XC schooling Boomerang 06-04-15

Excellent week bringing Monty back into work.  He had a few quiet days of hacking in walk (well, bouncing and jogging mostly) and a few gentle schooling sessions.  Then Saturday and Sunday I took him to Hankley to hack.  Saturday was quite gentle with just some trotting and one canter.  Sunday he was very bouncy and keen to gallop everywhere so bit more cantering.

As he was feeling so well we went off to Boomerang today to have a play round the XC and remind him of water/ditches etc.  He was very keen, dragging me around, charging off after fences and generally seeming very pleased with himself.  He jumped several corners without any hesitations, even left ones.  We did the coffin which has a slight slope to it, albeit not much of a ditch, no probs over the trakehner and through the sunken road.  We did some skinnies and we finished with a decent jump right on the edge of the water very much like the barrels into the water at Badminton which he showed no hesitation at and then bounded through the water, turned well and out over the skinny.  Useful session and pleased he is feeling very happy with himself. Hopefully the break has done him good.  Roll on SOE BE100 on Saturday - be nice to start our season!  Badminton entries are now in and a month today it will all be over!

Enjoying a roll back at home in the field

Stifle injury

Friday 13th March - got Monty in from the field to find he was 5/10 lame in trot, although had seemed sound in walk.  Discovered quite a deep wound to his right stifle, just below the joint but right over the tibial crest.  The wound was about one inch long, gently curve to it typical of a kick.  Went full skin thickness, through the muscle below and had exposed some fat below that.  Flushed the wound with 200ml saline, applied some Manuka honey and placed 3 staples to hold it closed until the morning.  Left him in for the night and gave him 2sachets of Danilon.

Saturday 14th March  - 2/10 lame in trot but quite a lot of swelling around the wound.

Called the vet out who gave him an injection of Metacam and started on Norodine 1sachet BID.  Continue box rest.

Sunday 15th March - swelling reduced quite a lot, bit stiff when walking out of the box but otherwise seeming quite comfy.  However, by the evening when the Metacam had worn off he was back to 5/10 lame.

Monday 16th March - Bit more comfy today although pitting oedema developing from stifle to hock

Tuesday 17th March - Same comfort level - approx 2/10 lame but pitting oedema quite severe from stifle to hock.  Spoke to vet and started on bute - 1 sachet BID assuming developing cellulitis now.

Wednesday 18th March - leg very swollen around the hock although not overly painful to trot up. However, he really wanted to roll, struggled twice to get down and then really struggled to get up before holding his leg in the air for a few seconds

Thursday 19th March - spoke to vet again.  He looked pretty much sound but is on bute 1sachet BID and swelling almost gone but discussed xrays and decided probably for the best for piece of mind.

Friday 20th March - trotted up sound and swelling all gone.  Felt like a paranoid mother but went ahead with xrays.  Still some mild oedema just locally to the wound and touchy about it being palpated but vet happy sound on trot up.  Xrays didn't appear to show anything but vet said would double check at the clinic and call me if any concerns.  Reduce bute to once daily and continue antibiotics.

Saturday 21st March - put him on the lunge in the morning as hadn't heard from the vet to say anything to worry about.  He was sound in trot, but lame in canter on the left rein especially in the strike off where he jumped together behind.  Vet then phoned me in the afternoon to say he had reviewed the xrays back at the hospital with David Lloyd and they had seen some little tiny fragments in front of the cranial aspect of the tibial crest so it looks like the suspected kick had actually been hard enough to damage the bone.  As the xrays were only taken a week after the initial injury they recommended he stay on box rest and plan to repeat the xrays the end of the following week to see if anything further shows up and to see how much discomfort he is still in by that time.  Also to wean him off the bute so it was clear of his system by the time of the xrays to assess his pain levels properly.  Possible that standing surgery under sedation may be needed to re-open the wound and explore it to remove the bone fragments if he is still sore. A little concerned that even if he looks sound at this stage that he may not be once brought back into work and surgery could then be necessary which will absolutely rule us out of getting to Badminton.

If you look closely you can see the tiny spicules of bone in a kind of starburst pattern between the staples and the tibia.

