I entered this on a day pass and the event is on Saturday 16th September. This was the venue for our BE debut (80 cm Training) so it will feel good to return there to go up a level as I have some familiarity with it. First, I know where it is so that takes away to stress of trying to find it. Second, I know my way around the event site  and  XC course. I also have friends near Taunton so I can stay with them whilst Frank has nice stabling at the venue.  What could possibly go wrong?

May –  the sea horse 

Well, it’s 11 August and I rode Frank again yesterday for the first time since he bruised his sole cantering through a water complex at a training event three weeks ago.  I have discussed his trotters in an earlier post so you may know that whilst recovering from the bruised sole on his left trotter he managed to rip off and bend the shoe on his right trotter. Two poorly front trotters also made him look lame behind and the farrier said Frank’s shoulder was the source of his lameness not his feet.  What?! I have continued to shovel in the hoof supplement (3 months now of Nettex VIP Hoof Builder) and apply Anti-bac to nail holes and crumbly feet because it makes me feel better that I am doing something.  Whether or not it will make Frank better we shall have to wait and see.  I do love the smell of hoof oil so he’s getting some of that as well and so is anything else I ride at the moment. As Frank is kept on a busy yard there is no shortage of horses to ride. Some just need to be kept fit and some have been a bit naughty and need to be tutored in the ways of righteousness. I rode a lovely 9yo thoroughbred (TB) mare called May yesterday.   I decided a beach ride would be nice and so Jaime (on Harry) and I set off about 5 ish for Oxwich. May hadn’t been to the seaside before. Somehow or other I managed to completely lose Jaime and Harry in the dunes between the road and the beach. I asked May to push through some undergrowth of bracken and blackberry brambles – she was hesitant at first because although I knew there was a path there somewhere May couldn’t see it at all.  Anyway, she trusted me and burst through then kept going – I thought Jaime and Harry were following but Harry had other ideas. As May and I stumbled out into the clearing of the car park  I realised we had lost Jaime.  I quickly double back and spotted them disappearing around a narrow path on the outside of a building, I turned quickly back to the car park to head them off – nothing – then back to the road we had travelled down – nowhere to be seen.  How odd. Anyway rather than fruitless searching I turned May to the beach. There were a few holiday makers, a lovely smell of BBQ and woodsmoke, sandcastles, lots of pebbles and seaweed.  May hesitated down a short steep bank then found herself sliding down onto the deep soft sand of the beach –  then she looked up and saw the sea. The tide was in and the waves were breaking close – the sight of this, the sound and the smell was just too much.  Backpedalling furiously the sand just moved under her feet and she couldn’t get away from the sea.  I was aware in my peripheral vision of people getting up and moving their blankets and children, a small dog barking. There was a lot of energy underneath me but the deep sand was absorbing it, I could feel her legs moving in an energetic piaffe – they were going up and down like pistons but we weren’t going anywhere and May was almost sat on her tail. I wasn’t quite sure what to do next.  I tried reassuring her, to get her to go forwards,  I had  loose contact on the steering strings and squeezed with my legs.  I wasn’t sure if she would explode or make a run for it. Poor May couldn’t work out the sea at all …. then we saw Harry – ah Harry and Jaime  – specks in the distance – look May,  look – its Harry – then she saw them too and we managed to get out of reverse and go forward. Phew, relief all round. Trotting over to Harry it was great to be moving forward, moving up a gear into canter May felt incredibly powerful (she has raced afterall) but was under control… then, I don’t know who started to gallop first but Harry stayed in front and neither of them was going to give in and it was neck and neck to the end of the beach, about half a mile, just before Nicholaston Pill. May slowed down and I turned her into the sea – she didn’t mind this at all and actually went in quite deep all the way toward Tor bay. I turned to check on our hacking partners only to see Jaime and Harry disappearing into the distance back to the Oxwich bay hotel. May had galloped enough for one evening I felt so we carried on into the dunes  making our way back to Beynons campsite. I love this ride. It’s one of my favourites. We walked all the way back  to Crickton  because although May, being a thoroughbred, has some natural fitness  there is still far to go and her body and legs needed time to recover.  I was so pleased that she overcame her initial shock of the sea and was then quite happy to actually go in it – she would have swum in it I am sure as she is quite fearless but the saddle was too nice to get seasalt water  soaked.

PS Jaime and Harry returned not long after us  and we laughed at the fact that we had lost one another TWICE.  Not a hack for the fainthearted ha ha!

My mental health…

Well Frank was definitely sound this evening. As he warmed up he felt loose and relaxed with an even rhythm in all three paces, smooth transitions, some  good leg yielding and shoulder in. We popped a short course of small jumps and all seems fine.  Frank’s porcelain pins have mended. I wonder if he’ll be sound tomorrow…fit enough for XC training with Louise Harwood at Ynys Y mond?  There are two other horses i could ride and both would teach me something… it would be fun – but quite frankly, not as much fun as Frank.

When my horse is lame I become mentally ill. serious. the only cure is soundness.  Today horsey seems better but i realise his legs are made of glass.

Saturday

Woke up, unnecessarily early,  to a grey but settled day… wondering if Frank has recovered from his efforts yesterday and is still sound? The lesson is at 4.30 so plenty of time to trot him up and check the trotters, legs, shoulders and pelvic girdle – as all seem to have been speculated as a possible source of lameness. Undoubtedly he had a bruised sole as I was riding him when that happened. By the time my farrier came out the bruising had gone and my farrier diagnosed some shoulder lameness. The bruised sole lameness was over ridden  by the pulling off of a new shoe on the other forefoot and the combination of this made him look lame behind although there was evidence that he may have been kicked on his ass (a line of scuffed raised hair).  Advice is to rest, take it easy, allow him to recover slowly. I have decided, however, to take him and see how it goes – we definitely won’t be going through any water as it could be hiding pebbles….

 

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