Weekly round up.

Paddy has been mostly a good boy this week - walking him has been a little interesting at times as he has been full of himself  - he will be ok for the most part, then will have a numpty fit at anything just as an excuse - doesn't fill me with confidence about getting on him, though made sure I was wearing my brave pants on Friday Saturday and today, and luckily he behaved himself. Walked him to start off with, then got on him, walked round the barns again, then took him in the school to do some trot work after this I took him for a walk either along the drive or the track on his own. Surprisingly he did not nap on the way out which was great.

His work in trot feels good and it was because of this I contacted a classical instructor to try to arrange a lesson for when I am on annual leave in February as I hope he will be ready by then, plus it will give me 2 weeks to give him some consistent work.

Out for a hack on Saturday;

Schooling on Sunday;

http://youtu.be/W2DJumpmorE

Thinking of 2014......

Was looking at horse dates and got into dreaming about what I would like to do with Paddy over the coming year, ended up on the British Eventing website checking out the BE 80T classes. There's a BE80 at Keysoe in May, and I would love to be able to do it on Paddy, but when I was thinking about it I felt myself getting anxious. The thought of jumping fills me with dread, despite the fact that I have ridden up to intermediate in eventing and done lots of affiliated show jumping and dressage, however this was 20+ years ago and since getting paddy have only jumped him 3 times and that was 15 months ago. So I decided to remind myself  of the jumping that I have done on Paddy;

http://youtu.be/Y8pUxaZXmDA

I bought Paddy to event and sadly though I have owned Paddy for 2 years in April I have only actually been able to ride him for about 6 months, due to all his foot and back problems so I range from optimism to despair frequently.... I have had my hopes dashed so many times over the past year that I keep dreaming plans for him, but then end up stopping myself from having these dreams. Think I need to give myself a good kick up the backside!!

I gave myself a talking to and have decided to at least plan a lesson on him and then go from there......hopefully onwards and upwards!!

Paddy's weight......or lack of it!!

Thought I would post about the difficulties that I have had trying to get paddy to an acceptable weight.

When I first bought him he was underweight and had very little top line, as was clearly told to me by Jenny Pitman, who said he was nearly a welfare case!! She said this about 3 months after I had bought him, and at this point he was actually looking better than he had. I subsequently changed his feed and this, combined with proper work resulted in him looking a lot better, with more top line, however when he went lame in November 2012, his feed was cut, he could not work, and so all his weight and muscle dropped off.

He went to Rockley in march of 2013 and Nic was feeding him plenty of muscle & weight gaining feed, plus ad lib hay, but he was'nt putting on weight at the rate you would have expected, and it was at this point that we decided to scope for ulcers. The vets looked at him & said they did not think he had ulcers, but thought he had a problem with his back & so x rayed him & found he had kissing spine, which meant that he was not able to move his back & therefore not able to build up muscle along his topline.

Since he had operation on his back, his weight and muscle has gradually increased. This I think has been due to him still getting plenty of feed and all the walking in hand that I have been doing.

I currently feed him: 1 scoop oats, 1 scoop cool stance copra, 3cups micronised linseed, salt, magnesium & pro hoof. This is split into 3 feeds per day & seems to be having the desired effect.

He's gone from this in June 2013

To this in December 2013

Side ways view taken in June 2013 whilst still at Rockley 

And in December 2013

What a difference!!

Paddy feeling fresh

So I rode Paddy in his new saddle for the second time since I got it and on the whole he was just about contained. Started off walking him in hand and he was ok, but was looking for any exclude to shy and prat about. Did 10 circuits of the barns with him in the chambon and his Pilates band on and I think he only actually managed to complete about 3 without throwing a hissy fit. By the end he was much calmer so decided to get on. Did a couple more circuits ridden, then took him into the field and rode him round there. I have to say it was like sitting on a time bomb that could go off at any moment. Tried a little trot - he was not showing any signs of soreness,  however he was still explosive and put in an almighty buck!!

I can honestly say that I am not enjoying the idea of riding at the moment - I think Paddy is quite fit and is feeling very well, but unfortunately I can't do much more than walk and a little trot for a while, so there is no way of knocking the wind out of his sails, plus he is getting a fair amount of feed, which he needs in order to maintain his weight. All this combined with the awful weather we are having at the moment means that any consistent work is out of the window. It is times like these that I dream of indoor schools!!

I have a couple of weeks annual leave to take, so am planning on having 2 weeks off at the end of January and beginning of February so I can do some consistent work on him & maybe hire an indoor school or at least a school with fences round then so that I feel safer when I am on him. Plus it will give me the opportunity to get him out & about without the pressure of competition.

The other thing I am going to try out are different calmers. Paddy already gets magnesium in his feed, so any that are magnesium based will be useless, so I am looking at alternatives.

A friend recommended Pro Kalm, which can be used on an as & when basis or as a regular
supplement.

