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.
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