LAME.

So spring is finally here, I guess.

LESSONS HAVE FINALLY STARTED AGAIN!! YAY!

Dom was out on Saturday for our first session for the season, which I have to say I was super excited about.

As we all know this winter wasn't easy on anyone, apparently Shadow included. 

Bonni and I had noticed he has been limping on his back right for a few weeks now. I have hoping it was just stiff from all this brutal cold and kept bouncing it back and fourth from her brain to my brain. 

I don't know if any of you remember from my past post or Dom's but we noticed an issue when I first got him home, but as we started working it more, it seemed to fade away. 

Well it's still here, and way worse than it was last season. 

If first couple trips around on the lunge line, he looked just about dead lame to me, but he worked it out and started to move better as the lesson went on.

 Dom finally got on his back and she said "his walk feels much more lateral then it was when he left off in November, and he feels like he is wiggling his spine"

My excitement slowly turned into worry. I watched as they went on, my poo shadow tripping all over himself, in the back. As Dom put it, it's like he is trying his hardest to put his feet where they belong and that back leg is just not cooperating. Which is causing his tripping in the back and then tripping in the front trying to catch himself. 

As far as remembering, he does, and he tried his heart out. He made me very proud of him, and he was EXHAUSTED, He lost all his muscle and fitness and that will all come back in time. This year I will have a full season working with Dom, and I can't wait to see his progress once I get his issue diagnosed. 

Hip/hock/stifle?

"If you think it's stifle it's probably hock" is something Dom has been told and has passed on to me.

When I ask him to pick up that foot, just to pick his hoof or whatever it may be, instead of just picking it up for me, he pushes it out almost like, into me to hold it for him because he cant or as if he is trying to adjust it himself. 

So what is it? I have no idea, do I wait and see if it is a fitness issue and gets better or do I get it looked at?

My vet is due to come out tomorrow at 11 so hopefully we weigh our options before I just jump to getting x-rays done. I don't want to take the chance of anything getting worse or hurting him more. I don't want to sit back and see what happens, I did that last season, but it was more predominant this year and I don't want to push it. 

Maybe he needs injections? Maybe something stronger than the supplement I have him on. 

I have talked to a couple people about using adequan, and previcox, which we use on  several of our horses already on the farm.

I will update everyone tomorrow after I meet with my vet, hope it turns out to be a quick fix, I get so nervous, I never want anything to be wrong with my boy he has so much potential and I want him to be able to preform in the way he tries to. 

ugh. 

Dressage

I think I mentioned in my last post that I have decided to play around a bit with the idea of dressage for Shadow and I.

I had a beautiful saddle out on trial, but something about it just wasn't sitting right, and I didn't want to risk Shadows back or my money on a saddle I wasn't 100% sold on. I returned the saddle to it's owner and thanked her very much for the time she allowed me use it.

Then, my wonderful boyfriend came through and bought me a brand new wintec dressage saddle. He really is the best! I was so excited to get it home, and it came pretty quickly! It was still very snowy when it came and too icy to try it out so I put it all together to see how it looked, put it over Will's legs and sat on it! I wanted to feel the seat. hahaha, I'm a little crazy.

I brought it out the barn and the first nice 50 degree day we had I was on a mission to get in it! It fit Shadow beautifully and it is just about the most comfortable thing I have ever sat in, in my entire life!

So comfy!! 

Dom and I are supposed to start up lessons at the end of this month, but now with the snow, who knows. Hopefully this will melt quickly, and we'll be done with this winter so we can get on schedule.

I have done no riding this winter, as I have said in almost all my posts through the season, lol. Saturday was a pretty nice day, so I thought I would go out and lunge Shadow because he has been very up and crazy the few times I've been on him and the ground was finally dry enough to do it, but of course, there is always something that slows me down.

I took a walk around to say good morning to every one, because I apparently was there during nap time and every single horse on the farm was laying down, Shadow included. After that I went back to my car to finish my coffee, when I look out into Shadow's field and I see him RUNNING at mach 10 speeds with his tail all the way up towards the back of his field.

Nap time for Clue and PB

I took a minute to wonder what this crazy horse was doing, then I looked at the back corner of his field and I see his fence ON THE GROUND. When I tell you, he was running at that fence, he was really running, like, a grand prix jumper or something. I could just picture him yelling I'M FREE!!!! as he was heading back there.

His field is against another, but it is an old abandoned field that is not part of our barn, so it is falling down as well. I jumped out of my car and yelled for him, and he actually stopped and looked at me, so then I ran to the back corner, with him trotting behind me, and tried to block him from jumping over it, lol.

I called Bonni, while Shadow was standing behind me with his nose flared and his ears and tail up SNORTING like a bull at the fence. I couldn't stop laughing. I'll never understand why things like this always happen to me when I'm alone. On another note, THANK GOD I was there! I feel like I would have been going down the road later to get to the barn and Shadow would have been on the side of the road somewhere, or in the woods, or stolen!!! lol

Sneak Peek! lol 

Needless to say, my day of riding turned in to a day of helping put the fence back up, which was pretty entertaining. Thank god for Bonni and her husband, because I don't know how I would have handled that if they weren't around. haha

So now, I am just waiting for the snow to get out of here so I can start working with Dom. So excited to get moving again and I miss her like crazy!!

Happy spring every one (on Thursday)!!

Fat Fuzzy Monster.

