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!

Another successful outing 23/8/16

Jack has been ticking over nicely recently, schooling well, jumping great, hacking nicely and generally being a dude!!
He had a few days off last week as I went away for a long weekend.  The day before I went I jumped him, I set up some technical but small fences to get him thinking.  One exercise was 2 fences 1 at E and the other at B I started by jumping each individually then linking the 2 together before jumping them on a 20m circle on each rein.  I also set up 3 skinnies 1 on the centre line and 2 on diagonals so I could jump them a variety of ways and Jack didn't disappoint jumping everything easily.

As the weather has been pretty hot again since I came back we've been down to the river a couple of times, schooled and lunged.  He's been fab so I decided to take him jumping at a local venue in a trailblazers 1st round.  I've never done trailblazers before so I didn't really know what to expect!  The show jumping wasn't due to start til after 12pm and I was entering the 4th class so wasn't expecting to need to be there early meaning I could get him ready in the morning.  Having bathed and plaited and tidied him up a bit I managed to load him with not too much messing about and then we were on our way.
 I was on my own and had not been to the venue before so I managed to miss the turning and have to perform and u turn in a gateway with a trailer!!  Not the best start!  I was feeling a little frazzled by the time I actually got there then I found myself having to reverse down the drive as I met another trailer coming out!!  I'm getting the hang of reversing now though and actually it wasn't too bad! 

Once parked I opened up the trailer but left Jack on board where he was safer while I had to leave him to go and pay my entries and work out where I was, what class they were on etc.
I was please to find there was not a huge amount of entries and so I quickly paid and went off to get Jack tacked up.  He was happily munching away on his hay chilled as you like!  Having tacked him up I hopped on and went down to the main ring to check how they were progressing, still 2 classes to go so I stood and watched a few jump to learn the course. 

When it came to walking the course there was no one around to hold Jack for me, so having watched several jump I decided what the hell, I know the course I'll just go for it!  I then wandered up to the warm up ring and gave Jack a nice long walk around to relax and loosen off.  He was a little uptight about a small pony that was whizzing round and some people walking down the other side of the hedge but he soon settled and felt relaxed. 

I gave him and walk, trot, canter and jump and was really pleased with how he was attacking the fences and taking long ones instead of his past trick of chipping one in!  I then went back to see how close they were off starting my class.  It was still a few to go then the course would be put up and another chance to walk it so I took him for another wander round and kept thinking maybe I should go back and walk the course!
 I knew I was 8th to jump so once they restarted my class I jumped him another couple of times over the warm up fences and went down ready to go in.  Having listened over the tannoy I knew there had only been 2 double clears when it came to our turn and they had both been quick.  It was a 2 phase competition so if you went clear over the first 8 fences you went straight on and jumped the timed jump off section.  Jack and I entered the ring ready to give it our best shot and feeling pretty confident but immediately Jack backed off my leg spooking at the banners and poles around the edge of the arena.  The bell went and I could not get him to go past a pile of coloured poles on the floor!!  Nightmare!!  He was having a right mardy about them and was trying to back away and spin from them but I needed to pass them to get to the first fence!  It felt like a life time and I was starting the think I was going to be eliminated for taking to long to jump the first fence!  I was kicking and using the whip but he was just getting more wound up so I stopped and decided to let him look for a few seconds then tried again and thank god he went passed it and started listening!  We turned to the first fence and that was it, we were off.  He jumped beautifully making it feel really easy and we were clear over the first part of the course so after fence 8 my competitive side came out, I kicked him on and we flew over the double at 9 and got a tight turn to 10, so far so good!  11 was on a related distance and I had seen it was riding either 5 or 6 strides, obviously I'd not walked it but knowing Jack I knew he would try to get 6 in so I kicked on and went for 5 but he thought otherwise and got the 6 in anyway which slowed us down a bit, it did however mean that I could turn really tight to the final fence and through the finish for a double clear!!  YAY!!  With a few still to go we were in 2nd place and that is where we stayed :) it also meant we have qualified for the 2nd rounds - good Jack pony!!  I'm absolutely thrilled with him!!  He felt fantastic and we both came away having another confidence boosting experience and a qualification under our belt to boot!  I couldn't really have asked for more except maybe no napping but you can't have everything!!
 

Anniversaries 2/8/16

This week Jack and I have 2 big anniversaries, as of 31st July I have owned him for 5 years!  Where did that time go!  This is us shortly after I brought him although I had had him on loan for over a year already at that point.   

