The second day I was in Florida (I arrived Monday morning and left Wednesday evening) turned out to be a bit of washout. We had planned to take Scout over to Justin Dutton's farm for one of her schooling jumper shows where you pay for one round and then get to go back in to fix anything that didn't go well, alas the weather had other ideas. The show was canceled due to a whole afternoon of downpouring -- booooo. I did spend the morning over at the Davidson's Florida compound and to hang out with my favorite little person, her pony and I got invited to go on conditioning rides with Andrea. Yes, PLEASE! The funny thing is that I've never ridden with or around her at all, so it was such a special treat to get to ride their upper-level horses without any kind of knowledge of my ability. Their Florida farm is on 600 acres, has a full track for gallops and a conditioning path that goes around massive fields with undulating terrain. After not riding for almost two months I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to keep up, but it turns out all that gym time has been paying off!
The cutest
It's not pony playtime without Twinkle Toes!
Sadly, will not fit in carry-on bag
We ALL finally got to ride together! Aubrey was SO excited!
Part of the trot paths
We did a series of trot sets and even galloped a bit which was super fun on something that is decidedly NOT a thoroughbred. The horses were all a bit wild that morning with the incoming weather a drop in temps but I had an absolute BLAST.
Scout got a bit of a spa day en lieu of the schooling show, and was not super psyched about Mom rolling in to pull his mane and make a fuss over him. I stuffed him full of treats which may have softened the blow a little:)
Wednesday, we planned to take him over to the venue of his debut event to xc school. Nora had only taken him xc once before and she was super excited to get him out again. I was so pleased to tag along and play groom while she schooled Scout and another client horse. What's even better, is that I got to see just how much he's matured in every way. He hopped onto her big rig without an issue, tied at the trailer and stood quietly for tacking and walked flat-footed across the property with an inquisitive look in his eye.
Growing up!
Starting their warm-up
It was super nice to see how she warms him up for XC. She walked him for 10-15 minutes before picking up a big, forward trot in a giant figure eight around a bunch of jumps. She walked and trotted through the water complex while doing this and picked up a canter and continued on a figure eight, adding in lead changes (!) and going up and down hills to help set his canter in balance before sending him toward any fences.
But, on to the good stuff... She's got him solidly in front of the leg and thinking forward but with a very reliable half-halt to utilize to help him sit and wait when she needs him to.
That trot THO
Weeeeee!
He was really giving everything a ton of respect but still landing in the same balance as he jumped it
This photo makes me SO happy -- she just has the biggest smile when she's jumping him
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First trakehners!
I was super pleased with his attitude about everything -- he's become such a professional about his job and he's proving to really have the right elements to make a great event horse. He still gets it wrong, maybe 20% of the time, but he has VERY good instincts to get his giant legs out of the way and carry a rider successfully to the other side -- better yet, he doesn't get upset or hold a grudge, which is perfect for an adult ammy!
I'm SO excited about our future together and I'm so unbelievably happy that he and I have met a trainer who gets us both. She has developed a really special relationship with him and he is giving 110% back to her in response. And even though I have to wait a few more weeks to hop in the irons myself, I'm even MORE excited now. He makes his eventing debut tomorrow -- so please send good vibes our way, hopefully, I'll have good things to report in a few days!
I was getting caught up on some blog reading today and was reminded once again just how fragile horses are. Maybe it's just the fact that I have so many horse friends and read so many blogs, but it just seems like they are always doing something to hurt themselves and beyond that, it seems like the smallest thing can bring them down. So it's no surprise that eventually I'd get some sort of negative update about Scout.
He's apparently not afraid of fire ants... and I don't know if he's been laying in patches of them or snacking on them, but his body has a very poor reaction to them. He was scheduled to go for his first xc schooling with Nora when she sent me this:
Oh dear.
We opted to have the vet out and they gave him some Dex and within a day he was looking much better. One thing that's great about Ocala is that there are vets bopping around all day so it's easy enough for them to swing by and look at something non-emergent. By the next day, it was pretty much normal and he was back to feeling like himself.
She finally got him out XC and I'm so grateful that she spent 6 weeks getting to know him on the flat and working with him over stadium jumps to sort out some the balance and strength issues and getting him really forward off the leg. Clearly, it's paying off because he's a different horse this year out on XC!
This was the out portion of a half coffin complex
SO cute!
UMMMM. Beast mode.
But the following week, he had basically the same reaction though this time it was much more severe. So what was going on? Well after having the vet out again, they think he must have originally received a bug bite that created a severe reaction and developed into cellulitis on his face.
That's a sad puffer fish.
His whole face and neck were swollen this time so it was a bit of a worry. Given that he's so prone to cellulitis they treated it accordingly, this time with more aggressive antihistamines and a dose of antibiotics to clear out any possible infection brewing. He got some Banamine on top of that to help him feel a little more comfortable. The face is such a tricky place for something like cellulitis because the swelling doesn't have anywhere to go when they are grazing and eating. Thankfully, it didn't take more than a day for him to completely bounce back. And better yet, Nora said he was thrilled to be ridden the next day!
Happy kid, post-ride
And while it would be easy to be disappointed about these little setbacks and having to reconfigure plans, I don't really get too worked up about this kind of stuff anymore. If there's one thing I've learned with horses is that everything planned needs to be in pencil and setback are just part of the joy of horse ownership (insert sarcasm here). The problem with having a horse that has had cellulitis is that they are just always prone to it -- any little nick or cut bears the risk of it developing into cellulitis. So I'm extra happy he's not sitting knee-deep in the mud like the rest of the horses at my barn in PA, clean/dry legs are definitely half the battle with a cellulitis prone horse!
