We jump again

We didn't have lessons today and my saddle fitting got postponed so... I met Laura for a little jump school. And we got lucky because the forecast was bad but it ended up barely raining so we got to play! 

 

Before I left for our ride, I did pillar work with all 3 ponies in the arena. Dan included. (Poor Flecky got left out). So when we got to Ashland I just warmed up under saddle without doing our pillar work. Laura wasn't down there yet, so I went in the dressage arena with Kelli and did some walking, trotting and cantering on the buckle for our warm up. He felt pretty decent. Then Laura arrived, so we said by to Kelli and Marvin and headed up to the jump arena. The fences were probably set at mostly beginner novice, with a few novice ones. Oh, and one cross rail. After we warmed up, I popped him over the cross rail a few times. And then, we jumped some. I tried to stick to the smaller stuff, but.. the two stride looked so fun. And then, there was a 2 to a 1, and I couldn't help it, so we did that too. And he felt good. In the very beginning he was taking the flyers. I told Laura that I wasn't sure if he was hurting... or just excited...or unwilling to tighten up... was it me? So.. ha... I decided okay... guess I sit up and ride him like he's not hurting and see what happens. And... he was willing to sit to the base. Most of the time. And he felt good and game and happy. So, I couldn't help myself... we jumped the bigger oxer! Wheee. The first time he totally took the long spot. Whoops. So we had to fix it. :) But we did. 

  

So then we went for a hack. I had already told Laura that he was so upset at the beach that I wasn't sure I wanted to trail ride because he gets upset behind Smarty but won't walk fast enough to stay ahead of Smarty. She offered to keep Smarty behind him, so.. we went. And we picked some wide trails so they were side by side a good bit. And then Smarty got ahead a bit but Dan didn't seem to mind. He really wasn't even chompy! So phew!!! I don't know why he was so upset at the beach. 

 

After we hacked back to the barn with Laura, we took the scenic route back home and just enjoyed each other a bit longer. I do love this horse!

 

Beach Time!!!! This time good weather!

 Beach Trip: Day 1, arrived, got to stables, went right to beach and rode. nice beach, stalls not near each other, went to dinner at Iguanas, nice hotel

Day 2: slept in. lazed around a bit, got breakfast, rode the trails at the stables. saw alligators. Ate lunch downtown... brogens. great shrimp salad, shopped a hair. then beach ride in afternoon. SOOOOOO Windy. blowing sand around. cool though. aced and slightly drunk but still chompy.

Day 3: got to beach at 10ish... skipped sunrise because cloudy and tired. got to beach at 10ish. pretty crowded already.  only rode 30 minutes. indi almost got attacked by a dog. kites. nervous ponies. Tried late afternoon and A GABILLION TIMES more crowded!! didn't even unload because we could hardly get in the parking lot. missy checked...  went home.. put on dresses and went to woods for photo shoot. soooo aggravating. dan wouldn't stand still, wouldn't stop chomping, frustrating, but... blessed. not great photos... got 12 plus ticks off dan. good ponies. ate at frederica house

day 4: slept in a hair because sunset iffy again and tired. but got to beach early enough to get to beach before crowds. much better. had a great ride. Still chompy but much calmer until we stood still. beautiful day

good trip!

Putting on my "I told you so" hat....

 Had a lesson with Jacel. explained neck stuff and my fears

challenged him... on the buckle happy... spiral in and out on light contact.. not happy, especially spiral in right, but happier with counterflexion. tried with canter. same thing. Better in the hind end, and even better in the hind end when we did spiral in/out, so seems like it's neck base. so... debating surgery. cried. Jacel is awesome. Reminded me that sometimes being a mom (or Father) is hard.. we sometimes have to break our promises... we sometimes have to make our kids do the hard things for their best interest. and God tasks us with that, not because we are strong enough, but because we won't give up and know God is with us.

then went for a trail ride to enjoy him. rode a fair amount of it with my hands off the reins. 

Photos: Experimenting

There's always blue ski

 So... it was a hard 4 or 5 days (I may have cheated by a day....) waiting on the hock injections rest to be able to ride. Especially because I don't have Lyric to ride instead. And while I did ride Funny once, it's not quite the same. It will be, but ... not yet. Mike and I took a motorcycle ride to the mountains, which was nice. Of course Saturday was beautiful and lovely and Sunday was rain almost allllll day. But Dan was getting bored. So on Sunday, when the rain quit, and the sun tried to come out... I decided to do it! 