The 2nd is that as of 2/8/16 we have now reached 18months post KS surgery and I feel so lucky that this little horse is one of the success stories.  At times its been hard and heart breaking and rehab has been far from smooth sailing with secondary issues with hocks and SI but I am thrilled with how well he currently feels.  He is jumping and schooling better and better all the time getting stronger and more supple thanks to lots of ground work, hacking, strengthening work and stretching plus the support of a fantastic physio and a whole load of patience!  I have to say despite the hiccups along the way it has also been the most rewarding thing I have ever done with a horse.  To see and be part of such a transformation is a privilege.  This horse was depressed and aloof due to being in so much pain before surgery, he just wanted to be left alone, didn't play with his field companions, had no energy or enthusiasm and would stand for hours with his head down looking thoroughly unhappy.  He now greets me in the field with pricked ears and comes trotting to the gate, there is no grumpiness or reaction to being groomed or tacked up and ridden he is the best he has ever been. 
We are looking to starting having some lessons in the next few weeks with a new instructor and will be taking part in some SJ shows before our first unaffiliated ODE in September - ekk!!   
Due to the hot weather and hard ground I have mostly been hacking for the last few weeks but following a bit of rain and our hay field being cut I have been able to go for a good canter and gallop round the big field which has been great for Jacks fitness, it's on a slight incline so its quite hard work and also has a few steeper banks to really get him working from behind and strengthen his hind quarters.  He finds it quite exciting and it took me an hour and 20mins to wear him out the other night but we had a blast galloping about!
Last night he schooled beautifully and we used 4 ground poles on a 20m circle working on rhythm in walk, trot and canter.  It was the best he has done this exercise especially in canter where we were getting a lovely, even 4 strides between each pole and hitting them all spot on.   Good Jack!
We had a great jumping session last week too with Jack really attacking the fences and keeping up a nice, forward rhythm.  We jumped corners and brush spread and a skinny and it felt all very easy!
I love how confident he now feels jumping and I am able to adjust the stride and actually affect his way of going rather than just hoping we get there on a good stride!
More of the same this week hopefully :)

A step closer to our eventing dream 16/7/16

Today I took Jack for a cross country schooling clinic at a local college.  They have a nice little course and I've wanted to go for a while as I thought it would be a good place to build both our confidence levels.  Last time we had done any xc had been the first time in nearly 3years and was on camp, Jack had not been easy on that occasion so I was feeling a little nervous but I was hoping his out of character behaviour was down to the sheep that had been in the field and that he would be calmer this time!  Luckily I was right and actually Jack was very calm and chilled out, he seemed more interested in trying to eat the long grass! We had a walk round and a chance to look at the course which had a bit of everything but all nice and small and I felt everything was within our capabilities.  After a chat with the instructor and a trot and canter round we started with a walk through the water, I went first and I let Jack pause and have a look and sniff the first time but as soon as I gave him a squeeze through he went.  We then went on to trotting and cantering through before adding a log on the way out and Jack was brilliant, the only problem was he wasn't very forward going so I popped on some spurs and that livened him up a bit!  From the water we went on to steps and started with just a very small step up followed by a step down, Jack was a little hesitant on the down step and looked to go round it instead of down but I held him straight and gave him a little kick and off he popped easy enough.  We did various step combinations and Jack was soon cantering up and down happily so we put the steps and water together with a small ditch and a little roll top, I was thrilled with how well Jack did the ditch as that was what I was most worried about and we had not even looked at it before jumping it but he jumped up and down the steps well, flew through and out the water and was in a lovely forward rhythm, we hit it on a perfect stride and he never even looked at it!  We finished with another lovely jump over the roll top.  Next we strung together some more jumps we had not looked at, starting with tyres to a house, a sheep feeder, then step up and down and finishing over the ditch.  Both other people had stops but Jack jumped everything first attempt no problems and I could feel we were both starting to gain confidence and trust each other and enjoy ourselves!  The session continued like this and we even managed steps out and into water!! I was absolutely thrilled with how well Jack went.  He far exceeded my expectations and we have both come away with a massive confidence boost.  I'm looking a possible competitions to enter now! No pics as I was on my own 😔
Also over the last few weeks we have had a session with a natural horsemanship trainer where we worked on building jacks trust in me.  It was really interesting and very beneficial. We started with join up and in just a few minutes Jack was following me around the menage like a puppy!  We then did lots of ground work over various obstacles including tarpaulin, wooden boards, hoops etc all of which Jack tackled without hesitation.  I don't know for sure but I'm pretty sure it was so easy because we had join up!  Next session we are going to work on loading and then look at transferring the ground work skills into our ridden work!

We've also enjoyed some nice long hacks and we've actually had company a couple of times this week which makes a nice change!  Jack is definitely feeling stronger!  We've got our big field free for riding in from this weekend as the hay has finally been cut so I will be able to go for some good fittening canters/gallops round there in the next few weeks and hopefully we can get a few jumps out there too.
Schooling is still going well and I did some grid work with Jack last week where I set up a bounce to a stride to a bounce, it was a pretty intense question, although I kept it small, but Jack did great and it really helped get him sitting back on his hocks.
He also done some lunging over poles which has got him picking up his toes and flexing his hocks.
With all this work he's looking a great condition!
Hopefully we can transfer all this good training into good competition results!

