Boot Camp

So this week started as last week ended with me on the sick list! I somehow managed to tweak my neck whilst lying in bed which led to me being in agony and questioning whether it was possible to break your neck just lying in bed - I'm not at all melodramatic ;0)

However I was only badly injured in the morning, come the afternoon I was dosed up to the eyeballs on a fantastic combination of painkillers and so managed to get on my pony to enjoy the sunshine. He was, as always, a saint... I'm not entirely sure what would have happened had he not been.. I would have probably slithered off and collapsed in a drugged up heap!

Ignore me (shoulders, head & elbows)

Sunday arrived and we decided to go and play in the river that had burst its banks and, we had been told, was up to the horses bellies. I was uber excited but it wasn't as dramatic as foretold so our pony friend didn't have to swim but Buddy made the most of it by splashing our companions - he loves a bit of water.

As we are approaching our dressage re-debut I also squeezed a lesson in this week. I wanted to run through my test, practise in my kit and just ensure that I could get gain marks wherever possible. It didn't start off too well as Buddy was a bit lame on his bad leg however, I had found a bit of mud fever prior to my lesson and had picked at it a bit so I'm hoping it was just that which made him sore but he does usually get better after a bit of work so we decided to give it five minutes and see how he went.

Heel first!

He got much better so we continued! We focused on getting Buddy in front of the leg, straight and equal in both reins. He prefers to work in a more baby outline and so asking him to come 'up' more is pretty hard work but we got him working in a lower and then more advanced outline and he got the hang of it pretty quickly. We use lateral work to keep him straight and tonight we used leg yielding in trot and then asking for a more medium trot on the opposite side to stop him getting stuffy. We also had a bit of a canter which I've been working hard on out hacking and I was very pleased to see that it translated into the school and he is much better although we still have a little way to go but I'm hopeful we could enter a prelim dressage test in a few weeks if we work hard.

We then ran through our test and it was ok, there are some half circles which I rode really badly the first couple of times so we worked on those and turning a bit earlier for our centre line. After 19 months we are ready to get back out the again!

Gorgeous boy though want more heel first landing here

I had hoped that I would be able to sneak to our first competition relatively easily but found out that YO, her husband and some followers are also entering the same class. I am super competitive and can't help putting pressure on myself to do well and I know, whatever happens, I will be really disappointed if we don't perform well - especially if we are beaten (which is incredibly likely - so much so that I'm wondering why I would be disappointed as its pretty much a given). I really wanted to have a no pressure, low key debut but that's not going to happen now and I'm pretty sad about it. But hey ho.. Onwards and upwards. I'm still really excited about it :0D

If you're interested there's some raw footage of our lesson here:
http://youtu.be/X-l4qDphM6Q

Manic times

Phew it has been a hectic week and I've also been ill so that has put us back somewhat in our plans. However I'm back on form (as much as I ever am) so it's time to crack on again. It's the first time I've given Buds any longer than a day off and I was a bit worried he would have regressed a tad but nope, he's fine! 

Footprints (I got ridiculously excited about this)

He has been back out in the field again after getting on top of the mud fever and I've learnt even more again... Movement all day makes a massive difference.. I know we 'know' this but I now know for Buddy this is a definite fact! I kept him exercised for  around an hour plus I grazed him for an hour or so at weekends when he was in all day but now, feeling the difference when he's been out for a week consistently, he thrives on far more movement than that. I was panicking on day three that he hadn't hadn't any work and after dragging my sorry self up to the yard and barely getting home (I thought I was going to die.. Or at least pass out!) I was definitely not going to be able to ride. But when I did finally get on he stormed up the driveway and was full of beans with no detriment to his feet whatsoever. Panic averted!

It has also helped ease my mind a bit as I'm away with work in a few weeks time and I was worrying about what to do with him. I can now rest easy that he can have a holiday and he'll be fine when I get back. 

In other exciting news... We have entered a local walk trot test and I am ridiculously excited! I will give you the run down as and when but we are going to have a bit of boot camp this week to practise as I haven't been in the school since the clocks went forward (oooops)!

Sometimes we can be wrong...

Another week of learning for Mr Donkey and I... We'd been relegated to roadwork only for our exercise as he was recovering from his mud fever and I was a bit worried how his feet would cope with an increase in work. Well I needn't have worried, sticking to the 2:1 ratio we managed to cover almost 20 miles this week which is a massive improvement  (thank god for British Summetime) and its not made him sore or footy at all.. In fact it is really helping him get rid of that old crappy hoof and they are changing shape once again.

Week 21 - Compared to last week there are changes afoot!

This fact has made me doubt whether his footiness a few weeks ago was actually grass and not an upload in work after all. I was contacted by one of the team from the Laminitis app at the time who said there had been a spike in the sugars at the same time but I was so convinced that it was work related that I logged it but moved on. Having upped his work pretty significantly this week I'm pretty convinced now that I was wrong.

