Repercussions

 Well darn. When I pulled Dan in to ride today I noticed a scrape of missing hair on his left forearm, that wasn't there the other day. I'm not sure if he just finally lost the hair from the gate or if it's a new wound. And then I noticed that his right forearm seems a little puffy... and feels a little edematous. Fluidy... more than edema I guess. Darn... did you hurt yourself flipping bud??

I decided to go ahead and groom and tack him up and feel him out. Worst case scenario, I'd just get off. So I groomed him and then I tried to find the rib he needed adjusting (per Liz) and then I found a big ol' knot and some heat in his nuchal ligament on both sides, but in different spots. So I worked on that. And once he realized I was working on him, he got into it. So... I'm not sure if that's a sore muscle or just actual muscle in a non-muscled area.. ha ha. But it was tight. And we got releases. I also did some work on his scapula area and... kind of feel like I was feeling some of the "yuckies" come out of him. He releases a few times, so hopefully at the very least, he felt nice. 

We tacked up and headed to the arena. I walked around a good bit and we did a turn on the forehand and a turn on the haunches both ways. It was quite nice! Good boy. Then I picked up the trot. And ugh.. he feels lame. Although he felt lame behind. It sort of felt like his "usual" lameness just a little worse. Like.. he worked out of it, and it was super subtle, but.. it was there. I tried to do a little bit of trotting to see if he'd really work out of it, but... while it got better, it didn't resolve. 

 

I figured I'd just try a quick canter to see and.. he said no. I mean... bless him, he said yes and tried, but he was clearly struggling hard. I tried both ways and interestingly, the left lead canter was harder today. He kept starting off with the right lead but we finally got it and it was awful and he wanted out of it, so I let him. The right lead wasn't as much of a struggle but he wasn't happy or soft in it, so I pulled him up. It's okay bud... we'll just give you another day or two off. 

 

Either he's just super sore from the gate incident, or he's sore from the combination of that and the long haul and the showing and finally he's just had enough. Or maybe I'm willing to hear that he's had enough since there's no show. (Although to be fair.. he definitely was happier cantering before today!). Or maybe he's just due for injections again?  I don't know. I'm going to hope and pray that it's just combined soreness from the show and hauling and then the bad life choice he made. I hate if he's more uncomfortable again, but... since I'll be out for mid Dec to mid February, I don't want to inject anything now. I guess I could shockwave, but... I'll probably give him another few days off and then reassess. Or just take him for a long walk Tuesday and then see how he feels Friday or Saturday and then decide what to do. He'll either be better or worse. Or I suppose he could be the same. Unless he gets worse, he's fine to do walking trail rides, so.. we can always just do that until February and then I'll do another lameness exam and work up. And I'll probably adjust, acupuncture, bemer, etc, all the things, plus shockwave him before then. I was contemplating doing a western dressage test or two at Ashland. Mostly because it's the Halloween show and that's HIS JAM! But, I'm pretty sure Kelly Eaton is the judge, which means it won't count for Western Dressage scores anyways, and... if he's sore.. that's not fair. But he is fun to dress up. Oh well. I'll see how he feels. Maybe he'll bounce back quick and I can reassess. 

Poor life choice son....

For the love Dan... FOR... THE.... LOVE!!!!

I have no idea what goes on in his head somedays. I got up early because the farrier was coming at 7:30. I timed it so that I could feed them at 7:20 so they would be done eating but not sitting in their stalls forever. Because... Dan. So I accomplished that and they were eating. I was a few minutes early so I decided to go grab a bowl of cereal. While eating it I heard some commotion but figured Dan was just banging on the door, like usual. I ate super quick and went back out and noticed that Dan's door was open to his stall. Fine... I closed the patio gates since I can't shut Funny's door, so.. no big deal. I was going to let him loose anyways once Funny was done eating. But I was impressed that he was able to slide the latch on his door and open it.