 

He's still doing that new thing where when he gets close to the trailer he almost runs at it and pins his ears. It's so weird! What is that?!?! Anticipation of pain? He's never done that before. Does he not like that spot? Guarding the hay bag that has been sitting out there that he knows he gets to munch on?? I have no idea. It's just weird. 

 

He was filthy... literally had caked on mud crumbs and even mud blobs. But amazingly he had dried off enough that I could curry him off. I gave him plenty of treats when he was good and he actually was pretty good for his grooming. I don't know if I'm just training him to "tolerate" grooming for cookies... or if I'm actually undoing his chronic learned angry behavior, but... I'm so tired of him snarking at me when I groom him. I'm just about literally doing everything I can to make him happy and comfortable... I'm not just ignoring pain. So I feel a little vindicated in my plan. But I still wonder sometimes... 

 

Anyways... we walked up to the arena and did our pillar work. He was wanting to chew on my reins but did some good work. Then I got on and we walked on the buckle for awhile. Then we walked with a slightly higher neckset but still forward and out. Just not peanut rolling. We also did some lateral work and worked on slowing the walk. Not mega slow, but... a bit more balanced instead of running. Then we trotted and cantered on the buckle. He's definitely still dragging his toes a bit and definitely still a little weird with his canter transitions but it was better. And then I asked him to slow his cadence just a hair and I think his toe drag got better. And I definitely didn't feel the unsoundness like I did after his flexions. So then we did a bit more work with a bit more contact and he was good. Then I pushed it and did some lateral work at the trot and.... no issues. No tongue.... not chomping... maybe just a little bit of snatching at his shoulder. 

 

We cantered a bit more and then did one lengthen across the diagonal and then a halt down centerline. He was good! So then we walked home via the driveway and headed to the lake and then turned around and came back. 

 

The sun had come out and it had warmed up. I started thinking.... how... the skies were like hope. The sun always comes back out. And there may still be storm clouds behind us... and even ahead of us.. but like the book says... there's always blue skies. I'm hoping to be able to stay optimistic!

 

Well... that's good news... right?

Yet again, God is throwing me a .... I'm so tired I don't even remember the saying... For a loop? A banana? ha ha.. oh goodness.. my poor brain. 

Anyways.... I had thought I had it all figured out... even in the context of thinking that God had said "you asked for a diagnosis and kept thinking neck.. here is your confirmation and a solution"... with the neck surgery. So, I had sort of decided to do it... was even contemplating whether I should do it right after the beach trip... so that he would be at 7 weeks post op when I went to Ireland... hence, off paddock rest. (And I guess, it's not entirely off the table yet). Of course, actually thinking about it was also slightly terrifying! Paddock rest... I don't even really have a paddock, so.. that means patio rest. Which... that's still a long time to do that. But anyways... I had already scheduled a vet appt with Dr. Marquez. And I figured... let's keep it. I'll pick his brain... and see what his thoughts are... and confirm it's neck and/or make sure there's nothing else major going on. Because if his stifle is shot and isn't going to resolve with just injections or such... why put him through surgery and rehab? 

We had him scheduled to come at 10 am and we had Danny, Lyric and Marvin on the books. I cleaned the house and barn the day before and drug the arena so we were all ready. I had stalls bedded and watered. Kelli came and we put Marvin in Flecks stall and then I put Dan next to him and then Lyric in Dan's stall. And then I left Funny and Fleck loose but Fleck pretty much hung out in Funny's stall all day. And it took ALL DAY! Poor Dr. Marquez was there til 5:03 pm. He earned his keep. And that was with no lunch break, though we did give him a granola bar. So anyways, that also meant Dan was in a stall ALL DAY long. I was honestly so proud of him. He was quiet for the most part. He maybe kicked the wall 3 times total. I did give him his patio, but still. I was so proud. He actually looked like he was worried for Marvin and Lyric. 

