I’m so glad you rode! I still have to wait until next Wednesday for my ribs to heal up enough.
Apparently in the olden times horse dealers would “turn” Saddlebreds into “TBs” for the hunter shows and hunt seat stables. Basically all it took was proper jumper training. This is from Louis Taylor’s excellent books on the Saddlebred and riding.
Enjoy your rides!
I’ve heard this! My guy doesn’t look like a saddlebred at all. No one believes that he is, most think he’s only part bred. He’s long and flat like a thoroughbred, until he decides something is scary and then he snorts like a saddlebred to be sure! 
I’m working on the stabilization part. He walks quite nicely on a loose rein, and feels delightful, but he’s started to get a bit balky in trot. Unfortunately the barn we are at doesn’t have any trails so we’re stuck in the indoor, re-establishing forward. I’m hopeful that I’m not tipping too far and getting ahead of him, hard to tell without a mirror. We also popped over some small rails and it felt super good…and the hip is coping! We were going to try to ride outside today but it started to rain, mores the pity.
I’m thinking of your ribs and wishing you good healing thoughts!
Stabilization is a good goal. Since I only get to ride the horse for 30 minutes a week I just slip in stabilization as a rest/reward when I start stabilization. Walking on a loose rein requires stronger neck muscles for effective gaits. Since you ride an ASB I presume his neck is thin and longer than the norm, and it may take him a little longer than you want for him to get strong enough to do a good stabilized trot full of impulse and under control.
Maybe you could try just walking for several rides. I work on the three speeds of the walk, doing turns in the three speeds of the walk, turns in place, fore and hind, and backing up.
I work to get the horse’s back “swinging” freely and feeling the push of the hind leg through my seat. I keep contact, giving all the rein the horse needs to stay comfortable for this more challenging work at the walk. My contact is measured in grams, not ounces or pounds, and when I walk when my hands move forward I relax my fingers and I emphasize the most forward position of the horse’s head by opening my fingers maybe an 1/8th of an inch before gently closing as the horse’s head starts moving back. When I feel the push of the hind leg I relax that finger, so I end up alternating the hand with which I do the extra 1/8" or so.
I now think that riders often dismiss the walk. I find that by working as above at the walk that the horse gets stronger and more able to easily obey me at the trot. It is NEVER a waste of time to work at the walk. I mean work, not shuffling around off rein,working at the walk means walking on contact, using alternating legs, and adapting to the movement that the horse willingly gives me.
As a break for the horse I, off contact at first, practice my two-point at the walk, still moving with the horse. Only when I do not feel like I need to grab the mane do I start keeping contact.
When the horse does all the above easily and with a powerful drive from the hind legs, then the trot will probably be easier. Your horse still remembers what you were working on, now he has to get used to your new “language” and strengthen the muscles that he needs for the more Forward movement.
Enjoy!
You can do all the GP movements at the walk! Reading this thread is inspiring just to learn of the persistence applied to keep riding.
His neck is actually quite beefy, for an ASB. Most people think he’s a crossbred and are utterly shocked when I explain that I have his papers and he’s been DNA tested. We have no issues with wobbliness or high-headedness other than this trot thing.
We’ve done quite a bit of walking actually - doing exactly as you have mentioned. When my hip was hurting really badly, we spent a lot of time in walk since the trot was a killer for my back/hip - and he now backs on voice command only, does lovely half turns, leg yields, and does the 3 speeds of the walk from seat aids (but I may transfer that to more leg aid now). He does tend to cheat a bit with the hind end going to the left, so we’ve been working on that (he loves to cross over in front and not behind). I’ve been working that in hand as well.
I suspect that the bit balky is related to some training he had to turn him into a western ASB. He expects to “jog” before he trots, and he expects contact with his mouth. I’m just hoping I’m not tipping too far and making it more difficult for him at the same time. I’ll likely spend a good bit more time in two point now that I can, and ask from there so that I am consistent and he realizes the rules are different. He’s wicked smart and tries very very hard. Two point will be good exercise all the way around - my balance is good but my strength isn’t, so staying up and out of the tack should help there. I’m looking forward to the time when maybe my hips are strong enough to do some no stirrup work! I should add that I know that probably makes me completely insane.
I have always thought of contact as being as light as possible while still having some sort of mouth feel, but have never thought of opening my hands as such - typically I’ve followed through the shoulder and elbow joints. I’ll have to try adding in fingers, although I would hear my old trainer yelling at me to keep my darn hands closed 
I’m hopeful that I’ll actually get a second ride in today on my other horse. After yesterday’s ride I was prepared for my hip to flare up but it was fine, and I woke up this morning feeling ok - or at least more okay than I ever have, which is a win all the way around!
