Poorly pony

Selfie with the hubby!

There's lots going on at the moment, and it's starting to get dark and dismal of an evening. I took the plunge and invested in a visit from Donna Blinman for Rio last week. I had a niggling feeling that something wasn't quite right with him, as he's been getting more and more reactive in his spooks, and had been getting less attentive whilst playing on line. Boy was I glad I went for it!

So it turns out Rio has problems with his stomach. It could explain his spooking, and why he can't control his adrenaline and bring it back down when he does spook. It could also explain why he's been uncomfortable backing up, and brushes behind with his hind feet. It may be the reason that he's been stretching his head down to the ground when I've been mounting him to ride for the last few weeks. My poor guy was pretty sore - Donna was quite surprised we had been out riding, and spent most of his appointment working on his stomach. He's been such a trooper and barely showed me he was in pain, but I'm so glad I followed my gut instinct. 

He's now on green clay, and out of ridden work for a few weeks to let him get more comfortable again. Fingers crossed it all starts to come good again soon!

Burgh-ill-ey-ant weekend

I ACHE! Burghley is amazing. Long, and hilly, and amazing. I got some pretty cool shots of the riders, but just had such a wonderful day, thanks to my mum who got us tickets to go. 

Didn't catch Jock at a jump but had to get a shot as they galloped past!

The crossing looked absolutely terrifying.

The picnic table. Gina Ruck and Rehy Too came down just after I took this photo, and unfortunately fell. I was so glad we had moved on, as if I'd been stood here when it happened I'd have probably vowed never to ride XC ever! As it was, we were walking up winners row towards the Rolex combination, and just saw the perfect take-off. She was OK, despite being knocked out on landing; the tanoy announcement came shortly after to say she was sitting up in the medical tent. 

It turned out to be a lovely day after a very foggy start!

This morning in Felixstowe wasn't much clearer for my niece's birthday breakfast at the beach hut. I was a little gutted my camera battery was dead from yesterday, as it made for nice photos. 

My beautiful boy after a wander around the village this afternoon. We were going to go out on our own again (go us!) however Millie and Miss B came out for a walk in hand with us. Rio was very good, and we had a little trot. Aside from a spook on the way back onto the field where a man was walking out of the scary covered corner. I managed to sit it as I clocked him way before Rio - I almost thought he was going to walk through just fine but it wasn't to be! A couple of strides of canter, I let him trot a few strides then brought him back, and he walked nicely the rest of the way.

Rio has been plaited up again and looks very cute. Even after being plaited up for just a day last week his mane has been sitting over correctly, so fingers crossed this won't take long!

Ride/ play safe x

Assessing the damage

Well this was the impact spot on the field last night! Sarah insisted we hacked back via the scene of the crime despite my attempt to sneakily ride back across the other side of the field. Amusingly Rio spooked at a pile of poo just about where he threw me off yesterday, just another one of the "maybe it was ... **insert random possibility here** ". However, today he opted for a much more manageable side step instead of hopping around like a numpty. 

So as you can see, I got back in the saddle tonight, and went for a ride out with Sarah and Franks. Rio was up front for almost the whole ride (Franks was a very good boy and only tried to sneak ahead a handful of times) I just about managed to swing my leg over and get on! He had a couple of spooks, which just consisted of a quick sidestep but other than that it was pretty good. 

I ordered a new bit for Rio last week - I've got it on a 30 day trial to see how he likes it, which is great. It's essentially the same as the bit he has now, except with the Salox metal which is meant to heat up to the same temperature as the horse's mouth in a fractions of a second. It's also a nickel free alloy, with a bit of a sweet taste, so should encourage acceptance of the contact. He's not too resistant to taking up a contact when asked, but I'm not very good at asking, so I'm hoping this will be a good piece to the jigsaw puzzle for us. It had to be done as the eggbutt link on the left of Rio's current bit keeps seizing. This time I'm going for a keeper instead of a cheaper!

So here's the assessment from head to toe:

• Neck - tender on both sides, probable whiplash effect from head hitting the ground
• Tummy/core muscles very tense today, feel like I've done the plank for an hour!
• Right fore arm - pulled a muscle maybe, trying to hold onto the reins as I went down
• Inside of right hip - sore! Difficult to hold my leg up for a length of time, and driving is a little uncomfortable (also why I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get on tonight!)
• Pelvis/lower back - bruise is starting to come out already, sore but thanks to my anti inflammatories, no swelling as yet and manageable

Think that's about it! We clearly have a lot of work to do on hacking alone, but only time and effort will help us with that. Here's to the learning curve! I'm just glad I was able to get straight back on last night and not let this push me back to where I was a few weeks ago. Onwards and upwards. Oh - and speaking of upwards, I could swear that Rio is a bit bum high again! He's already gone up from 15hh to 15.2h since I got him, and I think he may be growing a little more. Bless him!

Ride/play safe x