27/6/16 Red rosettes!

Following on from my last post Jack enjoyed a chilled out week in the field, eating too much, exercising too little and as a result getting a bit porky while I was away at the beginning of the month!  We had a lovely week away and whilst I wasn't so thrilled to be home to all the washing and back to work I was keen to get back to Jack!
Arriving home at lunchtime on the Saturday gave me time to get him in for a much needed brush and a lunge in the afternoon in the pessoa and he was certainly ready for the attention and work!
He lunged well and had plenty of energy stepping through, using his back and light on his feet.
It was really hot on the Sunday so I didn't ride until later in the evening, I took Jack down to the field by the river and gave him a good long walk, trot and canter round the field for an hour, the ground was too hard to gallop so I had to keep reminding Jack to take it steady!  I finished by taking him down into the river which was pretty low, he even trotted down the bank and straight into the water, good boy!!  A massive improvement as up until recently he would only go in with a lead!

Due to staff shortages I had stupidly agreed to do some overtime at work that week which meant I couldn't do anything with jack until later in the evening's however it was so hot during the day that that actually worked out ok. I lunged him again on the Monday as I was very short of time, hacked on the Tuesday and schooled on the wednesday.  The schooling session was one of our best yet with Jack doing some super trot work, very responsive with plenty of energy and lots of enthusiasm, adjustable and really trying.  I was beaming when I got off!  I then loose jumped him Thursday and was again really pleased with his energy, attitude and enthusiasm with him deciding he was having far too much fun to fit a stride in between my ground pole and the jump so he would just bounce it instead!!  A good way for him to be so positive to his fences as I was planning on taking him to some show jumping Saturday so wanted him thinking forwards!!
He had an gentle hack on Friday as I wanted to keep him fresh to jump the next day.
The jumping I was taking him to Saturday afternoon was organised and run by a local riding club, it was a casual competition not starting until 11am and didn't require bathing, plaiting or even show attire, you could just rock up straight out the field and have a go!  My kind of show!!
I got Jack in from the field at 12.30pm and then as usual had some drama with the trailer, this time it had been blocked in!  Fortunately my friend Cherry was at the farm and able to help me pull the trailer out by hand to hitch up and then with a quick brush we were ready to go.  I got him tacked up ready and then went to load,  Jack did have a bit of an issue loading but it didn't take too long and we were soon underway.  The show was within hacking distance but I needed to be back before 5pm so I took the trailer so I could stay later.  We were there in no time so I parked up and met up with my OH and little boy who came to cheer me on and take pictures.  It was very quiet with only a few people milling around so I quickly went off to find the secretaries tent and see what class they were on.  They were just finishing the 55cm class and I had wanted to start with the 65cm so I quickly paid and jumped on to warm up.  Despite being in a huge open field with plenty of distractions Jack behaved beautifully and was very relaxed, almost too relaxed really so I took him off for a bit of a gallop to get him a bit more excited!  He then warmed up nicely and jumped the warm up fences well.  This was only our 2nd time jumping on grass in open space and the 1st time excitement had got the better of Jack so it was nice to be able to ride and not simply cling on!! We went in to do our 1st round in the 65cm knowing a clear would win the class and managed to jump a slightly sticky but clear round for the win! Lots of pats for Jack but I knew I needed to get a better rhythm for the bigger fences.  We were also entered in the 75cm class so I look him back to the warm up and worked on his canter getting him more open and up to the bridle to help clear the bigger fences and again we jumped the only clear for another win!  The rhythm was there now and feeling confident we entered the 80cm class, this is the biggest class we have attempted so far since surgery and Jack cruised around for yet another lovely clear.  Definitely our best of the day, lovely rhythm, good strides and felt easy!  This time we had to jump off as there was another clear, they went first in the jump off, a nippy little pony who produced another clear with lots of tight turns but I felt the time was beatable.  I took Jack in and we went for it from the off but sadly we went too fast and flat to the now 85cm upright first fence and took out the top rail.  Still I couldn't be happier 3classes and 3clear rounds and just 1pole in the jump off, and 2red and a blue rosette, not a bad day at the office!
I felt elated, we have not jumped clear at 80cm before and now I know it's possible!
Unfortunately Jack decided he didn't much want to go home and took a fair bit of persuading to go back in the trailer, so a bit more loading practice needed!
He enjoyed a well deserved day off on the sunday!
So onto the next week and boy did it rain!  To be fair the ground needed it but not 7days of it!  I still managed to do something with Jack everyday but 1 but I felt our schooling session wasn't quite up to our usual standard of late, however the school was very wet and full of puddles and I put it down to that.  We got in a great fitness session down by the river having plenty of canters and even got some gallops in too now the ground had softened up.  Jack was super and felt fit and ready to go, unfortunately we don't have anything planned at the moment!

