Yesterday we were supposed to have been making our long awaited eventing comeback. Ok, that makes it sound way more grand than it is. The mare and I were doing our first ODE since our first and only one 7 years ago. Obviously a lot has happened since then, so pony stuff has been on the back burner. But this year was the year we were going to be getting out and doing stuff, and we actually have been.
So, back to yesterday and supposed plans. I had entered Isleham 2'6" ODE. I wanted to go out and do a small class and get a bit of confidence for us both, Isleham is the one we did before and is local so I know it pretty well. Seemed ideal.
These last few weeks haven't been going exactly to plan though. First we had the horse move, then Easter hols, then saddle issues, some very gung-ho showjumping practice, and finally a very depressing schooling session on Friday where the mare was badly behaved and generally being a bit of an argumentative baggage. So I was actually feeling a bit wobbly about it.
Saturday morning I get to the yard and go out to the field with my barrow of hay. The mare is mean to the poor gelding and always chases him away from any food, so I had plenty of opportunity to see that the mare looked a little wrong. But because she was eating it was hard to check this out properly. I decided to go and get my stuff cleaned and ready, then I could check her properly when I lunged her.
All tack cleaned, all gear packed into my two boxes - horse box and rider box - travel gear found, and a haynet soaked for the next morning. Go out to the horse, trot her up (one handed on a kind of circle, as you do when you are on your own) hmmm, picked feet out and felt legs, hmmmm, bit of heat around the near hind heel/pastern and up to the fetlock, trotted our awkward circle again. Yup, definitely lame. Bollocks.
Suddenly all the wobbles went away and I desperately wanted to compete reguardless of whether she was going to be badly behaved and a bit wild!
Thankfully my vet/husband was home reasonably early so could come and see her. I was right, she was lame, it was the near hind, but thankfully it was some grit working it's way up into the white line (ouchy!) But not an injury from galloping down the road after the cows chased her on Thursday (bonus)
One sweaty grumpy owner later (i had to put the poultice on, Vet/husband felt he had done his bit with getting the grit out of grumpy mare's hind foot!) she was sporting a bright blue bandaged foot and was already a bit better on it.
It could explain the disastrous schooling session on Friday (or it could not, she is a mare after all!) Hoping all will be ok for our next ODE next Sunday, and at least I can get a bit more work into her and hopefully feel a little more prepared. All good in theory.
In reality, the mare has her own agenda. This includes going through the poultices, and jumping out of her field (clearly not that lame) Trollop.
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