new year; new thoughts, new actions

Hi again,



The reason for the long delay in posting a new entry is that the computer has been on strike, or rather, a real go slow, but we are back and running again now.



I would like to share with you some interesting observations that have happened to me and my horse Zac over the past few weeks.

Having had a continuous run of issues over the past 6 months, from Zac's best friend tragically dying and a subsequent move of yards, to farrier issues that took some skilled remedial work from Nick Hamilton to rectify. I decided to have him checked by the Chiropractor Jose Gonzales, but as well as making a commitment to helping Zac's structure I would at the same time have my back etc checked too, on the same day. I figured that if you are going to spend the time and expense to have your horse realigned then it is sensible to have the one that has the most influence on him, by sitting on him, checked too. I saw a completely different 'human' (not equine) chiropractor (Hugh Laverick, Yateley Chiropractics). Incredibly we both had the same mal-alignments, which makes sense but so often is not appreciated or detected.



I have undertaken a course of treatment which has been remarkable and effective as well as very enlightening. It is amazing how easily we loose touch with how we really move, our awareness gets distracted and we can become stiff without noticing the change. We also miss or perhaps ignore the subtle changes that are happening to our horses.

Very quickly our riding partnership started to change and even those small annoying habits that we had generated disappeared. Zac is moving much more freely and so am I, so the mirroring continues, this time in our recovery.

Zac is nearly 17 and it would be easy to say that his past has taken a toll on his body, particularly when he competed with his previous owner, but taking action now has benefitted him immensely.

Understanding that how we sit on our horses has such a big influence on them at every level is really important and even when we think we are doing the right thing it may not be necessarily so. I considered myself to have reasonable self awareness and this excerise proved that this had slipped and that getting help showed me, not only how far, but got me back on track.

I will keep you posted.