Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!

 

Today I took Zephyr for his annual chiropractic adjustment. He didn't really seem to need one, but I had promised to take my neighbor Melinda's horse Jamaar, so I decided to take Zephyr along.

We really had no idea how willing Jamaar would be to load into my trailer, so we decided that Melinda would bring him over to my place extra-early. We had a 6:30pm appointment and the chiropractor (Dr. Cindy Reynolds) lives only 25 minutes away, but Melinda had Jamaar at my place by around 4:15. Zephyr was standing tied at the telephone pole, which is my hitching post, when Jamaar came up the driveway with Melinda and her friend Terry. Because Zephyr lives alone, I expected him to get all excited and start dancing around and whinnying, but he just stood like a rock. Good boy!

Last night I removed the rear tack rack and collapsed the compartment, so that Jamaar wouldn't have to get in through the half door the first time he rode in my trailer. The narrow doorway can be very scary for a horse that isn't used to it. Maybe Jamaar is just easygoing, or maybe having it wide open made the difference... but whatever the reason, he loaded instantly! We took him off and on a few more times until he would back off quietly, and the last time we opened the rear tack back up. I prefer to haul that way so that the butt bar can be used... it's safer. I loaded Zephyr in the rear stall and we were good to go.

A few miles down the road I stopped so Melinda could check on Jamaar. He was doing great.

When we arrived at Dr. Cindy's farm, we unloaded both horses and then reloaded Zephyr so I could take pictures for Melinda, and listen in, without having to deal with Zephyr and his boredom.

 

 

 

 

Jamaar wasn't sure what to think at first!  >>

 

But he got the idea eventually:

 

Dr. Cindy didn't find too many things wrong with Jamaar chiropractically.  What she did find really didn't explain how lame he is. So the next step is to go see Dr. Tim Powers in Pittsfield... in Maine, he's the lameness expert!

 

Zephyr took it all in stride, as usual. He only had two neck vertebra that were out.  In this pic Dr. Cindy is checking his hips.

 

Jamaar reloaded very nicely, though I did have to wave the lead rope at his butt.