The importance of knowing your horse and knowing when he's just not right!

Those of you who took the time to read my latest blog (can be found here) will know I had a lady out to Ceaser on Tuesday after noticing he wasn't quite trotting right and slightly short behind with one hind leg when extending and showing medium trot strides.

Additionally I had noticed for the past couple of weeks he has been struggling with walk to canter transitions on the right rein and only going onto the correct canter lead if slightly rushing! Usually he pops into canter from halt or walk, onto the correct leg, with ease but lately he has been throwing an odd buck in or simply rushing into just a fast trot.

Because I know him so well I knew his behaviour was off and not quite right. He is usually a pleasure to own and had only just started looking slightly short on the one hind for a couple weeks.

After putting everything together and working myself into a complete panic, I decided to get an equine sports massage therapy lady out to give him a once over and hopefully advise me on if I needed a second opinion from a vet or not.

As you will read in my blog from Tuesday her initial reaction was positive and she said he wasn't showing signs of ageing or even arthritis for that matter and this was simply from the initial trot up.

Once she delved deeper she realised he was very tight through his left shoulder and on the right he was tight through the poll, shoulder and noticeably weaker. She got me to stand behind him and look at the difference in his muscle along his back. The difference in muscle tone was quite evident and as I mentioned before, I cannot believe I haven't noticed it.

As she began to treat him I asked her whether or not it would work and she told me good dressage riders always notice a difference. However, to be quite honest I have never had such an invasive massage on him and have always stuck to Bowen therapy - which I also finds gives fantastic results. So, we left the conclusion as I would wait and see if I could feel and notice a difference before I gave her my feedback.

He had the rest of the Tuesday off but under orders I was to hop on him Wednesday to give him a test drive and see what I thought.

I always noticed he was trotting oddly when I first got on as he always breaks into a trot when warming up in walk. It has been evident then that he had a slight hop with one hind leg and although slight, I could feel it.

Despite this, Wednesday when I got on I immediately noticed a difference. Gone was my stuffy free walk on a long rein I usually only get a 7 for in a dressage test and here we had a forward, free moving walk. As I shortened my reins walking past the arena mirrors he broke into a trot and instead of a choppy and slight hop with one hind, he was moving freely and quite happily!

WOW!

As not to rush things I just did a few walk and trot transitions on each rein and asked the vet that is on work experience with us to take a look. She said she could not believe the difference, even just in his walk from the day before!

Today when I got on I decided to push the boundaries a little and do my walk to canter transitions we have been struggling with since I noticed something was wrong. And, as you can probably guess...out popped four lovely walk to canter transitions on the correct lead.

I am well and truly gobsmacked - I simply cannot believe something so small as being tight through a couple of his hind muscles could cause such a problem but were also so easily fixable.

However, it really does just go to show that things so minor as this can go unnoticed and untreated. In fact when I mentioned to a couple of people on the yard he wasn't trotting up right they didn't notice - I think because I know him so well I could feel it.

After exercise I am now having to do post exercise stretches of his forelimb and hindleg stretches and he then has his massage pad on medium for half an hour. Additional to this it has been recommended I do more pessoa work than I already do.

Next time you're giving your horse a groom, just stand behind and check for things such as lack of muscle and compare one side to the other - you never know, it could be the answer to your problems!

I am rather excited about getting him out competing again now and putting our last couple of bucks in our dressage tests down to a not quite right Pony! Onwards and upwards they say.....

View Post

At A enter in working trot....and avoid heavy rainfall!

I must be the most unluckiest person on earth when it comes to book in for dressage tests. Every time I book in for a dressage competition, the date comes around and once again this awful English weather decides to go against me and throw some rain or heavy snow in.

We had it all yesterday. Hail, sleet, rain and snow - just like we did a few weeks back at our affiliated dressage debut for 2013! Luckily Ceaser is quite well behaved in weather like this so we fortunately had no problems. I am sure if it had have been high winds then this could well have been quite a different story!

Arriving at the venue in pouring rain and sleet wasn't what I had in mind as one thing Ceaser will not do is stand on the lorry patiently and let me tack him up inside. Thankfully I seem to have quite a following of supporters coming with me to competitions at the moment, so whilst I put his massage pad on, we had one person holding Ceaser, one taking his travel boots off, one standing on the ramp in case he did decide to panic and two people watching! Ceaser is very people orientated which means so long as lots of people are about and fussing him he will quite happily stand on the lorry - posh pony!

Due to the rain I decided to wait until 10 minutes before my first test to hop on, which in turn allowed Ceaser to have the massage pad on for a little longer. The warm up arena was rather boggy and must have been a little tough going but nevertheless Ceaser warmed up lovely and did everything I asked promptly. I decided to go without my spurs again as I am finding of late I'm not needing them.

First up was Novice 28 which is a lovely, easy going test and great to use as a warm up for an Elementary test. It is quite symmetrical which also always makes riding it much nicer!

Once we had entered at A and proceeded in working trot I think I must have forgotten to breath as all too soon it was over. In my opinion it went nicely, despite falling in to one of the trot to walk transitions a little too abruptly. That was probably my fault though as it's something Ceaser doesn't usually do!

After watching bits of other peoples tests I was rather surprised to say the least to find out I had won the Novice section with a whopping 66.67%, qualified for the Veteran dressage finals as well as the UK Riders Challenge! Clever pony!!

Next up was Elementary 42 which has a few difficult movements in that requires rather a lot of concentration. I always find it off putting to find Ceaser is the smallest pony in the section as well and this time it was by about 3 hands!

Before going in to do my test I had quickly changed from my snaffle bit to the double bridle as Elementary 42 has a few medium movements in which I struggle to get Ceaser back from. Usually it is only the medium canter to working canter which he struggles with - and simply only because of excitement he gets to stretch his legs! However, after having a quick canter in the warm up ring with my double bridle on, he didn't feel right and not as relaxed as he had with the snaffle in. With a quick run back to the lorry we fetched the snaffle again, quickly changed again and trotted off into the arena!

Apart from breaking in to trot a little too early when I asked for the working canter from the medium canter it all went well. The counter canters were spot on, as was the walk to canter transitions.

Again, rather too quickly the test was over and we were running back to the lorry in awful hail to quickly load Ceaser on to the lorry out of the rain!

Getting my results for the Elementary test was nerve-wracking, but I was over the moon to find we had got a respectable 3rd place and 62.81%, with the yard owner taking the top two spots on a rather huge, gorgeous warmblood. Being placed behind such an extravagant mover and in front of other big, well bred types was by far enough for me!

The judges comments were very fair and commented at the end of both tests what a great partnership we made and how hard Ceaser clearly tried for me.

The whole day was yet again, another successful one. Ceaser never fails to make me smile, even on the gloomiest of days. He always tries his hardest for me, despite the awful weather conditions and although he was by far the smallest in his classes, being placed above horses much bigger than him is fantastic! It really does just go to show that cobs can do dressage and you don't need something well bred to go out and do well! After all, Ceaser is only a cob cross Connemara!

View Post