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If the spirit of me not having a horse to ride for a while…

If you could steal a horse from any of your friends or barnmates, which one would it be?

The obvious choice here for me would be Halo. I mean… he’s a total badass. He’s a lovely mover, a beast on XC, and a good showjumper. He’s big, he’s kind, and he’s gorgeous. I love Herrlerr. Who wouldn’t?

But he’s a big, strong, rangey horse, and I don’t think I’d ride him nearly as well or get the same results that Bobby does. I’m also 100% certain I’d get completely run away with on XC. He’s super fun, but he’s not the type of ride that I’m typically drawn to. Therefore, my answer is Violet. Definitely Violet.

She’s a young TB mare, only 15.1, quirky for sure, and just too adorable for words. Totally my type… I love mares, and obviously I like quirky. It would be easy to pass right by her in the barn, being plain brown and a bit dainty. But under saddle she’s ridiculously impressive – a lovely mover with a wicked good jump.

 

I’ve ridden her a couple times – there’s not a lot of horse underneath you, size wise, but she has a big stride and lots of power. She sure doesn’t know she’s little.  She’s sensitive but brave and always ready to go go go. What’s not to love about a little fancy sportscar of a horse with tons of talent and plenty of try? She probably has way too much talent for me, but still…

Violet. Definitely Violet.

The good news is, it’s NOT soft tissue. (Can I get a collective hallelujah?)

The bad news is, I was correct – Henry doesn’t feel right. In fact, we found a fracture. A teeny tiny, little bitty baby fracture that most likely happened about a month ago in turnout when he was playing and kicked the fence. Minor, in the realm of fractures, but it’s likely being exacerbated at the moment by how hard the ground is. He also has one hell of a bone bruise. And he is a huge wuss (official, professional diagnosis).

So far the bone looks good (no signs of displacement, fragments, or dying bone) and it’s already trying to heal. There’s not much to do besides give it time and let it continue healing. Luckily complete rest or stall rest are not required. The vet does want it to stay wrapped though, and he’d like for Henry to keep his current conditioning as much as possible. Unfortunately, the ground is just too hard everywhere at the barn to do that, so guess where he’s going for 30 days?

Yup, back to the spa. Guess he liked it so much he wanted a month long rehab stay instead of a spa day trip. 30 days of tons of hand walking, some supervised turnout (sorry kid, no running), wrapping, and aquatred. Then we X-ray again to make sure the bone still looks good and everything is healing appropriately, and if it is, he can start being ridden lightly on soft ground. Total estimated time til a fixed pony: approximately 8 weeks. Worst case scenario the bone starts to die and we have to go in and remove some. Luckily that doesn’t look likely at the moment (my vet is sending the rads to a surgeon at A&M to confirm that opinion) but it’s a small possibility if things go awry. As of right now the bone looks healthy and shows some signs of healing.

This definitely 100% sucks and it definitely means our show season is over. However, I’m so glad that it’s something fairly minor with an excellent prognosis. Once it’s healed, it’s over and done with, and should never be a problem again. I’ll take this over soft tissue or something chronic any day of the week.

So… I guess I’ll have lots of free time on my hands for the next couple months. Lord help us all.

You may have noticed there hasn’t really been any riding content happening here in the last few weeks. Unfortunately, there’s a reason for that.

When Henry came back from boot camp he felt awesome for a few rides, then I galloped him, then gave him a day off, got back on, and he felt… not right. He’d been starting to feel a little “stabby” behind, just like he did last fall, and it had been 10 months since he got his ankle injected. I thought that was it, so I scheduled the appointment, he got his ankle juiced, and I figured it was over and done with.

But it didn’t get any better. In fact, it didn’t really feel any different at all. The problem is that the NQR is so very very slight, really hard to see, and not super consistent. I could feel it though – just the little odd thing here and there that threw up a lot of red flags. A slightly wonky step with the hind end when changing direction, a toe drag on a circle, a really 4-beaty right lead canter. Something is ouchy somewhere.

I gave him more time off, had the vet back out, and all signs pointed to hocks. This made sense, so I opted to just go ahead and do the hocks rather than do the more drastic (and more $$$) full diagnostic work-up. The vet was reasonably optimistic that doing the hocks would fix it, so I hoped we were right.

It doesn’t look like we were right. It’s maybe slightly better, but I still feel something. So… crap. I already scratched our first Training, which was a big womp-womp moment. The vet is coming again today, and we’ll start at the bottom and work our way up, trying to find the source. Hopefully we can. I’m trying not to get myself all worked up about it being a Major Thing Wrong, because it is so very slight, but I’ve had a knot of anxiety in my stomach for a couple weeks now. I’m terrible at dealing with not knowing what’s wrong. And when there are problems in my horse life, I’m one depressed walking lump of doom and gloom.

I just want my horse to feel like himself again. He’s wild and bored, and I’m not doing much better. Just when you think you’re finally making some real progress. Ugh.

This.

Freaking.

Sucks.

But… if there’s anything you’ve been wanting me to write about or review, now is the time to put in a request. There might not be much riding-related content in the near future.

 

Today marks day 161 in Sadie’s pregnancy, putting us close to the halfway point. My anxiety level has not decreased, and probably won’t for oh, I dunno… ever? I stalked the hell out of the Burghley young horse championship results and the Bundeschampionate results, obsessing over the Mighty Magic babies. Fun fact: a MM won the 4yo final at Burghley.

It’s fun to keep track of where Sadie is in her gestation though (it keeps my mind off of how ridiculously long this takes and how easily it could all go wrong) and I particularly love this little timeline:

Currently Baby Presto is about the size of a rabbit. A big rabbit.

Day 150 – Gaining more than a pound every 10 days, the fetus now is about the size of a rabbit. Hair graces its chin, muzzle, and eyelids. If you look closely, you’ll see that eyelashes have emerged.

Considering how giant and floppy Sadie’s ears are, there are lots of jokes to be made here with the rabbit thing. My friend Michelle’s favorite looks something like this:

Momma Mare, however, seems unperturbed by our attempts at comedy and keeps right on doing what she does best: eating food and growing babies. Good girl, Momma Mare. Good girl. ❤

6 more months… just 6 more long, agonizing, anxiety-ridden, super obsessive, crazy months…

aka the best day of the year to buy a new helmet! Tomorrow is International Helmet Awareness Day, and tons of brands and retailers (ahem Riding Warehouse – with coupon code HAD20 on 9/17 only) are offering great discounts on a new helmet.

Even if your helmet appears to be in good shape, don’t forget that the protective materials break down after 4-5 years (check the tag inside for the manufacture date) and are no longer as effective at taking an impact. It’s also recommended that helmets be replaced after a fall, as a helmet can appear to be undamaged on the outside while actually sustaining significant damage to the internal protective layers.

The list of participating brands:

Jin

Resistol

Charles Owen

IRH

GPA

Champion

Troxel

LAS

Gatehouse

Tipperary

One K

Ovation

Samshield

Uvex

Kask 

 

Those of you who have been looking for Kask – Luxe EQ has them (and Samshield) and is a participating retailer! Use code 4helmets to apply the discount, and get free shipping too with code 4ship.

Find other participating retailers here: http://www.riders4helmets.com/helmet-awareness-day/participating-retailers/

Whoever wants to sign up to be my new BFF is welcome to pick up a navy Kask (I’ll take any of the Dogma models) or a navy Samshield XC for me, size 7 1/4… k thanks.