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Here we go again!
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Over the past two years, due to circumstances beyond my control, I have had to bring Sassy back into work about 6 times following a severe leg injury at the start of 2008, then a cough, then complications from the injury and so it went on. She has just had 7 weeks off because I had to take a break from riding and now I am ready to start again. She is turned out 24/7, usually by now she would be in at night so this is new for me. She is doing really well, is too fat and too hairy. She only gets 1 scoop of Hi-Fi Lite with 1/2 cup of fibre nuts and a chopped apple each day. While not riding I have been walking her out along the lanes once or twice a week as therapy for the hock spavin which has resulted from her injury and also to condition her feet as she is barefoot. I have also lunged her occasionally but not for too long as it is not good for her hock. So now she is feeling very well and I have to get back on! I will have to lunge her a bit first, as much as I dare. Mostly the quarter horse breeding in her keeps her sane but occasionally the mustang comes out in her (it is supposed to be Appy but I swear sometimes it's mustang!). On Monday I tried to lunge her but the cold wind was blowing right along the arena and the ponies next door came galloping up to the fence and then having set her off, they turned and galloped away, well that was it, she was hurtling around at 90miles an hour, she never pulls away but just goes faster on a smaller circle leaning in like a motorbike, far from ideal for a hock spavin! I spent 20 mins getting her attention back, then she started again, so another 10 mins then finally I got some attention and calm work from her. I was so fed up that I put her out without her tea thinking I need to adopt the 'you only get fed when you work approach'! Today I decided to strap her down rather than lunge her on just the halter! I put lunging roller on plus bridle with reins tied loosely to the side rings. Well no sign of the mustang today, she was so good as were the ponies next door! 30 mins of mostly jog with some faster trot and a little loping each way. The hock was stiff but she worked through it OK. She got her tea! Will try and fit it another session tomorrow and hope to ride at the weekend. If you don't hear from me again........
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18 Comments
Ooooh I can so associate with that! I remember previous winters thinking 'riding is out, I'll lunge or round pen for 15 mins or so' - and then finding myself as the central cog as one hoss or other plays 'Pronking Wall of Death' around me for 40-odd mins... Not Fun!! Fingers crossed that Sassy settles back quickly into her 'job' and you get started again without further incident...
Hi Sarah
Know very well what you're going through, having had three convalesent horses to deal with this year. Chin up and keep going, you'll get there in the end!
Know very well what you're going through, having had three convalesent horses to deal with this year. Chin up and keep going, you'll get there in the end!
Thanks both, I thought it might be interesting to other people who have to go through similar. We'll get through it OK, we have every time so far. Have not made any more progress this week as I have been suffering the after effects of the 2 lunging sessions. Following cataract surgery my brain has been struggling to make sense of my "new eyesight" and it is making me feel sick and dizzy at times which is not helped when Sas whizzes round. Normally I would be able to stop her but I get dizzy so quick it is all I can do to stagger out of the way. Found out today I need glasses to wear all the time, hopefully that will help me.
Watch out next year for the blind person riding the 3 legged horse!
Watch out next year for the blind person riding the 3 legged horse!
Well, I am still here! Have ridden a couple of times, no fuss, no dramas, just back to normal. Now we need to work on our fitness and stiffness (not necessarily in that order)
I have decided not to ride until the New Year (after I get back from seeing my daughter in the USA) KD will really be full of herself by then!!
Rode in the school on Saturday for 30 mins, did lots of "see how fast we can walk, see how slow we can walk" then same again in jog and rising trot, a couple of circuits in lope each way. Careful to avoid too many small circles and turns because of her hock. Did some flexion at halt after she had warmed up. She is a bit heavy in front but for now we will live with that as I need to concentrate on getting her hocks moving first. During the session she tripped behind about 4/5 times once quite badly in lope. This has been the case each time I have brought her back into work so I am not surprised. I will need to to careful with the amount of loping as there is a moment in a lope stride when all the weight is on one hind leg, it is better to get her trotting out as the weight is always shared between two legs. I realised in the summer that this was the cause of her 4 beating in lope on the right rein when her hock was really sore and this eventually led to a really sore back. Bless her, she rarely shows lameness, she just toughs it out and tries to find ways around the pain. She will definitely need another steroid injection in the hock early next year. Today we hacked out for an hour, she was perfect, walked out nicely, alert but relaxed, one handed on a loose rein the whole time. I am grateful for the many hills around here, an hour walking up these hills helps to keep that great big backside in shape! (Hers, obviously not mine!). Fforecast says we are getting cold icy weather which could put a stop to our progress, the arena freezes really bad and the lanes are always very icy. We will do what we can when we can!
That's a really good update, Sarah, looks like you're making real - sympathetic - progress! The weather forecast doesn't look quite so bad for this week as forecast last week, so hopefully your arena will stay usable? Ours was so sploshy yesterday so I just played around really but today got some real work done at Moreton Morrell which was just fab, both hoss and I really enjoyed ourselves. I'm hoping for some hard frosts though so I can get out riding around the farm again, it's just slippery, slidey mud at the mo :-(
Hacked Dee out today for the first time since August - I seem to have my sparky little girl back. Bless her, even though she was quite excited by a couple of horses in front, she remained her normal obedient self - she will handstand and cartwheel in the round pen, but as soon as she has a saddle on she behaves. Keeping fingers and toes crossed that the light at the end of the tunnel really isn't a train this time. It's been 15 months since she went lame.
If you want mud - come to Pembrokeshire - we're over our knees in it after 16 inches of rain last month!!!! We're virtually limited to roadwork until the horses are a bit fitter.
