Beside using microphone at shows and a sound system at work at a large equestrian centre during events I haven't really tried teaching ordinary lessons/trainings with any voice amplifiers. I have seen many good ones and one I especially liked at Dressage Europeans in Windsor a few years back but I can't remember the name of it.
Rewind to 6.30am this morning and I woke up with madly sore throat. This has been a theme for the last week and it is not amusing. It's some form of a cold that keeps trying to get me but I think I pumped my immune system up quite well recently so perhaps I am a victim of own strength.
My Sundays mean about 8 hours of teaching outside so I decided to have a go with a sort of an voice amplifier toy I got as a Christmas gift from Annette. It was made in Hong Kong and looks a bit like this. It's been sitting in my house for a couple of months unused because when I first tried it it made a high pitched squeaky noise and I was worried it would scare the horses.
Well, I was desperate this morning so I gave it a go.
And I loved it! It did make a bit of noise a few times but horses didn't seem bothered.
Verdict - I don't want to teach without this thing outside again ;) Problem is, the battery ran out after about 7 hours and there is no charger with the set :( It does have a sort of rechargeable battery I've never seen and it seems to require a 9V charger.
The massive bonus of having the voice amplified is that I wasn't nearly as tired as I am normally. Not sure if it's a voice vibration through the head or my brain doesn't like the sound of my own voice but I almost always end up with end-of-the-day headache which goes away after an hour or so. Not today! No headache and much happier throat.
Teaching indoors doesn't strain me much but a full day of voice use outdoors is a struggle.
Thumbs up for a little device. Now, I just need one that works for a whole day :)
If you could share this post via your Facebook, blogs, Twitter etc I would be very grateful.
Due to unforeseen circumstances our wonderful yard host can no longer stable Kingsley at their property so we need to move him by the end of March the latest.
Therefore, the search is on for a place for him and possibly for another 1-2 horses in near future.
Location: Reading/Caversham/Tilehurst
Facilities needed: good hacking with some quiet roads for roadwork, all-weather surface arena, all-year turn out
Kingsley ideally needs flexible, all year round turnout with no access to grass during the day. A woodchip paddock (or one that could be covered with woodchip or pea gravel) would be ideal. He is fantastic with small horses/ponies so if someone needs their pony to be out but not on grass, Kingsley would make a great companion.
OPTION 1
The stabling could be part of a larger yard or small livery yard where Kingsley could be kept on an assisted DIY/part livery basis. Individual & flexible attention to each horse's needs a must so a yard with strict and same routine as far as feed stuffs, turnout etc for all would not be suitable.
OPTION 2
Stabling as above but I would also welcome a business opportunity with a passionate, quality training & customer service focused yard owner/manager who would want to be involved in development of Aspire Academy's coaching programmes (www.aspire-equestrian.com). This could be either as a facility and/or horse provider (share/loan agreements with Academy clients) and/or as a fully involved instructor/trainer/coach. Locations within 45-60 minutes drive from North West London other than mentioned above can be considered for this option.
OPTION 3
A private yard with above facilities where owner(s) are keen to train on progressive, challenging programmes. I would be happy to offer the Academy training to the owner(s) (adults and children welcome) and/or school their horses/ponies in return for agreed livery terms (written contract would be required).
Thank you in advance for sharing this and I am open to suggestions and ideas you might have.
Further information: ridinginstructor at gmail dot com
Pic: Kingsley and "his" pony - Rather unintentionally the above photo turned out to have some unique colour scheme and somewhat interesting Jurassic character ;)
I promised to write about our plans for further rehabilitation for Kingsley so here we go. The amount of times we've asked ourselves "what now?" over the last two years isn't even worth mentioning. In my view, the most difficult question here is "are we going ahead with the rehab or are we calling it a day". Once we decided we are carrying on, all issues are simply something to find solutions to rather than reasons to question everything all over again.
One thing we agreed to is that if we see Kingsley's character, demeanour and attitude to life changing negatively then we will seriously consider euthanasia. So long as he enjoys himself and is able to happily do the necessary work required to keep his body in shape, we should be ok to continue.
Another factor we discussed that would cause us to reconsider was necessity of prolonged box rest.
Neither of those is happening right now.
Before I let you know the most immediate plan of action (which isn't very exciting!), here are a couple of videos.
