In a final, last-ditch effort to throw all the things at the pony, I scheduled her first chiropractor visit. We’ve done massage and craniosacral, but somehow never pulled the trigger on a chiropractor. I will admit I wasn’t sure it would fix anything, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt, either.. so we went for the first available appointment and didn’t even inquire as to the cost.

Full disclosure here: this is the chiropractor that Olivia recommended, who also happens to be someone I’ve seen work on the hunter horses in my past life. I was convinced that he could do good things and wasn’t a sham. I just wasn’t sure Fetti would get anything out of it. I was, however, confident that he would tell me if she didn’t need it.

We made our introductions on a drizzly day, but were spared the rain. Middle-aged Haflinger, first chiro visit, left specifics to him.

not-so-patiently waiting

He adjusted her right shoulder. Since the adjustment, I’ve found the saddle tipping left. I suspect we shimmed to account for the imbalance and I need to see if I can pull that shim.  (Editing later: actually, both saddles are tipping left, so I emailed the saddle fitters since I can’t figure out how to pull one shim and fix it and definitely cannot re-flock.)

Her back was out, right at the spot where the new white hair has appeared from the ill-fitting saddles last season. Both sides, T10.

Her SI joint was out on one side, and maybe t16 on the other? This may be the cause or the result of her imbalanced stance/ropewalking. I have not seen great improvement in this post-adjustment.  (Editing later: still no improvement on this.  Oh well.)

YES THAT SPOT HURTS

Adjustment.

oh wait. not hurting anymore?

Her neck was out. Her neck was out! I mentioned head-tossing, he checked her neck, and he got the exact same head-toss that I had been getting on trail. I have no idea how she did this one or when, but the head tossing has subsided to pony-being-obnoxious instead of pony-in-pain. Still a lot, but different now, and back to ‘normal’ for her.

Her poll was out too. Most people see a personality change. I definitely did not.

End result: pretty pleased.  I did not get dramatic results aside from the head-tossing being largely eliminated, but I wasn’t looking for any.  It feels like this should be a beneficial thing to keep up with long-term.  It’s possible that this may have a very positive impact on her shoulder imbalance, but I’m still dealing with the saddle fitting possibilities there, so it’s too soon to tell on that.