Sunday, August 12, 2007

Abscess, abscess, abscess


The picture was of Grace competing BD at Arkenfield just before she went lame that weekend. She came a very respectable 4th with 65%, but I did feel she did not work as well as she could do. However, it all became apparent on the Sunday when I got back from the Richard Maxwell Forum Weekend. She came in from the field absolutely hopping lame, and when I brought her out for the vet on Monday morning she could barely put any weight on it.

She was off work for just over two weeks with an abscess, and because of it I am now an absolute expert at polticing. Hannah has never suffered with an abscess (touch wood) so I was not one hundred percent sure that I was doing it right, but they all stayed on and I kept the opening incredibly clean.

The farrier came up the following Tuesday to put her shoe back on as he knew I had the Petplan Area Festival at Myerscough, but she was still quite footy when I trotted her up on the Tuesday night. However, Wednesday morning she looked level and sound, so I got on her that night and was very conscious of her paces as I was convinced she would still be unlevel when worked. She was completely sound, and so far she has stayed sound now for four schooling sessions that have gradually asked a bit more of her.

On Wednesday night when I rode her, some of the girls from the yard were hacking out. We had just finished schooling, and they asked whether I would like to go. I just though, “Why not?” and set off with them around the Street. It was a lovely night, the weather was beautiful and Grace really did me proud. She led the entire way around and only had a very small spook at some rubber matting that had been left on the floor. Several motorbikes went passed us, and although I felt her tense a little, I asked her to walk on and she complied.

Spurred on by this success, yesterday morning (Saturday) I was having a bit of a battle schooling her because there was a digger at the other side of the fence and she was being a complete prat. She was sweated up, snorting and very ‘up’. Rather than cool her down in the school where she would have continued to get herself stressed out, I decided to walk her to the end of Slacks Lane where there are only 6 houses or so and hardly any traffic. Before I knew it we were at the end of the lane, turned onto the main road and trotted a little while to get her listening to the leg. She was very stressed out, but motorbikes went passed us and she listened! I was absolutely thrilled with her and feel a lot more confident in taking her out now.

We have a very busy week ahead of us. On Tuesday we have a lesson over at Arkenfield, then a BD competition (P17 and N33) on Saturday and a lesson with Jo Graham on Sunday morning. This is all in preparation for 25th August we have the Petplan Area Festival over at Richmond, North Yorkshire. The top four horses for each section go through to the finals, so we have a lot of work to do before then!

1 comment:

Jean said...

Wow! A lot has happened since my last visit.

How I hate abscesses. My boy had one that was so hidden, my farrier and vet were not able to find it for several weeks. All we had was an unexplained recurring unsoundness. My horse was out of work for well over a month.

You should be so proud of your girl for being so good out on hacks. It really is a bonus to have a horse you can take out of the arena to just have fun. It's good for her brain and yours.

Keep us posted on the uncoming competitions and, above all--ENJOY!