Still walking. Still lame.

We're three weeks to the day since the chiro appointment that knocked Opie seriously out of whack--whether it was from something the chiro did or just something the chiro aggravated that Opie did to himself. 

He's maybe better than he was, but he's certainly not in any good shape either. 

He doesn't do the falling out/down thing with the LH almost ever anymore--maybe once in three rides--but it's turned into a consistently visible lameness at anything faster than a walk. BM wanted me to try cantering him before moving on to trotting, and while that didn't make sense to me, I asked for it for the first time yesterday and he physically could not do it. I even tried to just urge him forward into any canter at all, forget a dressage canter, and I pulled him up after less than half the arena. 

He can trot, but since the trot is where you evaluate for lameness it's obvious he's not comfortable in that gait either. I've trotted him one lap each direction twice now, and he was worse this morning than he was yesterday. A barn mate was riding with me and stopped to watch. He was almost head bobbing every now and then and she said it looked like he was stepping short with the RF to compensate for the LH. He was better to the right than the left, but off both ways. 

So is the not falling out thing an actual improvement, or has it just morphed into always lame instead of lame for those steps his hip was dropping? With only walking I don't know if he's been this type of lame for these past two weeks or if this has developed within the past few days.

I'm giving him the rest of the week off from riding because I mentally cannot. Plus his expensive AF ice wraps are useless AF. Unless he magically makes a giant leap forward in soundness, this is going to become a vet visit as soon as I have the money for it. 

Fuck you, 2020.

Ride Notes: The Stifle. Probably.

Well, more like Walk Notes than Ride Notes, but here we are.

"y u no bring me in for the riding?"

To recap the time line:

• Last Tuesday Opie got adjusted by the chiro. He saw/felt there was a stifle issue. We decided to do a week of descending Bute dosage, starting at two grams and going down half a gram every two days. 
• The next time I rode him was on the weekend. I rode him lightly both days. He continuously fell out from the left stifle.
• I didn't ride Monday. On Tuesday morning BM came out to assess wtf was going on while I was in the saddle.

always with the head tilt

While waiting for BM to arrive--no more than ten minutes--I got on Opie and started walking around and doing some walk-halt transitions. He didn't want to halt square by putting full weight on the LH. I could get him to do it if I shifted him around enough, but he wasn't willing to do it on his own. He was still falling out in that leg probably once every other lap.

When BM got there she was able to clearly see it from the ground as well. We talked through what I was feeling, what she was seeing, and the progression of how this played out. 

• She noted that his muscling was very even so it probably wasn't something he had been dealing with for awhile and was compensating for. 
• The likely guess that made the most sense to both of us was that he was either being a fool in the field with his friends and slipped (not even remotely out of the ordinary), or he was rolling in his stall and torqued it while getting up...possibly using his anti-casting boards and banked shavings to unstick himself. 
• The chiro then exacerbated the issue--obviously not intentionally--and now he's feeling the effects from that.

We talked about what a vet could do since the stifle is a tricky area to image, and agreed it probably wasn't going to make a difference to wait it out for a bit. I'm going to do a few weeks of walk only. He finishes his Bute this weekend, and I'll switch him over to Bute-less because even though I just started him on Outlast I don't want to kill his stomach any more than I have to. I also have Ice Horse stifle icing suspenders on the way because icing never hurt anything. 

If, after a month of that routine, he's still not in a good way, obviously the vet will be out. But the good news was with the continued Bute and time off when I got on him Thursday to walk him, he only fell out once as I turned him across the diagonal. 

riding or not, always gets the butt scratches

In the meantime, BM passed off Mo onto me which I know is mostly because she wants his crazy ass back in work so he's sane when she has the time to start riding again. Whatevs, he was a good boy for me this morning and at least it's more exciting than walking.

lucked out and was getting off right when the attack
chihuahua appeared

Opie also got his feet done this morning, so I've spent ALL THE MONEY I HAVE on him. Please do good things with it, sir.

got to hang out with farrier's puppy so no real loss

Chiro Appointment Notes

Opie's chiro appointment did not go at all as expected. The LH is always the problem leg, and I figured he'd also need a couple of adjustments in his back and poll as those are pretty standard Riding Horse areas of abuse. I was right on the latter two accounts--although Chiro said his back wasn't in too bad of shape at all, just a couple of the normal spots that needed quick fixes. 

Then we get to the LH. Usually the consensus is that his hips have gotten knocked out of alignment somehow someway and the left hip ends up higher. Also the case this time, but after a whole lot of pushing and shoving and lifting and pulling, Chiro had me walk him down and back and declared that he didn't think there was much he could do from his end. He thought we were looking more at a stifle issue. He dug around both stifles but didn't find uneven swelling or soreness.

