When I first started riding Zan back in January (after Emmy died, I pretty much rode April, Pete, and Mallory until I started with Zan), we were just doing walk/trot. But as summer approached, I cantered him. I noticed that he had a good way and a bad way. When we go his good way, he was an okay little pony - cute, intelligent, and he could do things mostly right; yes, he needed fine tuning, but that could come later. Going his bad way, though, he was a train wreck; he bent the wrong way, made his movements ugly, and totally lost his brains. It was as if he had forgotten how to walk properly, how to make it so that his trot wasn't ugly and terrible, and that to canter, you have to actually move your back right leg so it doesn't look like you're retarded.
The thing Erica and I didn't know, though, was that his uncoordination wasn't because he couldn't think right. Thanks to Meredith Plate, that is. At a 4H workshop in the middle of June, Meredith noticed that Zan had a big bump on his back right hip/leg, just above the place where his leg and hip meet. She told us that her mare had a bump similar to it and that it could be solved by simply applying Bigleoil (a muscle relaxer that could be applied to the surface area of the bump, as long as it soaked in) to the lump once every few days. She said her mare's bump disappeared in a month or two.
Well, we've applied Bigleoil to his lump at least twice a week, and it's been three months. The only difference we see is that his uncoordination and awkwardness at the canter has slowly gotten worse, and now it's starting to affect his trot, too.
Today, I was working Zan while Erica gave a lesson. I walked him a round lots (we started his bad way - bad plan), getting him to relax, stretch down and forward, and stay with my leg. I want him to become as leg responsive as Missy without feeling that leg pressure means SPEED! and that it means to collect and bend. He was doing quite well (besides doing his whole flippy-bendy-wrong-way-neck thing), so I picked up a trot. WOW, it was terrible. Or at least, it felt terrible. Erica thought it looked okay; I thought it felt short, choppy, messed up, wrong, and just down right nasty. We went outside and did some walk/trot work both ways. I got him to go over a few poles (maybe he'll be able to jump soon, if he ever stops getting so messed up and hurt), and he did great. I think he's improving over jumps, but I can't decide if it's because he's finally accepted that he can't get away from it, or because he likes it now. =/
I reversed directions and walked a couple times around. I practiced our stop and back exercise, and did plenty of walking circles, serpentines, and figure-8's. As Erica was having her lesson student walk Pete for a while, I decided to canter Zan. Big mistake. I should've realized something was wrong. But I cantered him and it was terrible. Erica told me to stop right away because he kept hopping on his back feet, then holding his back right up in the air, tripping, and then starting all over again. I felt like breaking down and crying. WHY does all of the awkward, bad things happen to my horses? First Emmy, then Lucy, now Zan. Erica told me to just do walk/trot work for now - not too much, we don't want to strain him - and I walked him and trotted him one time each. Then, I went inside and decided to practice halter. Halter always makes me concentrate and gives me a few minutes to just silently talk to Zan and figure myself out. Being able to practice alone really calms me down.
Really, Zan is a champion halter horse. He can do everything - of course he can, we practice so much it's insane - from pivoting to backing to trotting and walking and patterns and regular halter classes, he's a champ. Our goal now is for him to respond to me with little to no pressure on the lead. We worked towards that today and we'll work more on it tomorrow after our ride and before I jump Sonny.
So, the plan for dealing with his bump. The goal is to lunge him at the canter for 3-5 minutes each way to get him to stretch and figure out how to relax that back right leg. If he improves and that can be the solution for now, great. I'll hop on and ride like normal. But if that doesn't work, we're going to get an equine chiropractor out to look at him and try and work that knot out of the muscle. We'll see if it's just a simple knot or if it's something more serious. We'll see, I guess.
See? Even a few months ago, Katie and TJ were working on Zan's muscle problem. This is from the day when they worked on his bump for an hour. They used liniment, Bigleoil, and liniment gel. *Sigh.* Will this ever go away?
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