Thursday, July 25, 2013

Oh, What A Beautiful Morning

Oh, What a Beautiful Day!

Gorgeous weather. Too chilly to swim, actually, although I suspect the water would have felt nice and warm. Since I've been swimming every day, I opted out, using today as my rest from swimming day. 

That did not stop me from other pursuits, or events beyond my control. 

Yesterday, I rode Tucker. As we circled the arena, I heard the dreadful "clink" of loose horseshoe hitting the little pebbles.  I managed to finish the ride with no consequences. We did the usual exercises at the walk and trot. His left pirouette is definitely improving, but after riding Chance today, I think I may have discovered part of the problem--more later. Half pass at the trot in both directions was OK, but not spectacular. Since I was worrying about the shoe, I didn't press the point, nor did I try any half pass at canter. Since it was pretty hot, I only worked for about 25-30 minutes with much of it at the walk. 

When we came in, I inspected the loose shoe and made an attempt to wrap it with some very good duct tape to see if I could keep it on until my farrier could get here. 

Fast forward to today. Morning brought absolutely glorious, cool weather.  My vet was coming at 9 AM to examine Toby's eye again, so the morning was occupied. We are a bit disappointed to report that while his eye is better, it's still not completely healed. So I will continue to put in the three medications to keep it from developing any kind of secondary infection, I just be patient. Toby is 23 and has Cushings, so either factor could be part of the slow healing. 

As the vet was leaving, I saw Tucker--I'd locked him in his stall while we worked on Toby--take a really lame step. I went into his stall to see the loose shoe totally askew on his hoof so he was actually standing on the clinch. Thinking the shoe was still attached, I rushed out to stop the vet before she left. She has studied horse shoeing and has a set of tools, so odds were she could get the shoe off far better than I. 

We brought Tucker into the aisle--very painfully--and as I lifted his foot, the shoe fell off into my hand. Lucky that. But the clinch had cut the sole of his foot. Dr. Parisio cleaning it out, trimmed a little hoof away from the cut and told me to soak and wrap it for a few days until Scott, my farrier could get here. 

More doctoring, and now, no way of riding Tucker in the lovely cool air. 

After I wrapped Tuck's foot, I headed to the feed store to get some more shavings for his stall, a super deal on the feed I get for Toby--a free bag--and some fly spray on super sale. 

Back home, I spent some time poo picking the riding arena, and then I saddled up Chance.  

We had a good school. Slowly but surely, Chance is getting more consistent about stretching into the bit as a matter of choice. 

But the lightbulb moment hit when I had trouble getting him to do a left turn on the haunches--the same direction I'm having trouble with Tucker's walk pirouette. I suddenly realized that when I turned to the right, I was dropping my right knee and sinking into my right seat bone.  On the left, I was shortening my leg and trying to push him over to the left with my right seatbone. Duh.

As soon as I dropped my left knee and sank my weight into the left seat bone, around he went, as nice as you please. Now this is a horse with minimal training compared to Tucker. Of course, with the missing shoe there was no way to test my corrected riding on Tuck, but for know I will presume it will work the charm the next time I ride him. 

It's supposed to warm up again tomorrow, but the break was an absolute delight. 

3 comments:

  1. Loved the weather today. It was 58 when I headed out to the store. Wish it would stick around for a while.

    Sorry to hear about the shoe and sole. Ouch!

    Great lightbulb moment with the seat and leg cues. Sometimes it's something so simple and when we finally realize it we feel like Duh.. Why didn't I think of that. Oh well, bet you can't wait to try it out on Tucker.

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  2. Those cool days in summer are so precious! At least you had option number 3 to ride.

    Putting meds in Toby's eye must be getting pretty old but at least he's a gentleman for it. Can't be helped, can it.

    I hope Tucker doesn't get an abscess from the loose nail.

    How rewarding - to have figured out the riding problem :-)

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  3. Don't you just wish you could re-set a shoe easily like a farrier? me too! woulda saved me 3 months of foot pain for Stormy when I tried the barefoot thing when his shoes fell off!
    Hopefully the soaking will take care of any problems.
    - The Equestrian Vagabond

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