Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Once, Twice, Three times a... whole lot worse.

I rocked up to Pony Club on Tuesday about 2 and half hours early. I was (as to be expected) the first one there and spent an hour messing around with Jack until other people arrived. That’s the problem with living quite a bit down the motorway when your rally starts at 6’oclock. You’re either stuck in traffic for hours if you want to get there at 5 or you have to leave early so you don’t get in the traffic and consequently hang around pony club for a few extra hours. It comes down to whether you want to wait in traffic for a couple of hours or wait at pony club for a couple of hours. I know what I would rather do.

It was the Dressage and Show Jumping night at Pony Club. I tacked Jack up all nicely in his white saddle blanket and white boots. I’ll have to post a picture of him in this gear because he looks great. One of the instructors who teaches some of the younger kids commented to me on how beautiful he was (we get this a lot). It turned out that she was to be our dressage judge and when Jack and I presented ourselves to her she said “Oh I can’t wait to see this horse! He is so beautiful” to her writer so hopefully we started off on the right foot. Our test wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was sure he was going to do his tiny mincing steps but he actually had quite a reasonable trot and canter which I was very happy with. His circles were wonky and he always came late into the canter but I took him deep into all the corners (except one) and collected him back into me. It wasn’t a beautiful test but it was much better than I anticipated, especially since we have done no dressage schooling at all.

I took him to the show jumping next. My friend Simone and her horse Rocky were jumping when we arrived (clear round) and she wandered over to talk to us. Since she had finished she decided to go back and un-tack. Jack tried to follow and we I told him not to, he reared. A big rear. In the middle of quite a large group. I threw myself forward and he came back onto the ground. He tried it on a couple of more times but I told him off good and proper. I decided after that not to do the show jumping. It sounds like I’m wimping out but it seems when I’m getting close to my... er time of the month (sorry TMI) I tend to get more nervous on horses and find it harder to deal with their antics. It usually only lasts for a couple of days but If something happens during those days I don’t deal with it calmly and easily like I do the rest of the time. It happened a couple of years ago when I didn’t want to canter. I had been riding for 3 years and had cantered and galloped hundreds of times but suddenly I was too scared to canter on a horse. Again, it only lasted a couple of days but it was still there. So I didn’t think it would help either of us if we did the show jumping. I’m not ashamed of my decision because I really think that if something else had gone wrong I wouldn’t have been able to handle it and we both could have ended up getting hurt.

The next day I went to see Jack with the good intentions of working on refining our transitions. He had other plans. He was dead lame in the same foot. It was really bad this time. He could barely walk and obviously it hurt a lot. He didn’t want to put any weight on the heel of his foot. Since the stone bruise should have been healed by then I thought that he must have an abscess close to his heel. It was already getting quite late so I opted to soak his hoof in Epsom salts and call the vet today. Unfortunately I had to work so my awesome dad said he would go out to see the vet. The vet confirmed my suspicions. He had an abscess in his heel. So she cut the abscess out and drained the whole. She wrapped it up with poultice and bandages and gave him a tetanus shot. He is not on antibiotics at the moment because she thinks that if we let the hole drain and change the bandages daily he shouldn’t need them. She estimated that he would be alright to ride in a week which falls in nicely with when the farrier is coming to see him. So hopefully this will be the end of his lameness saga in that leg. I was hoping that our first official competition would be at the end of this month but I doubt he will be fit enough what with all this time off. I will have to find another competition for us to make our first. I’m just thankful it wasn’t a major problem and didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. Because really I need both of those limbs to ride.

I promise to put more pictures up!!

No comments: