Jack's progress continues to impress! 20/2/17

These last couple of weeks have seen Jack going from strength to strength as he continues to improve and his fitness return to usual levels.  He is now almost in full work and going really well both on the flat and over fences.  I was really lucky this week to be able to hire a local venues large outdoor surface complete with a full set of show jumps.  A lovely friend of mine offered to take us up there in her trailer and take care of my little boy while I jumped Jack round. 
It has been 5 months since Jack last travelled and he was none to sure about getting on the trailer at first but after a bit of persuasion and he loaded up and travelled well.  He arrived looking happy and very chilled out.  I tacked him up and walked him round to the arena while Claire and Thomas went round putting the jumps to a suitable height.  He was on his best behaviour and warmed up nicely even with other horses being turned out and running about in adjacent fields.  I took my time warming him up thoroughly as we had the arena for a full hour and having not jumped a course in 5 months either I wanted to make sure he was well warmed up and ready.  We took things slowly and built up very gradually starting over a couple of very small cross poles and progressing to small uprights then a couple of spreads.  Once he had jumped everything we then jumped the full course before putting a couple of the jumps up a bit higher.  We finished on a great note with Jack clearing a decent 90cm upright with ease and giving me a great feel over a bit of a bigger fence.  He was such a super star and I was so so pleased with him.  We both gained a lot of confidence and I am really beginning to trust him to jump now which is a huge turn around from before his surgery, back then he refused everything and our confidence was so low, we had no trust in one another and I was convinced he just didn't like jumping!  It now seems to be the thing he likes most!

I have recently taken him off Dengie Healthy tummy as he was coming out of Winter looking rather to "well" and really needing to drop a bit of weight before the Spring grass comes through.   While the Healthy tummy is great for his ulcers it is a bit too conditioning for him really as it is designed for horses that drop weight due to ulcers which Jack doesn't.  I have been feeding it at lower than the recommended levels and adding a balancer to ensure he get all the vitamins and minerals he needs, a bit of speedybeet and Gastro-Kalm.  After a lot of research and discussions with nutritionists I have removed the healthy tummy completely from his diet and replaced this with Alfa A lite.  I am also considering changing the balancer to a low calorie one but I am going to hold off of that at the moment as I'm worried he wont have enough energy for his work.  The healthy tummy had a energy content of 11.5mj/kg whereas the Alfa A Lite is only 9mj/kg.  Its a balancing act trying to get the energy he needs without him gaining weight!  At the moment he is out 24/7 and worked 5-6 days a week.  The grass is not providing much energy and he is hungry whenever he comes in so I'm making the most of a bit of a break from all the mucking out and letting him have a few weeks just out in the field and only brought in to work.  Once the Spring grass starts to come through he will be back to being in a night to keep his weight down and might even have to be turned out in his grazing muzzle while the grass is good.

While we are working most days Jack is not quite fully fit yet, I am being careful not to put his ligament under too much strain still so we have not yet galloped plus the ground is just far too wet and deep on the bridle paths and in the fields to do any fast work.  I'm hoping over the next few weeks it will dry up a bit and we can do a bit more canter at least.

His jabs are due next week and I'm going to get the vet to check the ligament and give him a once over to make sure we are on the right track.  He feels fine and is working really well but it would be nice and give me peace of mind for him to have the all clear from a vet now he is back in work.  There is still a fair lump on the back of his ligament so I would like them to have another look at that too, while its not appearing to bother him I would rather know that all is well.

I've also got a lesson booked for the weekend with a lady who taught us at the camp we attended last year, we really enjoyed our jumping lesson with her and her teaching style really suited us.  We have not had any lessons since last summer so I'm keen to see if she sees any improvement in Jack.

Poor Jack has also been having a few rug issues lately!  I'm going to have to get the needle and thread out and do some repairs.  Annoyingly the rug on the right is brand new, I purchased it last year in the sales and tried it on for size then put it away for winter but have not needed to use it until recent weeks as he wasn't clipped until recently and its not been cold enough.  As you can see the neck cover is not doing a good job of covering his neck!  I have contacted the manufacturer but they will not do anything due to the time lapsed since I brought it so I will have to make some modifications myself to stop it falling forward.  They have promised to look into the design in future but that doesn't help me and poor Jack.

Jack's making fantastic progress 7/2/17

I am incredibly pleased with Jack's progress since his Palmer Annular Ligament injury last year, he has come back into work with a much more "can do" attitude and is really working with me.  I think the enforced break has mentally done him a lot of good.  Despite not being back to his previous level of fitness he is actually working much better than before.  I am continually amazed at how much better this horse gets, it's taken a long time to regain his trust and confidence but when I can channel his energy into working with me he can produce some fantastic work and we are managing to get this more and more.  Schooling this last couple of weeks has been incredible and Jack has produced some of his best ever work which has had me grinning from ear to ear.  I've also introduced a little bit of jumping for variety and so far this has gone really well, I started with a very basic grid with ground poles 1 stride either side of a cross pole which he did really well, lots of energy and found it very easy so I quickly popped the jump in the middle up to a small upright which again he flew with ease.  This week I put 4 cross poles up, a 2 strided double then another fence each side of one part of the double so having jumped the first fence I could either go straight on for 2 strides or turn left or right so Jack was kept guessing which way we would be jumping.  Again the session went really well and while I kept the jumps nice and small it was a really good session and with both enjoyed ourselves.
I put a lot more effort into planning our rides these days, I never get on without a plan and I record each ride so I don't end up with lots of repetition.  Yesterday my plan was to work on the trot - canter - trot transitions as I felt this was an area which needed a bit of work, especially the left trot to canter transition is not quite as sharp as I know we can get it.  Having warmed up I started with the easier right canter then worked on the left and soon had it much sharper and cleaner before returning to finish on the easier right transition again.  Having achieved what I wanted and because Jack was feeling so good I decided to have a little go at some medium trot to finish, this is something that has taken a lot of work in the past but as soon as I put him on the line and pushed him on he gave me the most wonder elevated lengthened strides, he was really covering the ground without rushing and felt fantastic, he also came back to me nicely without going heavy in my hand or dropping onto his forehand.  His trot in general has improved hugely in the last 2 weeks and has much more impulsion and elevation.  Dropping on his forehand has always been our biggest issue and Jack is very clever at going crooked and avoiding using his back end correctly which makes it impossible to get him to engage the hind quarters and lighten the forehand although he keeps a nice light contact in your hand.  He falls on the left shoulder a lot and tends to ignore my left leg.  We have had a real break through in recent weeks and I think this is down to the fact I have been focusing a lot on stretches and ground work before I mount.  In addition to the usual carrot stretches I do before every ride I have also been turning Jack both ways on a tight circle and backing him up a few strides, I have also been getting him to flex towards me and move his body away.  Now when I ride he is much more responsive at bending through his body when I put my leg on especially to the left, this has had the effect of lifting his left shoulder and freeing his whole body up enabling him to work correctly pushing more from behind, lightening his front end and being much straighter too.
This has been getting better and better in the last few weeks and the difference feels fantastic!
I am so pleased with him, I am even planning on entering some Dressage Anywhere tests during February if I can get someone to help me mark out the ménage and film me!
Jack should be fully fit in the next couple of weeks and with the nights drawing out we should be able to hack more often so things should continue to improve as he gets stronger WOOHOO!!!!!