Oliver has a physical breakthrough!

OK, so Greg came out today and worked on Oliver. The first thing he said was that Ollie had put on some muscle, was standing taller and more evenly, and his neck looked good. Yay! He worked on him for about 45 minutes, which is good because he normally works on him for about an hour and a half (!), and said that Oliver was much better than before. He didn’t spend as much time on the areas that he used to (sacroiliac region, and inner thighs) and instead just worked a bit on the withers and a spot near the poll on the left, which he said was new, but no big deal. Although he (Greg) didn’t say it outright, Oliver is better than he thought he would be and we continue to have steady improvement.

Christan and I decided to go through with my lesson after all, even in the rain, which was a fine drizzly mist (what the Irish like to call a “fine, soft day”), and Greg thought it would be a good idea to get Oliver to stretch out his hind legs some over fences. Right away, I noticed a difference. Usually, when he’s feeling sticky, it feels like he’s really pounding the ground to the right – probably because he’s sort of hitching his right hind up instead of putting underneath himself and pushing himself along. Today, however, the minute I picked up the trot, it felt even to me, and Christan echoed my thoughts by telling me almost immediately that he looked just fine. I was thrilled! We trotted a bit, cantered a bit more, which also felt nice and soft and fluid, even to the right, and then hopped over a few small fences. He was very easy to place to the jump – I was careful not to sit too heavily on him to the fence and he responded by rocking back and jumping from a good spot. The best part was that Christan said that it was the best he’s ever jumped – he was rocking back more than usual and pushing off instead of just cantering over the fences. To top it off, he just had his shoes pulled (a misunderstanding by Christan, who thought I wanted them off now, instead of after the show) and was a tad ouchy, which is why we didn’t ride a lot more, and the ground was a tad slick from all the rain. We were both soaked when we were done, but it was a GOOD ride.