The title about sums me up these past two weeks. Although, in my defense, not much has been going on in Charlie-land. His puffy leg was a non-entity thank goodness. It was pretty much gone by the next morning. Then we had a bunch of rain and then I had a lesson.
All was great on the flat but when we went to jump, Charlie just didn't seem to have much of a hind end behind him so we called it a day a bit early. Amy poked at his bum and there was much flinching going on so we decided he was just a little body sore from all the fantastic work he's been putting in lately. Amy said to give him a couple of days off and then a couple of days of walking. Well, we got some more rain *sidenote - can someone please tell Mother Nature that 1) I live in SC where it's
supposed to be sort of sunny in the winter and 2) it is never appropriate to be 38 and raining in April when living in the South.* and I worked so giving Charlie some easy days was pretty easy to accomplish. I rode him last Friday and he felt really good but when I rode him on Monday, not so much. He's not really lame, he just kind of has a hitch in his giddy-up.
Soooooo, I had the vet out to do some acupuncture today. She found him to be pretty body sore in her initial exam which was kind of expected but in good news, she thought he was an excellent candidate for acupuncture. I should be able to tell a difference tomorrow although she said it may take up to three tries before I can see a difference. If he's not noticeably better after the third visit, we stop because it's not going to work for him. I'd really like to get him to a masseuse as well but I'm probably going to have to go to Tryon for that.
These are some of the needles after they came out - I promise they were all straight when they went in! I wasn't expecting some of them to be a twisted mess when they came out so that was kind of cool in weird way.
This is one of the more kinked ones but the photo doesn't really do it justice. There's an almost 90 degree angle to it and then it corkscrews at the top. So strange!
The vet hooks the needles up to wires that feed into this box which sends little currents of energy to the needles. She said it's more of a pulse than a shock. At first. Charlie didn't respond at all and then all of a sudden, his muscles started twitching. He was so funny because he kept looking at his back like "What the heck is going on back there?"
Another bent needle from his back.
A photo I took and then instagramed - I love instagram!
Another courtesy of instagram.
Last one - promise!
Finally, a bit of a conformation shot - although it's a crappy one because he's not standing up and he's on a downhill slope. I haven't put one up in a while but his neck is getting so much more muscled and his bum looks much stronger as well.
Not sure what's up next - suppose it depends on how the WonderPony feels.
