Jack update and jumping Jay 24/10/16

Jack is now nearing the end of his confinement as ordered by the vet last week so I will be trotting him up tonight to see how he is.  The good news is that on Bute he has been looking sound and much more comfortable over his hips and pelvis so I'm keeping everything firmly crossed that this continues now he is being weaned of the pain killers.  Vet is happy for us to try him tonight so we will see how that goes then make a plan.
He has been living out 24/7 in a tiny little paddock since last week which has actually not done his waistline any harm despite no work as he has had access to very little grass and I've been feeding hay in the field.  We move onto our winter grazing soon and I want him on the lean side so he can stay out a bit more!
He's looking very hairy and scruffy now and still rug free so if he is able to get back to work my first job will be to clip him out and clean and tidy him up a bit! 

While Jack has been off games I went to ride my friends pony this week, she has been doing really well and won lots of Dressage classes on him this year and one of the young girls on her yard has been doing a fair bit of jumping with him.  I've not ridden him in 6 months and the improvements in his balance were really clear, he felt much more consistent and stronger.  He's been jumping lots of lower level classes 50 - 60cm heights and has done well jumping a lot of clears recently.  Jumping him felt a little strange at first as I've not ridden anything but Jack in 6months but we were soon enjoying ourselves and he jumped really nicely for me.  We had a bit of trouble with a double which I had not sat him up enough for and he knocked both parts down with his front legs but when I got my act together and rode him up in to a stronger contact he jumped it beautifully.  He is a great little eventing pony in the making and I'm hoping I might be able to steal him a bit next year and maybe do some arena eventing over winter!

Finally and very exciting news to finish is that this little blog has been selected as a finalist in the Haynet equine blogger of the year 2016 awards!!  I still can't believe it!  The winner is chosen 50% on public vote and 50% on judging panel decision so I am hoping everyone who reads this blog can get behind us and vote for us by following this link https://surveyplanet.com/57fbbe270fd7773010cf4632
It only takes a few seconds and your support would mean so much to me so thank you in advance for your awesome support!

Vet report instead of competition report 19/10/16

Sadly I am unable to write a competition update for you as worryingly Jack has been lame for the last few days meaning we had to withdraw from the combined training competition we had entered last weekend. 
He had seem slightly unlevel on Wednesday night while I was out for a hack but it only lasted a few strides when we first started trotting and then disappeared so I assumed he had just stood on a stone or something and didn't give it too much thought.  He was fine in the ménage on Thursday so I carried on as normal.  My plan Friday was to clip him and then go for a short hack.  This is where the problems started!  Firstly I put some freshly sharpened blades my clippers only to find they would not cut at all and were still just a blunt as when I had dropped them off.  My other blades were also blunt so frustrated I gave up on clipping and tacked up instead.  As soon as I got on I felt something was wrong, I walked him across the yard and he just didn't feel right and when I asked him to trot he was reluctant and clearly lame so I jumped off, turned round and took him back into the barn.  As there was no one else there to help me trot him up I grabbed a lunge line and headed out onto the flat concrete car park to see him moving on the hard ground, the verdict was lame and it looked like his near fore to me.  Next I headed to the ménage to see if there was any difference on a softer surface.  He was as bad if not worse in there so we returned to the barn to investigate.  I could find no swelling, heat, lumps, obvious injuries and he was not reacting to being poked or prodded.  With no idea what was causing the problem I cold hosed his leg and returned him to the field.  Not knowing how long he might be out of action I then rang and withdrew from our combined training competition. Gutting when he has been going so well but there will be plenty of other times.

I had hoped for improvement over the weekend with paddock rest but sadly there has been no improvement.  He was also very lacklustre and dull not showing much of an interest in anything which is unlike him, he's a chilled chap generally but not this much!  In an attempt to prompt some sort of response I put him in the stable in the hope that that would provoke some swelling and help identify or at least locate the issue.  Unfortunately there was still no sign and no improvement either.
So getting concerned I booked the vet for Tuesday afternoon, praying for a miracle to happen before they arrived but not holding my breath.
There is another little issue that has been bothering me a bit for the last couple of weeks where Jack seems to be uncomfortable when he goes to the toilet, so thought it would be good to get the vet to check that out too, it's probably nothing but its best to be sure.
So we have gone from being on great form and looking forward to stepping up a level from competing Prelim to Novice to being on complete rest.