I bought a trial pack of this which I will try to see if it makes any difference, but want to wait until I can ride him again as the weather this weekend looks like it is horrid again.

Another calmer I might try if the above does not work is a herbal blend

This is one that is fed regularly, rather than on an as & when basis. 

And the last one if all the above don't work is cool calm and collected, which is based on chelated calcium. 

Again this is meant to be fed regularly, and initially you give a loading dose over 5 weeks, then a maintenance dose thereafter.

All of them work out to be a similar cost per day, so it will be interesting to see if any of them actually work on Paddy

Paddy's eventful homecoming!!

This weekend was the weekend for picking Paddy up from Rockley. I had decided to use my own box, rather than hire one as it has always been very reliable, so Gillian and I set off in plenty of time, trundling down the A14, making sure that we could have plenty of stops to give the box a rest - she is an old girl after all!

Managed to get as far a Kettering, when she over heated - cue steam pouring out of the sides and me panicking that we were just about to blow up!! Called the rescue people who came along and after checking it said that it was because we were low on water, but did not recommend driving it all the way to Devon. Obviously it had not occurred to me that the water needed topping up!!
Had to do an about turn and head back to Cambridge, on the way Gillian managed to find a horse box to hire, but we could not pick it up until later. Got home, dropped the horse box off at the farm, went home & had a drink, then went and picked Gillian up again and set off to pick up the hire box. It was very small, but the horse part was ok. Eventually got to Devon at midnight after a mammoth journey and both of us fell into bed. Next morning after breakfast we set off to Rockley to collect Paddy, who was in the stable when we arrived. He had been out all night and felt it was time for a snooze...

He was not impressed at having his sleep disturbed and oh boy did he let his feelings be known over the next couple of hours!!

He came in from the field this morning hopping lame, which Nic thinks is an abscess so will need to try to draw this out.

Collected all his bits & pieces together and got him ready to travel - then went to put him on the box - he was having none of it, absolutely refused to have anything to do with the box at all, bearing in mind that I have never had a problem loading him, this was quite a shock - 2 1/2 hours it took us to load him - or rather took Gillian & Nic as by this time I was having a complete meltdown in the. corner. 

 He did eventually load & once on, off we set. He was as good as gold to travel and seemed to be pleased to get home.

Having done all my research and spoken to a number of vets, Paddy is booked in for his kissing spine surgery on Friday, so I am not looking forward to trying to get him on the box again, but Gillian said
that I can take Lordy as a companion to make things easier.....fingers crossed!!

Visit to Paddy

I went to see Paddy at Rockley this weekend and on the way I was listening to Simon Mayo & sent in a text - they actually mentioned it!!
Arrived in Devon Friday evening, so went to see him on Saturday and he was looking very chilled out - he is starting to put on some weight but I don't think I will see much change until I can get his back sorted out.
The options are leaving it as it is & just do hacking & low level dressage on him, or get him operated on which will mean a lengthy period of rehab, but the potential to be able to do more as he will have a flexible back again and will be able to build up muscle properly......lots to think about!!

Anyhow, Nic let me ride on of their horses and lead paddy, which was a first for me as I had never led paddy off another horse & the last time I rode & led was when my brother was still on the lead rein, which was a LONG time ago!!

They were all as good as gold & paddy behaved as if he had been doing this all his life - think it helped that the weather was lovely!

After riding I spent some time grooming him and generally cosseting him so he remembered who I am, then returned to the B&B, got changed and headed out for some dinner. 

On the Sunday I went back again to see him and again gave him a groom and lots of cuddles and then turned him out with the others, where he was very happy to munch haylage with Beanie, Julie's horse.

After this I headed home to Cambridge, very sad to leave him & wondering what the future holds for him, knowing that I have some research on kissing spines to do and some big decisions to make!!

More bad news...

I have been discussing the issue of Paddy's weight with Nic, because despite being fed lots of muscle building food, he is not putting on much weight and muscle - now he's never been a fat horse, and has never been particularly well muscled over his back, although when he was in consistent work before he went lame he did have a reasonable amount of topline. We decided that it would be a good idea to get the vet out with a view to scoping him for ulcers, although he has never shown any symptoms of ulcers up to now.

Any way, the vet cam out with her senior partner & they took one look at Paddy and said that they did not think that he had ulcers, and that it was his back that was the problem, so arranged to come back and x-ray his back, which they have now done and here are the results;

Basically they show that he has severe kissing spines and is totally inflexible along the part of the spine that runs underneath the saddle. The vet said that the fact that he does not currently appear to be in much pain suggests that he has had this injury for some time, but he would have been in quite alot of pain in the past.

The vet said that she didn't think it would be worth operating on him, and that he would not be able to jump again, he might be able to do some low level dressage, or just be a hack.

This is devastating news, after all the problems with his feet, to find out that things are even worse than I thought they were. I am going to have to find out about kissing spines and look at what the options are before I make any decisions.

For the time being Nic is going to continue exercising him by leading him off another horse.