We did Marvin first and then after, we started with Dan. (In case we ran out of time). Dr. Marquez examined him and palpated everything. He didn't really find any pain in the neck and was quite pleased with his flexibility. He did find his shoulder atrophy odd though. He didn't get too much in his back or pelvis I don't think, but he was super sore in his hind limbs. Very reactive to his hocks and I think... maybe, he had a little bit of effusion in his stifles too. And he was pretty demonstrative about not liking his hocks palpated. So... we took him to the culdesac to trot him and do flexions. Kelli started off with him so I could watch and listen to Dr. Marquez but after two passes he was dragging her around, so I took over. It went well for two passes, but on the third pass Dan had the lead rope in his mouth (And for the love of all, I cannot understand why I didn't see what was coming... I was just thinking.. oh hey, if he's chewing on the rope, he's not slinging his head around... my brain really is losing it). And of course... he just.. kept going. Without me... at a fast pace. I had to let go.. and then he galloped to the end of the field beside Jean.. then up her lane... we all headed towards her barn but then I heard him coming back down the way he went... Then he galloped between Art's house and the dog kennels, then flew across Arts yard, went flying across the culdesac (thankfully not busting out and slipping on the pavement) and went up Jean's driveway. Jean was out with her dogs and was yelling at him too! Finally he circled around up by the cabin and then trotted down the drive. Dr. Marquez tried to stop him but Dan just kept going (PLEASE Don't squish the new vet!!!!). Luckily Dr. Marquez moved... and then Dan stopped to sniff something and I was able to walk up and catch him. Jeesh Dan... you're so embarassing!

So then Dr. Marquez was like "let's just see how he is under saddle... if you're willing!" Ha ha. Yep. I feel much safer ON TOP! So I tacked him up and we went to the arena and rode. Of course now that he's been poked and prodded and flexed... and then galloped around on concrete a bit... he was lame. Like... not just "NQR", but legit lame. I could feel it easily. Well darn. So we did a quick walk/trot/canter and then headed back in. 

Dr. Marquez said that he would definitely inject his hocks and that it was kind of hard to evaluate the neck when the hocks were screaming at us. Valid. Frustrating but valid. And really... I had said I wanted to make sure it really was the neck and not something else. Maybe it's not his neck. Maybe it's really hind end and it's not so much the compression of his neck but the sit in the hind end. Slightly annoying that it's been only 6 months since we did his hocks... and when we did, it didn't really change anything. So I'm a little paranoid that I won't see any change after this, but he was definitely sore and reactive so... we injected his hocks. He was a good boy for it (with drugs of course). Dr. Marquez also mentioned that his back seemed pretty tight... he didn't really bounce in it under saddle, so maybe to work my magic there. So I'll probably adjust and shockwave him tomorrow. 

So then we had to put him back in the stall and he had to stay in overnight. Ugh. Sorry dude. Now you've been in all day and will be in all night. I was so tempted to just turn him out, but... Lyric had to stay in too. And she really needed to stay in. Sigh.... She ended up having a hole in her patellar ligament. UGH. So she'll have like... 3-9 months off. Which means... maybe now is not the time to take Dan to surgery.... I'd like to have someone else other than just Funny to ride. :( Although in some ways, maybe rehabbing two at the same time would be easier? Except Lyric doesn't need stall/patio rest... but yeah.. I don't know. At the very least I'll see how Dan feels after his hock injections. If it solves the tongue problem then.. maybe we don't do surgery or postpone it for awhile. And if he's not any better, then... I can still consider surgery. 

He was actually better than I expected overnight. He kicked the gate a few times, but only once each time.. not repeatedly. Good boy sir! I'm proud of you... minus the part where you took off and almost mowed down the vet. 

No photos because it was a busy and long day. But I should have because he was so cute staring at me from his jail cell.

 Vet visit

got loose and ran amuck

so good in the stall all day though... mostly

sore hocks, injected... wait on neck

Confused.... but happy??

Interesting day: lots to ponder

 Lesson with Kelly Eaton: felt phenomenal in his trot. happy to reach into contact. not lame at all. talked about the foraminotomy.... kelly mentioned postponing her knee surgery for 13 years... 

opted to push dan a hair... did shoulder in. Not bad considering... but then his tongue came out and he got fussy. and I really didn't even have him collected at all. not overbent in the neck. kelly thought that it was coming from the hind end, not the neck. cantered.... not great. he was worried. 

cantering left is worse.... wants to go really low in his neck, twists to the outside, . going right though... not great still and wide behind, which is new (per kelly). she still thinks hind end. 

so.. then went for a hack. cantered in the field some. still wants to fall out of it a bit. 

then watched webinar on neck pain..... really suspicious it's all neck.... not hind end. contemplating surgery hard core

but also... so grateful to God for all he's taught me.... how much this journey has changed me... my priorities... how much it has educated me

sunset while spreading manure