First one is Kingsley working in trot on the right rein on the 15th February, the day before he came from the field struggling to put weight on the right front. He was footsore on hard surfaces on this day too but walked to the field reasonably happily after exercise. I chose this particular part of the whole video as it shows certain issue well: he is twisting his neck to the outside and maintaining left bend in the middle of his body. He doesn't do it all the time and it lessens after in-hand work in right shoulder-in but it still happens so I edited the video to show it to you:
And here are some clips from his lameness work up on Monday:
You can see that on the Work Up video he is still trying to bend outwards but he was very easy to correct with the lunge line whilst normally it is difficult as he resists quite strongly to lunge line pressure to the right.
REHAB PLAN
The most important thing to do now is to decrease/eliminate sole sensitivity. When nerve blocked to the back of the foot he still showed very clear lameness on hard surfaces (seen on second video). The anaesthetic doesn't numb the toe or sole or any other areas but the back of the foot so although on soft surface Kingsley's movement was improved this can't be said about hard surface movement.
Rachel's (vet) view was that we need to address the feet soreness first before we can investigate the extent of discomfort coming from a possible soft tissue injury, chronic or acute.
How to do that? We've taken him off the field completely to eliminate grass from his diet. He will be turned out in a small paddock that is being covered with woodchips (you can see the yellow surface just showing on the right of the top photo, there is more of the chips to come). The grass left in the paddock is very sparse and in fact, the photo makes it look much more abundant than it is. It's pretty much a churned up bare patch of a field.
My only worry is, there is a massive oak tree (out of sight on the picture) in this paddock :-/
He will get hay a few times a day as well as his usual feed (speedibeet, micronised linseed, brewers yeast, seaweed, magnesium and Devil's Claw) but we need to really understand how to bespoke the diet to him better.
Vet put him on bute for just over 10 days in case there was any inflammation process going on. I am in two minds about pain relief. On one hand I agree that it's great for him to be comfortable but I also believe that the pain is one of the best protection mechanisms from further damage. However, inflammation can be detrimental to the healing process too so he will chomp on bute for a bit.
He generally seems to be doing well on current diet because the latest hoof growth of about an inch is smooth and ripples free but perhaps there is something he isn't getting in his feed and that could help with the thickening process of his soles?
One thing that I am sure of is that his collateral grooves are shallower than they were when he came from Rockley Farm (also on back feet) and that means something has caused the soles to thin. One thing I can think of would be limited turn out over the last 5 months and that is something we are very keen to address as soon as we can. At the moment, we need to work with what we've got.
Thinking back, the only time back "home" when he was "truly rock crunching" on all surfaces was when his hoof walls were too high...he basically have built himself natural shoes and didn't weight bear on his soles much at all.
I'm trying to learn more about the soles and found these articles very interesting:
The second article leads me to the next step with Kingsley: hoof boots. His feet and body need conditioning but he can't work comfortably with his feet as they are now. The vet advised to boot him up for work on hard surfaces and take the boots off for soft surface work.
I measured his hooves yesterday and after reading about all sorts of boots I think these might be the best choice ?
Some more articles I've been reading through (apologies if I posted some already!):
The next two weeks Kingsley will spend on semi-rest (as much time out on grass-less paddock as possible) and soft surface work only. By mid March the boots should have arrived so we will start walking out on hard surface too.
We will continue with massage therapy and Rachel will hopefully point us to a good equine chiropractor so we can address the rigid back issue and investigate any skeletal abnormalities he might have.
Since the in-hand work is improving the hind leg strength (albeit very slowly) I will continue with it too on soft surface.
He will not have his feet MRI'd because the cost is beyond what can be realistically afforded. If someone would like to see inside Kingsley's legs and is happy to donate £1.000 we would jump at the chance!! :)
“Impossible only means that you haven't found the solution yet.” Jim Rohn
Kingsley says: Bring it on ladies
It was a slightly surreal day which started as planned but pretty quickly turned itself upside down. I arrived at the yard about 9:30am and lifted all the bedding in Kingsley's stable to prepare the area for Rachel the vet and Kate, the hoofcare practitioner.
Kingsley seemed very bright and alert as well as unimpressed with the fact he wasn't being turned out. There was no swelling or heat in his right fore and the rest of the legs looked good too.
