Just shoot us both, please.

Bah. I think she is still tip toeing. She feels weak from behind. Off. And the tip of her toe is being worn off.

At this point, I'm chalking it up to her hips being out of alignment. Hip problems = no lift in the hind legs. She can't lift them up without pain in her hip, meaning she drags them to avoid pulling them up. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that the hip issue may be the root of all evil here. Especially since she clearly drags one side more than the other.

I'm having a chiropractor work on her. I'm going to see if I can get a recommendation from my local horse forum right now. I know the one who worked on Gulliver was AMAZING, but he is too far away I believe.

Hopefully, the chiro can get Amber working again. It makes *so* much sense! She's NOT lazy. Screw what everyone says. She is NOT lazy. She has plenty of "go" in her, and it's not hard to keep her going (although if she thinks you're asking for a down transition or a halt, she WILL do it on a dime!). She doesn't know how to apply herself and carry herself, because she hasn't been trained to do so yet. But "lazy" to me is a horse that is difficult at best to put into working gaits, is hard to keep in those gaits. She is neither.

It seems stupid to me that everyone says my horse drags her feet because she's lazy, when they have never ridden her! How would they know? No, I'm done with the "let's play doctor" BS, and trying to have people tell me what's wrong with my horse who have nothing to back up what they say. I always get into trouble when I listen to other people (non professional) concerning horses. I'm going with my gut and calling a professional equine chiropractor to feel her out. Obviously, this is not a true lameness, this is something not lining up right and between farrier and chiro, I can get her back into work (or at least rehab work) in no time. No more "Well, maybe if we try this..."!

She wore the duct tape off during our ride. Or at least a hole in the TIP of the toe. On the front of the toe, minimal wear. Hence, I feel she is dragging on a whole new part now that the front hurts. Yeaahh. Obviously, it's an "I can't", not an "I'm too lazy". We tried to trot and canter bareback, but I just suck. I was doing nothing but pulling on her poor head so I let her walk. She was very stretchy in the walk. My hip got bounced around too much, and it hurts, so I think I'll go back to saddles for a while. I plan on putting 23498294234 layers of duct tape on on Monday and lunging for a few minutes, then riding lightly for 20-30 minutes. It will be 82, so she will get a bath and have her mane (what is long enough) pulled and get her whiskers and feathers trimmed.

I'm kicking myself for listening to Andrea try to diagnose her feet issue though. I honestly feel like the crappiest horse owner in the world. I should not have put up with the BS, I should have got the damn farrier out there and called the chiro on the double. Live and learn? Maybe. I hope Amber can forgive me for my shortcomings, at least.

Considering calling a psychologist too. I know, equine psychologists are rather controversial...but...I think it would be nice to learn about some of her quirks, and I have heard good things about many of them being very accurate.

For now, priority remains shoes and chiro. We will get through this.



Obviously, she has potential. We just need to get her hind end functional. This picture, I went back and looked, shows obvious stiffness and lack of ability to push under herself. You can see she's round, but it's like she just can't get there and falls on the forehand. The side reins were set loose enough that she had free range of movement to pop her head up if she wanted to, she put herself on the bit, bent herself and everything.

I conditioned her heels and sole today. She's getting a little dried out and definitely needed it.