Sunday 22nd March - sound in trot, last bute this morning, still localised pitting oedema around the wound and still noticeably hot to the touch.

Monday 23rd March - sound on the lunge in trot and canter in the morning, no bunny hopping, possibly just looked a little uncomfy in the canter transition on the left rein.  Still small amount of localised pitting oedema around the wound and very slightly warmer than the other leg.  No bute today and last dose of Norodine this evening.  Removed staples from wound which has healed well.

Tuesday 24th March - was a bit wired on the lunge in the evening.  Was trotting a bit fast to see well - not entirely convinced he was 100% sound on the left rein bit looked ok on the right. He was quite happy to canter and transitions were good. Still same amount of oedema around the wound and still a bit sore to palpate.

Wed/Thu 25th-26th March - Same.  Looked sound on the trot up. Same amount of oedema, less bruising gradually.  Still a bit touchy to palpate it.

Fri 27th March - Vet came again today.  Agreed still a little bit of swelling around the wound but the wound itself had healed really well.  She said he looked very happy and sound trotting him up.  Sedated him for xrays and couldn't see anything obvious but had to wait for her to go back to the clinic to look at them properly.  Fortunately she rung later on to say all looked good.  So we have the all clear to bring him back into work, quietly for the first week then should be good to crack on.  4days of walking to start with though - that could be interesting!

Back in the field where he belongs, complete with lots of food/hay and a nice dose of 2ml of IV ACP to chill him out!  Fingers crossed for no more self harming.

You can still see some little fragments of bone but they look less sharp and there is a lot less soft tissue swelling.

Thu 2nd April - a gentle week, starting with walk work.  Yesterday a longer hack with some trot and a couple of very short canters on a very enthusiastic horse.  Tonight a short schooling session with just soft and round work in trot and a couple of short canters.  He feels sound and happy.  The wound is still slightly swollen though and has some weird crepitus like feel to it to palpate still.  He is much less bothered about it being palpated though.

Tue 4th April - enjoyed a weekend of hacking followed by XC schooling on Monday where he felt amazing.  The crepitus feeling has gone from the wound now although it is still slightly swollen.  He is no longer bothered by having it palpated.

Rest of the xrays for interest although can't really see anything on them:
left stifle for comparison:

 left stifle:

 left stifle;

left stife for comparison

 right stifle:

 right stifle:

 right stifle follow up:

 right stifle follow up:

 right stifle follow up:

Moreton BE100 08-03-15

First visit to Moreton.  Terrible dressage for 35.3.  Ground was very good considering the rain in the lead up but he will never enjoy mud, especially first time on grass since last September.  He chucked away several marks by cantering in 3 separate trot movements which also knocked his collectives too.  Without that he was on track for around a 30.

Typically then he jumped a lovely rare clear round apart from me missing at fence 6 and him chipping in which really jarred my back.  The long one I saw there was just too long although didn't stop me seeing another rather long one at the following fence.  I suppose at least I've stopped hooking but somewhere in the middle would be good.

Sadly had to withdraw after SJ as tweaked my back injury and was just in too much pain to go XC. Such a shame as looked a lovely course with a couple of questions that would have been a good test for him.

Merrist Wood Winter Regional Championships 21st/22nd Feb 2015

What a weekend!  Am so excited by my little orange horse at the moment.  He is turning into an absolute pro at this dressage stuff and I never would have thought he would get this far a couple of years ago, and especially not 4.5yrs ago when I got him so crooked he looked lame on his vetting!  His centre lines resembled some kind of crab impression, he certainly couldn't do direct transitions, let alone simple changes, even working in any kind of outline was hard work and maintaining it through transitions impossible.  Persistent, consistent work and help from my lovely trainer, Sara Jane Lanning, and it seems the sky is the limit!

