Physio Time

Pea's had about a week off due to me doing 14 hour shifts at work and then going to Disney Land for the weekend but yesterday he had Etti, our physio, out again. I'm still trying to get to the bottom of his behaviour but I had also noticed that he started leaning quite badly on the right rein, especially when he was in canter. This causes us issues when riding as I can feel how hard he finds it to bend round corners and thus falls to the outside before pulling up short and breaking back into trot. 

Etti gave Pea a good work over and we chatted about what issues we've been having, what my instructor has said and also what happened when Alex from Oakham vets looked at him and he had his x-rays/scans. She agrees with me that it seems like there must be something a bit wrong with him to cause his naughtiness but she couldn't pinpoint it to just one area. Instead, she thinks it might be that he's actually a bit stiff all over and therefore needs help loosening up as when she performed a few movements he was really stiff at first, to the point where he didn't want to lift his legs for her, but the more she tried it, the better he got. She's also suggested that we keep doing lots of polework but doing more in walk at first to really loosen him up. Etti's told me to keep the poles to a short distance, so four of my feet together, and walk over them a few times, either ridden or in-hand, as this will get him to lift his legs up more. 

Etti's also going to have a chat with Alex as she thinks it might be worth trying Pea on a bute trial where we put him on bute for four weeks to see if that helps him at all. It's a bit of a pain that we can't pinpoint one thing being wrong with Pea but fingers crossed if we do do the bute trial, then that might help, although I don't really want him to be on bute full time :/ 

For now, we're just going to do lots of pole work and not school him too many days in a row so maybe instead school him one day, hack the next, then maybe school again before lunging the day after. This way, his muscles have a day of recovery and it means that I can keep Pea happy in work without causing him to get too annoyed! 

Thanks for reading,
Laura xx