kirstyhen
Well-Known Member
After our flying confidence boosting run around at Shelford and a nice yellow ribbon, I was feeling much happier with Donkey and I.
However, Sod's law being what it was, Mally got kicked.. Again... In the same place on her leg, but a front leg this time.
This was two days before we were due to run at Prestwold, an event I've been looking forward to since it came back to the event Calender!
This time, I decided not to mess around and called the vet out, she keeps getting kicked on the side on her lower leg, perfectly placed to royally screw up her splint bones! Vet eventually arrived (Friday nights are never good times to need an out of hours visit!) and prescribed antibs and bute for her, when I explained that I should be eventing, she said she was more than happy for me to run if I could get the swelling down with cold hosing and exercising in the next 24hrs and to save the drugs until after my run. Mally wasn't even slightly unlevel, so I decided to see what we could do.
In the end we ended up going, with the plan being to do the Dressage and Show Jumping and then reasses.
Mally and I go to Prestwold every year, for the hunt, so to say she was full of it was an understatement! Bless her soul, she kept a lid on it and we got a 35 in the dressage, which put us 5th in a fairly toughly marked section. She bonged around the SJ for 8 faults and against my gut feeling I went down to the XC. Unfortunately we had a run out and I decided to retire.
Not because she felt off, but because I did! I was so worried about her leg I wasn't riding forward enough, which also why we'd had 2 down in the SJ and I hadn't warmed her up enough in the Dressage which hadn't helped our mark.
So a major bummer of a day really! Once again I have wasted money on a run and vets bills, because one horse in the field doesn't like her very much! She is now booted up to the eyeballs and only turned out at night when the other horse is in!
I managed to squeeze in a lesson with Jeanette before she left for Burghley and it was just what we needed! Mally was absolutely fabulous, her flat work has improved beyond belief and she jumped out of her skin for me.
On the flat, we are working on her staying loose and soft in a slower rhythm whilst getting her to carry more weight behind. We worked on her lateral work, as she has a tendency to block in the middle or get stuck behind the leg, so I have to figure out how to keep her moving and soft - easier said than done as my horse is much more intelligent and quicker thinking than me
http://youtu.be/ZSP6Yjbzw6g
Her leg yield is really coming together, but I have a tendency to ride her quarters over first, so I have to let her go through the shoulders more and not block her with my outside thigh. We also worked on her shoulder in, which is pretty weak really, especially on the right rein, we can do a lovely neck in but getting her to keep the angle, bend AND go forwards AND stay soft is akin to alchemy in my opinion plus, I just love to get nice and crooked and lock up when I think to hard, which obviously only helps our cause we had to work extra hard on staying straight in canter, a metre off the track and shoulder fore, without losing the forwardness as she struggles to stay straight the more backwards we become.
We then moved on to jumping. There was a line of three fences, all two strides apart, with the middle being a square Oxer and either end two uprights. We started jumping the ends individually on a circle and then angling the Oxer to jump that individually before jumping the whole line. Our contact is much more secure into the fence now and although Moot usually chucks her head up, she stays connected and listens (sometimes!). Her canter now seems to default into a nice canter for jumping and as long as I give her a kick off the corners, I don't have to do too much else to get to the fence, in fact the more I interfere the more likely she is to back off the fence!
The fences were soon up to JBs version of 1.10m (which is much closer to 1.20 looking at the markings on the wings, after I had jumped!) and as I haven't jumped that height in a while, I felt a bit windy, particularly at the prospect of angling a big square Oxer towards the arena fence! So I did an outstanding job of freezing, but credit to my fab little pony, she did everything she could to get us to the other side safely. I rode much better the next time!
http://youtu.be/K-TH3_0v1t4
So it was just what I needed, Mally's leg is NOT going to fall off and I can kick on!
I felt a bit nostalgic thinking about what she was when I first got her, so dug out some photos...
She's grown up just a touch! From a fat little 5 year old, to a majorly hench looking 7 year old!
Her ego is now getting rather large as she keeps telling all her field mates that she shares a shower with a Burghley Bound horse probably why they keep kicking her!
