Spoiled AF

Much has happened in the last few days, and I am struggling to stay afloat with school, work and the horses. I haven't read a single blog in 3 days, so apologies to everyone! I still see your comments and love them to death and can't thank you enough. 

This will be a rather quick, disjointed update so I'm hoping my next few posts won't be all over the place or done with a mobile phone. 

Besides riding, Bacardi got treated to another massage day last Monday (posting a week late, HA). As some of you may know, I am not the biggest fan of voodoo things like Chiro, massage etc...but I will say, trying the massage once, and now twice...I am a believer.

The first session was an overall body work for B. That was about 8 weeks ago and Magic Therapist (MT for short) solidified my spidey sense that his neck/shoulders and hips were routinely sore/problem areas. If you know us from our flailing days, you know he specializes in giraffing and holds literally all tension in his neck/shoulder area. His special talent.

That first session was almost two hours and I loved the dedication she had for my horse. As an upper level dressage rider, she understands what we as clients do with our horses and what would help them the most.

Our second session was a little different. I only had about an hour total to spare from work and MT got to work on B and discovered he was extra tense in his shoulders. As in, very tense. 

She spent a good deal of time working his neck and shoulders with her hands and even added in the laser after his mild protest of just hands. It was curious to watch, because you could clearly see he was enjoying it, and then MT would move to another area and he would be like "OW OW OW ouchhhh!" and then relax after about minute.

MT spent about 30 minutes on just his shoulders and neck before moving to his hind end. Not noticing anything particular about his spine, she moved forward with addressing his hips. Cue surprising small meltdown from Bacardi. Apparently his hips were extra ouchy and he let us know. He did this little buck hop thing with both legs, never actually kicked out, but his tail was a' swishin'.

I always find it interesting how horses can communicate to us handlers what they are feeling with simple flick of their tail or leg raise and we can accordingly adjust our actions.

After about ten minutes, MT moved back to his shoulders to wrap up with some more massage in his lower neck. 

I know it's "just massage" but I truly do feel it helps him. Especially with him being such a tense horse, the bodywork  truly releases some tension and he's a much different horse afterwards. He just feels a little less "stuck" and gives more effort in all he does after a session. Swings through his back and hips more, jumps rounder and nails his changes. I know I feel better after a massage, and I know he does too!

Next up, weekend jumping fun x 2!