At about 10am Rachel arrived with all the equipment and the long process of lameness investigation started.
First, she nerve blocked the back of the hoof in both front feet to make sure this was indeed the area that was causing the problem.
It took about 10 minutes for the local anesthetic to start working and by the time we were ready to get going, Kate arrived too.
The whole idea to get both hoofcare and feet investigation & x-rays done in one day was to allow for some discussion between Rachel and Kate and to establish where the internal structures of Kingsley's feet are and whether the trim can be adjusted accordingly.
I walked him to the field to lunge him and he was still a little careful on the hard surface and stones despite the nerve blocks.
On Wednesday, Rachel described him as 1/10 lame (left fore) to 2/10 lame (right fore) on soft on circle in trot and 7/10 lame on circle on hard surface in trot on both fronts.
Today, he trotted off very well in a floaty, big trot, nice and free through the shoulders on both reins. However, there was not much change to the canter, no lameness as such but rigid way of moving through the back and underpowered use of the hind end was quite the same as on Wednesday. He also cantered laterally with no clear three beat rhythm.
We then proceeded to walk and trot in straight lines on hard surface. He was very eager to go but not fully comfortable.
Rachel flexed his hinds and off we went up and down the drive again. As I was the runner I couldn't watch him but he felt a little slower to move off after left hind flexion and a bit reluctant to go after right hind flexions.
Next, on circle on hard. He was much happier to go than on Wednesday without nerve blocks. In fact, he was quite eager to keep trotting even though he was noticeably lame...about 2/10 on both fronts and some lameness on the right hind. Rachel did say though it's a tough test and driveway is very uneven and stoney as well as hard so she didn't expect him to be sound in such conditions.
On the right rein in trot he attempted his "bunny hopping" a couple of times (canter like movement in front and trot like movement behind) to avoid trotting entire circle.
Rachel then examined his legs for any tendon/ligament issues that might be possible to feel for like thickening of the area or certain reaction on palpation.
He had no obvious signs of injury that she could feel. He didn't react on any prodding either in front legs nor in back legs, sacroiliac joint of back. All reactions were either normal or he just didn't react.
Observations after the above:
Fairly serious footsoreness on all 4 feet, most pronounced in front
Degree of lameness on both fronts and right hind
Degree of pain/discomfort at the back of the feet - sound in trot on soft surface after nerve blocks
Rigid back in canter and some stiffness through the back in trot
Limited bend to the right/through right side of the body
X-Rays
We then moved on to prepare him for X-rays. Rachel gave him some sedatives to make sure he remains immobile during the procedure. He duly drooped his lip and stood like a oddly quivering rock on top of wooden stilts.
We got everything ready, aprons on, plate in place and...the machine refused to play! It turned out the laptop was not communicating correctly with the plate's cable. Rachel tried her best to get it going for almost 30 minutes but eventually had to admit defeat as even the software/hardware help centre could not assist.
We had a very sleepy horse ready for action and no cable power.
There was no option but to pack everything in and we agreed that the vet will keep me informed and tries to come back with another X-ray machine about 3pm.
Kate and I waited for another half an hour until Kingsley woke up enough so she could trim him. His toes grew really long in the last 10 days which just proves how very, very important regular work on varied surfaces is for barefoot horses.
Although there was a lot of unnecessary horn at the toe there was almost nothing to take from the bottom of his feet. They generally look well and the white lines looked tighter and healthier than last time. Nothing overly out of ordinary...
Here are his front feet after the trim:
Right Fore
Left Fore
Kate gone, I killed some time putting together all the info in our diary and transferred it all in form of short notes to a wall calendar I bought earlier this year. In between feet soreness, kick injuries etc we managed 11 full proper work days in February so far. Not even half of the month. The rest was spent on cold hosing, wrapping and short in-hand walks. Sigh.
I also took some photos of Kingsley's back end and here you can see the uneven muscle development. His left side has more muscle bulk whilst the right side looks much flatter and seems under used. This is of course reflected in his way of going.
When I looked at the photos I also noticed how light (?) appears to bring out a dip in his left hindquarter...It's not noticeable in real life or at least not enough for me to notice that before. Perhaps it's hair being brushed at an angle, I will have a look at his bottom again on Wednesday...
