Endurance - the day after

I was really worried about doing the first training ride on Paddy as it was the first time he had ever hacked off the farm, the furthest he had been and it was over the toughest surfaces he had been on since his shoes came off a year ago. I was also ultra careful whilst we were on the ride and was very anxious about checking on him the next day, thinking that he would be lame. Luckily my fears were unfounded as he was sound and had no swelling in his legs. 

This time I was less worried, but it was again with some trepidation that I checked his legs & movement today, but again he's sound and looking well. 

I am so relieved, as there have been so many low points over the past 18 months, with one lot of vets saying that he was unlikely to come sound again because of his hoof pain, and another lot saying that even if the foot rehab worked, the best I could hope for was to be able to lightly hack him because of his back. 

After all the time, money, effort & tears, it is lovely for something to go right for once!!

Paddy & Legs at the end of the ride yesterday. 

Endurance training ride take 2

After the awful weather last night, I thought that we were in for a nasty day, but this morning was lovely and sunny, though there was a very chilly wind, so off we toddled to Abington again this morning for our second endurance training ride.

Paddy was more chilled this time and behaved himself in the first vetting. His heart rate was 32 bpm (had to poke him to make sure he was actually alive!). Once this was done we tacked up & off we went. We managed to trot & canter all along the Roman Road going out, but had to walk on the road and through Chilford Hall which slowed us down a lot. Once we were back on the Roman road we again managed to canter & trot all the way back with a fairly short walk right at the end to get the heart rate down. At the final vetting his heart rate was 40bpm and we managed 8km per hour, which is the lower limit allowable in the riding club competitive rides.

We need to be able to increase our speed, but as our horses are barefoot and paddy is just coming back into ridden work after having 15 months off for lameness and kissing spines, we can't trot on Tarmac just yet and they find stony tracks really tough. Hopefully the competitive rides won't have so much of these!!

Paddy behaved himself for the most part - he was still spooky and nappy at times but a lot better than last Sunday, though he did take great offence at the stone horse eating lion statues on the driveway to Chilford hall!!

I was thrilled with how he went today.....onwards & upwards!!!

Good lesson today

Had a lesson on Paddy today with Sarah and other than a couple of spooks, he behaved himself & once I had him working he started to concentrate, which is no mean feat on the nosiest horse on the planet!

Things I need to remember are;

To use my outside rein & leg to stop him falling out through the shoulder.

Get him spiraling in and out on circles in order to get him stepping through with his inside hind leg.

When doing canter transitions use half halts to get his back end underneath him, then pop him up into canter & not shoot my inside lower leg forward. 

To keep my chin up - remember that I don't actually need to look at paddy to know what he's doing - I don't have a problem in canter but it's another story in trot!!

Have another lesson booked for next week just before our first dressage outing in 18 months!!

Blogger

I have now got blogger on my phone, so I might actually be able to keep up with the posts!!

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!!