Titchy Reindeer
Well-Known Member
The horses have definitely decided to test my emotional resilience these past few days.
Little Madam turned out to be lame in my lesson on Good Friday. More lame on soft ground and quite short strided on the hard. Nothing obvious when inspecting her, but she'd had her feet trimmed the day before and a bad jump the weekend before, as in landing on the back pole of an oxer, thank goodness for the safety cups. So several possible culprits. Still lame on Saturday so she just stayed in the field where her lameness didn't stop her bossing her friend about or cantering to the new grass..
Easter Sunday and Monday were devoted to finishing off the fencing in the orchard, the only piece of land that is actually next to the house and stables, as opposed to a trek through the village to reach. Finished! It would definitely save me some time if used strategically.
Tuesday Little Madam appears better, but still lame on left fore. I called the chiropractor, who is also a trained vet, and she could luckily come out this Monday. Unfortunately, the departmental championships were on Sunday, so Little Madam would have to sit them out. And I would have to sit out the jumping as the riding school didn't have any horses available capable of jumping a 95cm round with little preparation and practice between horse and rider. I was already signed up for dressage with Mr Metronome and wishing I wasn't so that I could have had a lie-in instead.
Anyway, roll on Sunday, got off to an early start (no lie-in!) but Mr Metronome (a gray) had managed to stay mostly clean despite being normally very dirty in his stable and still had all his plaits in. A minor miracle! He'd been looking and feeling well for the whole end of the week. He is a riding school horse, but it's the school holidays over here, leading to a mix up of normal lessons with a skew towards younger riders, and they expect riders of a certain level to exercise the horses they will ride in a competition on a Sunday in the run up if necessary. So I lunged him on Thursday were he was already showing more forwardness than usual. We had a dressage lesson on the Friday and a short hack (he was very good as I don't suppose he can remember the last time he hacked alone) and flat work session before a bath and plaiting on the Saturday.
Well the preparation paid off! We did our best test yet and actually won the championship! I'm rather proud of us both, though I know realistically know that we won by default. If there had been any other decent couples out there, we should have been nicely placed but not on the podium. We are what we are, a slightly rusty older riding school horse and a rider out for some fun because her own pony doesn't like competing in dressage. Perfectly respectable, but not world beating.
The next day, I got Little Madam ready for the chiropractor and took her to the riding school so we could use the facilities there. Turns out, in typical horse fashion, she was no longer lame. She did however have compensatory stiffness by her wither on the right, so definitely not a wasted trip for the chiropractor. All happy with this great outcome, I take her home and turn her out in the newly fenced orchard with the Old Lady. A few hours later I bring them in to take Little Madam on her prescribed hand walk to find that her sides are heaving, her breathing is fast and noisy, her nostrils flaring with every breath, looking more like they should belong to an elephant seal than a horse. I call the vet and luckily the secretary was still in at just after 6pm, making it easier than having to listen trough the message to get the number for the out of hours vet. My parents very kindly came over to keep me company while I was busy panicking. They also provided dinner. The vet arrived not long after, he is not the usual equine vet, but was very kind with Little Madam who is a bit vet shy since having had a nasty abscess on her neck a couple of years ago, and gave her a cortisone and ventipulmin injection. The most likely cause is an allergic reaction to something in or around the orchard, probably pollen. The horses are now banned from my newly fenced, highly convenient, orchard until all the blossoms have gone.
Little Madam has seemingly made a full recovery and is back in the other field (NOT the orchard!). I'm sure you can imagine how happy I was taking Little Madam for an in hand walk this evening with her breathing easy and marching out in her new hoof boots, little ears pricked forward.
The Old Lady, having celebrated her 26th birthday, is quite obviously made of steel and will live to be a hundred. Whatever caused Little Madam's reaction had absolutely zero effect on her.
Now if the horses could please be boring for a few days...
Little Madam turned out to be lame in my lesson on Good Friday. More lame on soft ground and quite short strided on the hard. Nothing obvious when inspecting her, but she'd had her feet trimmed the day before and a bad jump the weekend before, as in landing on the back pole of an oxer, thank goodness for the safety cups. So several possible culprits. Still lame on Saturday so she just stayed in the field where her lameness didn't stop her bossing her friend about or cantering to the new grass..
Easter Sunday and Monday were devoted to finishing off the fencing in the orchard, the only piece of land that is actually next to the house and stables, as opposed to a trek through the village to reach. Finished! It would definitely save me some time if used strategically.
Tuesday Little Madam appears better, but still lame on left fore. I called the chiropractor, who is also a trained vet, and she could luckily come out this Monday. Unfortunately, the departmental championships were on Sunday, so Little Madam would have to sit them out. And I would have to sit out the jumping as the riding school didn't have any horses available capable of jumping a 95cm round with little preparation and practice between horse and rider. I was already signed up for dressage with Mr Metronome and wishing I wasn't so that I could have had a lie-in instead.
Anyway, roll on Sunday, got off to an early start (no lie-in!) but Mr Metronome (a gray) had managed to stay mostly clean despite being normally very dirty in his stable and still had all his plaits in. A minor miracle! He'd been looking and feeling well for the whole end of the week. He is a riding school horse, but it's the school holidays over here, leading to a mix up of normal lessons with a skew towards younger riders, and they expect riders of a certain level to exercise the horses they will ride in a competition on a Sunday in the run up if necessary. So I lunged him on Thursday were he was already showing more forwardness than usual. We had a dressage lesson on the Friday and a short hack (he was very good as I don't suppose he can remember the last time he hacked alone) and flat work session before a bath and plaiting on the Saturday.
Well the preparation paid off! We did our best test yet and actually won the championship! I'm rather proud of us both, though I know realistically know that we won by default. If there had been any other decent couples out there, we should have been nicely placed but not on the podium. We are what we are, a slightly rusty older riding school horse and a rider out for some fun because her own pony doesn't like competing in dressage. Perfectly respectable, but not world beating.
The next day, I got Little Madam ready for the chiropractor and took her to the riding school so we could use the facilities there. Turns out, in typical horse fashion, she was no longer lame. She did however have compensatory stiffness by her wither on the right, so definitely not a wasted trip for the chiropractor. All happy with this great outcome, I take her home and turn her out in the newly fenced orchard with the Old Lady. A few hours later I bring them in to take Little Madam on her prescribed hand walk to find that her sides are heaving, her breathing is fast and noisy, her nostrils flaring with every breath, looking more like they should belong to an elephant seal than a horse. I call the vet and luckily the secretary was still in at just after 6pm, making it easier than having to listen trough the message to get the number for the out of hours vet. My parents very kindly came over to keep me company while I was busy panicking. They also provided dinner. The vet arrived not long after, he is not the usual equine vet, but was very kind with Little Madam who is a bit vet shy since having had a nasty abscess on her neck a couple of years ago, and gave her a cortisone and ventipulmin injection. The most likely cause is an allergic reaction to something in or around the orchard, probably pollen. The horses are now banned from my newly fenced, highly convenient, orchard until all the blossoms have gone.
Little Madam has seemingly made a full recovery and is back in the other field (NOT the orchard!). I'm sure you can imagine how happy I was taking Little Madam for an in hand walk this evening with her breathing easy and marching out in her new hoof boots, little ears pricked forward.
The Old Lady, having celebrated her 26th birthday, is quite obviously made of steel and will live to be a hundred. Whatever caused Little Madam's reaction had absolutely zero effect on her.
Now if the horses could please be boring for a few days...