I was walking out there to check to make sure that they hadn't beat each other up when Dan started walking towards the gate. I saw the wheels turning and as I was saying "Don't Do it DAN!!!!!" he looked at the gate... took two trot steps and then launched himself over it! NO SIR!!! It's a decent sized gate and it's also on an uphill slant, so the poor guy really didn't stand a chance. He mostly cleared it but he's not super tidy up front, so a front foot snagged it and pulled him down and then he sort of slid and somersalted the rest of the way. Somehow his front foot got hung in the gate as one of the wires slid under his shoe. And he landed on the gate. 

WHY!??! WHY are you like this??? At least... he laid there without flailing.... just..."Mooooommmmm... a little help here". Lyric was still in her stall but Funny was loose, so I immediately ran up and tried to pull his shoe loose. Thank you God that it came loose easily and then I was able to push his front legs over and then pulled the gate out from underneath his hind legs. And then he jumped right up and took off! I slid the gate out of the way and then freed Lyric before she freaked out and then both girls took off too. What on earth is going on?? Why are y'all so spazzy!!!? I have no idea if Dan was just big mad and got pissed and then the girls got jazzed because of him or if something spooked him and made him decide to jump out. He didn't seem frantic though when I saw him look at the gate and make the decision to jump it. It was calm and cool. So... who knows? Of course they all ran around like idiots. I'm guessing that me trying to pull the gate off the hinge and get the chain unhooked didn't help as it made a bunch of noise. And then I had to flip it over the fence into Fleck's patio, which is closed off because his stall is now full of hay. Good gravy. I decided at that point that Patrick was coming at 8, instead of 7:30 so I just let them run around a bit. Finally they settled and then I heard Patrick's truck so I went out to catch them.

Thank you God because Dan didn't have any wounds. He had a tiny little bit of missing hair on his forearm. And even managed to keep all his shoes on. And he was certainly sound looking as he was galloping around like a fool. Somehow Funny had a knick on a hind foot. I don't know if she clipped herself or what, but... it was only a flesh wound. 

We did Dan first because... I wasn't going to try to lock him in again immediately. He had settled down but he was still in a weird mood because he bit me. Like the little pinch between the teeth kind of bite. Oooooh... I"m so over you!! We managed to get him shod without any other issues. And then I stuck him back in his stall, with the door closed. But he was okay to sit there and eat hay. Weirdo. Grateful that it was the case, but still... weirdo!

After they were all done he got to go back out for a bit. And then I rode Lyric first because I needed to coordinate with Jean using the arena. But then I took him to Ashland. I was waiting for him to be a twit going to the trailer but he wasn't. We got to Ashland and saw a friend, who was laughing at me and Dan cause she had seen my post. She was telling me about her young horse who was the same as Dan. Yay... I'm not alone in the world. ha ha. I told her that I would love to ride with her but I felt like Dan and I needed a solo ride because I didn't know if I was going to have a sore horse... or a rowdy feral one who needed to long trot the whole time. He's only had 4 days off after his show, but apparently... 

 

So we went out by ourselves and we had a lovely ride. He was quite good. He felt a little bit sore/stiff but... it's hard to tell because he often feels a bit wonky in the walk. I did a bit of trotting to feel him out. The first couple of steps he felt pretty lame behind. Go figure! Your stifle is not happy jumping anymore, especially not 4' gates from a downhill and then flipping over them! And of course he landed on his right side too. But then I picked up the trot again after a bit longer and he felt good. We ended up doing a bunch of little trots here and there and he felt better. So yay! I'm sure he's a little bit stiff and sore, but... not my fault! I really don't feel bad for you! Except I kind of did by the end of the ride. He was a good boy. Although he had ONE moment of temptation. He thought about sticking his head down and bucking, but I pulled him up and told him no and he didn't fight me on it. Good boy.

 

I kept is slightly short as I didn't want to make him super sore and I was already later than I had meant to be and still wanted to ride Funny. And maybe drag my arena before Hurricane Isaias hit. So we headed back in.

