eponacowgirl
Aug. 16, 2009, 01:25 AM
Warning: Proud mama alert!! :D
After all kinds of ups and downs since... well... October 2007, I guess, my horse is back on track and hopefully on the road to running BN again!
Between then and now, we had some confidence shaking experiences, a couple of dirty stops and then a huge set back with uveitis flair ups and barn switches...
His left eye suffered lasting damage from an old injury, coupled with the uveitis, and I decided to have it removed in May. He'd had a flair up in his right eye prior to that and while we were dealing with all these flairs, we had no idea how he would end up- I considered him retired from jumping at that point and would have just been happy to have my trail companion/dressage horse comfortable and not getting meds 2-4x day.
WELL... since that surgery, he has come back BETTER than EVER and I started popping him over some low fences, just to see how he would react. He kept saying "Hey, mom! This is fun and I can do it just fine!" so I rode him in a lesson with my trainer, who I'd started working with to help me with my leased horse... and who had only heard all the negative experiences we'd had... she was skeptical, but after a dressage lesson and a jumping lesson, she gave me a big thumbs up and said "I don't see any reason you can't do anything you want to do with this horse!"
Well, a friend of mine who'd also been laid up challenged me to bring him to Poplar this weekend for the CT- and I challenged her right back! We were a motley crew, but we went out and had a great time and did everything we went to do!
My guy did his first clean round (just 2', but really, who's counting?!) since... well... possibly EVER... and we went out and had a lovely XC school as well. Poplar's new amoeba and tadpole jumps were EXACTLY what we needed to get back into the swing of things, and we even ended up popping over some BN logs/coops/ramps! I honestly don't think I could be any happier! Stadium was always our scariest phase, so the fact that he went out and loped around like a hunter (and I do mean LOPED) made me happier than anything!! He even did a flying change after I made a big production about how I don't even PRETEND to have changes on this horse in our last lesson!! (Its the little things!)
And of course, one cannot brag without media, so here's a video of stadium:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXWODxAQRcU
(No critque needed... I know we need a lot of work!)
And dressage (aka the worst w/t test EVER! We've been scoring in the low 70's at dressage shows all winter! We got a 38!:dead:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFSspQ7jo9o
And a couple of XC clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC2yVkNITL4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMICYRXWuzg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxyhNM-KHk0
Oh- and our other little victory was doing all of this in a snaffle, as opposed to my old crutch of a two-ring AND without a running martingale- aka my security blanket. As my trainer says- we're spackling some gaps in our training!
ETA: I was so happy about a positive experience, I forgot to mention we ended in 2nd place, just half a point behind the winner!!!
After all kinds of ups and downs since... well... October 2007, I guess, my horse is back on track and hopefully on the road to running BN again!
Between then and now, we had some confidence shaking experiences, a couple of dirty stops and then a huge set back with uveitis flair ups and barn switches...
His left eye suffered lasting damage from an old injury, coupled with the uveitis, and I decided to have it removed in May. He'd had a flair up in his right eye prior to that and while we were dealing with all these flairs, we had no idea how he would end up- I considered him retired from jumping at that point and would have just been happy to have my trail companion/dressage horse comfortable and not getting meds 2-4x day.
WELL... since that surgery, he has come back BETTER than EVER and I started popping him over some low fences, just to see how he would react. He kept saying "Hey, mom! This is fun and I can do it just fine!" so I rode him in a lesson with my trainer, who I'd started working with to help me with my leased horse... and who had only heard all the negative experiences we'd had... she was skeptical, but after a dressage lesson and a jumping lesson, she gave me a big thumbs up and said "I don't see any reason you can't do anything you want to do with this horse!"
Well, a friend of mine who'd also been laid up challenged me to bring him to Poplar this weekend for the CT- and I challenged her right back! We were a motley crew, but we went out and had a great time and did everything we went to do!
My guy did his first clean round (just 2', but really, who's counting?!) since... well... possibly EVER... and we went out and had a lovely XC school as well. Poplar's new amoeba and tadpole jumps were EXACTLY what we needed to get back into the swing of things, and we even ended up popping over some BN logs/coops/ramps! I honestly don't think I could be any happier! Stadium was always our scariest phase, so the fact that he went out and loped around like a hunter (and I do mean LOPED) made me happier than anything!! He even did a flying change after I made a big production about how I don't even PRETEND to have changes on this horse in our last lesson!! (Its the little things!)
And of course, one cannot brag without media, so here's a video of stadium:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXWODxAQRcU
(No critque needed... I know we need a lot of work!)
And dressage (aka the worst w/t test EVER! We've been scoring in the low 70's at dressage shows all winter! We got a 38!:dead:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFSspQ7jo9o
And a couple of XC clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC2yVkNITL4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMICYRXWuzg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxyhNM-KHk0
Oh- and our other little victory was doing all of this in a snaffle, as opposed to my old crutch of a two-ring AND without a running martingale- aka my security blanket. As my trainer says- we're spackling some gaps in our training!
ETA: I was so happy about a positive experience, I forgot to mention we ended in 2nd place, just half a point behind the winner!!!