This time last year he won the Prelim Regional Final and was placed in the Novice Restricted/Freestyle.  This year being out of Novice points we stepped up to Elementary.  We started with the Elementary Restricted on Saturday.  A nice time of 3.36pm and only a few after us before the end of the class.  Lots of lateral work in the warmup to get him soft and stepping under with his hindleg.  Practised the major movements of the test and all felt good.  He went in very chilled, no spooking at the flowers and did such a grown up test with no mistakes.  I really couldn't have asked for any more from him.  Was really pleased with a score of 67.448%.  We have only done E59 a couple of times and that is our highest score so far by about 3% and at the Regionals no less!  There were 29 in my class and although I was secretly hoping for top ten I didn't think it was realistic.  Somewhat frustrating to come 11th, missing out on top ten by one measly mark.  Kept looking at my test wondering where I could have got it but really don't think he had any more to give me and 11th is still a great result at this level out of 29 top combinations.

We got 69.2% from the judge at C and around 66% from the other 2 judges.  Judge at H (Sue Rowlands) gave him straight 7's for his walk and canter work, just his trot work bringing the score down a bit, judge at C (Heather Ashley) similar with a few 7.5's for the canter-trot-canters and walk to canter.  She gave him an 8 for his leg yield right but otherwise and 7's/7,5's for most of his trot work.  Even got a 7 for his second medium trot across the diagonal - a 7 for medium trot at the Regionals - nearly died of shock! She actually only dropped him down for his medium trot and despite mostly 7's for the test only gave 6.5's for impulsion and submission which was a shame, just dropping his score to 69.2% - pretty fab score for him at this level!  Judge at M (Rosanne Liversidge) was the least impressed by him.  Leg yields got 7 and 7.5 and a few 7's for canter work but otherwise mostly 6.5's.

A few stills from the video:

Video:

Pro photos

Got the pony home safely and back in his stable, went back into the lorry and something went bang very loudly.  Looked underneath to find two of the ramp springs had sheared off and were dangling on the floor.  Thank god we got the pony home safely but bit of a disaster with second Regional class to do on Sunday.  Cue panicked call to mechanic who promised to come and check it out in the morning and a sleepless night wondering if we were even going to make it to our next class.

Sunday was a weird day as we weren't on again until 9.06pm for the Elementary Restricted Freestyle to Music.  Spent most of the day hiding from the horrific weather and wondering if I was mad going to do dressage in high winds and heavy rain.  Any other class and I'd have baled but it was the Regionals!  Mechanic was optimistic of fixing the lorry until 6.30pm when the springs broke again.  Thank god for my lovely friend Claire who has been on standby all day and came to my rescue.  Cue a quick visit to the lorry to unload all my stuff into my car, take it back to Monty's yard and then reload it into Claire's lorry.  Monty is a star and just walked up into a strange lorry with no hesitations.  At this stage my stress levels were through the roof but thankfully Monty was on form and my lovely trainer was there to help me in the warmup.  Despite the sloshy warmup he was trying his best and I went in determined to enjoy my music.

Again, he tried his little heart out.  They were slow starting my music which meant I had to stop and wait and then ended up behind and halting too close to A which basically just put me a few metres behind for the whole test which meant I ended up adlibbing the final walk floorplan not very well as didn't think very quickly on the spot but we ended up in the right place at the end so all ok in the end!  He was a superstar.  His downwards transitions in the simple changes could have been smoother but he was very obedient and rhythmical and again I don't think I could have squeezed any more marks out of him.  Was really hoping to get somewhere around 70% and he didn't disappoint me.  69.1% and into 5th place.  Took Monts home to his field and went back for the prize giving.  We ended up in 6th out of 25 entries.  Equal 2nd were on 70% so we were soooooo close!  I think we'll be just that little bit too far off to get a wildcard to the Nationals but what a score for a little horse who was the opposite to a dressage horse a few years ago, is not a big mover, but has the biggest heart in the world and tries his little heart out for me.

Sara Jane took some gorgeous photos of him for me.  Shame about the muddy socks - I did have him sparkling but the warm up arena was gross!

Stills from the video:

Video:

Prize giving:

Score sheets - so excited to get 8's at Regionals level, especially for things like simple changes and leg yield, as well as his free walk.  So lovely to have hard work rewarded.  I really do adore that horse - such a lucky girl to have him!