 

And at dinner he was back to his normal self. Pissed about the stall but not frantic or attempting to escape. Granted he did open his door again. So I guess I'm going to have to switch stalls and put him in the open one or find a way to lock his. Or just accept the fact that he can't be contained anymore. Sigh...

 

Poking the bear

I can't with this kid... ha ha..

Mike was having a bad day. He was trying to fix his motorcycle and it was not going well. So he was rightfully annoyed. I was feeding the horses and I had given them their joint supplement and cookies and was making their grain. I always leave their doors slightly open when I'm "cooking" their dinner, so Dan was able to poke his head out. 

Mike came in the aisle and was standing in front of Dan and was venting. And Dan was behind him making all sorts of stink faces and threatening him - pinned ears, snarly face, snapping teeth. I'm just watching like ....oooh, this isn't going to end well! And suddenly Mike realizes and spins around and was like "Do you have a death wish horse? Clearly I'm angry... back off" And he swung his arms at him and chased him back into his stall. But then as soon as he turned around, Dan came back at him... poking the bear.

Ooof.... Luckily Mike had vented enough and walked off by then. 

 

Oh and then earlier... I thought I was taking a pretty photo of Dan.... I had to zoom in with the camera. And then later... when looking at the photo.. I see the tongue! Dammit Dan! ha ha...

 

Regionals Wrap up

 stayed to watch but decided to leave before the cattle trials. did watch linda and lindsey go though

5.5 hr drive home took 7 hrs. UGHHHH. dan did great though and was not too fussy, so good boy.

he gets a few days off! maybe even the rest of the week

photos: 10-26 regionals champ

video of grazing

Regionals: EOH

Ease of Handling Day has arrived!!! And with it, the weather. Luckily it wasn't as bad as it was originally predicted and we had the covered to show in. Not to warm up in, but to show in. :) 

 

Because it was misting when we woke up, Dan didn't get to go out in the roundpen. I figured he'd get filthy and I didn't really want to have to give him a bath and then try to get him dry in time. Plus we had our course walk first thing. Granted I had about 2 hours between the course walk and my ride because they did reverse order of go. I got his mane rebanded as it was starting to look a bit like a circus pony instead of a western banded mane. Then we did our course walk. I walked it with my new friends which was nice. It was actually a pretty easy course. Not really any tricky lines... everything kind of came up right in front of you, with only one reverse line. I just had to make sure that I did the bridge the correct way. And a few of the obstacles came up quick, but we were trotting instead of cantering so it wasn't bad. I stayed and watched my two new friends go and videoed them as they went early. And then I watched a few other rides. There were a few bobbles. I think the covered arena was a bit scarier when you were the only horse in it. And there were also spectators watching now. My poor friends mustang got really upset in the corner at the bell corridor. She told me that she hoped that Dan fared better... she was sad because her guy was in the warm up with all the other horses, then had to go inside alone, and it just threw him off. I sheepishly told her that I didn't think it would be a problem for Dan. He kind of likes to show off. He thinks he owns the arena... and all his adoring fans should be fawning over him. But we'll see. 

 

 

And then it was time to get ready. ACKKKK!!! It wasn't raining too terribly hard but I did have to dry my saddle off before I got on. And we definitely got rained on the whole warm up. The footing was getting a bit sloppy but he warmed up great. We practiced the gate once and the garocha pole twice. We did some tight turns and some stops and starts. But I didn't want to drill him. Partly because of the footing and partly to just baby his stifle. But he felt pretty darn good and ready, so... we rested some... then we did some more. And then finally.. it was our turn. By that point, there was no one in the arena with us as we were the last rider in our division. But Dan didn't care. And he didn't care going into the covered. We adjusted our pole.. then the judge blew the whistle and it was go time!

