I got my truck back!!!! On to Aiken

Stableview...


Hauled great... got there... drama with the hook up.... schooling fun...

show day: dressage was steady.... stadium was insane/weird.... then XC was good

hauled home not so great...

Helmet cam link

Riding with Kelli

Fun dressage and show prep then hack

Dressage Zen

Still no truck... which means no trailer.... which means riding at home. Sigh... BUT... I decided to ride dressage today and we attempted to hit the "arena" behind the old barn. I was a little afraid that the bugs would be awful, so I put his fly mask on for the ride. But honestly it wasn't too bad. We had a fairly decent ride. It started out okay and got better. There was a few funky steps, but once he warmed up, he seemed more like his usual degree of "lameness" rather than the head bobbing feel I was getting the last ride. So.. yay for that! 

And.. I'm so grateful to God. It's hard to not get stressed and upset about how I want my truck, I want to be showing and doing and progressing... and upset about Dan's lameness issues and why I can't solve them... etc, etc, etc... Whether I should show or not... I was thinking about it and how I just need someone to tell me what to do. And it dawned on me that someone... should be God. Not a trainer, not a friend, not even the husband. So.. I prayed on it. And I'll be honest.. I prayed that God would give me an answer.. but not by making my horse more lame, or my truck not ready, or something drastic. I admitted that I was stubborn and "hard of hearing" and I know it often took something dramatic, but.. to please just let me know. And.. you know.... we kept riding.. and Dan felt better and started to have fun with it. We got some nice mediums across the shorter diagonal. We had some good walk to canter transitions.. We got the lead every time. And... I felt at peace. I honestly felt like... "Okay... we're gonna be fine if we go to Stableview this weekend"... AHhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Thank you God...Thank you! 

So... we finished up our ride with a short hack. Which Dan cut shorter by cutting off his corners to get back to Fleck, who was neighing sadly and pathetically for us while locked in his stall. hee hee. Poor Flecky. 

And it was hot!! So... this was the only photos we got. :) 

Well......

I got up early this morning to sneak in a ride so that Mike and I could go to the lake in the afternoon. It was hot and humid but not quite as miserable as it could be. 

I ended up putting up some more jumps and set up a grid from my Jimmy Wofford book. It was just a basic grid because.... I only have so many poles and so many jump cups. So... I warmed him up. And sigh... I gave him bute, but it maybe hadn't kicked in yet... that's what I'm hoping. I feel like he felt worse. Like more head bobbing, but maybe better behind, just more obvious head bob. Sigh.... So I did a little bit more and then called Mike out to come video for me. It's hard to tell on the video because the ground is so bad. I definitely see it in spots. So... argh!! I'm so frustrated!! And then.. because I'm frustrated and a terrible mom... since Mike was there and could video... and I wanted to see my jumping position on video again... and because I wanted to play on the grid that I had just put up... I popped him over the vertical twice and then had Mike video us through my grid. We did it twice. He jumped great and moved forward to it, but there is still a right drift. I just did it twice and then we quit. 

BUT.... I have to say... for only going through it twice and him being a smidge behind my leg over the first jump... I'm quite pleased with our form! His and mine. :) So yay for that!!!

Now to just hope that he feels good enough to do Stableview this coming weekend and then we'll do Chatt Hills as a "Golden Oldie" two weekends after and then Windridge. Again... assuming everything falls into place!

SOOOOO HOOOOTTTTT AND HUUUUUUMMMMIIIIIDDDD

So.... I didn't get my truck back so I couldn't enter Silverthorn this weekend. Of course, after I volunteered to scribe and realized I was supposed to be there at 7 am, I realized I could have asked Peri to borrow her truck and trailer. But... at that point it was so already past 8 pm and... I would have had to go get it and leave at 6 am the next morning and... it just wasn't worth it.

