I'm pretty sure he would be ok being hacked out but with all he has been through I really want every ride to be as comfortable and fun for him as possible so he is not having any negative ridden experiences to put him off! He's had enough pain and discomfort while being ridden before kissing spines where diagnosed and the psychological effects are taking a while to overcome so I really want to make every ride now a nice one for him that he enjoys.
So I have lunged him most days instead in the pessoa and done various different pole exercises on the lunge to get him working his back end and keep things a bit more interesting. He's lunged well although he has needed quite a bit of encouragement from me to really use himself! I am wondering whether he needs a bit more energy as he seems quite lethargic at the moment I'm also considering putting him on spirulina to help build top line, I know lots of other people who have used it during rehab for KS and recommend it. While I usually shy away from using supplements unless they are absolutely necessary it does seem that a lot of people rave about spirulina for building top line in horses recovering from KS. I think I'll give it a go, it can't hurt and if it helps build the muscles Jack has struggled with and needs to support his back and strengthen his core then its got to be beneficial. The cost is not the usual inflated prices of main stream equine supplements as it can just be brought from health food shops/internet.
I will continue with the lunging for the next couple of days before Tamsyn comes on Wednesday to give him a treatment. I'm really interested to see how he is this time compared to his previous treatment, that was 6 1/2 weeks ago, and I am pretty sure he wont be as bad but only Tamsyn will know for sure so fingers crossed!
When Jack had his surgery back in Feb 15 my best friend asked me if I would like to jump her pony while I didn't have a horse to ride with the aim of taking him to his first show yesterday (12th July) he is only young and Lucy doesn't like jumping but he does so she wants him to get experience and have some fun! I have been going over to her's every few weeks (it's over an hour away) to jump him and over the months have done different exercises to get him ready. He had only ever done a few tiny cross poles with her and jumped a few small xc fences with me last summer so he needed a lot of work to be able to tackle a course. Its not been ideal preparation as I can't get over as often as I'd like but he is keen and genuine and really enjoys his jumping. He has really gained in confidence with every session and tries so hard, he really wants to please!
The day finally came for his first show and Lucy did a lovely job of cleaning him up, she lead Jay to the show ground as she has no transport but the show ground was within hacking distance. When they arrived the rain was pouring and we were all soaked before we even started! The forecast was for it to be dry so I had not even got a coat just my show clothing! I had to walk the course for the eventer trial in torrential rain! I entered the 60cm Eventer trial and the 65cm show jumping. I wanted to keep it small so it was easy for him and nothing too scary so he could enjoy his first experience of a show. We all had no idea how he would be at a show ground as the only thing he had done similar before was a couple of hunts before Lucy brought him! He was very well behaved and warmed up leaving his yard companion and not getting too worried there was just the odd whinny but he listened and jumped the warm up fences nicely. I was waiting to go in with 2 horses before me when I noticed the course was not the same as I had walked! The girl in front of me said the same and we both had a bit of a panic! I had commented that the line from 5 - 6 was very strange to some of the others walking the course with me and we all thought the same so they must have changed it after I had walked it although they said they didn't, anyway 5 was now 5 a,b & c on an S shaped curving line - we had not practices trebles let alone on a curving line so this would be interesting, you could ride it straight if you jumped the jumps on the angle but again this was not something we had ever practiced however I knew Jay would be honest and try his best as long as I kept kicking so on a wing and a prayer in we went. There were other things we'd not practiced like water trays and skinnies but I felt we could cope as the size was never going to be an issue this pony has plenty of jump :)
So in we went and I knew I needed to keep up a forward canter to get close to the optimum time. When I entered the ring I walked him up to the planks at 2 to give him a look as I thought he might be a bit spooky at them, he was unsure so I was glad I'd given him a look before hand. We set out and he jumped the first 4 beautifully, 1 was a simple spread, 2 the planks then related distance 5 strides to 3 an upright then 4 was a skinny water tray. I came back to trot for the water tray as the turn was tight and it was pretty narrow so I didn't want to risk a run out. I then picked up the pace round to 5 but as we made the turn Jay napped towards the collecting ring and we were not on the ideal line, I had wanted to try to jump the 3 angled fences straight but we were too far past the line so we had to jump, turn left , 2 strides, jump, turn right, 2 strides and jump again. Bless him poor jay was pulled about a bit and I had to ride pretty strong but we got through and were still clear! 6 was a skinny then the next few were quite straight forward 7 a parallel, 8 and upright and 9 a skinny all heading back towards the collecting ring. The final fence was another skinny water tray right by the entrance to the collecting ring and unfortunately Jay was getting very strong and heading for the exit, I tried to bring him back and turn him but we were going too fast and he ran out through his right shoulder so we had to circle and regroup to jump it which he did.
Both Lucy and I were thrilled with him and couldn't have asked for more. When the results came through we were 5th just missing out on a rosette which only went to 4th. Without the run out and circle we would have been very close to the optimum time and 2nd so a great result.
We had a long wait for the show jumping class so we got drinks and took it in turns holding the horses. The rain finally stopped and it actually became quite nice. We watched the class before mine and thought the course looked quite easy, nothing too scary or complicated but it was quite slippy and in the end they decided to remove a fence as too many were slipping on the turn to it.
Eventually it came time for us to walk the course and I felt it was going to ride well. There was a couple of related distances and 1 double but nothing difficult!
I got my name down quickly so we were 5th to jump as the class was huge! Jay went in and again I showed him the planks before the bell went.
He started out well but was strong! 1 - 2 was by the entrance and again Jay napped but made the turn and jumped cleanly, 3,4 and 5 were straight forward and he jumped 5 the planks no problem. 6 was the double and he had a tap on the 2nd part but cleared it and then napped a little again towards the collecting ring before going on and jumping the final 2 fences nicely, so we were clear and into the jump off! We then had another long wait until the 16 horse jump off! Clearly the course was riding quite easy! We had qualified 9th to go. A few before us had poles but the time was around 22 seconds which I thought might be a bit beyond us as the final turn was very tight. There was only 4 fences and none near the collecting ring so I though we could keep up a good rhythm. We jumped clear again but were not very competitive at 24 seconds, the final turn was just too tight for Jay and we had to go wider than most to make it. We finished a very respectable 8th out of 16 and could not have asked for more, Jay was brilliant and really gave it his all, with a stronger bit and a bit more experience he will be competitive as he really wants to please :) some piccies below
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