Never got a chance to update this yesterday. I was sleep deprived due to a quasi-family emergency that started with phone calls from midnight through 2 a.m. and after that, the cat was wide awake and bouncing off the bed all night so there was no sleep. Turns out all is well on the family front, just lots of drama, as usual.

The shoer, Shaun, who is a Healthy Stride shoer (Parelli again), came yesterday and evaluated Cowboy. He was also scheduled for a trim but the eval revealed that he is very well balanced (Shaun actually said "Perfect" but I'm trying to be modest--not that I had anything to do with it) and just needs to grow more foot so we left him alone. His hips and scapulas are level, and his hooves are growing out evenly so it's all good news. He just does have dainty little feet. The boots are size 0, and are on the tightest setting. The goal is to get those feet bigger so he has a broader base of support, so I will keep using the boots on hard or rocky ground so as not to wear them down. The way the boots fit will also be a good gauge of how the feet are developing so I am trying to view them as a useful tool and not the spawn of Satan. He does have some overdevelopment of the right shoulder, mostly likely from being heavy on the forehand and pulling himself along instead of pushing from the rear, but as he uses his hind end more that should even out. I'm going to continue the body work. I started the Jack Meagher evaluation and was surprised at some of the stress points he reacted to, and not so surprised by some of the others. I only got through one side so he will probably be walking in circles until I finish up.

Update on the Parelli blue string--my latest inquiry received a response that the string was shipped in Mid-December and to allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. I don't understand why this would take that long but I'll give them until mid-February before I go knocking on their door again.

I checked my weight this morning and I'm down 3 lbs. so good! Trying to focus on that and not how many more to go. One day at a time...

I tried the Jack Meagher system on my sore hip and concluded the problem is in the gluts (okay, it's a butt problem and not a hip problem, I'm trying to be delicate). I did some of the deep massage technique and actually knocked out 90% of the pain. Not long after, I got spasms in the lumbo-sacral area so I think I did release some bad ju-ju. Fortunately, that went away as well and now I'm feeling pretty good. Very useful to try some of this on yourself as it's a lot easier to understand the desired result and what the animal is experiencing but can't verbally communicate to you.