About 3.30pm Rachel and another vet (who fixed the X-ray machine!) arrived and the whole procedure started all over again.
This time Kingsley got much less sedative but was drowsy within minutes anyway.
All X-rays proved to be unremarkable. In fact, they turned out to show very healthy bone structures with no worrying changes. Including navicular bones. I don't know whether this machine has a different imaging process but to me the bones looked denser, whiter and much less porous than on the 2010 X-rays.
The hock X-rays showed clean and healthy structures with not a single area of concern.
I am to receive all images by email so there will be no odd angles and light tricks. Rachel is going to look through all the X-rays at a large screen at work to double check in case there was something she missed when looking at the small screen.
Just out of curiosity I put together lateral left fore image from 2010 and put together with today's left fore lateral image. Proper comparison isn't possible because the 2012 image is taken from the side so distorts the view but nevertheless it is easy to see how different shape the foot is. There is a huge amount of heel at the back which wasn't there in 2010. The 2010 hoof profile has a bull nose - like shape to it but Rachel felt there was too much toe showing on today's X-ray which causes difficulty with correct breakover.
So here we are. No "navicular changes" as such but a footsore horse with one good leg. We agreed with Rachel the plan of action for the next several weeks and I will write all about it in the next post. For now I am in desperate need of some sleep!
This is a backdated post because I am having too much to catch up with! On Saturday, I took seven riders with me to one of Academy's unique Shadow Training Days with an international dressage rider and trainer, Anna Ross Davies. Few years ago Anna gave me a chance to learn from her and I realised there and then what a wonderful training - by - watching opportunity that was. It's not just sitting and starring, Anna always gave me a running commentary on what was happening, the why's, what's and what for's. As well as many other riders, I learn by active observation and wanted the Academy riders to experience the educational and inspirational element of such days.
It took me about four hours to edit the below video so I hope you'll enjoy it! ;)
The swelling in Kingsley's right fore has disappeared but his gait as such hasn't improved much. We decided the best course of action would be to have the lameness investigated and see where we are with him right now.
It is now over a year since he came back from Rockley Farm and although the improvement has been remarkable, we are yet to have a few months straight of good work where something doesn't set him back. I don't know if it is something I am not getting right in his routine or don't work him hard enough/too hard but he is not a fully sound horse and it's been worrying us.
We also needed to microchip him (which he didn't even bat an eyelid to) and fill in the description on the paperwork for his new passport.
I was worried the vet would advise putting him back in shoes straight away and was somewhat surprised by how it all went...
Since it was the tendon/ligament that was the acute issue we started from there. Rachel palpated the leg and prodded him around the tendons but he showed no response and she didn't feel anything out of ordinary there.
We then moved on to the field and I walked and trotted him on the lunge for her to watch. We agreed that I wouldn't explain his full history straight away so she could have a fresh look.
I started on the left rein and he trotted off really well and very even but after a few circuits he was just a little off on the right fore until it progressed to a slight head nod.
On the right rein, again he trotted off ok but then showed different type of lameness (the weight shift from left to the right in a form of a slight hop every now and then) to the left fore.
It's a very low grade issue on the soft ground and if he was in side reins to keep him straight you would be hard pushed to spot it (which is why I haven't used them for a long time, strong contact can hide a lot of issues).
I then asked Rachel if she could watch him in canter as I think that's when all the levels of the problems show up the most.
After seeing him in canter on both reins she agreed he is a rather complex case...I then explained all the treatments and diagnostics we have been through with him to date and we moved on to the hard surface.
He was very foot sore on stones and showing bilateral lameness, saving right fore predominantly but at times the left one as well.
It turns out the vet's father is a retired farrier who turned barefoot and she herself has specific interest in orthopaedics.
She remarked how well Kingsley's feet look like and what great heel/frog/back of foot he has. She also said remedial shoeing him would not be something she would recommend as it would most likely lead to deterioration of the all the good points his hooves have.
Refreshing!
However, once she tested him with hoof testers he proved to have soft and thin soles which the vet said are heavily contributing to the lameness.
The good soles come from hoof conditioning (work!) so we are in a catch 22 here. I looked through the diary we have at the yard (just a calendar where we put notes each day) and it seems that the first time he showed discomfort was when I was unable to ride and work him for about a week (he was turned out in the grass paddock during that time). It was about the time when Pocholo went to Spain so beginning of January.