The vet visit last night was a frustrating one which didn't reveal anything conclusive, the vet agreed that Jack is lame in his near fore but she also felt he was not right behind.  She started trying to find the problem with the front leg first but after much poking and prodding, flexion tests and hoof testers nothing was found other than he was reactive to her squeezing the superficial flexor tendon but in both front legs not just the lame one!  She was happy with is back but said his hind end is weak and found him sore over his hips and pelvis.  He is usually sore here when our physio sees him too and seems to be an ongoing issue. This is very disappointing as I have worked tirelessly to improve his back end and I felt we were making real progress but she disagreed and I felt very disheartened.  I'm not sure what else I can do to build the back end as we already used ground poles whenever we school or lunge, do lots of hacking and grid exercises jumping to strengthen him. 
She was not sure if the lameness had cause him to be sore over his pelvis or if him being sore over his pelvis was causing the lameness, or even if the 2 were related at all.
The only good news is that she felt his other problem going to the toilet is most likely due to the pain in his hip/pelvis and should improve if we can get that sorted.

The plan for now is bute and rest for a week he's in the stable at the moment but as he finds this very stressful the vet has said it is ok for him to go out but in a very small stable sized paddock just in case it is a slightly pulled tendon.  Will reassess next week and if he is sound in front he will need to see our physio and start gradual work again and see how he goes.  Hopefully he responds well and we can then start building him back up.

With some bute in his system he already seemed more his cheeky self this morning pulling all his rugs off the fence while I mucked him out and undoing his rope! 

Until next I will be keeping everything crossed for improvement!

Jack is back on form 10/10/16

I'm very lucky Jack is such a resilient little horse!  Just 2 weeks ago he suffered a nasty injury to his mouth that really bothered him but sadly went unnoticed by me as it was inside his mouth (bad mother!).  To make matters worse I made him event with the injury only finding it after arriving home having had a very frustrating day - no wonder poor Jack wasn't performing! 
But Jack being Jack after a couple of days to let his mouth and any other soreness or stiffness settle down he was back to his usual self.  The wound is healing nicely and looking healthy so were able to get back to normal much quicker than I expected.  Its a good job he is so forgiving of me but I am so angry with myself for not realising there was something wrong sooner!

Once I was back on board and he was feeling good I enjoyed the most amazing schooling session on him where he felt fantastic in all 3 paces and produced some of his best ever work for me, he is feeling stronger and more adjustable all the time and his frame and top line have improved tremendously.  I was on cloud 9 when I got off.  I think having been through all we have in recent years it makes me appreciate a nice uneventful ride and I will never again take a well behaved horse that tries for granted.


Now the Winter months are fast approaching my thoughts turned to clipping, Winter feeding and that sort of thing so I recently contacted Bailey horse feeds for some tailored nutritional advice for Jack.  I usually go for low calorie fibre feeds due to his tendency to put on weight easily but often find I need to give him a little extra through the Winter to keep his energy levels up.  I was quite surprised by the nutritionist advice to start incorporating a performance balancer to his diet I had always gone for lite balancers in the past but when she worked out his requirements based on his height, weight, workload, type etc. she found he is not actually getting what he needs and suggested a performance balancer to give him all he needs in a economical way.  I also received some free samples and a voucher so gave them a go and the results were very impressive so far.  Jack has had lots of energy and enthusiasm but no silliness or fizzing up.  This was obvious to see when I lunged him over the weekend and he had a bit of a leap and a buck on the lunge which he doesn't normally do and I wasn't having to chase him round to get him moving he was going lovely and forward under his own steam!
I have to admit I was a little nervous getting on him the next day in case he reacted the same way with me on board but I needn't of worried he was foot perfect!

