrate this story because it turns out all my photographers love taking pictures of Connor's tail, lol. You can clearly see him carrying his tail off to the left here. PC: Austen

When Connor isn't feeling 100% somewhere in his body, he often carries his tail off to the left. When his poll got put back into place the first time by my vet doing chiro, one of the first things I noticed was his tail hung straight very shortly after.

Same phase of stride as above, swaying left but hanging straight here in September of 2018. PC: Karen

When I got on, my suspicions were confirmed: his poll was out again, which my vet described as "His skull gets crooked on his spine." When this happens, he's very resistant in the left rein, and cocks the top of his head toward the left and his chin toward the right, as if the articulation between the head and the neck doesn't work on that side. If you ask him to flex toward each stirrup, to the right he can keep his head nearly vertical, but to the left he holds his head diagonally.

Straight here at IDS Champs in 2017. PC: Paul Wood Photography

On the way home, I called CGP: "Yep, I know exactly what's going on here, he's out in the poll. Chiro will fix this so thoroughly you'll feel like you have a different horse after it's back in place." I think she was a little skeptical of that, but she got him signed up with her bodyworker/massage person and her chiro both.

(Side note: It's SUPER nice to confirm that his poll gets out with good riding as well as bad riding. /whew).

The next time I came out, the bodyworker had done two one hour sessions with him, and the chiro hadn't seen him yet, so I wasn't expecting anything to have changed. I've never had a massage myself, and was skeptical that it would fix the issue I knew chiro would fix, but I was very wrong.

CGP was elated at how much he had changed. "He's like a different horse!" I saw it - his tail was straight again - and I felt it - he had no issues flexing in either direction, and he wasn't carrying his head crooked anymore. Huh. 

"Halp, my head is on crooked"

I've since talked to the bodyworker (who is super cheap compared to my chiro at home, at $55 for 60 minutes) and she mentioned a lot of other things she found in addition to the poll, such as how muscle bound his thoracic sling is. "I can definitely improve his reach in the frontend," she said.

So I've let her continue, and he'll have seen her a total of four times in six weeks before he goes home. Who knows, maybe this is something I need to add to our regular rotation.