So I got up and volunteered and had fun. Kelly was the judge! It's always fun. Then after the lunch break I jumped judged the two novice XC riders at 3 fences. Then I hung out a bit before heading home. At that point I had a migraine and was exhausted and the storm had hit, so it was extra muggy. So I came home and since it was wet out.. I just didn't have the motivation to ride. Especially at home. So I took a short nap with Mike and then... it was actually quite pleasant out with the storm rolling in, but.... we ended up going to dinner instead. And by the time we got back, the rain was starting. So.. no riding for me. 

But I got these cute photos from the other day. :)

Big Day!

Gracious!! Poor Danimal. He was so good today!

So.... I got up early and got him fed and let him eat some hay. Then I adjusted him. Then just as I was finishing Freddie showed up and gave him his pedicure. We decided to try him without the wedges today to see if it would help the funkyness I'm feeling. And Freddie watched him go (barefoot) and thought it looked like stifle too.  He also said that he's been bearing more weight on his left hind the last cycle or two. And then we talked about how wedges will sometimes hide stuff, so perhaps it was a good idea to leave the wedges off so we could really evaluate him at his vet appointment today. So we did. Danny was typical Danny.. fidgety.  But not bad. 

So then I let him have a few more minutes with his hay while I went back inside and grabbed a few things. Then we hauled over to Ashland. (Oh, my truck is STILL in the shop, so I went to Liz's yesterday and borrowed her truck and trailer. Bless her!). So we hauled to Ashland and I only had a hour before we had to leave for Canton, so.. we put in a super quick dressage school and a quick trot to the lake and back. Dan felt funky for the first lap but then he actually felt more symmetric to me. He felt looser, but more symmetric. So... ??? Who knows. We played around a bit with the counter canter 3 loop, tear drop, some simple changes, some leg yield and some shoulder in. Oh, and some lengthenings. He was great!. Then we went and splashed in the lake for a minute and trotted back home. 


Then we hauled to Canton for his vet appointment. And poor guy. He's too long for the slant load, despite it being an extra long... So there wasn't room for his hay net! So... he was a good boy and just hung out the whole long miserable ride to Canton. Basically.. Dr. Molony thought it was right stifle. We blocked it medially and no real change. Then we blocked it laterally and he actually looked lame on the left hind. Sigh... But his right hind was reaching and seemed more comfortable. So then we ultrasounded the stifle and nothing looked alarming. Although we're going to relook next visit as since we had blocked it, it was a little hard to see. So.. the plan is to leave the wedges off for a cycle and see, give him some bute in the meantime, and then, when his blocks wear off, we'll IRAP his stifles. But we'll do both medial and lateral on both stifles. When we injected his stifle back in January, we only did the medial side, which is hopefully why he didn't respond very long. And before we IRAP, we'll ultrasound again to make sure. We also x-rayed his left hind, which looked way better than his right hind did even a year ago. So hopefully it's just compensation. So.. that's the plan. 

Which means.... I can show! Not this weekend, because I don't have a truck, but... next weekend at Stableview.. and then also at Windridge, which will be my last chance to qualify for AEC's (well, I guess I've got Full Gallop too). Which... not really sure I can afford all of this, but... freakin' A.... I've worked so hard for it... or at least ran in circles and attempted to accomplish this... So we'll see. 

Danny was funny at the vet. Of course. He was his usual goofy weird self. Not a bad boy.. just annoying. ;) They love him though.

Then we came home and I let him pee and then hosed him off because he was so sweaty from the sedation and the trailer ride. He was sooooo hungry (again, no hay while on the trailer) that he was eating hay and NOT EVEN ROLLING YET!!! Wow!! I fed him dinner and tossed another flake of O/A in his stall while I cleaned out Liz's trailer and then moved it out of the pasture so he didn't chew on it. By the time I finished that, he had snarfed up that whole flake of hay! I turned him out and he ate for a few more minutes of the oat hay before he finally rolled in the dirt. Gracious! That was a hungry pony!

So.. fingers crossed!!!