Jemma Harrison has a minor set back but is now back on track!

Sadly our August didn't start as planned. At our first competition of the month Piquet was flying and we got a 4th in the 1.05 but after walking the course for the 1.10 I noticed he was slightly lame in his front foot so we didn't jump and called the vet when we got back to the yard. The vet couldn't find anything wrong with his leg and there was no swelling or heat but he feared it could have been a splint starting up again. He checked his neck and back and found that part of his neck was out so that was clicked back into place. We trotted up again but still he was lame, so we were told to put him on stable rest and pain killers for a couple of days and he'd come visit again. The next visit he was still unsound so he checked him over again and finally found that he had pulled a muscle in his back that was causing him to go lame in order to ease the pain.

Luckily he didn't need to be on box rest but we had to start work lightly which meant only hacking the first week and then lunging the next along with many muscle exercises as well. Sadly it meant that I missed the Derby Show that I was looking forward to competing in but we were keeping our fingers crossed that he would be fit and ready for our trip to Guernsey to compete at the end of the month. Luckily we made it to Guernsey to compete but due to him having little winnings it meant that the highest we could jump was 95cm. This didnt really matter as it was the first time in 4 weeks he had jumped so I didn't want to jump big straight away. We managed to get two 9ths out of 40 competitors in the classes but annoyingly as the week went on Piquet decided that he didn't want to jump 95cm and decided it was much more fun to see how fast we could go round and not pick our feet up! I was still pleased that his muscle was recovered and that we didn't have any problems!

We now only have two showjumping competitions left in our BSJA season so will let you know how it all goes. To help his sore muscle I used 'Clean Limbs' before and after I rode to relieve the muscle and he kept getting better and better! I honestly believe without using this spray it would have taken him twice as long to recover and now I use it daily on his back as well as his legs after competing and would recommend it to anyone!