However, Sod's law being what it was, Mally got kicked.. Again... In the same place on her leg, but a front leg this time.
This was two days before we were due to run at Prestwold, an event I've been looking forward to since it came back to the event Calender!
This time, I decided not to mess around and called the vet out, she keeps getting kicked on the side on her lower leg, perfectly placed to royally screw up her splint bones! Vet eventually arrived (Friday nights are never good times to need an out of hours visit!) and prescribed antibs and bute for her, when I explained that I should be eventing, she said she was more than happy for me to run if I could get the swelling down with cold hosing and exercising in the next 24hrs and to save the drugs until after my run. Mally wasn't even slightly unlevel, so I decided to see what we could do.
In the end we ended up going, with the plan being to do the Dressage and Show Jumping and then reasses.
Mally and I go to Prestwold every year, for the hunt, so to say she was full of it was an understatement! Bless her soul, she kept a lid on it and we got a 35 in the dressage, which put us 5th in a fairly toughly marked section. She bonged around the SJ for 8 faults and against my gut feeling I went down to the XC. Unfortunately we had a run out and I decided to retire.
Not because she felt off, but because I did! I was so worried about her leg I wasn't riding forward enough, which also why we'd had 2 down in the SJ and I hadn't warmed her up enough in the Dressage which hadn't helped our mark.
So a major bummer of a day really! Once again I have wasted money on a run and vets bills, because one horse in the field doesn't like her very much! She is now booted up to the eyeballs and only turned out at night when the other horse is in!
I managed to squeeze in a lesson with Jeanette before she left for Burghley and it was just what we needed! Mally was absolutely fabulous, her flat work has improved beyond belief and she jumped out of her skin for me.
On the flat, we are working on her staying loose and soft in a slower rhythm whilst getting her to carry more weight behind. We worked on her lateral work, as she has a tendency to block in the middle or get stuck behind the leg, so I have to figure out how to keep her moving and soft - easier said than done as my horse is much more intelligent and quicker thinking than me
http://youtu.be/ZSP6Yjbzw6g
Her leg yield is really coming together, but I have a tendency to ride her quarters over first, so I have to let her go through the shoulders more and not block her with my outside thigh. We also worked on her shoulder in, which is pretty weak really, especially on the right rein, we can do a lovely neck in
but getting her to keep the angle, bend AND go forwards AND stay soft is akin to alchemy in my opinion plus, I just love to get nice and crooked and lock up when I think to hard, which obviously only helps our cause we had to work extra hard on staying straight in canter, a metre off the track and shoulder fore, without losing the forwardness as she struggles to stay straight the more backwards we become.We then moved on to jumping. There was a line of three fences, all two strides apart, with the middle being a square Oxer and either end two uprights. We started jumping the ends individually on a circle and then angling the Oxer to jump that individually before jumping the whole line. Our contact is much more secure into the fence now and although Moot usually chucks her head up, she stays connected and listens (sometimes!). Her canter now seems to default into a nice canter for jumping and as long as I give her a kick off the corners, I don't have to do too much else to get to the fence, in fact the more I interfere the more likely she is to back off the fence!
The fences were soon up to JBs version of 1.10m (which is much closer to 1.20 looking at the markings on the wings, after I had jumped!) and as I haven't jumped that height in a while, I felt a bit windy, particularly at the prospect of angling a big square Oxer towards the arena fence! So I did an outstanding job of freezing, but credit to my fab little pony, she did everything she could to get us to the other side safely. I rode much better the next time!
http://youtu.be/K-TH3_0v1t4
So it was just what I needed, Mally's leg is NOT going to fall off and I can kick on!
I felt a bit nostalgic thinking about what she was when I first got her, so dug out some photos...
She's grown up just a touch! From a fat little 5 year old, to a majorly hench looking 7 year old!
Her ego is now getting rather large as she keeps telling all her field mates that she shares a shower with a Burghley Bound horse
probably why they keep kicking her!
Poor Moot getting repeatedly hoofed 