If you want mud - come to Pembrokeshire - we're over our knees in it after 16 inches of rain last month!!!! We're virtually limited to roadwork until the horses are a bit fitter.
Great news Anne, so glad you are back in the saddle too! I thought it was bad enough around here but sounds horrible over there in Wales. I dream of living in a sandy place! Keep us updated on progress
Made the effort to ride this morning before the bad weather arrives. We did some flexion and indirect bend circles in our warm up, got into jog pretty quickly to keep warm. I gently "suggested" that it would be better if she did not lean on the forehand quite so much, and she obliged. The neighbours ponies were lined up along the far end of the arena and I find leg yielding over towards them is a good way of reminding her that when under saddle she has to listen to me and ignore them. I also use leg-yeidling if she is being spooky at all. I like riding patterns in the arena, today we did "scribbles", elongated figures 8s up and down the length of the arena and about 1/4 of its width, moving over a couple of feet each time until we have covered all of the arena. We do leg-yielding across the middle of the 8 to change direction. Most of the session was jog with a nice bit of medium trot, no loping today. I try very hard to vary the work I do with Sas because she anticipates so much . Sometimes we have a "no loping day" and other times doing nearly all loping in a short sharp session. She tripped 3 times today, each time when changing either pace or direction so a slight improvement.
OOHH I envy you having an arena. I'm limited to the round pen and hacking. Dee did her first 30 min hack out today for almost 5 months and found the hilly bits on our lane very tiring. Heart is semi fit now, and is at that awful 'gosh I feel wonderful' bursting with energy stage. She's not 100% with traffic which can be a little challenging. The joys and challenges of horses in winter!!!! NOT moaning though as we've actually got all 4 riding horses in work.
Riding? What is that? Oh yes I vaguely remember. Well I did say it had been a stop/start year for us and now we have stopped again "due to circumstanaces beyond our control". Life is all about getting water to the horses and then taking it away again in the form of ice! I am thinking of try ing some ice-skating on the arena. It was minus 7 up at the stables this morning and even my attempts at doing a bit of poo picking failed when I realised it was too firmly frozen to the ground to shift! It is however very pretty and festive looking. The horses seem to be coping well which is the main thing.
Yes, it looks very pretty, but so lethal underfoot. Our lane is just about passable in a 4x4, but even that slides around. Mares are confined to quarters, Dee because she just hasn't been turned out for 4 months, and Heart because we just daren't risk her on the frozen ruts after two years rehab. The geldings potter about gingerly. Soaking hay is interesting - luckily we have hot running water adjacent to the stables, but we are getting through propane at an alarming rate. On the plus side, manes are getting trimmed!!!
Well I did manage one brief ride last week but no hope of riding in the near future now that the weather has intervened. Last weekend I made a rather sudden decision to move Sassy back "home" mostly because of the threat of bad weather plus my reluctance to do much driving my eyesight improves. So she is happily installed in her old home just 100 yds down the lane with our 2 pet sheep as companions. I was worried that she would miss her horse companions but thankfully she has settled into the old routine really well and now that the snow has arrived I am really glad that I moved her. She will stay here until the end of the winter. No menage to use here, or tack room, but when the roads eventually clear we will risk "death by tractor" and do some hacking up the hills.
Looking back through this I realise I have a record of just how much (or little) I have ridden over the past few months. Looks like Sas is getting the winter off like it or not! She is well and is turned out all day every day. Like a lot of people I am thinking we will need "to hit the ground running" when we do start to make up for lost time BUT I have to consider her injured leg also having brought her back to Abberley I no longer have an arena to use on site. So when the weather allows we will start hacking up the hills. She is going to be very fresh though so I need a plan and it had better be good!
Sounds like you might need an extra-long hill! Do you have one close to hand?
It seems to have been so long since I last rode my horse that I am starting to forget what this equestrian pursuit is all about. Think I might end up hitting the ground while horse's legs keep running, at this rate!
It seems to have been so long since I last rode my horse that I am starting to forget what this equestrian pursuit is all about. Think I might end up hitting the ground while horse's legs keep running, at this rate!
Well it seems it is very much a case of taking opportunities when you can these days. I managed to ride Sas out on Sunday for the first time since moving her. I persuaded Dave to walk the dogs out with me and opted to lead her to the end of our lane, past Tornado (Shetland stallion). Tornado is experienced at upsetting all the local horses by galloping up and down his fence and it is over 2 yrs since Sas last saw him. As expected it was all very exciting and by the time we got past him both Sas and i were dripping with sweat. However we carried on and once she settled I got on and we all enjoyed a Sunday afternoon stroll around the lanes. No fuss or dramas for the rest of the ride and we and she barely looked at the mountains of bin bags at a couple of places (due to no rubbish collection since before Christmas because of the snow) and I rode her back past Tornado without too much fuss. Planned to ride out alone first thing this morning but we had thick fog so had to abandon it and tomorrow snow is forecast. Have pencilled in a hack with a friend on Thursday but not holding out much hope at the moment.
I have been so busy with updating the website that I have forgotten to sign on and update the blog. the stop/go theme has continued over recent weeks, riding here and there, then snow, then fog, then ice etc. Last week Sas had her hock injection and all went well. A couple of days box rest, then 5 days of turnout, then first ride today. Need to bring her back into full work fairly quickly now and keep going while we wait for this damn hock spavin to fuse. Rode for the first time today and had to risk death by tractor twice (with scary hedgecutter attachment). The pressure is really on now to keep going.
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