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Wentworth Hunter Pace - June 6, 2021

After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time!  most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the

The Beauty of Re-Training at Ex-Racehorse

As a dear friend told me when I vented about Dreamy's seemingly overnight loss of cantering ability, "that's the beauty in retraining an ex-racehorse!"

I am having to dig pretty deep to find the beauty here folks. ;-)

UGGGG. Not a good day. That wonderful canter at my lesson on July 15? Yup, it is gone. :(

I am kicking myself that I had the chiro work done on July 16. Now, don't get me wrong, Dr. J is great. He found a TON of stuff going on with Dreamy and I am sure all the adjustments certainly helped her in some ways. There is now more freeness (is that a word?) and swinging in her back. Bending does seem a bit easier to the left. But to the RIGHT? Her bending is worse.

And we lost the canter. :(

I gave her the 2 days off like he said. Then rode Sat. and she was awful. So I lunged her on Sunday after the driving show because I was being lazy. Canter seemed OK on the lunge line......and actually she was pretty good. I only rode once this past week because of the rain. And when I did get on, I only walked and trotted because it was really slippery.

This afternoon I rode and literally we are back to May in terms of the canter. It is absolutely horrendous. She could not even pick up the right lead (usually her best side!) and she paced and paced and paced.....and paced. :( :( :(

My thought is that she had figured out how to move (canter) in a way for her body to compensate for the way her pelvis and all were "twisted"..... and then we went and changed her body. So now she needs to figure out how to use her NEW body! UGGGGG! This Sunday at SMDA should be interesting....

I know this is what happens in training. And perhaps the chiro work has nothing to do with it. But regardless, I am just so upset and feel like all my work in the past 2 months is gone.

OK, I know I am being melodramatic.

I emailed my instructor and vented to her. It made me feel a little better. She may be at the SMDA show to watch. I told her she could hand me a Kleenex.

Comments

  1. Don't you hate that? You're making leaps and bounds of progess, and everything's going awesome, and then suddenly there's this plummet back into six months ago.

    The first time I got Willie's hocks injected, there was a phenomenal difference. Then the second time, he didn't show improvement until almost a month later. I was so afraid the injections had gone wrong and made him permanently lame! I think maybe it was other factors, like our barn's indoor, making him seem off, but for a few weeks it was really scary.

    If she's not better soon, maybe call the chiro and see what he thinks about her suddenly being worse in those areas? Hopefully it's just one of those "two steps forward, three steps back" things, and she improves in time for your show. Good luck. :)

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