I'm hanging on for clipping out just yet, he lives out and is still un rugged and doing very well.  He's not sweating up when ridden so I shall wait a bit longer for that!  It's also a job I hate so the longer I can put it off the better!

Yesterday I went for a hack with a friend and again found Jack to be much more energetic and free moving but he was perfectly behaved the whole ride taking the lead the whole way, no silly spooking and the canters back along the bridle path were so much fun, he was sensible but forward going, he felt really connected and I wasn't having to push or pull at all he just kept a lovely forward rhythm without getting too fast or backing off.  I'm looking forward to another schooling session tonight and I've enter a combined training competition at the weekend so will update with how we get on next week.  It will be our first competitive Novice dressage test since before his op but we are ready to step it up from prelim now.

I took this top picture of him a few days ago and thought how good he was looking so I had a look back through my phone and found a similar picture from last summer which is the bottom one below.  Just looking at the 2 pictures side by side, although the lights not very good, I think you can really see the huge improvement in his topline and condition.

Finally eventing!! 25/9/16

Finally after months and months of planning, years of waiting, lots of preparation and good results all year the 25th Sept was the day of the big test for Jack and I, a full One day event held over a 80cm course.  We have completed 1 one day event before back in 2012 before his kissing spines diagnosis which was only over a 70cm course, we did finish but on a cricket score after an ok dressage, 1 down show jumping and 2 refusals at the same fence + a shed load of time faults!
My aim with Jack has always been to event but after this event in 2012 I found out I was pregnant so it was put on the back burner while I had my little boy then, thanks to Kissing Spines, when I brought him back into work in 2013 he was never able to jump properly so it has never happened.
After surgery I hoped he would recover enough to event but I have really taken my time with him building his confidence and strength slowly to a point where I felt we were ready.  He has been fab this year getting placed at every competition we have entered and only had 1 pole down all year in competition so I had pretty high hopes we could do this.  He is jumping confidently at home and his flat work and jumping is the best it has ever been so a prelim test and 80cm sj/xc should be well within our capabilities.
I felt we were ready and walking the course Saturday afternoon I felt quite confident in our ability to complete the course.  The only fence that worried me slightly was the step into water as I felt for an unaffiliated 80cm course that was a big ask when you are not expected to jump into water at BE until Novice level!  We had however practiced jumping into water and not had any issues so although I was expecting Jack to have a look I though if I approach in a nice slow trot so he could have time to work it out we could do it.
The show jumping course looked nice and flowing with plenty of space and nothing scary with 1 double and a skinny to finish.  I was confident walking it that this would be no trouble for us.

