Another day

01/21/2011 Friday
Last night Jewel was very wound up and she finally fell asleep around 9pm. I put on her hip brace and unfortunately she fought it until I took it off. Most times I just leave it on and and she settles down but sometimes it is counter productive to leave it on. She will fight her brace until she breaks out in a sweat and throws up. She has gotten real chatty late at night which I have to ignore or I'd never get any sleep since she sleeps with me. This way I can rotate her, help her when she struggles and make sure she is not too hot and breathing. We went to see Cookie dough yesterday for a therapy session, he is an old retired rodeo horse, a quarter horse. He is the sweetest horse you will ever meet and he is the type they write songs about! He was very low energy, so after grooming him and giving him a short walk, we fed him and did the session stationary on him. We put Jewel on the saddle and pulled the bench close to him so the occupational therapist, Crystal could stand on the bench and work with Jewel on the saddle.
Another amazing session, lots of diagonal work and balance work. Jewel did large to refined diagonal work while sitting on her but on the saddle. This is huge, since in the past she would not sit but extend upward in a reflex using the wrong muscles, making the movement undesirable and non functional. She said she feels like she is flying on the horse, she loves Cookie dough aka Billy and he loves her. It is lovely to see them together, it has been three years now that we get to take her to the horses. Since the horse is around 30yrs old sometimes we do not let Jewel ride because he trips too much or seems so tired. Thur. morning 20th, we went to see John the body worker. He does not charge to see Jewel, because he just wants to help her. The sessions are 15-20 min. and they are very gentle. He gently touches her with a couple of fingers and right before my eyes she unwinds, changing from tight to relaxed. He mostly works on her nervous energy. Got to take Jewel to the bathroom, go to go to work. :)