We decided to do a week of descending bute treatment: two days of 2gs, two days of 1.5, to 1 to half. The theory we were playing with was maybe there's some stifle and/or SI muscle and/or soft tissue "injury" (more irritation/aggression of the muscle fibers is what we were thinking), and to see if the bute helped with that at all. I kicked that off on Saturday which is also when I rode for the first time after he got adjusted.

Ok, wow. 

He was a fucking mess. He still is a fucking mess.

All the sudden his left stifle keeps slipping which makes him trip all over himself. Something he most decidedly was not doing before he got worked on. 

I rode him both days this weekend, simple w/t/c rides on long straight lines with a couple of circles and shallow leg yields thrown in to see how they felt. As stated: not great.

I have a lesson with BM scheduled for tomorrow so I'll see what her opinion is because quite frankly I'm a bit flummoxed at this point. Bobby had horrible stifles, but it wasn't sudden onset oh shit they're falling off your body sort of thing. They were locking stifles coming off the track that upgraded to a weakness that I just always worked on strengthening. 

I had planned on having the vet do a full physical work up this spring before showing started to address any issues--thinking hocks were probably going to have to be injected or some such thing--but maybe I'll have to move that up. Budget allowing of course because he also needs his teeth checked again next month, his insanely expensive teeth supplement runs out shortly after that if the dentist thinks it did him any good, and also my truck is dead for real. Plus I'd like to take lessons, he needs his feet done on a five to six week schedule, he eats two expensive add-ons aside from his magnificent mushrooms, yada yada. 

Owning horses is great.

Juuust kidding

 After two good rides in a row, on Friday we went back to the shit show of Ask More, Get Less. 

A lot of it was my fault for going in without a clear game plan for the ride which left our warm up disjointed and relatively useless. Always a good way to start things. Things just never really got flowing, although we were able to accomplish some really good walk-canter-walk transitions x1000. However, I started to take those across the diagonal ala the simple change in 2-3 and Opie instantly went into flying change rage monster--you know, without the actual change.

I ended the ride once we were able to accomplish the simple change across the diagonal, but I got us there after working through violent rearing by breaking everything down to the walk and building back up. At this point that feels excessive. 

Saturday afternoon I begrudgingly climbed back on with no goal besides No Drama. Fortunately that was accomplished. 

He wasn't too interested in big stretching, but I got him going around in a Training/First frame while keeping the thrusters going. More w/c/w transitions, some canters down the center line through a fun pole chute A had set up earlier, and then we finished popping over an 18" vertical--which was done with much panache. 

leaving on sunday after confo pics. dopie says,
don't go need more snacks first.

The chiro comes out tomorrow, and I'm on BM's wait list for lessons so hopefully those will get kicked off soon. My truck is in a bad way right now so hauling out for lessons is looking extremely doubtful at the moment. 

Back on the same page

 For the moment at least.

all about soft foamy mouth pics right now

Yesterday I managed to sneak in a ride before the contractors were supposed to show up--and then they didn't for the second day in a row. Well done, guys. This construction work is going to be done in no time!

I couldn't resist the allure of my squishy, pretty double anymore and was still riding the good feel vibes from Sunday. I played around a little with the fit of the curb bit again because it looks weird from the outside, but when I opened his lips and wiggled things around inside it looked right how I wanted it. No complaints from Dopie once we started going.

We started with ten million walk-halt transitions with a quick discussion at the beginning about how we do not halt by throwing all our weight down. Good from there, and then into the trot where I spent a few laps letting him coast while I focused on my equitation...which actually is starting to feel like something I can control finally! #whatareabs

I moved into the sitting trot fairly quickly once we started doing trot-walk transitions, and his back stayed soft and round. 

A little SI, some HI, 10m circles, and finish with a medium trot across each diagonal. On the second/last one I actually giggled out loud because it was perfect. So balanced and rhythmic and I could tell he just got it.

FINALLYYYYYYYY.

Not sure I'm ever going to quit riding the high of a real medium on this horse. I feel like it's our biggest win ever. Maybe one day the changes will make that transformation LOLPLZGOD.

We finished there because he was on point for the whole ride and I didn't want anything to spiral out of control.

Nobody Panic

OK, good news, my horse isn't permanently an anxious rage monster that's resistant to life and everything being asked of him under saddle. 

I mean, we've had one whole ride where things were super casual and relaxed so I guess you could say he's totes fixed. 

soft, happy, foamy lips

Normally I wouldn't ride the day after a show, but the way things were set up over the past week and the tense shit show I was sitting on while "huntering", it felt like it needed to happen. And I'm so glad I got on again. I pulled out our dressage tack, spent fifty hours grooming beforehand, and headed to the outdoor for a bare bones flat ride. 