Then Pauline rode him first time after that work break and wrote in the diary "teeny bit footy on stones". It's been on/off downhill since then.
Rachel noted that although the back of his feet look really good, the way he moves them prevent him from using his toe correctly. I think she noticed he didn't break over in the right place to allow for more correct mechanics of the whole limb.
The question is, is he doing this to protect an injured site in his foot or is this way of moving causing the injury.
We pondered with the vet on the next thing to do and decided that X-rays of both front feet would give us most helpful information. We can also compare the plates from 2010 and see if there is any more/less deterioration to the hoof structures. If anything, the x-rays should also be a lot of help for Kingsley's trimmer.
We decided against ultra-sounding the leg for the moment and only get back to it if the swelling reappears. I iced the leg again and wrapped him up.
So, X-rays on Monday. Until then, turn out only for Kingsley.
Although Kingsley is a very easy horse to look after there is one thing he hates and that's box rest. Three days in and he was beside himself today, bolshy and irritable.
I unwrapped his legs this morning hoping for no swelling and indeed there was none. However, the right front was warm all the way from knee down whilst all the other legs were ice cold under the wraps.
The vein that runs in the area just behind the cannon bone and where superficial digital tendon, deep digital tendon and check ligament are was slightly enlarged and I could just about feel the pulse although it wasn't a strong, bounding pulse. It caught my attention because it's normally really difficult to feel any pulse in this area and I couldn't feel anything on the other front leg. There was no difference between digital pulses on the sides of the fetlocks in either of the legs, they were pretty much not there.
I cold hosed the leg for 15 min as although no swelling I am taking the heat as some form of inflammation and took him for 30 minutes walk. He was a little difficult to lead (way too bolshy!) and walked on soft and hard surfaces with ridiculous speed but it was more down to adrenaline so tricky to assess.
Got back to the yard after half an hour to rug him up as decided there was no way he can spend another day locked up. We walked to the field and he was much calmer so I had more accurate picture of how sensitive he was on the hard surfaces. He walked very confidently but had a few "ouch" moments and a few shorter step moments.
Once in the field I sat down with the horses to watch him for an hour just in case he decided to be silly but it was another horse who found the sunshine exciting and kept spooking at the cars in driveway. Kingsley remained calm until this moment (Zulu had just spooked a minute ago, they calmed down, then the pony and Zoey spotted me and walked towards me...):
I left him there until about 1pm, got him back, cold hosed for another 15min and groomed some mud off him whilst he proceeded to whinny for his friends and stress quite a bit. Grooming always calms him down though so I kept going and he settled. Both front legs were the same temperature before I wrapped him up.
Once in his stable he was totally unimpressed and it took him good 10 minutes to stop running about the box. Seeing him like that I decided it would be best if he went out with everybody as normal tomorrow as it is not doing him any good to stay in on his own. It's not fair to keep the pony in to keep him company all the time as it's an older pony that needs his movement too.
Although whatever is the issue seems to be getting better, we decided to have him seen by a vet. There is more to this than simply foot soreness as he seems perfectly fine on other three feet.
I found some great videos on the many things that can go wrong in an equine leg....
Well, after two days on Devil's Claw (we use NAF Devil's Relief), cold hosing, staying in and wraps, Kingsley walked on the driveway as if he had feet made of rock...almost:
I couldn't walk him on the driveway at all yesterday, he just couldn't walk on it and immediately went on the verge.
The swelling is down about 90%, some puffiness to the tendons and pastern area but after 15 minutes of cold hosing today the leg looked great. There is still a little heat in the fetlock joint and pastern area:
You can see how much longer his toe is on the inside (medial) side and he is just not using this foot well. It lands outward and he was ever so shorter on the right fore still today.
The fetlock joint from behind yesterday:
All the swelling from above fetlock is gone today, you can also feel all the tendons and ligaments behind the cannon bone which were covered by swelling yesterday. Perhaps he simply tweaked something...or the played too much and put too much strain on badly used limb?
Now the question of feet soreness. He showed some sensitivity today but nowhere near how he was over last few weeks. In fact, he walked voluntarily into a stoney area he avoided for last few weeks. The only two things that changed are: addition of devil's claw to his diet and no grass since Thu afternoon.
