Ugh. Dealing with the highs and lows of horses...
Leading up to Plantation, Leo and I had both a crappy and an awesome jump lesson. The first, was a jump lesson at home where I struggled with everything....the lines were all coming up short. I either saw too long a spot or picked to a too short distance. Unless we were leaving out strides, everything felt awful! It was not a good lesson.
That was followed by a killer jumping lesson at Sally's place. We were seriously on fire which was seriously shocking considering how bad out previous lesson was. Even when we screwed up we were fine! We jumped some of the skinniest fences of my life. A seriously skinny chevron. Another seriously skinny gate, 4 strides to a corner. We finished the lesson jumping a course of fences and I nailed every one of them. I was super psyched and so confident for Plantation and running our first prelim.
Alas, the night before Plantation, I hopped on Leo and he was lame. There would be no Plantation and no Prelim run for us. Ten days later, Leo is still lame and we don't know what it is. He is lame in the front and hoof tested positive on both front heels so we put on pads. This hasn't helped at all, so now the vet is scheduled to come out and do a lameness evaluation. I hope it is nothing serious, but with horses you just never know.
Needless to say, scratching from Plantation was really disappointing. I've waited 20 years for this, what's a few more weeks? Hopefully it's only a few more weeks and nothing more serious, but I suppose I should prepare for the absolute worst just in case...
It's really nearly impossible to get everything in life to align. For me both horses and work had been going great. We nailed a huge new client which is really going to take our small agency to a whole new level. Plus, it means I get to travel to Japan - which, along with riding Prelim, is a bucket list item of mine. It shouldn't come as any surprise that Leo goes lame just when everything is coming together!
Here's a selfie of me and Leo...
Tuesday, June 17 Update
Tom Lurito, our vet, came out today to evaluate Leo. He did flex tests on all legs. Leo was fine on the right front, but the left front presented a problem. Tom said Leo was highly reactive to a bruise on the inside of his sesamoid bone and that there was minor inflammation still in his ankle. He believes this is all due to the sesamoid bruising. Leo is always knocking his ankles with his hooves so I really didn't think much of that bruise but that appeared to be the primary problem in front. Tom recommended a treatment of icing and 2 grams of bute a day for 5 days. Plus, he said when I ride to always have Leo in polos or sheepskin lined boots. He thinks the hard-shell boots will aggravate the healing in the short term.
Leo also flexed lame on his left hock. Tom thinks that his hock soreness might have lead to him knocking his sesamoid in front. So we also injected his hocks.
Hopefully the icing will solve the ankle issue. If not, Tom is going to come back out and x-ray and then we can decide if we need to do any shockwave therapy or other more aggressive treatments for his ankle. Right now, it looks like I will be pushing my move-up to prelim to end of July or August. Tom thinks he will be ready to compete in 2 weeks but work is not going to cooperate. It is disappointing because we had a good trajectory going with competing every 2 weeks leading up the prelim. Now I need to consider doing another training to get back into the grove. I dunno. We shall see. For now, I happy Leo doesn't have a bigger issue at play and we should be back in action before the fall season begins.
That was followed by a killer jumping lesson at Sally's place. We were seriously on fire which was seriously shocking considering how bad out previous lesson was. Even when we screwed up we were fine! We jumped some of the skinniest fences of my life. A seriously skinny chevron. Another seriously skinny gate, 4 strides to a corner. We finished the lesson jumping a course of fences and I nailed every one of them. I was super psyched and so confident for Plantation and running our first prelim.
Alas, the night before Plantation, I hopped on Leo and he was lame. There would be no Plantation and no Prelim run for us. Ten days later, Leo is still lame and we don't know what it is. He is lame in the front and hoof tested positive on both front heels so we put on pads. This hasn't helped at all, so now the vet is scheduled to come out and do a lameness evaluation. I hope it is nothing serious, but with horses you just never know.
Needless to say, scratching from Plantation was really disappointing. I've waited 20 years for this, what's a few more weeks? Hopefully it's only a few more weeks and nothing more serious, but I suppose I should prepare for the absolute worst just in case...
It's really nearly impossible to get everything in life to align. For me both horses and work had been going great. We nailed a huge new client which is really going to take our small agency to a whole new level. Plus, it means I get to travel to Japan - which, along with riding Prelim, is a bucket list item of mine. It shouldn't come as any surprise that Leo goes lame just when everything is coming together!
Here's a selfie of me and Leo...
Tuesday, June 17 Update
Tom Lurito, our vet, came out today to evaluate Leo. He did flex tests on all legs. Leo was fine on the right front, but the left front presented a problem. Tom said Leo was highly reactive to a bruise on the inside of his sesamoid bone and that there was minor inflammation still in his ankle. He believes this is all due to the sesamoid bruising. Leo is always knocking his ankles with his hooves so I really didn't think much of that bruise but that appeared to be the primary problem in front. Tom recommended a treatment of icing and 2 grams of bute a day for 5 days. Plus, he said when I ride to always have Leo in polos or sheepskin lined boots. He thinks the hard-shell boots will aggravate the healing in the short term.
Leo also flexed lame on his left hock. Tom thinks that his hock soreness might have lead to him knocking his sesamoid in front. So we also injected his hocks.
Hopefully the icing will solve the ankle issue. If not, Tom is going to come back out and x-ray and then we can decide if we need to do any shockwave therapy or other more aggressive treatments for his ankle. Right now, it looks like I will be pushing my move-up to prelim to end of July or August. Tom thinks he will be ready to compete in 2 weeks but work is not going to cooperate. It is disappointing because we had a good trajectory going with competing every 2 weeks leading up the prelim. Now I need to consider doing another training to get back into the grove. I dunno. We shall see. For now, I happy Leo doesn't have a bigger issue at play and we should be back in action before the fall season begins.
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