The last time I wrote was the beginning of November and I was recovering from my back operation – which so far has been brilliant, am really pleased with the result. Texan enjoyed his 6 weeks out in the field (I think!) and I rode him for the first time on the 14th November he was lovely, his usual buzzy self, I had my mum and Heather at the side of the sand school saying “enough Kayleigh” but I and he felt fine!
November was a really busy month looking back, Heather and I decided we were ready for a move so we decided to take our two from DIY to Part Livery and become ladies of leisure and to try and free up our time a bit so we could concentrate on our riding. We are now at a yard which has superb facilities 60x35, rubber flood lit sand school, XC course, 12x12 internal boxes, bliss! The pair of them settled in really well which was good as it was so stressful! The other great thing about the new place is the hacking, it is amazing, literally all off road and around quiet country lanes. There is a golf course a 15 minute ride away which has a bridleway the whole way round!
With all of this hacking we were doing, I was still being quite cautious with him as he still didn’t have any shoes on, but he seemed to be coping really well. I made sure that whenever the farrier was up I got him to cast an eye over them but he said they were fine.
The first lot of snow just before Xmas completely put us off track, we were due to go to Hand Equestrian for the New Year show, but they didn’t leave their boxes for 5 days as we were snowed in! So we decided to pull our entries and just enjoy the time off work! Thankfully we had no more snow between Christmas and New Year and we managed to enjoy some really lovely riding and exploring the roads.
Then we got the second batch of snow which was just as ridiculous as the first lot! So again they were in for another 5 or 6 days, our poor yard owner got through so much hay! The snow cleared and they were let out for a couple of hours each day and we finally managed to get out and ride on the weekend of the 16th January, (Seems a lifetime ago now!) we just plodded around the roads which was nice as the sun was shining!
I then went up there on the Monday night to ride, and decided to do a bit of schooling as I got Tex out he seemed very reluctant to come out of his box but he did, so thought nothing of it, however he didn’t feel quite right when I got on so didn’t do to much in the end. I got off and un-tacked him and thought he was standing very odd, slightly laminitic, but thought to myself they surely can’t get laminitis this time of year?! How wrong was I……. I finally put it down to foot sore as we went out on a ride over the weekend, so I left a note on the board asking for Tex to stay in the following day which he did. I got up there the next night to pull him out, to which he hobbled out on his 2 back legs…… first thing in the morning I called the vets who confirmed that they could get laminitis this time of year so out the vet came that afternoon….. he has been in ever since the 19th of January, finally let out this weekend for the first time! He was a complete angel on box rest, unless his girlfriend Pia went out which caused so much havoc Heather agreed that Pia can stay in to, as he would do the same for her! I just had to stay with him every time she rode, which was a pain but it kept him quiet!
We decided to get x rays done of all four of his feet as he was insured and because hasn’t got the best of hooves we thought it would be beneficial for my farrier to see what he was playing with when he finally shod him…………. this opened up another can of worms! The x rays showed us that although he has got good strong bones and joints his front feet are very wonky and his pedal bone is very close to the sole of his feet. The farrier decided that pads and wedgies on the inside to re align his forelimbs would work the best for him.
Between the Vet and Farrier, they have assured me that with this corrective shoeing and patience it will all come right, they reckon that he will be back jumping by the summer. He had his new shoes fitted last Wednesday and so far so good, he is literally 99.8% sound, the vet is up on the 26th to re-assess but I can hop on this week but to a strict exercise regime, lots of walking and little trotting.. taking it very slowly to build up the muscles in his legs to support him. I might just have to take up dressage now for the next few months!
I am due to get on him this week – so fingers crosses its uneventful, I am just glad he can now go out so he can get rid of any exuberance he may have! Thank you for taking the time to read my blog I will update you next month with our progress!