He's really come a long way in the steadiness in the connection--when he's relaxed. This ride reiterated how much his tension comes out in his mouth and the bobbing up and down off the contact. When he's relaxed, he's metronome. I'm not sure where to go with that because I can't just w/t/c without asking one single other thing for the rest of his life. The work gets harder, the questions get more complex, he's got to work with me a little bit on the not building and building until we're throwing Bobby tantrums around. 

bobby level posing

We did accomplish some counter canter serpentines both directions that didn't involve ridiculous theatrics for the first time in eternity. We finished on those after about a twenty minute ride.

I decided to bite the bullet and do a month of lessons with BM--one a week. I want her to work both of us hard on the basics. More push, more connection, more forward and suppleness in the lateral work. I'll also have the chiro out as soon as he's available.

I have the funds set aside for those two things, and then I'm maybe going to reach out to a local-ish dressage pro about bi-weekly lessons. I have to work myself up to that. And hope that she's not too expensive. And that she's still down with trailer-ins. 

The barn is under construction all week so no riding unless I go back in the evening. We'll see what my motivation level is.

In-barn Hunter Show

 A repeat from last year's in-barn hunter show, and while we did quite a bit of jumping the month leading up to this year's edition, I also got on my horse for the first time in a week the morning of. I had actually planned on him having a couple more days off on top of that, but at the last minute we went out on the barn's hunter pace with Easy. 

Fortunately that was (as planned) very low key. We only jumped a couple things and never picked up the canter. Opie and I were both pretty blah about the whole thing, and I was more than ready to leave everything in NY behind for our vacation. 

I got to the barn Saturday morning and my horse was standing at the back of his stall weaving instead of eating his hay because the barn was bustling and his routine was changed and his life was ruined. I washed his tail, scrubbed his fresh poop spots, and we headed over to the barn on horseback with H and Puck (The barn is directly behind ours, separated only by a couple of fields.). He spent the entire walk over snorting like a dragon, and then wanted to challenge the other barn's horses that were turned out to a duel, but we made it over without issue. 

He was super strong on the flat warming up, but I just kept him trotting and coming round while controlling the rhythm if not the pace until he settled. Our first few jumps were a certified shit show. At one point he biffed the distance so badly that he tripped on landing, hit the ground face first, and then launched up and bolted with his head in the air as a wad of chewed grass went flying by my head.

H told me it looked like he kept putting in canter strides over the jumps instead of jumping them, but he did eventually settle in and we jumped down the lines straight (did not happen on our first attempt), and were able to come off the long approach to the diagonal singles.

always a good time when our back legs don't work

I quit once I felt like we were in a good spot, and we hung out for about twenty minutes while everyone else finished warming up before going in for the hack division--three flat classes.

I felt like Opie was pretty solid for the first hunter flat, but we placed 4th out of 5. For the next flat, an equitation class which is hands down my absolute weakest point as a rider, Opie spent the whole ride gnashing his teeth and occasionally cranking his head sideways. He did enjoy the "extended" trot portion though. We won that class.

"lengthen stride, yes, thank god i know this one!"
--opie, probably

We finished the hack division with a hunter pleasure flat where Opie felt very chill and responsive and we once again came in second to last--fifth out of six. 

We had to wait around awhile for our turn to jump in the 2'3 division that was actually most definitely only 2'. Opie snoozed for most of that wait and was not at all pleased to be woken back up and asked to go to work. The first round was hunter and it was awful. 

We went from zero to Rage Monster in 2.5, took a rail in one of the lines from trying to do the aforementioned canter over the jumps instead of jumping them, and were just generally going about ten thousand miles too fast. We got a fourth out of 10 for that class.

The next jumping round was an equitation course. It went even worse than the first! Actually the first jump was very good and as we approached and jumped it, I was like, "Phew! Here's my quiet jumping horse I have at home." 

#fakenews

I asked for the simple change to get the left lead after landing from the first jump and it took me the whole length of the diagonal to get him yanked back long enough to switch it over. We came into the first line next and he supermanned that ho:

Launched the jump out:

Got in kind of tight to the next jump, and then refused to be rated enough to change leads let alone slow down even remotely:

At which point we were supposed to jump the first jump in the line, roll back to the other first jump in the other line, and then finish by going down the line. None of which I remembered as I attempted to get this runaway train back on the tracks, and ended up just continuing down the line.

gotta work those courtesy circles

We finished with an equitation flat at which point we were both very much done with each other. I don't even remember specifics. It went fine, we placed 8 out of 10. 

Overall the judging was straight up fucking stupid. I say that not just for myself but for everyone there. None of the placings made sense in any of the classes. 

Another take away is that I need to find a new jumping bit for Opie for off property. The slow twist he's currently in just lets him sit there and lay on it without actually giving me any brakes. Same for the jumper derby earlier in the year. He's just not the same horse to jump at home as he is at shows.