Sunday, July 4, 2010

Chemical romance

I live in the thoroughbred cradle of the world, and along side it, there is a major equine pharmaceutical industry.

If you have a problem, there are multiple ways of solving it, among many paths legally, illegally, asinine and old wives way.

While, as they say in the commercials, results may vary, I've usually taken the approach of ounce of prevention versus pound of cure over the years. Sinari has had regular oral supplements for a few years now and is seen by her chiro/massage lady (in addition to all the regular work).

But, since the climb officially began for FEI this year, things have changed. The work is intense. The expectation of consistency has risen. The normal back cracking, oral supplementation won't hold up to the rigors of long term, day-in-day-out training and competing. I've added acupuncture.

And now, I've added pharmaceuticals to the mix in the form of IV delivered Adequan and Legends. We've hit full tilt on the loading stages, and while my wallet feels anorexic, the pony is looking fantastic. She's not PSG due to the inconsistency of work, but already she sits far better, works much easier.

So recapping June's goals:

-Changes.
Cleaner, easier, better balanced changes. Now to up the ante to do them dead on straight. Would like to experiment with the tempi's again.

-Lateral work
Better, but, lacked focus this year. She had brilliant moments and moments where she felt good to do it all, and then moments where she was scrambling. She offered more pirouette work because we cleaned up a lot of it.

-Action/reaction
This mainly had to deal with half halts and going up to the bit and me taking the leg off. When she's tired, she likes to run through.

July:
Straightness
Action/reaction
transitions in and out of the gaits and between
tempi's

A quick note on the photo-- that was Sinari in early 2003, just prior to turning five.

1 comment:

Golden the Pony Girl said...

Lovely pony! she is about Bodhi's age in that photo and their bodies look similar. I agree 100 about an once of prevention being the best solution. I look forward to more pictures of the mare looking fit!