Handsome donkey in the sunshine

As Buddy has been in with his mud fever I haven't had to worry about grass so much but he managed to recover enough that Saturday was the day for the big release. It was an amber day on the app but I decided to risk it and see what happened as his footiness shows up within 24hrs. He was fine today and managed to get round a hack 20 mins faster than when he first came back from Rockley which is fantastic as, apart from a slightly long trot at one point, our paces were pretty much the same.

As today was a red day (my first since he's been home) I decided to keep him in and will continue to do so on red days as for me it's just not worth the risk. I now have the delightful task of remembering to text my YO every day to say whether he can go out or not - I hope Buddy appreciates all this!

Red is for danger

Here's hoping the sun continues to shine and spring is finally on the way - everyone was far happier today with some sun on their back.

Hopefully I'll have a lesson report for you at some point this week as I'm planning our nudey feet dressage debut for a few weeks time and we need some practise!

Nudey feet - 20 week comparison

Buddy has been home for seven weeks now which just seems crazy but at the same time it doesn't seem possible that we've been on this journey for almost five months! There was a post on HHO  about a lady with another Buddy who was starting her barefoot journey albeit slightly unwittingly but felt that barefoot was an extremist movement so she didn't want to say she was 'going barefoot' so her Buddy now has 'nudey feet'. I love it and so am totally jumping on the nudey feet bandwagon... I wonder if this term will spread? If I see it on the Rockley blog I know we've made it ;o)

 

Its been five weeks since I last took pictures of Buddy's feet and there have been some serious changes going on. His feet are starting to look seriously odd now there is more new growth than old but as I can see him wearing them away I'm not concerned and I think we will have a full hoof in another 6 weeks or so which is crazily exciting!

 

Week 20 vs Week 15 (LF lat)

Sole shots show a change too (apologies for the messiness on wk 20 - I promise I'll wash his feet for the next update!). His collateral grooves are getting deeper and longer which tells me his sole is thickening so we are heading in the right direction still. His frog is getting thicker and beefier athough looking at these it also looks like there is a slight deviation so I will be keeping a close eye on that.

Week 20 vs Week 15 (LF sole)

 

I wanted to try and get some shots to show how he was starting to almost square off his toes to reduce the old flare that was there but it hasn't really shown up on any of the shots I took but you can see the slight gap in the center where he is wearing the old growth away and getting closer to his proper breakover point.

 

Freaky nudey feet 

In other news Buddy's mud fever is on its way out so I'm hoping to get back to normal again by the weekend. He's enjoying hacking out and we've been trying some new routes as we've been sticking to the road as everywhere is so muddy. I'm also avoiding the school as the sand doesn't help but we're doing plenty of schooling out and about so I'm hoping we'll be ready for our competition debut soon.

In a previous blog post I said I thought Buddy would be speedy Gonzales soon enough and it appears that he must have been listening and we hit 51.2MPH according to endomondo on Friday! I'm not sure how as we only trotted but it can't possibly be an error.. can it??

Go Buddy go!

Pondering in the sunshine

In the time since my lost post we've had some more snow, beautiful sunshine and more mud. Everyone is talking about the weather and it is really starting to get me down so lord knows how the horses are feeling. The glimpses we've had of spring are amazing but it is still oh so cold. I am definitely not putting my thermals away just yet!

Buddy and Bert grazing in the snow last week

Buddy has fallen foul of the weather and we've been battling the smallest patch of mud fever the last week or so (so small the camera couldnt even pick it up to take a picture for the blog) but it has been persistent and wasn't responding to any typical, non vet, treatment. So, after another "Buddy's hopping lame" text from my YO (Buddy is the wussiest horse in the world) I called my vet, Chris. He has been so supportive and I may well do a whole post about him soon as he is awesome! Anyway, back to Buddy... Chris prescribed some flamazine cream and bute to help the swelling and time off the field. After a day Buddy realised his leg was no longer falling off (typical man) and we are *hopefully* coming out the other side.

Unfortunately for Buddy he isn't getting a holiday and it is work as usual - we're just avoiding mud and sand! So whilst on my hack this morning I was enjoying the sunshine and pondering.. As I often do. There was a post on the Phoenix forum a week or so ago about the definition of soundness, particularly in barefoot horses, which then led to a discussion about why shoes relieve discomfort and hide soundness issues in most horses. 

Pondering about proprioception in the sunshine

Soundness in barefoot horses is an interesting topic and one I obviously have a particular interest in. As far as I am concerned Buddy is 'sound' at the moment but he would definitely not be able to trot over a rocky surface without looking uncomfortable.. There is where the discussion starts as is he truly sound if he is not 100% over all surfaces? We are getting better over more challenging terrain but we still have a way to go yet before we are rock crunching.

