maya2008
Well-Known Member
So, I have a sweet mare. She’s a talented, athletic older SJ mare with low mileage so despite being 16 she is still very much up for as much as her rider will do. Rarely touches a pole, doesn’t care about fillers, brilliant to hack, completely unbothered about traffic, heavy machinery, pheasants…anything really. But she lives to jump, literally. Her eyes light up and she comes alive.
So what’s the problem?
Well, she has pssm, which has been managed just fine for most of her life. As she had aged, it has affected her gut, and for the last two winters it has been extremely difficult to keep weight on her (and she doesn’t gain much in summer either). She has also struggled more to maintain muscle mass, and has become less enthusiastic about carrying me (I’m 9 stone, she’s 13.3hh) so my daughter took over 18 months ago and they toddled around the countryside together, cantering on the lead only. This wasn’t enough work to keep her pain-free though, and last winter she looked so miserable we considered pts. As a last ditch effort to save her, I popped my son on and we massively upped the workload, ignoring the increasingly visible ribs (on ad-lib forage, with rugs and lots of feed) in favour of her at least looking happy and pain-free. She improved massively and they’ve had a fun spring of jumping and hacking.
Then she got fit enough to be feisty, and despite bitting to give the child a chance, she did her patented running off act yesterday - faster and faster and faster around the school until thankfully my husband managed to catch her. She’s done this a few times in her life, with previous teenage sharers, but they at least had a chance of stopping her - my son is too small to have much effect if she really goes and could only really stay on until we caught her. No obvious trigger either - she had been cantering sedately for a while, they started a 20m circle and she just got faster and faster… I hopped on afterwards and she was, as usual, fine with me - she’s never done this with me and I have had her since backing, nor did she ever do so with the one adult sharer she had years ago.
Sitting on her, I could feel the lack of muscle to carry me though - her neck is like a knife and she feels narrower than she should be. I am going to see if she can build that muscle, but we may be past that point. I am sure a lightweight teen would be fine, but how do I put someone else’s child on a pony that can do what she did yesterday, however good they say they are/appear to be? Yet if she isn’t worked enough, she’s back in endless pain.
So - what would you do? I’ve put out feelers for a smaller project for my son, because I’d like him in one piece - but I’m not really sure what to do with her. She’d be amazing for him in a couple of years once he’s a bit bigger, and she is every child’s dream jumping pony - fast, reliable, unbelievable scope (fit, she can jump well over a metre and make it look easy).
So what’s the problem?
Well, she has pssm, which has been managed just fine for most of her life. As she had aged, it has affected her gut, and for the last two winters it has been extremely difficult to keep weight on her (and she doesn’t gain much in summer either). She has also struggled more to maintain muscle mass, and has become less enthusiastic about carrying me (I’m 9 stone, she’s 13.3hh) so my daughter took over 18 months ago and they toddled around the countryside together, cantering on the lead only. This wasn’t enough work to keep her pain-free though, and last winter she looked so miserable we considered pts. As a last ditch effort to save her, I popped my son on and we massively upped the workload, ignoring the increasingly visible ribs (on ad-lib forage, with rugs and lots of feed) in favour of her at least looking happy and pain-free. She improved massively and they’ve had a fun spring of jumping and hacking.
Then she got fit enough to be feisty, and despite bitting to give the child a chance, she did her patented running off act yesterday - faster and faster and faster around the school until thankfully my husband managed to catch her. She’s done this a few times in her life, with previous teenage sharers, but they at least had a chance of stopping her - my son is too small to have much effect if she really goes and could only really stay on until we caught her. No obvious trigger either - she had been cantering sedately for a while, they started a 20m circle and she just got faster and faster… I hopped on afterwards and she was, as usual, fine with me - she’s never done this with me and I have had her since backing, nor did she ever do so with the one adult sharer she had years ago.
Sitting on her, I could feel the lack of muscle to carry me though - her neck is like a knife and she feels narrower than she should be. I am going to see if she can build that muscle, but we may be past that point. I am sure a lightweight teen would be fine, but how do I put someone else’s child on a pony that can do what she did yesterday, however good they say they are/appear to be? Yet if she isn’t worked enough, she’s back in endless pain.
So - what would you do? I’ve put out feelers for a smaller project for my son, because I’d like him in one piece - but I’m not really sure what to do with her. She’d be amazing for him in a couple of years once he’s a bit bigger, and she is every child’s dream jumping pony - fast, reliable, unbelievable scope (fit, she can jump well over a metre and make it look easy).