   

And it was awesome! I was grinning the whole way because he was just about perfect!! He had a nice big trot in between obstacles. He wasn't as bent as he could have been by the bleachers because he was looking to make sure his adoring fans were adoring properly. Hee hee. He was so good though. He just happily trotted along and did all the obstacles almost perfect! (In my opinion!). We did accidentally bump the standard with his butt on the way through the gate but he barely bumped it and otherwise it was a very smooth and quick round. (We ended up scoring a 5 on that, which... honestly, felt a little rude. It felt like the scores on tempi changes... where you get a 4 whether you have a skip change, late behind, or completely mess up your count or do a simple change. But like... I feel like a tiny little bump on the gate standard in an otherwise smooth and quick gate should have been more of a 5 or 6 even. I know it's not a 7, but.. jeesh! Oh well. ) He did the livestock pen nicely and our turn on the haounches was great! And we speared the ring on the bull line and he didn't even try to get quick! There was no "charging" like at stableview. hee hee. We got lots of claps when we finished! I was sooooo proud of him. The whole ride just felt happy and smooth and simple. GOOD BOY!!!! I even messaged Judy and Kirsten and was like "I think we just won this!!". He felt THAT good! 

 

Except....We ended up second in ease of handling by 0.5 pts!! The girl we beat in dressage, beat us in Ease of Handling. Doh! So that meant we both had 14 points, so we were tied. I didn't know how they broke the tie breaker, but turns out they average your two scores together and the higher score wins. So since she only beat me by 0.5 pts and I beat her by 2 points... we won!! We were Region 7 L1 champions!!! Whooo hooo!!!

 

Regardless of whether we had won or not, he was so good in EOH that I had already decided he was going to get to get turned out in the roundpen, knowing full well he would roll in the mud. And at least it had stopped raining. But he deserved it! Except then it dawned on me that we had our awards ceremony at 5 pm. So... I ate lunch and watched the other riders go and then went and got him. And he was FILTHY! Ha ha...dude!! But that's fair. And expected. Sadly, he had to get another bath. And I had to get back into my clothes, which luckily had dried in the trailer. I decided to ride him in the awards ceremony because he deserved it. He earned our championship! Although I suppose he might have preferred just being led in, but... I also still don't 100% trust him to behave in a halter. Ha ha. Sad, but true. So I got back on and we were ready. But they were not. They needed another 45 minutes or so to set up the award banner and such and get organized so.. Dan and I hung out... we made new friends... we walked around the arena and took some photos... Linda took some photos of us. And eventually they called us in. 

 

They took our photo in front of a big banner and with the judges. (Think Quarter Horse style) Polly handed me a garocha pole and asked if I wanted to pose with it. Yes!! Cool. I was thinking it was a photo prop so when we finished I tried to give it back to her. She handed it to Linda... who then handed it to me and I tried to give it back to her. She was like "you idiot, you WON it". Oh wait... what?!? I won the garocha pole?? YES!!! How cool!! Ha. I can't wait to tell Mike that I don't have to use my cheap trashy flimsy pvc pipe one!! I rode back to the trailer carrying it and he was perfect. But dang that thing is long. It was hard to fit in the tack room. I'll have to haul it home in the horse part.    

Then he got untacked and got to get turned out again for a bit before bedtime. We had the competitors party also so I got dinner again and then they had a bonfire, which was nice. It was three fire pits. I ended up helping them move the course and reset it for the speed rounds for tomorrow. Even though Dan and I were done, I had decided to stay til Sunday to watch Linda's speed round and I was hoping to maybe even stay and watch some of the cattle rounds!! But also, by the time we finished awards, it was close to 7:30 and I wasn't about to drive home then! 

 

I'm so proud of him! And again, so grateful to God for this opportunity. Who would have thought that we would have qualifed and then won Regionals our first year out?! Now to see if he can hold up at L2. But we get to do speed rounds so he'll LOVE that!! :) I think. If not... that's okay too. We had a great season, learned alot, made new friends, and found another fun thing to do together. And I like to think he enjoyed having me all to himself this weekend again.