We have the hoofcare specialist coming on Friday so I'll be discussing the options with her. If the feet soreness is due to sugar sensitivity in grass we will find him turnout where there is no grass during the day. If it's the devil's claw that helps him to be comfortable then perhaps he can stay on it indefinitely (it would be good to know the reason for discomfort though).
He is dead bored in the stable already though so if he stays comfortable tomorrow, Pauline will take him for a longer walk in-hand, then he should be OK to be turned out on Monday.
If not...well, we shall see.
I got a txt last night from a lady who looks after Kingsley when I work away to say Kingsley had come back from the field very lame. He struggled to get back to the yard (10 minutes walk on hard stony driveway) and hesitated to weight bear on the right fore.
I was going to have my chiropractic appointment today but instead ended up playing a nurse for Mr Trouble.
The moment I saw him I could tell his right fore was swollen.
It's all very puzzling but here is how the leg looked at 10am after 10 minutes of cold hosing (forgot to take a photo before). Both outer and inner side of his fetlock joint was swollen and you could not feel the tendons at all. This is not the same leg as he injured last week but similar swelling (the other one started at the inner upper forearm and looked like a blow/kick injury):
Walking on hard surface after first cold hosing:
Walking on soft surface after first cold hosing:
After bringing him back I let him rest with hay for 30min whilst giving him a groom and cold hosed second time for 10 minutes. Then walked him on nearest soft ground for 20 min, then back for rest with hay and another 10 minutes of cold hosing.
The swelling reduced somewhat and he perked up too. This was taken about three hours after the first photo.
I then let him stand for another 30 minutes, towel dried his leg and wrapped all four and took him for one more 20 minute walk on soft surface. He was definitely much happier and perkier by then and did his usual big striding walk.
A bit of a rubbish video as there were young trees on both side of us and I couldn't walk at a sufficient distance from him to take any decent footage.
On the way back he attempted to turn towards the main field and seemed disappointed and reluctant to go back into his stable. I gave him an extra deep bed with plenty of hay for good measure and we shall see how he feels tomorrow.
For the sake of speculations...
1) There seem to be 2 problems happening: the inflammation/soft tissue injury (several ligaments and tendons there...suspensory ligament of the navicular bone, collateral sesamoidean ligament, annular ligament, DDFT...) and foot-soreness.
2) It's hard to say for sure but he appears to be primarily foot sore on the right front. This is the foot which lands in an outward manner, has not-so-well balanced hoof growth and has had issues with white line...
3) The white line doesn't look good to me. Possible WLD? http://www.equipodiatry.com/wldupdt.htm
If there is no clear improvement tomorrow we will get him seen by a vet. It will be I believe the eighth vet in Kingsley's Problems Investigation Career.
Perhaps we could ultrasound and re-xray the right fore to have more of an idea as to what is happening there. If he is indeed suffering from WLD it should also show on X-rays.
Here are today's snaps of his right fore foot if anyone fancy assessing his foot balance:
RIGHT FORE TODAY
Next page soon. Keep everything crossed for Mr Trouble.
For anyone interested in barefoot rehab for hoof problems in their horses including navicular syndrome, navicular disease, DDFT issues, collateral ligament damage please have a look at this generous initiative from Rockley Farm:
I've worked Kingsley fairly hard today and he is coping well. He still dislikes walking on stones and uneven, hard surfaces. He is fabulous on all other surfaces around the farm as well as on tarmac.
I do have videos from his trot work but decided to post it once I have more footage over a couple of months so there is an interesting sequence to compare.
In many ways his movement is improving but as this happens I can see specific issue singling itself out and that's a weakness of his right hind leg. There has been a lot said by vets about his front feet lameness before but I really wonder how much of a secondary issue that had been.
He is very eager to work and I will continue to do what I'm doing to see if he gets stronger and better or weaker and worse (in which case I think we will have to put him through another veterinary assessment to ascertain what else can be done to help). Today, for the first time, I was able to stop him every step in shoulder in in-hand on the right rein (if you watched my in-hand videos you will know he would mow me over out of zero balance on the right rein for a long time). We did 20 steps in a step-stop-step-almost stop-step sequence. He was swishing his much tail less and there was no head throwing or much impatience shown either.
