Chiropractor

Good and Bad news....
Bad news first, the chiropractor came and worked on india, he found that both her hips, one knee, one shoulder, and two ribs were out, like out of the socket and/or joint. Which was causing her a lot of pain. I feel really stupid now, "oh that would be why my horse doesn't want to collect, her hips hurt so bad she popped her knee out" she was trying to stay off her hips and in the process threw her knee out.
Super

But she was a very good girl and only tried to bite him when he put one of her ribs back in. Personally i don't blame her!!
Watching the chiropractor was really cool though. He used this...thing that looked like a giant syringe but had like a ball at the end and when he pushed it it put pressure on whatever he had it on (like ribs) i'm not exactly sure what it did but it was interesting.
Then he would put his hands on the point of the hip and push really hard while pulsing his hands, which i'm pretty sure put the hips back in the socket.
We also got some stretches that they need to do everyday in order to make the good feelings last longer because the first visit only lasts about two weeks but if your really good about the stretches it can go about three.
I also learned that what throws horses bones and joints out faster than anything is stalls. Horses are meant to move all  day long, however if one has the same problem as me you can't turn them out all the time because there is simply no place to turn them out. I literally live in a swamp sometimes, the mud and water in the pastures has been known to claim footwear, horseshoes, a couple knees....and a few children, still haven't found them buggers.
So tunout is not an option sometimes, riding helps but there is nothing like walking around for hours.
The stretches we got are as follows, pull their head around and make them walk in a circle the trick is to get their inside hind leg to cross over the other hind leg. That is for their hips to keep them loose and pain-free. Another is make them briskly walk backwards about twenty steps, i think thats for the hips too. The other is to stand at their shoulder and take the hand closest to their hip and using the allure of a treat stretch their neck around you as far as they can go. I would like to report that india has a very flexible neck, she can touch her hip.
So now for the good news.......the chiropractor is a miracle worker.
the first time i rode her afterwards she felt amazing, awesome, super super awesomely amazing!!
She was soft, relaxed, but she had that electric feel, she felt so good!!
She was even excited about being ridden, she just fluffed up, rounded her back and lengthened her stride and just floated around the arena!! Her canter is even bouncier!! i really regret that i haven't taught her flying changes yet because her canter for the past two rides would have been perfect for them, i settled on simple changes :)

Off topic here but i really feel like life is looking up right now, like everything is just going to start falling into place, something good is going to happen. i mean just look at this blog, my first post was about just starting leg yields, now i'm talking about half-pass, simple changes, and about moving up to second level!!

*did anyone catch the MGMT reference??*

M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

First off i'm realllyyy hyper, too much caffeine!!
So me and the madre went to Mississippi to train on some Grand Prix horses!! Two of the horses we rode were 25 and one that my mom rode looked like he was 10 max, his name was Rumor Has it and was trained by Carol Lavell. Apparently i am inept because i couldn't ride him at all!! Couldn't get him to go couldn't turn nothin. Ms E, the trainer we were taking lessons from eventually told me the secret, first you have to beat him to get him to take you seriously and then just have to figure him out. Thats my challenge next time we go. However i'm bringing my own saddle there was one saddle she put me in and it gave me bruises, big old black ones.
 I think its so interesting how different saddles can be, they all have the same basic design but they are used for such different body types, for example if my mom can ride in a saddle you can know without a shadow of a doubt that i can't ride in it. Her thigh bones are long and mine are short, but we are about the same height, figure that one out.
Alright so back to the horses, the one i rode most of the time was a 16.3 hand warmblood named Armani. And now that i think about it he was almost an older carbon copy of Val (Grand Prix Someday's horse). He was also 25 and his gaits were HUGE!! It felt like jumping on a horse trampoline. He was so wiggily like a giant chesnut noodle, but i loved him. Then there was Winglet, she was about 7, and she was like butter. All you had to do was think what you wanted and it happened. She was wonderful!!
Most of what we worked on was fixing basic holes in my riding, stuff that india lets me get away with. Like getting the perfect angle for lateral work. We worked on shoulder-in, travers, half-pass, and leg yield.

Yes i really am that bored right now
We also worked on transitions, mostly canter transitions, and keeping mr. noodle butt straight. Once you create a corridor of aids (reins, legs, feet, those aids) then he was really easy to keep straight.
I also did some passage and piaffe on accident, Oops. but it was fun to be able to sit.
It was really fun, schoolmasters are so nice to ride after riding lower level horses my whole life. Can't wait to go back!

Oh and Hey Hannah!! Stevie and Sparky are amazinggg!! XD