Ritchie's Visit With the Osteopath

Last night I had my osteopath out to work on Mr.Studly Pants. As a 4-year-old  Ritchie was strong, muscled and had a topline that was drool-worthy. In the last year, all of that has disappeared.

Now, obviously, a large part of re-developing this is just hard work and miles, but i wanted to ensure that Ritchie had the best possible base to start with. So enter the osteopath.

I fully believe in osteopathy but truthfully I mostly zone out as they discuss what's wrong and how to improve the movement. But Ritchie really seemed to enjoy his treatment. He was yawning and chewing right away.

He moved out of the frame as he yawned, but you get the picture

After the initial treatment, they had me saddle and mount. Then they worked on Ritchie under saddle. No matter how many times I see it, it's always fascinating to immediately see the differences. All of a sudden Ritchie was able to just step into a canter, rather than the rushing and falling he was doing before.

The same difference in his trot. All of a sudden we could get the big, powerful trot without me having to drive him into it. He can only hold it for about 3 strides, but as his muscles develop that will also improve.

Oh god, why can't I seem to look up

One of the biggest take-aways was that they felt Ritchie really needed his teeth done. When he yawns, chews or generally shifts his jaw it sounds like he is grinding his teeth. They also think his teeth are uneven, which is putting his jaw out of alignment, and they can't fix it until his teeth are done. He also has a sarcoid we need to get removed so it looks like I'll be hauling to my vet at the end of the month.


Then I got a mini-treatment, while in the saddle. I love these treatments (my osteopath was a human chiropactor for 20 years before transitioning into Equine Osteopathy). I could suddenly use my left seatbone without having to struggle.

Both Ritchie and I are set up to be able to succeed now. Bring on Friday's dressage lesson :)