On the lunge in trot it looks to me as if he is reluctant to carry weight on the right hind leg for long enough to create sufficient suspension. As a result he lands quicker with the left hind and right front when his balance is poor. This is especially an issue for him when trotting down the descent (field has a slight gradient).
He also has very, very good moments when he looks after his balance well...
Still 1: This is how I would like him to trot for now - even stride, relaxed neck reaching forward, calm and listening to me. Ideally I would want him to trot with shorter steps because his tendency is to trot massive. But I would be happy if he did consistent 4 minutes of trot like above. As it is, he can only keep it for 10 or so steps at a time.
Still 2: Hollow, tense and bending outwards. Every 10-15 or so steps he will fit in 4-5 of steps like this, mostly as he approaches the downwards gradient of the field.
Still 3: Every now and then he will also attempt to to go deeper in his frame. When he steps under himself with inside hind leg at the same time the trot is reasonably well balanced. If he loses the coordination of the right hind leg and speeds up, then he ends up running himself onto his head. If he stays as above I let him stretch like this but if he starts running I bring him back to walk.
Still 4: Above frame shows uneven trot stride with left hind about to land too short and right front reaching forwards and taking bigger step as well as more weight onto the right shoulder. He is also bending the wrong way.
Still 5: This is how I am trying to keep him on the right rein. More even stride front and back, slower trot, neck out and forwards and reasonably straight through the shoulders. Hollow but in much better balance. This is an uphill gradient of the field.
Hooves now!
15th Feb 2012
Right Fore
Right Hind (it's washed which is why it appears lighter than others; was too mucky for photos to show anything hence the wash):
Left Fore
This is sole of his left front to show the effect of gradient like growth. His hoof has 3 distinct parts now. From coronet down about an inch is a really nice looking, ripple free horn. Then there is a ridge/bulge. Beneath that there is a more slanted part/old growth with some small ridges on it. Then yet below that there is a third change of angle (more slant) of the oldest growth. It looks like his new angle is much steeper and the toe wants to be shorter and back. I don't like the fact the little stones embed in his white line area :-/
Left Hind (by the look of the hoof..perhaps it's his left hind that's an issue. Or both)
The left hind has a frog that wants to shed a lot. Both hinds seem to have shallower lateral grooves than they were in December. The heels on the left hind look terribly uneven on the photo but I haven't trim his hair well and they are ruffled on one side so I will take another picture at some point to check whether they are in fact so uneven.
Feel free to share your views. He is worked 4-5 times a week.
I quite like a little frosty weather. The higher temperatures now mean:
It took me a looooong time to get him to look like this:
And there is still a lot of mud on his mane and behind the ears.
I normally work him in-hand first and I didn't bother to groom him for that as I would have had to hose him off, ears the lot as he was caked in a still wet layers of mud. He has no shame this horse ;) If you think the headcollar is bad you should see his rug, it was twice it's normal weight with the muddy decorations on.
By trial and error I found part of the field where he wasn't ice-skating on mud and lunged him so he could practice his bending in trot. He was rather wild and I hope he never does under the saddle what he does on the lunge ;) The antics are much more exuberant on the right rein where he finds work difficult.
It's interesting to watch him searching for better balance. There are some really great moments and some really bad ones and I would love to see him on a reasonable surface as I think it would really help him.
The running about in the wind swept field helped to dry the mud on his head so it was possible to scrape it but I gave up with the rest and hosed off his legs, chest and belly.
Managed just in time as it started to rain ;)
We hacked out for 1h25min and he was fab except of the driveway/stones where he was ok but definitely looking for verges and softer surfaces.
As I am going to finally do my driving licence I thought I should take a note of all the important signs out there.
...then they fight you, then you win. " Mohandas Gandhi
I saw this video for the first time on Nic's blog at Rockley Farm. I am embedding it here because it comes with some amazing, powerful messages and for anyone with idealistic ideas - you just got to watch it :)
It is NOT about horses!
Although pretty, this is the worst kind of snow - thin coverage of all the rutty, uneven ground. Snow as such is a fabulous surface to ride on but only if there is enough of it. So today, Kingsley enjoyed a lot of snow plays with his field buddies :)
The thin, wet snow melts fast. I took the below photos on way back from food shopping, couldn't resist the view :)
