Working with Ace has not been solving a problem. It hasn't even been solving a series of problems. It has been solving a mystery.
Ace's poor reputation and sad history seem to be from one great big thing. He's dangerous. He bucks people off. He hurts people. But, it's really not from that at all. It's from a lot of little things. Because as Van Gogh knew- little things can add up to great things. What I now know is that his mouth hurt, his back hurt, his hips hurt, his neck hurt. He had all this hurt that added up to fear. Fear in a flight animals leads to frustration. Frustrated fear leads to crazy. If instead Ace had ONLY a wolf tooth, or ONLY a hip out of place, or ONLY a sore neck maybe he never would have become the horse he did. But he didn't, he had all of it.
I keep reminding myself of this as I work with him, because to help him I have to work on each little thing individually. Ace has taught me to pay attention to the little things. Once again, he's making me a better horsewoman.
The chiropractor came out again, and this time we focused on Ace's neck. He thinks this is where most of Ace's bucking actually stems from. If anyone (including myself) had taken the time to really try to stretch Ace's neck before, we would have found that he can't bend it to the right nearly as far as the left.
So, once a day. Ace and I do stretches. I stretch his neck to both sides and the front. I stretch his front legs. I stretch his back legs. I massage his hips to work out the knots in his muscles, then rub them to soothe the muscle spasms. This time has come to be the best part of my day. Ace visibly relaxes as we work on his neck, often stretching and moving his jaw around on his own. When I massage his hips- he naps. We're not just working on his muscles, we're working on our bond.
Ace stretching his neck forward.
Ace's poor reputation and sad history seem to be from one great big thing. He's dangerous. He bucks people off. He hurts people. But, it's really not from that at all. It's from a lot of little things. Because as Van Gogh knew- little things can add up to great things. What I now know is that his mouth hurt, his back hurt, his hips hurt, his neck hurt. He had all this hurt that added up to fear. Fear in a flight animals leads to frustration. Frustrated fear leads to crazy. If instead Ace had ONLY a wolf tooth, or ONLY a hip out of place, or ONLY a sore neck maybe he never would have become the horse he did. But he didn't, he had all of it.
I keep reminding myself of this as I work with him, because to help him I have to work on each little thing individually. Ace has taught me to pay attention to the little things. Once again, he's making me a better horsewoman.
The chiropractor came out again, and this time we focused on Ace's neck. He thinks this is where most of Ace's bucking actually stems from. If anyone (including myself) had taken the time to really try to stretch Ace's neck before, we would have found that he can't bend it to the right nearly as far as the left.
So, once a day. Ace and I do stretches. I stretch his neck to both sides and the front. I stretch his front legs. I stretch his back legs. I massage his hips to work out the knots in his muscles, then rub them to soothe the muscle spasms. This time has come to be the best part of my day. Ace visibly relaxes as we work on his neck, often stretching and moving his jaw around on his own. When I massage his hips- he naps. We're not just working on his muscles, we're working on our bond.
Ace stretching his neck forward.
Ace stretching his neck to the left.
Ace stretching his neck to the right. The picture is blurry, but you can still tell how limited his movement is on that side.
In unrelated news...Ace has gained back all of his weight and is nice and round again.
His annual allergies are also back and in full swing. Believe it or not, his baboon butt is actually looking better than it has been. He's just so itchy! Add it to the list of little things to fix.
The point is though, that with every little thing I work on, I am one step closer to accomplishing this amazing great big thing. Remembering the little steps keeps me humble, keeps me focused, and keeps reminding me to be the type of horsewoman that I strive to be.
