Hey, blogosphere! I haven't quite decided what I want to do with this blog... I thought I was officially finished with blogging, but now that Tim is back at it, I find myself wanting to share our progress with all of you :) I'll try to post as often as possible, though I totally understand if my inconsistency now means that I have no readers.
Tim had his final checkup at R&R today and was officially cleared to start jumping. I jumped him tonight for the first time since september. Can you believe it? SEPTEMBER. He has been back in work for the past 1.5 months and has been super! Tonight was no exception. In other exciting news, I got a Devoucoux while Timmers was broken and decided to sell my County jump saddle. So I rode tonight for the first time in a month (I went to the Bahamas for Jan term), in my brand new Chiberta, on my newly jumping horse... life doesn't get much sweeter :) Oh and a big shoutout to Hill for coming out to video and set jumps XO
Those of you who follow me on Instagram probably saw the picture I posted yesterday of Tim at Rood and Riddle. I was luckily able to get a last minute appointment with my favorite vet and hauled Timmers to Lexington yesterday afternoon, and thank goodness I did!
The news was not good. He flexed well and was actually fairly sound on concrete, but the vet got a strong positive reaction when he hoof-tested his left heel. Apparently the various angles of his left leg are wonky, leading to much less heel on that foot and most likely causing the ligament issue. Then we went inside to really find out what was going on with the ligament. Dr. N stuck the ultrasound probe on his leg, pointed out all of the structures to me, and then casually stated that Tim has torn all the way through his left check ligament. He was able to do a side-by-side comparison of the left and right legs, which revealed that the LF check is at least twice the size of the right and that roughly 60% of the ligament is damaged. Not only does he have this going on, but I also learned that he has seedy toe and white line disease. YAY ME.
Picture on right: normal check ligament, outlined in yellow
Picture on left: Green outline- Tim's left check. At least twice the size of the normal one. Yellow outline- the torn area
So, what does all of this mean..? Well, for starters, he has to be on stall rest for three weeks. In three weeks, if all goes well, he has a checkup with Dr. N and will have another ultrasound. If he seems to be healing nicely, I will then be allowed to get on him and walk for three weeks. At the 6-8 week mark, we'll have another checkup and ultrasound. Provided that he has healed by then, I'll be cleared to WTC and eventually go back to our normal routine.
During the three weeks of stall rest, he has to be iced twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, with the hope of minimizing the development of scar tissue. The injured leg also needs to be wrapped after each icing session; dry wrap in the morning and butecort sweat overnight. To add to that, he also needs to have three sessions of Clean Trax, which is a lengthy process that I have personally never gone through before. We pulled his shoes while at R&R yesterday in the hopes that going barefoot, combined with the Clean Trax, will really speed up the hoof healing process and get rid of the white line/seedy toe issue. He also needs to get out of his stall and hand-graze as often as possible... there really aren't enough hours in the day.
In the meantime, I'll be begging my friends to let me ride their ponies and I probably won't update my blog much (not like I have a stellar track record to begin with). I'll post as often as I have something interesting to say, but Tim and I are mostly likely going to go a little (or a lot) stir crazy in the next couple of weeks, so I'll try to spare you all from the whining and the pity party!
I had the most fabulous lesson EVER with S today :)!!! It was my first lesson in over a month because of France/bad timing/etc. and I was super excited to get some professional help with the problems I've had lately. We started out doing flat work and she was pretty adamant about how much she likes the three-ring for us, which is awesome because I really like it too! It's officially our jumping bit, while the boucher will be reserved for dressage. Only time will tell whether or not the three-ring will work for XC, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Anywho, S was thrilled with how much we've progressed since she last saw us (early December) and was extremely pleased with our canter work especially. We did maybe 5 minutes of trot and canter both ways on a circle, then moved on to jumping back and forth over a baby cross-rail. Limerick was good, though the teensiest bit distracted, which causes him to drift =/
However, today really drove home how important it is to ride to the jump and really get Limerick going in a forward trot. The more energy and impulsion we have, the smoother the whole thing feels and the easier it is for me to ride his jump. Then S added another cross-rail on a diagonal from the first one, which we also did without any problems, other than the drifting. Lim even landed in canter a few times and we cantered on to the next jump without any meltdowns on my part! I really do like cantering jumps and I think I'm finally starting to chill out about the idea, but when I first started, my heart pounded out of my chest and I was a giant ball of nerves.
Next, we made a course of a cross-rail -> cross-rail oxer -> 2-foot vertical -> big cross-rail -> outside line of 2 cross-rails, which went really well when I remembered not to let Limerick putter out in front of the jumps! The lesson was awesome, Limerick jumped the best he's ever jumped (thank you, Rood and Riddle), and I felt like we were really in sync with each other :) For smaller details and to watch parts of the lesson, here's the video that my awesome-possum friends took!
Finally, here are some pictures from the day:
FAVORITE
P.S. A special thanks to the bestie for coming to visit me this weekend, taking pictures and videos, and just generally being amazing <3
Not rest and relaxation, but rather Rood and Riddle, one of the best equine hospitals in the world. I feel extremely fortunate to live within a short distance of their offices, in case we ever have some sort of emergency (god forbid) or just want access to some of the best doctors in the field! I had dealt with some of their employees before Friday, but Friday was my first trip to the actual offices, not far from the Kentucky Horse Park. We met with Dr. Chris Newton, one of the doctors onsite for Rolex, which was the coolest thing ever!! He's so knowledgable and cool to talk to, plus he had some really great ideas for getting Limerick stronger so that his back won't get as sore as it has been.
From the moment we arrived on the property, I was in awe. Vets were running around every which way and emergencies were constantly being radioed over the walkie talkie and loud speaker systems. The whole thing made me feel very legit and lucky, as well as made me realize that I might actually consider going into equine vet as opposed to small animal. Dr. Newton basically performed an extended PPE, opting to take X-rays of his hocks and RF fetlock. They were mostly clean, with only a few minor arthritic changes. He was a little bit concerned that Lim seems to be putting a lot of stress on his RF, so it's really important for me to get him stronger, back on his butt, and putting less strain on his front legs. He recommended an exercise like this blue one, but imagine 6 poles instead of 3. He wants me to lunge him through this once a week with side-reins, gradually raising the 4 middle poles until they are a decent height off the ground. The idea is to get him to really step under and use his back, therefore strengthening it, especially in the areas it gets most sore.
Then we went inside for the rest of the exam, and here's a brief run through of what he did:
Epidural
Adequan injection
Small adjustments to his neck
Adjusted his jaw, apparently has TMJ and was more sore on right side
The whole experience was very neat to watch, and I actually got to give the adequan, which was a first for me! We left with extra Adequan, a new muscle relaxant (doesn't affect his brain at all), and a plan to strengthen his back and change his smartpak :) We were also directed to do dressage for days, which now means that I'm hard at work convincing my parents to let me have a fitting for a dressage saddle. I'm already online shopping for used County saddles, so we'll see where this goes!!
Or did Groundhog day already happen this year, and spring has come?! I don't know what it's like where you all live, but it was 60 degrees and sunny the past two days. Talk about lovely riding weather :) Yesterday, I decided to jump a tiny little cross-rail, do some canter poles, and then move the cross-rail up to a roughly 2-foot vertical. Limerick was so adorable and excited to jump, and we had a ton of fun! I also figured out that my jumping problems stem from two issues. One, Limerick has a massive/powerful jump with a pretty insane bascule (when he's being normal), which is kind of hard to ride if you don't have a ton of jumping experience (read: me). Therefore, when I'm already up in two-point or half-seat heading to a jump, I get thrown even farther forward by his crazy jumping skillz.
Two, stirrup length. I have more trouble finding a comfortable length, and yesterday my knees were basically touching my eyeballs, making it extremely hard to balance... I know, my fault, but I convinced myself that I was more stable that way. NOT. I tried extremely hard to focus on staying still and not moving when he left the ground, but it just didn't work. We even cantered the cross rail a few times, which is still new and scary to me, though admittedly much smoother than trotting them. Finally, we did the vertical twice. I know this is the teensiest bit superstitious, but I can't set a certain number of times for doing something. For example, yesterday I said we would do the vertical until it felt smooth to me and wasn't super awkward to ride. That just happened to be two times, rather than something I determined beforehand. This is all because my friend Kate said that she and her horse were going to jump one more and be finished... Long story short, her horse was too tired, tripped immediately in front of the jump, crashed into it, and she went right over his head. She nearly had a concussion and couldn't ride for a few weeks, never mind the fact that she had massive scrapes from the rock-like footing at my old farm. So yeah, that's why I'm superstitious.
Anywho, on to today! I was in a crappy mood due to some sucky things happening at school and being a little bit rushed, so I really needed a good ride and to blow off some steam. Limerick read my mind and was so so good :) We didn't do much serious work, mostly just cantered around and practiced adjustability, which is quite a challenge. I got some feedback from Julie and Hillary that my stirrups looked super short in my videos from the other day, so I dropped them two holes, which helped a ton! I feel like my leg is flapping around, but I can also sit much deeper and have a little bit more leverage for when he pulls on me.
Unfortunately, Jazz is lame, so Kimmie chilled ringside while I worked and decided to take some goofy pictures. This post is going to be yet another photo dump, because our mission towards the end of the ride was to take fun pictures and try to capture awkward moments... then we went out to the front field (for the first time since CRAY) and she took a video of me cantering towards her, which was so much fun!!! I laughed and giggled and Lims was awesome :) Then we went and said hi to some cows, which didn't blow his mind in the least. Both parties just kind of stared at each other like "What are you? You are the weirdest looking creature I've ever seen." We called it a day after that and enjoyed some delicious pizza!
Here's what's coming up in the near-ish future:
Appointment at Rood and Riddle tomorrow to have a general wellness exam and figure out what exactly is causing all of his back problems and soreness
LESSON on Sunday
Hillary visits tomorrow-Sunday!!!!
Schooling day next Saturday at a local show barn :)
COWS
Turnout buddy, Levi
AWK
poor guy......
Please ignore my shiny butt
S-E-X-Y neck
He looks pissed because he was about to spook at Kimmie sitting on the fence...