Half Pad

I'm on a search for a good half pad. I don't have very deep pockets, but I don't want to waste my money on the first thing I see that looks good. Anyone have any recommendations for me?

This is the one I'm leaning towards, it has some mixed reviews, but the good take over the bad. 

Exselle Half Pad from statelinetack.com and horse.com

Thanks for the input!

Baby Nikko: WTE July 2014

Sorry to throw anyone off, but this post has nothing to do with Shadow, or myself for that matter. 

I'd appreciate if everyone could take a few minutes of their time to read this blog. My very dear friends have been faced with a struggle that not many have been as parents. Baby Nikko has been diagnosed with ABS, also known as Amniotic Band Syndrome. Luckily Jessianne and Eric have an extraordinary team of doctors that caught this very early on in the pregnancy. For any pregnant, new, or future mothers, everything you need to know is here. Jessianne has taken every step necessary and met with several doctors to familiarize Eric and herself with ABS and has created a blog to generate awareness. Baby Nikko is very lucky to have the parents he does.

Lucky Fin

Spring?!

All this snow hasn't left much to blog about!

Shadow hasn't been up to anything, at all, literally. We haven't been under saddle more than twice all winter, which has given me a lot of time to think about where we are going to venture together!

I decided I want to try dressage. I have a long time riding friend who reached out to me when she saw me post something about wanting a dressage saddle to tell me she was selling hers. I have it at the barn, on a "trial" not that I can really do anything with it beside try it on him.

I am too scared to get on him with all the snow. Riding in the snow isn't what scares me, it's all the ice under the snow. It's just not worth the risk to me. I still haven't even gotten to try it on him yet, but it looks like it will fit him just fine, it is very similar to AP saddle which fits him perfectly. 

I'm very excited to get back in the saddle and start working again, I miss riding so much. 

My spring schedule is going to be very hectic, well my schedule for the next year and two months is going to be actually. I recently picked up another job and I start school 4 night a week come April. School won't be over until JUNE of 2015, but I am excited to finally be headed in the right direction for myself. This will leave me only Friday, Saturday, and Sunday after work to ride/study! 

Really just looking forward to the warmer weather and to get back on my horse! I can't wait to see what we can accomplish together this season. Hopefully some great break through in his training! :)

WW: The Countdown

Bummed

Winter always bothers me, not that there is anything I can really do about it, it still gets to me.

Being that I didn't bring Shadow home until July, I'm feeling like it came too soon and can't help but feel like by the time spring gets here, we're going to be starting all over.

Snow: Bonni and I spent the night at the barn (in the house on the property) to keep an eye on things since it was supposed to be bad. We only have a shed row barn with three stalls. One of them being Shadow's. That leaves 3 of our 6 horses stuck outside. I felt so bad for them even though they all have their own LARGE sheds, they chose to stand outside apparently.

Feeding time in the am all the outside guys came over with icicles on their whiskers and eyelashes and snow stuck to their necks while the 3 inside munched away happily. Dry and warm.

We did a lot of shoveling and a lot of salting and made sure everyone had plenty of hay. As I stood there looking at this snow and Shadow (who couldn't be more content) I felt like it was never going to leave!

I stayed home from work Friday because driving conditions were horrible, then we left for our trip to hunter mountain for the weekend. That was an interesting drive for sure.  Winter sports are not my favorite by any means and I'm  not even really that good at snowboarding. haha  All I kept saying was I don't know how to use my muscles for anything other than riding, this really hurts!

The more time I spent on that mountain the more I wished spring would hurry it's way here. Monday came and washed away all the snow and then it went down to about -21 degrees here Tuesday with the wind chills. My hours have been cut at work so at about 3:30 yesterday I ran out to double blanket Shadow who was happily tucked away in his stall with both doors closed to keep out the blistering wind.

It warms my heart to see his pleasant face when I open those doors. The look in his eyes now compared to when I brought him home is like a completely different horse. I spoke to my friends mom again who is the pet psychic I mentioned in a past post. She does a series on you tube and she would like to put him in it. I figured why not? I'm not a firm believer but if it will help her, I don't mind. She keeps telling me he loves me so much and thanks me for "saving" him so to speak. We put a few things together and she said it seems as though he was in and out of SRF a few times and nobody ever looked after him the way we do. It's always nice to hear, whether it be the truth or not. haha

The ground was completely rock solid yesterday, as to be expected. Too hard for me to push my barefooted standardbred around, it hurt my feet with shoes on. This weekend is supposed to be 58 degrees on Saturday and 51 degrees on Sunday, but of course rain both days! No riding, but at least the ground will thaw then, since today is still only 17 degrees (5 with the windchill).

Hopefully the winter improves from here so I can get at least one day of riding a week. (a long shot, I know.)

I hope to buy a trailer come spring time and get out a little, to see Jess or get to some shows for the experience. Shadow needs to be desensitized a little bit. He's very excitable in a new situation, nothing crazy, but the experience never hurt anyone, right?

Sorry for the miserable post! I needed to vent a little about my fear of starting all over come spring. We had progressed so much, and I fear going backwards! I know it won't be too terrible, but I could really do without the lurching trot, and I pray it doesn't come back with all this time off work!  >.<

warm and cozy in his stall. 

Thank you will for my pink carhartt, so warm!

Pictures from hunter mountain:

A Picture of Gucci, just because: