A cure for a horse show hangover

 

Oh how lucky am I?! I'm so grateful that I took today off. I figured I'd be exhausted from RRP and didn't know how late I'd get back. (Not that late) And I'm so glad because I did NOT want to work today. Especially since I'm hurting from my neck surfing and fall. It was quite a damp and chilly day. I slept in (a tiny bit) and did some housework in the morning. I was waiting for it to warm up a bit to go ride. Finally around 1:45 I headed out. As Dan and I pulled out of the neighborhood, it looked rather dark and like it might rain. I checked the weather app and it said "moderate rain from 2 pm to 4pm". Seriously?! Ugh. I almost turned around. But... I didn't. And I'm so glad I didn't. 

We had an awesome ride. And we never got rained on. It sprinkled a tiny bit while I was driving to Ashland and then Mike said it rained at home for a good hour while I was gone but it never rained at Ashland. Thanks God! We did a quick walk around the small lake and then up the hill in the cross country field. Then we went to the arena and did some dressage work. I wanted to feel him out. He felt pretty good. Not perfect.. maybe I could still feel the odd hind end lameness a few times. But it wasn't consistent and not as obvious as it has been. And he was pretty happy to work. Though, honestly, I expected him to be feral! He's had over a week off. He got Prostride in that stifle almost 2 weeks ago. It was cold and windy. He should have been FERAL! But he was the opposite. He was almost a slug! I mean... he wasn't a slug. He went. He just was kind of lazy. Okay. :) 

We had a good ride though. Nothing crazy and probably only 25 minutes in the dressage arena. We played a little bit with some lateral work and our canter work. His canter felt very collected but soft though. We even got a good canter to walk once. Interesting. At first I was worried but then I realized it was a nice lovely canter. 

He was a super good boy and I didn't want to get him tired or fatigued so we had some good canter transitions and called it quits. And hit the trails. He was even more of a slug on the trails so we basically went to the lake and back. Lazy bum! 

 

 

I got in yesterday afternoon and they were all happy to see me. Dan was happy to have his butt scratched. Welcome home Mum! Doh!

Easy Day

 I actually never did really see what Dr. Barrow suggested after the Prostride, but I know she said ideally three days of stall rest but at least one day in a stall and two days off. At least I think that's what she said. So... we did that day of stall rest and overnight and then he got turned out. And then today we rode. So he got all of Tues off after his injection and then Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off. So today... we went for a hack. We kept it short and laid back for two reasons. One, Dan didn't need to be rowdy yet and Two, Arwyn and Kelli came with us. And Arwyn hasn't done anything in eons so... easy day. Which was great because it was SOOOOOO beautiful out and I would have been tempted to do more. 

     

We headed off for a hack and went to the XC field, then crossed the creek and went behind halfshire via the magical path. Then Kelli had to stop and pee so I took Dan for a little trot around the halfshire field. He was really upset about leaving Arwyn so our trot was a bit... awkard. He wouldn't go at first and then he was power trotting like a hackney. Hee hee. It was making me giggle. He felt good though! We got back to Arwyn and then he was fine again. 

   

We headed to the wire hayballs and then back to the lake. Dan had a short little splash session and then we went back to the trailers via the woods. We did stop in the arenas to do a soundness check for each other. Dan felt pretty good but maybe I still felt it going left. It was more subtle than in my lesson with Kelly Eaton the other day but he was also not working as hard. I thought I felt it for a step or two as we changed direction. But he didn't feel as haunches in or braced in the neck. So... yay! Good enough. We maybe trotted like.. 5 minutes max and decided that was enough. Then we watched Kelli and Arwyn go for another 5 to 10 minutes and then we headed back. I have SOOOO much to do. Me and Lyric leave for RRP on Monday, so Dan will likely get tomorrow through the following Sunday off. Hopefully I can ride him that Monday since I took the day off to recover... and then Tuesday too! Then Thursday and then Friday he gets his feet done. And x-rayed. And hopefully by then he'll be feeling super and the Prostride will have really kicked in!

He was silly today. He almost seems like he's getting his feelings hurt and is jealous that Lyric and I are doing things. And today he was super curious all day. :) I love him so much!

 

 

 

Still resting

 Today was still Dan's rest day so... no riding. But he was at least turned back out. Of course when I took the manure spreader out they came to investigate. And then I hopped off to spray those rogue bradford pears that were trying to sneak back up and they were all being nosy and on top of the tractor. When I started it back up they all took off. He looked pretty happy and comfortable. :) 

Hopefully on Saturday I can take him for an easy trail ride. (Not a fitness field day of fun!). And then Sunday I'll probably be busy packing and then he'll get a whole week off, so... I'll probably be in for one heck of a ride come Monday! 

I'm hoping hoping hoping (and praying) that he's just due for his injections vs tapping out because of the work load. It's like everytime I get to training level eventing and start toying with 3rd level dressage... he falls apart. But at least this time I know that I've done everything I can for his neck and stifle and maybe, just maybe, it really is just time for his stifle maintenance. And we can at least maintain the current work load for a bit rather than having to back off. But we shall see I guess. 

Vet Visit

I was tempted to ride Dan this morning before our vet visit because the lameness really only shows up when he's fatigued and it's pretty subtle and intermittent. BUT... I ended up dragging the arena and setting up the small dressage ring (just the corners and some poles, nothing fancy) and the grid for Lyric's prep and by the time I finished that, there wasn't enough time to ride. So.. we didn't. Which, was probably a good thing.  

We got to the vet clinic and I unloaded him. And he noticed the halloween decor. And he got about 19 hands tall and his eyeballs were bugging out of his head! Hee hee... He was brave though and it didn't take long to convince him to go say hi to "bones". And very quickly he sniffed him and I was able to snap this photo. And then he was fine. 

I told Dr. Barrow what was going on and that it had been a year since we had injected his stifles and maybe it was that.. or maybe it was all feet. Jillian jogged him for us. She's so good with him. He likes her. He looked okay to me on the the straight away but as soon as we put him on a circle... Crap, the boy is LAME!! Yikes. Like... dang, that's not subtle or intermittent. That's bad! Granted it was on concrete and granted he'd been off bute or previcox, but jeesh. I felt so bad for what we had done in the field the other day now. Sorry dude! No wonder you weren't happy to jump. Dr. Barrow tried to flex his stifle and he swung out at her. Um, no sir!!! He let her flex it a bit and then trotted off more lame, so... yep, time to inject that stifle. I opted for Prostride this time. He did well for his injection and hung out til his drugs wore off. We headed home and unfortunately he had to stay in a stall for at least one day. I gave him the patio and the little section of grass too in front of the gate. But it was hot enough he spent most of the day in the stall. I locked a friend next to him too, so he was happy enough. I left him and Funny in overnight and they were remarkably quiet. Or I was tired enough that I slept through it. I did hear them first thing in the morning. I ended up just turning him out and going back to bed briefly before I went back out to feed. He still looked sore.. almost lame at the walk. But, I know it'll take awhile to kick in, so.. don't panic. 

ahhhhhhhhhh

 Today was a weird day. I think it's somewhat PMS... somewhat... life?? I almost didn't want to ride. And I've been busy and have a ton to do and felt like I wasn't accomplishing much. But I did get up and go for breakfast with Mike. And then when we got home, I opted to clean out the gooseneck part of the horse trailer to get ready for RRP. That took me awhile but.. it's all cleaned out and somewhat organized. At least until I get more packing done. So that helped me feel more accomplished. And then... I didn't know what I wanted to do. I felt like I needed to ride, but... I kept putting it off for a bit. I finally got motivated enough and decided that I would ride Lyric and do some dressage and then ride Dan. Although I was tempted to take both of them to Ashland for a trail ride. But I felt like Lyric was going to not want to get on the trailer. I couldn't decide if dressaging at home was better than hauling to Ashland. And I thought that after I rode her, I could hack Dan around the neighborhood. Or maybe take him to Ashland, but... it would take up so much more time. Sigh.. Anyways, so I went out to catch the ponies and gave all 4 cookies. I gave Lyric her cookie before Dan's, so after I gave Dan his, I went back to catch her and she... started to walk away from me. And kept walking. And kept walking. Sigh... My feelings were hurt. My ... "pride" was hurt. I want to be a better horseperson than that. I don't want my horses to walk away from me. Sigh... So I turned around and Dan was there and... didn't move away when I put the halter on so... guess we ride Dan! 

