Don Hoffman

In mid March, 2011, I made one of the best decisions I've made yet for Lutallic. I organised to take him to see Don Hoffman over in Invermay at Corrine Doodt's house.
Nicole co-pilotted for me which I really appreciated, and Dale and Darren took off for a weekend at Johanna Beach.
When we arrived, there was a bit of a surprise in store for us - dogs, a cat (with a death wish), children and quite a few horses and people. Okay, deep breath......
He came off the float very nicely, had a bit of a look around, and allowed me to tie him up with his new bungey cord to the float. I had to keep the whip handy to prevent him digging holes in corri's drive way, and let the people around know that he was 4yo, newly broken-in and inexperienced. (That was so they kept their toddler out from under his feet, they were a bit blase until then! and seeing him being a bit skittish woke them up too) I felt a bit silly about warning them that he was just a 4 year old when I found out that the lovely palomino they were holding, who looked so quiet he could have been tranquilized!!! was also 4. Well, that's 1/4 horses for you huh!
Anyway, it was our turn eventually and the tying up to the float was good practise for him with all that was going on, and off we went into the stable block. Having been broken-in in a place where stable blocks with horses coming and going etc has definitely been a good thing. He was a bit concerned about the bloke who started poking him in his chest and shoulder etc (which apparently really hurt), but he wasn't too badly behaved.
Don diagnosed that Tal has injured his near side shoulder at some time, and has had the injury at least half his life. It is only just now (6 weeks later) that I've recalled that I used to look at his shoulder muscle and wonder why it looked like it did -DOH! Oh well, better late than never.
The off side hip that I was actually worried about was in fact compromised because of the shoulder (diagonal of course. Might also explain why he gives me grief when I pick up that hoof, cos he has to put the weight onto the sore front leg).
Don showed us how certain muscles didn't bounce the way they should, including those under where the saddle goes, and how after he put the injection into the rump muscle, all of a sudden there is beautiful boing in those muscles how it should be.
Tallic's near side chest muscle was so tight that Don had trouble getting the injection into the muscle, the needle went in fine, but the liquid just didn't wanna go. Bloody hell, that is tight.
I told Don that he was either a mind reader or knew what he was doing, because I had a list of 'symptoms' written down in my back pocket, and he'd told me all of them (except the n/s leg crossing over/swinging in).
We had strict instructions of no arena work for at least 3 weeks (he explained how the torn muscle would start to repair and the effects that the progress would have on him in 12 day stages (I think that's how it goes) and what to look out for. If he went girthy in 3 weeks, don't ride him. It's a bit hard to tell with Tal when he 'goes girthy' cos he always has been!)
So, I went home $110 poorer, feeling that I had let him down and should've done something years ago, but, overall, happy that I finally had done something which I had faith in to fix him.
Oooops, I forgot to mention that he gave Tal a chiropractic type adjustment as well. Lots of interesting positions and crunchings going on there. The coolest is when he gets the horse to arch his back like a cat. whoa