MagicBoy - I seriously considered not riding anymore as these physical issues started to catch up with me, and have just found that I’m unhappy if I don’t ride!
I am so glad your hips did not hurt when you woke up.
I had the same thing happen to me, my hips went from being too painful to lie on when I rode with my feet parallel to the side of the horse, to my hips not bothering me AT ALL when I turned my toes out to the 30-35 degree angle. Considering that my hip bursitis used to use any excuse to flare up over the last 30-40 years this is a big advance for me.
I have chronic trochanter bursitis and ride dressage. A steroid injection will give me several months of complete relief. It usually takes a few days to work. Both my orthopedic hip doctor and my pain management doctor will do the shot. There is some recent literature that suggests many cases of trochanter bursitis are a symptom of an underlying adductor tendon inflammation/tear. I am getting a PRP injection into my tendon next month to see if we can permanently fix the bursitis by repairing my tendon. My hip doctor, Dr. Ochiai, says he has a 50% success rate with PRP and it has no harmful side effects like steroids.
Interesting - I’ll take a look at that literature, because I have the issue in both hips, it’s just one was worse than the other so I didn’t notice how bad the other one had gotten. I also didn’t realize until recently how poor my sleep was because of the amount of pain I was in. I had just kind of gotten used to tossing and turning because of hip pain, and once the injection kicked in fully I could actually sleep. Somewhat amazing!
The piriformis muscle: Starts at the lower spine and connects to the upper surface of each femur (thighbone) Functions to assist in rotating the hip and turning the leg and foot outward.
I cut and pasted the above because I have had both my trochanters and SIs injected at the same time which helped a lot but then I went for PT to learn easy strengthening exercises . I have to emphasis how important the PT person is because some over do it. Usually the Piriformis is involved if you ride and my ortho Doc does EPAT, which is like shock wave in horses. I am presently having this done and what a tremendous relief it has given me.
I wanted to share this info, because for months my Chiropractor told meths muscle is so deep he cannot relieve it and I needed the EPAT and my MRI showed on the side that hurt the worst no spinal involvement.
It is ALL tied in together…try and check it out.
Adriane
Thank you! I definitely will!
It’s easy to overdo these stretch s so be careful. I was doing pigeon pose ( yoga versions of this stretch) and brought on a flare of bursitis…it’s a very useful stretch, though. And easy to do standing beside a pipe rail before you ride
Just a quick update and some hope for those suffering I’m several months post-injection and I am SO happy I did it. I’ll likely get the other one done soon as it’s not as bad, but still can get painful. I can ride again, provided I do a few things.
Yes, I have to have the stirrup bar placed a bit more forward than normal. Hunt seat saddles, saddleseat saddles, they all work for me - a dressage saddle does not. This is sad, but I’ll live. Hunt seat saddles work better for me without much knee roll or thigh block. That’s probably ok too.
Doing lots of walking has really helped. Oddly, trot work still can be aggravating, but cantering is fine, provided the horse is reasonably comfortable at the canter. Saddlebreds are awesome for this btw, they tend to have lovely swinging canters.
Would love to hear more from the hip club - hope you all are well!
Yoga will help but the key is likely going to be resting it enough for the current inflammation to heal & then building up hip flexor strength slooooooooowly. I’m not an expert but based on my understanding of IASTM as a patient I wonder if it could potentially help here. What are your shoulders and knees like? Any issues there?
Left shoulder has some issues due to a fall years ago. Knees are ok. Yes - building strength has definitely been helping, but the injection was key.
This thread is so very helpful! I have not posted on this forum for several years due to life changes (some good some well …not good) and undergoing a hip replacement after a year or so of increasing pain. Now like many of you I’m experiencing sciatic pain in both hips that has robbed me of my desire to ride again any time soon. I’ve ridden virtually my whole life and couldn’t imagine being afraid to ride. But after my operation it was all I could do to overcome sheer terror of falling off my sweet and mostly good as gold 16.3 WB. I had finally gotten back to relaxing enough to trot on the trails but now I’m back to square one with this bloody bursitis. Pain avoidance is a powerful demotivator… I am ashamed I find so many excuses not to ride now but mounting and dismounting is so excruciating the fun is largely negated. Thank you for posting ideas for working through the pain and giving some options other than handfuls of Motrin. Cheers and hugs to all of you.
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