This then got me thinking about proprioception as this, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the key differences between a shod and unshod/barefoot horse. Nic has posted about this a couple of times on the Rockley blog and they were topics I read with a bit of disbelief prior to me feeling it for myself. When Buddy had shoes on he stomped over every terrain with the same stride pattern and there was no difference whatsoever. Now it is a completely different story, his stride changes depending on the surface he is on. He is even aware of the slightest change in type of Tarmac, when there is a bit of mud on the road and if the grass suddenly gets a bit boggier. I know from speaking to other Rockley owners that Buddy is not alone in this phenomenon. He is now protecting his body from any jarring that he simply wasn't able to do before and I wonder what impact that will have on his long term soundness... Surely it can only be a good thing?! But if a vet watched that change in stride would they consider it an awareness or a lameness...

Handsome Horse (and doesn't he know it!)

I'm sure this is a topic I will come back to over time, I'm hoping especially so when I watch horses out eventing.. I'm wondering what the impact of increased proprioception will have on Buddy across country. I can't wait to find out!

The ups and downs of rehabbing

Another educational week for me as I've been living off the high with constant improvement and I've been tentatively waiting for something to go wrong and it did this week! 

Trying to fit the right level and type of work is difficult in the winter and as I was faced with a beautiful early morning and a working from home day I took the opportunity to take Buddy out for a lovely hack. Usually I work to a two days on, one day off routine which sometimes falls to 3 days on over a weekend but one of those will always be a gentler session in the school. I use an app on my iPhone called Endomondo which tracks where you went, how far it is and average speed to name a few. I've found it so useful to track my mileage but also to compare the speed at which we do certain hacks. When B came back he was slower than when he was in shoes over the same routes but is now pretty much at the same speed and he is definitely not at his best yet so we'll be flying round soon a la speedy Gonzales!!

Endomondo App from one of our journeys this week

As my work the following week was scheduled to be a bit busier I thought I might have to give him a couple more days off so I worked him for four days straight.. And three of those were hacks. He was fantastic and is showing an improvement every time we go out and is so much better over stony tracks. He had Monday off and was fine to go out in the field but on Tuesday morning he came out a bit footsore. Cue a text from my YO telling me B was lame and me feeling sick all day as I was stuck in meetings and wouldn't be able to get there until late :0(

At home after a hack with his best friend Bert

When I finally got to the yard he had improved although was clearly a bit uncomfortable. I ran through all the possible reasons in my head.. grass, thrush, too much work. To cover all bases I treated for thrush, he'd been off the grazing for the day so all I could do was wait. I went up to the yard in the morning and he was completely fine so I'm pretty convinced that it was just too much work. Wrist slapped and lesson learnt - DO NOT OVERDO IT... BUDDY IS STILL REHABBING EVEN IF HE FEELS AMAZING!

Laminitis App

However, grass is still a concern and I am conscious that we are entering a dangerous time. I will see what Buds is like this evening and if he's a bit footsore then I know it is the grazing and I will have to start managing that. After doing lots of research I have upped his salt intake due to the raised potassium in the grass at this time of year and have upped his magnesium intake as a preventative I also use the laminitis risk app which is a good indicator. I would much rather keep him without a muzzle if at all possible but I would much rather a comfortable horse so we will deal with it all one step at a time.

Time to learn

The last week has been brilliant, Buddy's feet are improving every week and our work is improving even faster. Since my last blog we've had two lessons and they've been hard work but absolutely brilliant. 

Sending kisses to his readers

Our main focus is keeping Buddy straight and improving his canter. On the flat Buddy has a bit of a yee haw canter and I've let it continue so now is the time to start knuckling down and improving it as it will pull our marks down in a test. The exercises we have been doing are pretty simple but all focused on keeping Buddy into my outside rein as he tends to twist into and out of the canter and evade my aids so to improve the canter we have to focus on the straightness first. 

Both sessions we have started getting him in front of the leg and really reacting to my aids as he can be a lazy monkey! Lots and lots of transitions to keep him thinking forward and anticipating make sure that as soon as I ask he is there. Last night we started with a few serpentines which highlighted that he wasn't into my outside rein as it was a little bit messy and hard to control. We then moved on to some lateral work, using shoulder in and leg yield to get that connection. I found the shoulder in exercise particularly useful and as soon as I rode out of the movement and asked for straightness Buddy immediately lightened and gave me a wonderful feeling. Next we worked the canter on a circle, checking that we still had that outside connection. Buddy is much more established on his right rein and I noticed a massive improvement last night, on the left rein he is a bit more manic (!). We continued doing lots of transitions, correcting any drift as soon as it happened and rewarding the right behaviour. He is definitely improving so I need to continue practising outside of my lessons and I'm confident in a few weeks there will be a complete change and we should hopefully be ready for our first dressage outing at the end of April.

Buddy chilling having a graze

In our other work Buddy has made a massive improvement over the last couple of weeks in terms of his ability over smaller stones, so much so that I actually walked up the driveway both days at the weekend without him flinching... cue big smiles from me!

In other news, Rolo is not doing so well and his second blood test came back worse than last time so he's having a liver biopsy today to see if we can get to the bottom of it. Good vibes would be appreciated for him.