J_sarahd
Well-Known Member
I’ve been a bit quiet on here recently but there’s a lot being going on behind the scenes. I know some of you have followed my rather tumultuous journey since losing Nova and then buying Shadow in 2024, so I wanted to do an update.
A bit of background:
Shadow was diagnosed with PSD and NPA last year and over winter became extremely aggressive. Because of this (and everything that went on with Nova), I completely lost motivation.
The aggression has pretty much stopped now! I was treating him like a PSSM horse over winter (vit e, rugged up more than a typical hairy connie) and the aggression came and went over winter. But around March time, it almost completely disappeared - I can now be in his stable with him and he isn’t bothered whereas before he would be cornering me etc.
I now have new sharers - it’s a mum and daughter and they’re just wonderful. They love him. The daughter is only 11 but she’s confident enough to just get on with it but not overly confident, wanting to gallop everywhere. I’ve set very clear boundaries with them on what he can do and they massively respect them.
He seems better than ever to ride now. The mini explosions have gone, I assume it’s from the increase in work. He’s very much an all or nothing - he prefers either no work at all or “full” work whereas I was riding him maybe 2-3 times a week for a potter down the lane. He’s by no means in hard work at all but he’s definitely doing more than he was before and feels (and looks) better for it. He’s also really building up behind, which is helping with the toe dragging so much. There’s still a long way to go with his strength, especially his core, but he never really had a strong core before his PSD diagnosis so it’s essentially training it from scratch again.
I’m taking things tentatively but positively with him. I know there’s a lot of people who say PSD horses can really only ever be happy hackers especially if they’ve had the conservative treatment, which he did. But I also just want to see if he will be up for the odd very small fence or occasional cross country school on good ground. I have no desire to compete really again (nerves and money are not what they used to be) and I have absolutely no desire to jump big at all, but even if we can just pop some logs out hacking or go to a pole clinic, I’ll be happy. Obviously, he comes first and I know when he’s not feeling good in himself even if he isn’t obviously lame.
I’m just really happy that my little connie is happy (and feeling so much better and connie-like than when I bought him!)
A bit of background:
Shadow was diagnosed with PSD and NPA last year and over winter became extremely aggressive. Because of this (and everything that went on with Nova), I completely lost motivation.
The aggression has pretty much stopped now! I was treating him like a PSSM horse over winter (vit e, rugged up more than a typical hairy connie) and the aggression came and went over winter. But around March time, it almost completely disappeared - I can now be in his stable with him and he isn’t bothered whereas before he would be cornering me etc.
I now have new sharers - it’s a mum and daughter and they’re just wonderful. They love him. The daughter is only 11 but she’s confident enough to just get on with it but not overly confident, wanting to gallop everywhere. I’ve set very clear boundaries with them on what he can do and they massively respect them.
He seems better than ever to ride now. The mini explosions have gone, I assume it’s from the increase in work. He’s very much an all or nothing - he prefers either no work at all or “full” work whereas I was riding him maybe 2-3 times a week for a potter down the lane. He’s by no means in hard work at all but he’s definitely doing more than he was before and feels (and looks) better for it. He’s also really building up behind, which is helping with the toe dragging so much. There’s still a long way to go with his strength, especially his core, but he never really had a strong core before his PSD diagnosis so it’s essentially training it from scratch again.
I’m taking things tentatively but positively with him. I know there’s a lot of people who say PSD horses can really only ever be happy hackers especially if they’ve had the conservative treatment, which he did. But I also just want to see if he will be up for the odd very small fence or occasional cross country school on good ground. I have no desire to compete really again (nerves and money are not what they used to be) and I have absolutely no desire to jump big at all, but even if we can just pop some logs out hacking or go to a pole clinic, I’ll be happy. Obviously, he comes first and I know when he’s not feeling good in himself even if he isn’t obviously lame.
I’m just really happy that my little connie is happy (and feeling so much better and connie-like than when I bought him!)