Thanks for making me feel better buddy. Of course he did his "must stop and poop or pee" 3 times on the way to the barn. And then... I decided... I really just didn't want to ride at home. I really wanted to go hit the trails. I didn't want to dressage again. And since Lyric clearly wanted the day off... why not!? I called Mike to make sure he didn't mind and then Dan and I headed to Ashland. 

We were the only ones there and it was a gorgeous day. Warm and toasty, and poor Dan has already fluffed his coat up, but a lovely breeze and not humid really. We tacked up and Dan was cranky. Sigh... I swear... I feel like I'm doing all the things for these guys... why are they cranky? :( (Okay... Lyric, I know why...). But I bribed him with some cookies and he was better. He was still spooked about the upper arena but not nearly as bad as last time. We tacked up and put the dragonfly on and headed out. He wanted to go to the little dam so we headed that way. We walked for a good long while and I picked some random different paths to try to get some hills. Then I decided to do some fitness so we did some long trots. I also practiced pushing my heels down and putting my weight on my heels vs my toes. Yeah, I can feel the burn. We then ended up in the halfshire field and had a little canter. They were fluffing hay in the hay fields so I knew that the tractor was out there. We decided to canter from the halfshire field to the open hay field and our timing wasn't great. Ha! We came around the barn and the corner right as the tractor did. I didn't think Dan would care honestly. He saw it. It's a tractor (not a sprinkler)! But maybe because it came up on us quick.. or because he could.. he spooked and ran hard right, almost ducking behind the barn. Hee hee. I don't think the tractor guy even saw us. Luckily I managed to not get tipped off and got him stopped and then we came back out and carried on. hee hee. I was on a mission...  a cantering mission. 

We did a bit more around the field and the other field. I tried to get some right lead canter too but everytime he got fast on the straight aways he would swap to the left. Oh well. He was huffing and puffing now because... it was a fair amount of cantering and again, it got hot again and he has a coat. Plus he STILL doesn't have his doxycyclene for his cough. Ugh. I ordered it a week ago! It better come tomorrow. 

Anyways... we did lots of walking to relax and then trotted alongside the creek. Then I let him pick his path and he picked the great northern to go straight up. Lots of butt work! We ended up in the XC field and I wanted to make sure he was still sound. Or see if he wasn't. He definitely worked hard today and while he was more in "long trot" mode and not collected mode, he occasionally felt like he was getting a little weak behind. So I wanted to feel him out. We went to the flatter area and picked up the trot and he felt great. So then we cantered and he felt great. And then.. I wanted to jump at least one of the new XC fences and thought that the novice table looked fun. So we cantered to that. He stopped! What?! I honestly don't think he realized we were jumping. I circled and came back to it and he was fine. So then we carried on and he was looking at the new trakehner. I know buddy, me too! Me too! So... why not?! We did. He jumped it like it was no big deal. So then we carried on and did the cabin and then I wanted to do the table again. We went downhill this time and he sort of slid as our striding was off. So then we did a few more jumps to get some good jumps in instead of the awkward distance we were getting on occasion. Then we cantered down to the lake and had a good splash! Even by himself, he had fun and played today. 

Then we walked back and he wanted to take the long way, so we did. Ahhhh... I think we both needed that. We both enjoyed ourselves! Although I do feel a little bit like he's not quite wanting to sit down and use his hind end. He was happy enough to lope along and be a little more strung out. I think that's partly why our jumps weren't great. He was fine and did them all and some were even pretty, but... it wasn't quite the same powered up feeling it's been the last few times. So even with the bute.. I think there's still some soreness. Or reluctance. No chomping or tongue issues, but... all the same. I'll give him some bute tonight since we did a lot and then he can be without until Tuesday when he gets checked out. I also will give him tomorrow off. I can't decide if I should ride first Tuesday or not though. He tends to show it more when he's fatigued... so maybe I should so they can see it. Because it's still sooooo subtle. 

Anyways... good pony!! The dragonfly hung on for the ride too!