Sacroiliac issue progress -- utterly thrilled

My beloved Kat is a fabulous horse. All the go in the world, intense desire to please, sweet and lovely.

She's also off-track, with lots of visible and non-visible body issues stemming therefrom.

One of these has been that she ALWAYS bucks going into canter. She needs a nice kick out once or twice in each direction. They're usually off to the side, occasionally backwards--it looks like she's "popping" her spine. Once she's managed a few good bucks, she's happy for the rest of the ride. I got around this by simply free-lunging before riding, to allow her to buck as much as she liked.

A while ago I learned that this is a symptom of a sacroiliac problem--certainly makes sense. A horse who needs chiropratic self-adjustment with every ride probably has something going on in her back, right? Well, I've been working hard on her muscle issues (lots of scarring/adhesions around the spine, particularly the SI, also muscle wastage and tenderness). I'm making progress in many other areas; she's now calm to groom (used to be too ticklish), her muscle damage is filling back out again, the adhesions are slowly going away.

I went to lunge before riding a little while ago, and she didn't buck...whoa. I was concerned that perhaps she just hadn't been awake/alert, and might buck under saddle...decided to ask for cantering anyway. No bucking. Thought perhaps it was a fluke...then in yesterday's ride, we got a lovely smooth canter transition with no bucking (and no lunging beforehand at all).

This is astounding. I am too delighted for words. I could cry; I'm so happy that she's feeling better. This is such a long-standing problem--clear evidence that SOMEthing wasn't quite right. I've been trying so hard to make her more comfortable and make her life easier. It looks like I am definitely making progress in that area.

(Added on Monday, December 06, 2004 @ 01:39:09 PM)