Said no horse owner ever...

"Let me just pay for that extra vet bill with all this extra cash I have laying around" -Said no horse owner ever!

EVER.EVER.EVER! This FB post about sums up my night. After a super nice, much needed, escape from reality with my brother and some cousins with no cell signal I come home all relaxed, ready to ride my adorable pony. I get on and walk around everything is fine and dandy. Pick up the trot... perfect just what I wanted to come home to, a lame horse. It seems like its the same thing as last time (more concerning) so I kept working him to see if it would get worse/better. Nope. No change. Just a very slight weirdness to his gait that someone who doesn't know him might say he was just fine. Okay... so that brings me back to the possibility of it being OCD still. The biggest reason against it being that is his age. Normally it is in young horses (it is much worse if found when they are really young from what I have read). Everything else seems like it could be it.

"Lameness sometimes may be very mild, with a stiff action and shortened stride being observed, rather than the horse having a prominent lameness."

"The most common signs of OCD will be painful movement or swelling and pain in the joints that moves from leg to leg and seems to be more problematic at times and then disappear, only to come back at a later time. This waxing and waning of the pain may or may not be more pronounced with additional exercise"

Up until just the last 2 weeks he has been fine besides the popping of his stifle which has not led to any lameness at all. It says it can be brought out more by a heavier work load, which at first I didnt think of because it hasnt varied much overall. However, he has started jumping more which would put more stress back there. I am going to go check him tomorrow and put him on the lunge line to see what he looks like. I think I will call our vet and see what she thinks I should do. We may end up getting xrays just to confirm either way. It would make me feel better at least!

Super Star!

Wow the pony was a super star today for our ride! He had yesterday off and we had a short jump school today. What a stud! No issues what so ever. He came out with a nice forward pace without me having to talk him into it, went when I asked, was attentive to half halts, and saved my butt majorly one time!

I am really starting to feel him get the concept and feel like he knows what he is doing. Our lessons are definitely paying off. I got him into a really bad approach to a vertical (had to go between poles within the grid and I picked the wrong pathway!), got him in all sideways and would have totally not blamed him for running out just because of his inexperience and it wasnt a tiny fence for him. I apologized and asked him to go and he went right over it, his confidence is definitely getting better and better!

We put together small courses with the grid and the one stride along with some single fences. We got our distances, our lead changes, and had no forward issues. I even took him through a weird angle bending line and he just popped right over like it was nothing. It was a short 30 minute ride that left me feeling SO good about our progress! He will totally be ready for Inavale next year not doubts!

Our Top Secret Misson...

After a great XC lesson and a great dressage ride last night I decided to have a fun bareback and bridleless night tonight! We are hoping to attend Gypsy Affair and the National Championship show in October. There is a musical freestyle class that we hope to rock the house with :)

For the most part he is super good! Especially for not doing it that much. He does try to ignore me sometimes but is getting much better, I think the cookies help! Heres to hoping we can make it to the show and compete, it would be tons of fun!

Fast Learner

This afternoon we headed out for our 2nd jump lesson out at Inavale. Neither of the boys have jumped much since our last lesson (Mystic had jumped once on Friday) due to different circumstances. Both also came out great! It was a great lesson for everyone and both improved on our last lesson which is always a huge plus.

Mystic and I got to work on the more technical side of cross country today. Last one was more open galloping and single fences, where today it was shorter distances with more technical rides. I am super happy with how he responds to everything. I can confidently say that any "issues" we had could have been avoided if I had rode him better. Although he is continually gaining confidence jumping he still isnt at a spot where he will take charge and bail me out of a sticky situation, which is understandable. Even then he still doesn't just quit on me or run out like he could.

One thing that is becoming more and more apparent is that he really is a horse that will only give as much as he needs to make it over the fence, especially with the little ones! Its actually pretty bad how terrible we look over the small stuff. But the minute we start jumping more bn fences he perks right but and tucks his knees to his chin. Its a good thing he likes this jumping thing!

We schooled more banks again today since it was a slight issue last time. Im thinking maybe he wasn't feeling 100 % last time though. He didn't stop or run out at it at all today. He even kept us together and I held on for dear life looking like someone who doesn't know how to ride going down the banks! We were going down and up a decent sized bank. We then put together the down bank to another fence fairly close after it. It is actually pretty tricky getting organized and getting him off his forehand so that he was ready to jump but we got it put together. Then we did it the other way where we did the jump first to the up bank. A big thing that we need to work on is getting the energy combined with getting him off his forehand, it will make the bigger fences that much easier for him.

It is so nice to be making progress and feeling as if we should be over prepared to hit Inavale next year at beginner novice. I would much rather be over prepared and give him a great first big outing then be slightly under prepared and set his confidence back. We are having SO much fun with this!

Sorry for the pic overload :)

Beach bums!

Yesterday Alanna and I packed up our boys and headed for the beach for the afternoon! We decided to go a little later than we normally do so we could both sleep in a little more. We knew it would be busier but didnt even think that it would be high tide! So we got there and of course it was high tide with tons of people. We did our normal wondering down the beach until it was more open and just walked until the tide started to go back out. It was a beautiful day! Sunny with a breeze but definitely the prettiest it has ever been when we have taken the horses. Both boys were great.

Now we are on to our XC lesson on Monday! There should be pictures as Alanna is having Kelsey ride Chevy.

What a day, what a day

Today was definitely a day I would like to never relive again. The only saving grace of the day was a great ride on 2 great boys!

Due to part of what made today so crappy I ended up hoping on Chevy for a ride this evening after a short jump session on my boy. I havent ridden him since about 2 weeks ago and I could really tell a difference between then and now! Alanna is doing a great job with him and he is a fun boy to ride.

The pony was super also. This was our first jump since our lesson, due to some slight soundness issues which I told him is to never happen again, so I wanted to keep it short a sweet. He was much more forward which was super nice. I found out that getting him more forward will definitely help the little issues we are having. He isnt super confident over fences yet, especially with long distances, so getting him going into a nice BN xc pace really helps both of us. I can really tell when he gets into a bad distance once he is a little unsure about it the next time. He doesnt say no but he is definitely set back a little. Getting him going more, there for getting  better distances, should really help his confidence. He still really hasnt jumped much and is still figuring it out. He is getting it though and jumped great tonight!

We have another XC lesson on Monday, we are both excited!

In his new breastplate (since his last one broke on the beach!)

Back in Business

It feels so good to be back to riding! He seems no worse for the wear and we are getting back on track. Yesterday I just took him on a walk in the field followed by 10 minutes of trot work followed by another walk in the field. He felt great in our work but I didnt want to push him too much. Today... he came out great again! Walk/trot/canter and all. Still not sure what was up but thankfully it was very minor and went away :) I told him no more of that stuff.

So back to work we go. I will flat him again tomorrow then jump Thursday to get ready for our jump lesson on Monday. Ideally I would have jumped a couple times since our last one but life gets in the way right?! We will school what we needed to work on last time on Thursday and hope to get a little improvement for our lesson at least.

I went to visit the State Fair Gypsy Show today! After a bunch of political stuff I decided we would just skip this year. Of course this is the year that all the other Oregon Gypsy Elite horses decide to come to. So of course I had to go say hi and watch. They all did great! I also found out that there will be another Gypsy show in Central Point in October! Im actually super excited that we might be going. Its nice to switch it up a little bit every once in awhile, hopefully I can make it work.

hand grazing the other day