Of course Jack managed to injure himself while I was off too but luckily it was nothing serious, he must have managed to get his hind hoof caught on something (heaven knows what!) as it was quite badly cut above the pastern and on his heel. When I returned from holiday the injury was already few days old and hadn't been spotted by my friend who was keeping an eye on him as it was in a pretty inconspicuous area so had not been cleaned or treated so it was weeping and oozing a bit, I gave it a good clean up and after a couple of days it was looking much better. He wasn't unsound on it so I wasn't too concerned.
I have had some good rides since our little break and Jack has been behaving and working well both hacking and in the school. I have schooled a couple of times and approached it in a slightly different way. Rather than worry about getting him long and low and stretching his back at the start of the session I have simply got him moving with no pressure on his mouth at all. I have walked trotted and cantered on the buckle end in a light seat so he can move freely forward and encouraged him to open up more and get going regardless of the shape he is making as long as he is going forwards.
This seems to be working and he then picks up much better and works better into the bridle and we have had no discussions about the forward transitions which is a big improvement :)
He has also been hacking well and behaving himself when out on our own.
Back in the autumn of last year i was lucky enough to win a photo shoot with my horse thanks to Becci Harrold Eventing and Chrysallis photography, after having to rearrange the shoot a couple of times due to typical British weather we finally got the shoot done this week and had a lot of fun. Jack wasn't so keen on having a bath in the colder weather we've been having but he scrubbed up well. I've not seen the edited photos yet but I'm looking forward to going to the studio in the next couple of weeks to pick out the ones I want to have printed and framed for the wall. I've never done anything like it before but Chris was great and made me feel at ease and Jack helped out looking pretty and pricking up his ears for the pictures, I will post some pics when I've got them.
Every September our local rotary club puts on a charity ride, our yard owner is heavily involved and we have been a number of times in the past. I was unsure this year about going as a 12 mile ride seemed like a lot after quite a bit of time off lately, I wasn't sure how fit Jack would be and didn't want to give him a bad experience asking him to do something that was going to be too much for him. After much deliberating I finally made the decision at 8am yesterday morning to go and do the ride with my friend Claire on her cob Rango, they would not be going flat out as he is not built for speed so we could take it quite easy and she was happy not to jump and take the shorter 9mile route if need be. So at 9am we were down the yard getting the boys ready! I was a little nervous but excited too! To be on the safe side I gave Jack a good spray with the instamag instant calmer to help keep him from getting too excited, it is after all a year since he had done anything like it! In fact the last time he went anywhere other than the vets or rehab centre was this ride last year!
He loaded up straight away with no fuss or hesitation and we were on our way, it is only about 10minutes to the ride so we were there in no time and tacking up. The boys where both calm and behaved while we got sorted despite the busy car park and buzzing atmosphere.
The last time we had done the ride the previous year we had been in a group of 4 and the horses were all quite hyped up but this time they seemed calm as we headed down to the start. We were joined by 2 others from the yard so we set off as a group of 4 but soon split back up as we were going faster then they wanted to go. All was going well and Jack was behaving despite there being lots of other horses in front and behind, that was until a group of 3 behind us decided they would like to over take and canter off in front. That was too much for poor Jack and he spent a lot of time snorting, stamping his foot and dancing about but bless him he never did anything wrong although it was obvious he was upset and really wanted to go! we held back until we had got a good gap between ourselves and the ones in front and behind and then had a trot and canter to try to settle Jack back down. He jogged most of the way round but managed to behave!
When we came to the first real open field we had a good gallop up the hill where there were 2 small xc fences at the top. I had pretty much decided I wouldn't jump as had no dependable lead horse and no whip (claire def wasn't jumping) and I didn't want to put myself or Jack under any pressure, however to my delight Jack spotted the jumps and just took me to them jumping them beautifully. I was over the moon, he felt amazing! After that we didnt look back with lots of canters and gallops and Jack and i jumping all the fences on the way round the ride full of enthusiasm and confidence, we had such a good time and even gave others a lead he was flying and feeling so good :)
We finished the 12 miles still galloping with more in the tank! It was a wonderful feeling and I was grinning from ear to ear! Jack is obviously fitter then I realised!
What a great decision it had been to go along, I can now confidently say Jack is physically recovered from his kissing spine surgery!!
For the first time since all his problems started I can actually imagine us back out eventing again next season - woohoo!!!
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