HE. WAS. AMAZING.
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| From Sunday's bomb diggity ride. (Photo by Ed Van Meter) |
Immediately soft and supple in the poll and neck. Light in the bridle. Uphill. In front of my leg. An absolute JOY to ride. I mean he is always a joy to ride but he was really feeling like an upper level horse! Our trot half passes were darn near show-ready. I tried canter half pass for the first time and we got some good steps. Wasn't perfect but we just need to work out our timing there. But it's in there! Got one super flying lead change! ... The only thing that went wrong was one monster buck when I asked for another change. It damn near unseated me and he thought about taking off right after because I had become so unbalanced. Ooops. He came right back though and after that I just re-enforced forward at the canter so we did not end on a bucking note. haha.
Was it just the day? Or did the lack of noseband have any ting to do with it? I don't crank it tight, but it is usually snug. I am wondering if I should try a drop noseband on him? It was an interesting experiment.
I was going to ride again today but Hamps had a very swollen, HOT hind leg. Rut ro. I promptly cold hosed the beejesus out of it. As I was cold hosing, I saw that he had scraped a little fur off the inside of that leg, and a little more up near the hock. Hmmm. It looked like just your run of the mill scrape. Weird. But maybe it was bothering him? I reached down to touch the scrape and when I did a bunch of pus started to squirt out!!! Bingo!!! A small puncture-type wound. That certainly explains his hot, swollen painful leg. I continued to "milk" the infection out while cold hosing. Hamps was an angel about it. He would hold his leg up in protest but never got mean with me. Good boy. The cold hosing helped the swelling quite a bit, thankfully. I am hoping that it has not involved any tendons or ligaments. It seems shallow but you never know with the lower leg ... It is obviously in a place where you can't put your head to look very close without the horse being sedated.
I scrubbed the area as best I could with betadine. It oozed a bit more after that. Ew. Hamps got bute and if the leg gets worse tomorrow he will probably need a round of antibiotics. Not sure if he got caught in a fence or what?!
Guess he earned himself a few days off!
Hopefully he recovers quickly!
ReplyDeleteInteresting experiment. I typically keep Hue's noseband loser than some put theirs because he seems a bit sensitive to it and stopped using a flash on both of his bridles. He seems okay with a figure 8 since it touches different areas... Maybe that would be an option for you guys? I'll be interested to see what you think of the drop noseband. And if you decided you wanted to try a figure 8 I could probably lend you mine for a few rides :) I don't know if they are allowed for straight dressage? I know you can use them for eventing dressage.
ReplyDeleteWOW that picture! Just WOW!
ReplyDeleteWe have been having some leg issues here lately too. Why do they do this just when we get on a roll?
Ouchie! Wouldn't it be great if we knew how half the injuries occurred. Hope the swelling goes down quick and drama free.
ReplyDeleteI hope Hamps' leg heals up quickly! You guys are making great progress.
ReplyDeleteYuck. Hope it's just a small puncture and interesting noseband experiment!
ReplyDeleteHope the leg heals quickly and smoothly.
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the noseband... Just goes to show you that sometimes less is more. :)
Try a micklem -worked great for Moose Man!
ReplyDeleteI've never been a "crank it down" person when it comes to nosebands, but when Pia went to Summer Camp the first thing Cowboy Man did was take off all her nosebands and hand them back to me. Then when my vet suggest I take off Prairie's in order to help interupt her tension I noticed a HUGE difference in her work too.
ReplyDeleteI think for some horses the cavesson offers nice support that is comforting but for others it can become another force to brace against...
At least with Prairie and Pia they both seem to rlax their jaw and poll much easier without any constraint at all. Can't wait to see if you continue to get good results when the leg gets better!
you guys look fab.
He looks fantastic in that photo! So looking forward to watching you both compete in KY :)
ReplyDeleteHope Hampton feels better today - puncture wounds scare me. We are battling mud fever/scratches (creeping crud) on Riva's legs right now...so not fun.
Why did you loosen the nose band? I'm asking because: In my first official event last weekend, the judge wrote "against hand/not accepting bit" - but he felt like he was definitely NOT against my hand, was not pulling, and was responding to the bit- so I was befuddled. When saw the pics, I realized he was opening his mouth in half of them. I still don't think he was against my hand (he could track up better, but he definitely was *trying* to push up into the bit- he's a BN horse 4 year old horse so, can't have it all quite yet!) but him opening his mouth all of the time gave her that impression. I saw in your show photos from the last post that Hampton is opening his mouth some, too. Did taking off the flash and loosening the nose band help that?
ReplyDeleteAnd if Hampton is just softly chewing his bit and it photographs as an open mouth, then that is all that my boy was doing and I disagree with judge since that's suppose to be OK ;) But anyway- long post, I was just curious!!
What a fantastic picture from what seems like a fantastic ride!!!
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