Clifford has an exciting week planned! I rode him on Saturday and he was a little distracted but good. Did some real cantering but took it easy because he's out in his hip, so a new chiro is coming out Friday to look at him. In the meantime, he's getting his teeth done tomorrow, so we'll continue to take it easy this week.

Chiro came out and put cliff's hip right back and showed me some stretches to help with it and improve flexibility in his hind end. I'm starting to think I could write a book on how many different stretches there are for horses to do!

He also pointed out that the hip also lead to tightness in Cliff's left poll and the right part of his neck, which gives me much to think about, and used a little rubber mallet to help realign his spine. This is a new chiro, and they all do things differently, so it was super interesting. Cliff didn't seem to mind the mallet and his neck and topline were a lot more rounded and relaxed afterwards, so I'm happy with the results. Now he'll have a few days off to get used to his new bone alignment (and to give me a break- I had the great idea to give myself a concussion on Tuesday), and then we'll swing back into work next week!

Cliff was sound on the lunge yesterday, so I saddled him up today. Tacking up now is taking so long because I've been doing all the carrot stretches, leg stretches, cracking his back, and making him powerwalk and engage his hind end on the ground before getting on, so that's not super fun. But it's working fantastic, because he was beautifully sound under saddle today. He wanted to get a bit rushy at the trot, but was super responsive and able to adjust and lift himself and carry himself instead of continuing to spiral, so that was a big win. Going to do some more tomorrow and see how he feels!

I rode Cliff yesterday and he was a bit of a jerk, so I really debated riding him today since he hasn't been ridden two days in a row since the kissing spine thing happened, let alone three days, but today was gorgeous and he's not getting worked this weekend, so we saddled up and went. Warmed up by walking (me on foot) around the property on a trail ride, and he had a meltdown over several lizards, a bird, at one point spun and tried to run into a tree (?), and later when I got on he had a meltdown over the same corner that had given us issues yesterday. But he got over it a lot faster and really relaxed and had some gorgeous trotting. We're at the point now where I can start shifting my focus back to training him, instead of just rehab, though of course the rehab is always going to be a super huge part of Cliff's program, so today was sort of the start of that.

Oh, and then after the ride, two fighter jets buzzed the farm, and Cliff didn't think THAT was worth a meltdown. Make it make sense, buddy.

He's so pretty! But such a goofball.

I brought Cliff in to do a quick roundpen session and then a bath, and for some reason he was in meltdown mode the whole time. Made for some fun moments, but he didn't really get anything productive done. There's some tension in him but I don't think it's coming from his back- he's acting almost ulcery. So we'll get that treated (again) and see how he feels, but in the meantime he's looking good and moving great!

Today's goal was to keep cliff relaxed through the entire thing- tacking up, riding, untacking. And he was good! We only walked under saddle since he was so weird yesterday, and towards the end of the ride he had a nice forward bendy walk. We did a lot of stopping and backing and turning off my seat as well, with minimal rein contact, and he was really good. Very happy.

I was out sick for this entire week, so Cliff just got to lunge quietly over some poles today. He was really good, minus the part where two horseflies landed on him and tried to eat him lmfao. Probably going to keep doing it this week as I'm not 100% and have other horses to ride, so Cliff gets some more groundwork. Hopefully next week we can go back under saddle.

Splish splash day! Cliff was good yesterday over poles so we did some light work today. Tomorrow we'll do something a little more intensive, I'm thinking pole work in side reins but we'll play it by ear.

Cliffy floated today!

He trotted all of two laps and then kinda bounced, so I bounced back, and he trotted over to me and jumped in the air and was very playful, which he's never really been before, so I ran around and he chased me and I jumped back and forth and he followed and it was really fun and really cute, and now I'm researching local places I can take him to put him on cows because I think he'd like it a lot. We'll see!