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.
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