So many blogs, so little time!

I have several things to blog about, and I promise I'll get them all in eventually.

I need to blog about Rolex, the-Horse-Show-that-wasn't, major tragedy here in Middle TN (which is why I have refrained from blogging about the Horse Show from Hades.) and my lesson yesterday. I'm going to hit the lesson first because it was awweeeesooommme.... but first, a PSA:

LOST

MANX (TAIL—LESS) MALE CAT—”Scooter”

Solid buff colored, neutered male, long haired. 11 y/o, 9 lbs.

Sweet, cuddly, friendly, very much loved and missed.

Scooter most likely left the farm on Patterson Rd under a truck whose path went Patterson Rd, turned left on Rehobath Rd, right  on Hwy 96, stopped at the ON the Run, then across town to Rutherford Farmers Co-op on Hwy 99.

ANY information would be greatly appreciated.  Please call:

Jerry or Anita Scott 615 512-1005, 615 336-0656

So, anyway, I had my lesson yesterday. Letha was kind enough to swing by and pick Ari and I up on her way down to Columbia. Ari had his shoes reset last week and we discussed back shoes, but I decided to hold off since he'd been okay. I rode two days after that and he just didn't feel right. I decided to ask Lesley to come out and put his back shoes on and see if it helped. He got those on on Monday and I didn't have time to ride him before my lesson.

I had asked Amy to plan on riding Ari about a week ago because I just couldn't quite get what I was trying to get. I wanted to know if it was him or me or what. So, when we addressed his left-bend issue, Amy watched carefully and found that he was quite "sticky" in his left hind. She got on to show me and I felt much better about life when she said "he is making you work much too hard." And here I just felt like I was completely out of shape! 

So anyway, long story short, he is sticky on his left hind, he's not jumping straight or pushing off evenly and is resistant to anything where he has to push off that back leg, so Amy recommended hock injections. My mommy asked, on facebook, what that entails, and I thought Stacy did a bang-up job of explaining it, so I'll copy and paste!

"The hock is a joint about halfway down the horse's hind leg. It works very hard, especially in jumping and sport horses, so it can develop inflammation and osteoarthritis. A veterinarian can inject an anti-inflammatory plus artificial joint fluid into the joint to compensate for this. That's what's often called "getting the hocks done." 

We're also going to try him on Adequan (or the generic if i can convince my clinic that I can be the guinea pig) and hope that he'll be a little more even, a little less resistant and a little more willing to JUMP!

BUT- he did not have one. single. stop. in our lesson yesterday. Not to say he didn't try, but-dangit- I'm finally getting to where I can sit up and ride! We jumped all kinds of things that could have made him stop- a liverpool, the Christmas tree filler (in the shade), a single barrel under the first jump of a one-stride AAAAAAND... there was one reasonably-sized oxer that he'd stopped at the last time we were at Amy's. I came around to it and he thought he might try to stop again. Welllllll... I sat up and spanked him and that effer jumped from a standstill... because. I. Made. Him. HA. HA. and HA.

I EVEN had an "AH-HA!" moment. I jumped an oxer and Amy gave me the "AH-HA!" while I was in the air over it. I started thinking of what I could have possibly done wrong. So when she said "what happened there?" I pretended to think thought for a moment and came up with "I left a stride out?!" and she said "No- I don't think he could have fit another stride- BUT...you started to lean, then corrected yourself and didn't tip forward coming up to it!"

Yay me!  So that was a nice lesson.

Oh, and Brandy's dressage has improved about 100% since Wolf Gap. I have to stop being such a push over. 

Here's a preview of things to come:

OH... and THIS. You HAVE to watch THIS. 



You all remember the Emu incident, right? This is what it could have become!