I bathed Jack ready the day before but decided to keep to his usual routine and turn him out over night so as not  to upset him, I did however put a full neck lightweight rug on to keep him as clean as possible!  We had very acceptable times of 1pm dressage 1.42pm SJ and 2.12pm XC so no silly early start which is always nice!  I arrived at the farm with what I thought would be plenty of time to plait and load the car, load up Jack and be nice and early to take my time warming up for the dressage.  As I turned into the farm drive my heart dropped, there was Jack grazing in the field with no rug on and absolutely covered in mud!!  It had poured over night and he had had a good roll on both sides. Nightmare!  He has never in 6years taken a rug off so of all the times to do it it had to be the night before a competition!  For a moment I questioned my sanity, had I only imagined putting his rug on?   Had someone thinking they were being helpful removed it as it was warming up?  Had it been stolen off his back in the field?  I couldn't see it anywhere and really didn't have time to go hunting for it so I grabbed Jack out of the field and set about trying to get him clean (again!) plaited and ready in record time.  What should have been quite a leisurely morning with no stress from rushing soon turned into quite the opposite but in the end we got underway only about 15minutes later than planned so it wasn't to bad.  On arriving my other half went off to get me booked in while I quickly tacked up and got myself ready for Dressage.  Jack was being very well behaved and quiet to say we were out in a strange place but I didn't think anything of it.  I was pleased I still had around half and hour to warm up as it takes this long to usually get Jack working well.  I headed off to the Dressage warm up and let them know I was there, found which arena I was in and where to warm up.  It was on grass which I wasn't expecting, I thought it would be in their indoor school!  The ground was very slippery and quite churned up by the time I arrived and Jack wasn't warming up well, he felt lazy and was going against my hand not taking me forward and very hard work to get anything decent from him.  I thought it was due to the ground as he did slip a few times.  Just before my time I headed over to my arena only to find they were running late so I had to walk round for 10minutes until it was my turn.  Jack perked up a bit as we trotted around the arena and in we went.  I didn't have a caller so I had memorised the test, we performed an accurate test with all the transitions and movements in the right place and in the right pace etc. but I felt the whole test was far below par for what I know we can do and I was really disappointed and felt like we had gone back 2years although he was in no way naughty just not wanting to go forward and falling on his forehand.
Putting it behind us I quickly got ready to show jump and took him to warm up.  The SJ was in the arena so I hoped he would feel more confident without the slippery ground to worry about but as I warmed him up he still didn't really seem to want to go, he was jumping but had no enthusiasm and if I had given him half a chance he would have just stood and gone to sleep!  As we entered the arena and the bell went I was determined to get him moving, he wasn't bad and jumped everything but he was getting very close to most of the jumps and we had 1 down, he did improve as the round progressed and we finished with just 4 faults but again I felt disappointed, the course was easy and well within our capabilities.  Was it just the fillers backing him off?  He has been jumping far better than that both at home and at competition so why was he suddenly so negative today?
I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it as needed to change and get warmed up for XC in 30minutes.  Again in the warm up Jack felt very flat and would quite happily of stood and grazed or slept rather then gallop and jump!  I tried my best to wind him up a bit and get his blood up but he was struggling, had I majorly misjudged his fitness??  He really should have been able to complete a prelim dressage test a 8 jump showjumping course and still do XC so what was going wrong?  I wasn't feeling very confident but I knew I had to ride positively to have any hope of getting round.  The course started out quite intensively with 16 fences in 1 field so it was very twisty and turning with not much time between each fence.  We set off out of the start box and with plenty of leg and a bit of whip we got over the first 2 fences but by the 3rd Jack was stalling and he stopped completely argh!  I was so frustrated but circled and cleared it the 2nd time, then we got into a bit of a rhythm and made it to fence 13 a skinny without major issue but 13 turned out to be unlucky for us and we had another stop again clearing it on the 2nd attempt.  14 and 15 were no problem and then we got to 16 which was the fence I was most concerned about the step down into water!  I slowed to a trot then Jack slowed to a walk but we managed to keep moving forwards and popped down nicely hurrah!!  That was the end of the timed section but there were still 5 fences left these were spread out round the outside of 4 adjoining fields with much more space between them and room to get a decent pace up.  We were a bit wobbly over the first which was a double but then we got moving and jumped the last 4 fences well with Jack actually taking me into the fences and feeling like he was actually starting to enjoy it so finished on a better note and wasn't too disappointed in the end.  So lots to work on but its a start!
I went to look at my score and collect my dressage sheet to discover I had actually been in the lead after dressage with a great score of 27.7% over 3 marks ahead of 2nd place!  So what I thought was an awful test obviously didn't look as bad as it felt!  Just think what we could have scored on a good day!
On arrival home I discovered a possible reason for his sudden loss of performance, he had a big cut on the inside of the front of his mouth.  It wouldn't have been affected by the bit but it was probably pretty sore.  I then found his rug in the field with the leg straps torn but the chest and belly straps still done up.  I don't know exactly what happened but it looks like the poor guy had managed to get caught up in the rug somehow had it round his front legs and neck/head, panicked and tried to run, tripped himself up and put his teeth through his lip!  He must have been feeling pretty bashed up the next day and I made him event!  So as you can imagine I felt pretty awful after finding out.  Luckily his mouth is healing well and after a couple of days off I lunged him and he was fine.  I've hacked him a couple of times and he felt like his usual self again and I jumped him yesterday and he was clearing 90cm no problem with his usual enthusiasm, he even looked after my friend who's terrified of jumping nursing her over 60cm which she hasn't jumped in years!