It Takes A Village

The top eventing horses in the country certainly have an entourage. They are surrounded by excellent grooms, farriers, vets, nutritionists, chiropractors, masseurs, acupuncturists, smoothie ladies. Although Brego is not about to debut at Rolex, he certainly has his own supporting staff who help make sure that he is not only able to perform in eventing, but that he is as comfortable and happy as possible. Because he is a non-conventional breed, the regular workout prescriptions for Thoroughbreds don't apply, or maybe don't apply as well, so I like to get extra help from the pros to tweak my program.

Perhaps his favorite "service provider" is his chiropractor. I take him every quarter to get a look over by a certifiably brilliant bone cracker. Brego got to go see him last week, and when he saw the special padded stall where the chiro works his magic, he tried to drag me in. Ahhh, nothing beats a good "alignment".

I was a little concerned this time around because I have been having a lot of saddle fit issues and he had been jumping (a new development since his last visit). I was afraid the chiro would say, "Goodness, this poor horse is in shambles! Don't you know Percherons aren't supposed to jump?"

The news overall was very good. Brego had no major issues, a tweak here and there and he was good to go. His hips and sacrum where moving freely, his stifles and hocks were excellent. He had one patella and a vertebrate in his neck adjusted.

Instead of lecturing me on jumping a draft horse, I got "I really like how he's filling out, but he needs to be bigger!" Bigger?? Sheesh, I spend all my time trying to trim Brego down to ease the wear and tear on his joints. "No, bigger muscle! He needs a bigger butt!" Ah ok, that's reasonable. But considering Brego's butt already has its own gravitational field, I was dubious.

Still, I heard it straight from the doc. Continue doing what I am doing, step up his exercise, and make his butt bigger! Oh, and don't let him get too fat.