Future Planning

 With Gwyn's back to back injuries (suspensory followed by something muscular in the stifle) and unsure long term prognosis I'm entertaining second horse ideas. Even if we have a good prognosis, I don't know that Gwyn will ever hold up to eventing and she may be destined as a casual trail and dressage lesson only. The lameness has been chronic enough from what we think is over a decade of poor biomechanics that even if I get her using her body better - and I've been trying - I have a deep seated fear that we'll just get eliminated over and over for not being sound in the dressage court.

Gwyn doesn't appear to be in pain. She's happy to move out, she's spicy at times and more than willing to go forward. I am wondering if I'm going to be left with a mechanically lame, but pain free horse. I'm hoping for the best but preparing for the worst and I have no idea how I can make a second horse work both with a purchase (prices are CRAZY omg) and with long term upkeep. 

I just feel so frustrated thinking about the things I want to do vs what I'm able to do. I love this horse, she's not going to be sold regardless of the prognosis. But I do absolutely need to figure out what the future looks like. 

I'm working with my trainer to find options for a second horse but the first one that she thought was a good potential fit had developing sidebone so they were out for any eventing. What I want overall, is the following:

1. Not dainty. Height I don't care about beyond "not pony" but I want decent, thick bone because I am not a small rider. 

2. Is healthy enough to jump. 

3. Can canter.

4. Has an idea of contact or is green enough that the concept won't be a retraining, just an introduction.

5. Less than 10,000 USD

Is this reasonable? I have no idea. Gwyn is the first horse I've owned and I got her from a friend. I'm a much better rider now than when she became mine at 5 years old. I'm absolutely paying for that inexperience in myself now but trying not to dwell in the past and instead correct both of us.

The timing of this thought experiment is not doing wonders for my mental health as I deal with stressful work stuff, but I also hate not having a plan. And I feel like I still don't have enough information to make a plan. 

Ralph Dreitzler #2: Black Magic

 Trainer ED was hosting a clinic at her own farm with Ralph (back in November)

Balance is key, Gwyn will tell on me if I'm unbalanced.  If she tries to throw me to the outside, weight the opposite, make her balance herself.

Practice on an exercise ball, sit, lift legs RELAX balance

That damn butt muscle, relax it

Relax your shoulders

Tuck hips EVER so slightly without collapsing shoulders

Steer from hips/pelvic tilt, less is more, shoulders DO NOT follow

Sit back sit back SIT BACK!

Weight in the stirrups + pelvic direction = amazing turns and eventually pirouettes :O  

Breathe, lol

Use the armpit muscle to steer, like holy shit, what... this works?!

Gwyn can do it, Gwyn WANTS to do it. Gwyn is happy when you ride WELL. Happy ears when you get it right/are balanced

Boobs are terrible counterweights, lol

Ralph and I are similar weights :0

She's almost there to being on the bit. It will come as she starts to carry herself. Focus on getting her to carry herself.



I had one or two more lessons with Ralph. One attempt was waylaid by Gwyn still not being sound. It was so frustrating and part of the reason why I just stopped making posts. It was too depressing to open the 'create post' and only think, "Horse is still lame, I lunged her hoping there was a change and there wasn't so I didn't do anything but walk for 10 minutes"

Awful awful.

December Clinic with Ralph

Where I sat in her stall while it was freezing rain and cried because I was breaking my horse (early Jan)

We had our recheck with the vet and got the all clear, however there were moments where things just didn't pan out. Like when I had a lesson the same day as a massage and we just didn't realize because I'm so caught up in craziness at work I didn't realize they were double booked for the same day. 

   

Gwyn sees the vet again tomorrow. She still does hinky things with her hip, several different people have commented on it but noted that it's not lameness but just her dropping her left hip. I suspect it's muscle memory from her compensating for the stifle for so long, but now I'm fucking paranoid. 

We've been doing little except a dressage lesson here and there and lots of trail walking to try and build up her butt strength. 

And buying lots of the ombre line weatherbeeta pads to fill emotional voids

Clearly she's still feeling sassy

Anyway, that's slowly catching me up with you all. I'll get fully back to it at some point.

Ralph Dreitzler Clinic

Ralph is our local FEI gold medalist trainer that Trainer ED will have over for clinics. BO Allison decided to have him come to our barn for a full day clinic since everyone wanted to ride with him. The clinic fee included free food and auditing the other participants. It was a surprisingly pleasant day considering it was supposed to be rainy.

Cassy and Henny 

Gwyn had been put out in the paddock close to the barn in anticipation of me riding in the clinic. This proved to be less than ideal since her buddies came to her and that was novel and she was excited. 

Faheed is a photogenic gelding and KNOWS when you're taking pictures

Mostly....

That heel first landing is aces, tho!

Thanks to her gallivanting about, I put her in the cross ties earlier than I intended but not too early. I took my time getting ready.

BO Allison and Sunny

I did a good walk warm up and Gwyn was moving well to my senses. Ralph had me give him a brief history of me and Gwyn and what we wanted to focus on. I told him what we've been struggling with and some recent things that seem to help (namely, focusing on weighting my stirrups evenly despite it feeling off kilter). He had me pause and walked around Gwyn and I, had me lower my left stirrup one hole.

Suddenly things felt better. It was SO strange.

 But then, as we picked up the trot in front of the clinician, he thought she was stepping weird. A bit more confirmed, she was NQR in the hind end, on the left side. He felt on the inside of her leg and found a huge knot in her muscle.

As demonstrated by the arrow and grumpy face

Ralph thought it better to not stress the muscle if she had pulled it (and she was being an idiot in turn out) because we'd be making her work correctly and it could hurt her more. I agreed, how could I not!? and hopped off. He showed me where it was. I could feel it. 

I'm just dejected and frustrated right now. I'm second guessing everything we've done since mid August when this first popped up. I let her marinate in her BoT sheet. I REALLY wanted to ride with Ralph. I think his knowledge will be really helpful for me. I listened to the other lessons and gah. 

Instead I massaged the heck out of the knot for her. 

And I let her clean up the hay that Faheed and Reign dropped.

And so I gave her more time off and what riding I did do I kept to a walk under saddle and just kept evaluating her on the lunge line. And her strength in stepping under herself waxed and waned within the same session. So she's not working that left hind consistently.

But she got a new waterproof sheet since mine are not holding waterproofness well.

Getting dizzy watching her footfalls

We take breaks to watch the deer

And vote

We treasure the sunlight we do have, coming into our short days and rainy season

And I finally got the bodyworker out. The under leg knot had long been worked out, but I wanted her hands on Gwyn to see what she could find.

Spots make for easy relocation of where to massage

Her left hamstring was extremely tight. She had compensating tightness in her right back (bodyworker expected right shoulder)

I got Henny snuggles while I learned

Henny tried helping

Hamstring stretches

Relaxing into the stretch and releasing

I took election day off for the bodyworker. That was a good plan all around. Plus I wanted to see and feel and make sure I had homework to do with Gwyn to keep her body feeling good. I don't know what else I can do if it's muscle related other than time off and bodywork. I looked into supplements and I'm pretty sure she's on CalTrace + in which case it has the muscle supplement levels handled. I'm not sure a supplement is the magic wand I'd want it to be anyway.

Late night barn time when you work over 40 hrs a week

Liberty play with the ball

I spent a lot of time grooming her because it was warming me up and she was just SHINY!

And both before the ride and after the ride, she got some massage and stretches. Plus organic carrots because they came with carrot tops and I could give those to the bunny at home. 

So I hope this works. Because I'm hoping to take more lessons and clinics through the winter. And I'll make sure to advocate for things to be gentle with this in mind.