Linda the Body Work Guru

My last post I talked about Jetta's shoulder injury - from bolting off from me in the 2feet deep snow. Idiot.

The vet first had her on 7 days of 2x/day Bute to get her through the pain. We then started some slow rehab. About a week later, they were out on mudlots and it was VERY windy. Horses were all on high-alert and tearing around their mudlots. Jetta was very lame again in the shoulder. 1 week of 2x/day bute, then another week of 1x/day. Very SLOW rehab and only allowed out with one other horse. That's a hard pill to swallow for Bossy Draft Mare, herein after referred to BDM.

A few days after the last dose of bute was farrier day. Now, my farrier is one of those down-to-earth, tell-you-how-it-is, no-sugar-coating-involved guys. I love him. :) Anyway, Jetta has always been a bit ornery about her right front foot - especially when the nails are going in. She also tends to try to have him support her on that side - not something a 150lb man likes when the BDM weighs over 12oolb. So, this time was worse. She was in pain. My farrier knew what had happened, and asked if I had had a Chiro out. DUH! Nope. Gosh I can be an idiot. Mr. Farrier then proceeds to say, "you know, I'm of the school of thought of putting the least amount of extra $$ into my horses as possible, and I have a chiro out every 8 weeks or so." Yea, I hung my head in shame. I've owned Jetta for 4.5 years and NEVER had a Chiro out. What kind of person AM I??

The horse community is SO small, and word gets out on people that are REALLY REALLY good, or REALLY REALLY bad. We had heard for months about a lady that was beyond really really good. From all accounts, she is fantastic. I made the call.

Linda is not technically a chiro. She was first certified in Linda Tellington-Jones' methods almost 20 years ago, and has continued her education - combining massage therapy, accupuncture, chiro, and more. She's beyond amazing. Last week was her second visit. The first time she spent a lot of time on that right shoulder, massage and chiro. This time she added accupuncture to it. She mentioned the first visit that BDM's right shoulder has some definite muscle atrophy - leads her to believe this isn't a new injury. This second visit, she is sure that there has been past trauma to that side. Jetta's right hip is also out of whack, which leads Linda to the conclusion that either she fell on that side, ran into a fence, or was beat all to hell on that side. BDM does have a pretty significant scar down the outside of her RF cannon - a scar that came from her first home in life...the Amish.

Now, I don't think the Amish are evil. But, I have seen their training methods, and for the most part I'm appalled. So, I wouldn't be surprised if what we're seeing in Jetta now is a result of trauma from them.

Anyway, we are very pleased that Jetta's right shoulder is starting to round out and fill in again - and she's even better now. Linda has another appointment to come out in 4 weeks or so, and she's pretty confident that that will be the last visit I need from her for a while. I would be content to have her out every week. Did I mention that an hour visit from her only costs me $35???? No farm call fee, no gas fee. Nothing extra for the accupuncture. Just that $35.

I love Linda. And, Jetta loves her too. This second visit Linda wanted to work on her while she was loose in her stall (the 1st visit I lightly held BDM on a loose lead rope in the barn aisle). Jetta had absolute freedom to move away, turn away, run her over. She did none of those. The only movements she made were to lean into the stretches and adjustments, and then she presented her left side when the right side had taken as much therapy as it could for the night.

I can't wait to see how our lesson is this weekend. Silly girl