This last week started out with a frustrating schooling session where I felt we took a step back and I really struggled to get Jack as soft as normal especially down the left rein, he was falling through the left shoulder going very crooked and even did a few bucks in right canter.  This got me worried, what was the reason for this sudden drop in performance?

The next day it was a nice afternoon so I decided a bit of fun was in order and took him for a gallop round the fields, we were having great fun until some dogs came into the field chasing round jacks legs and upsetting him.  Once they had gone it took a while to settle him back down but we finished by jumping some of the piles of wood and hedge cuttings left by the farmer!  As we headed home I got a distressing call that my little boy had fallen while in the playground and needed to go to hospital so poor Jack got trotted all the way home then flung in his stable and left while I dashed to school and then hospital.  Luckily Claire was on her way to the farm and turned him out for me.  My little boy had broken his elbow and was put in a temporary plaster cast which meant the rest of the week was spent at home playing nurse with no ridding and a happy Jack getting fatter in the field!  

I did mange to ride on Saturday and decided to see if we could improve this left bend issue in the school.  I set out 4 poles on a circle and by the end of the warm up already felt he was better.  We worked on rhythm, bend and yielding to my left leg.  It actually turned out to be a super session and I came away much happier that I was just not riding anywhere near well enough last time and expecting Jack to carry me!  When I rode properly Jack did everything I asked and more!

We've got a couple of xc clinics booked in over the next few weeks and hopefully some more competitions after these.

Having fun, this is how it should be!!

Jack had a session with our fantastic physio last week for the first time in 4months.  I always look forward to Tamsyn's visits hoping she can see and feel the same sort of improvements in Jack as I do.  I really value her opinion and she has been so instrumental in getting Jack right, I don't know where I'd be without her!  With how well Jack has been going for me in the last few months I was keen to find if he has been working and using himself correctly as I think!.  I'm pleased to say the answer was yes! Tamsyn gave him a good check over, working out a few sore and tight spots for him but she was very pleased with his progress since her last visit.  His top line is strong, he's put on muscle evenly on each side of his spine, no problems over his back, a little bit sore behind the saddle (due to now using the muscles in that area properly to collect more on the flat and to jump bigger fences) and a bit tight in his off hind hamstring.  She assured me these are all normal and due to him working harder and using himself better and he should be even better now!

As I lunged Jack the other day I studied his way of going, his stride, how he was using himself etc and I realised something - he has totally changed his way of going, he is much softer through his whole body, is taking more weight behind, much softer in his neck laterally and is freer through his shoulders!  This last week alone he has developed a more uphill way of going, particularly the canter.

I am having so much fun with him at the moment, this is how it should be! He is being such a good boy, working well, relaxed and happy and we are both enjoying ourselves more than I ever imagined possible back in the dark days when Kissing spines were making him a grumpy, unhappy and un-rideable horse.
This week we have enjoyed a couple of really nice hacks, once down to the river where we did about 30mins canter work (didn't gallop coz the ground was a bit hard) and then splashed down into the river to cool off, something we have never been able to do before without a lead but he went in happily all on his own so another big improvement!

I've also managed a fantastic jump session where Jack jumped up to 1.05m with ease as you can see from the pics below!  He was flying!  Such a huge improvement, from knocking down and refusing at tiny fences pre surgery to taking strides out and giving them plenty of air post op!  With a bit of Xc schooling I think we might just be ready for a little ode soon, he's fit and more than capable on the flat and show jumping!  However he has only seen solid fences once since his op so we need to rebuild a bit of confidence there before we try entering anything competitive.  

I love this pic although my lower leg is awful and I got a bit left behind I just love how he picked up a long one and cleared it with so much ease and with ears pricked!


Making nothing of 1.05m 

I was a little concerned as he seems a bit uncomfortable being shod this week, he has had some issues being shod behind since his operation, we think due to si pain, but he had shoes off over winter and when the first set went on 8weeks ago he seemed so much better so I thought we had cracked whatever was causing his discomfort, certainly he didn't seem to have a problem when tamsyn checked him and he's been working brilliantly so I was quite surprised to see him struggling.  It was when the farrier was picking up the near fore he was that seemed to bother him rather than the hinds so it maybe a completely different issue but I will need to keep an eye on it.

I'm now off on holiday for a week so he will be turned out 24/7, it probably won't do his waistline much good but it will do him good to switch off for a week relax and if he does have any little niggle causing him to be a bit uncomfortable hopefully the break will help it settle down.
We will see if there is anything which needs further investigation if he's still not right when I return