Hmmm.... Lamer again

 Today was... interesting. And depressing, but also hopeful and exciting. I hauled Lyric to Ashland and she hung out and ate hay while I worked on two horses. Then it was time to get ready for our lesson. While she was sitting there eating hay, I put the back on track wraps on her front legs. And when I went to tack her up and pulled them, I noticed she had some fill in her tendons in the proximal third. But, I think she's always had that. I checked her with the sticks, and... slightly reactive on the left, which... isn't the lame leg. Nothing on the right, so... I don't know that I need to panic. Especially because I really think that's always been there.... 

 

(We also got to wear her new sparkly browband!)

I took her and lunged her first... and she looked worse again. She settled and worked out of it but she definitely was worse starting off again. And... she has had 4 days off... so, maybe she got tight and tense again?? So then I hopped on and we went for a 30 minute hack before our lesson because I had time. And she felt a bit tight and not willing to stride out again. Hmmm... 

  

We walked to the lake, then racoon loop, then we walked the baby ditch. She thought about it but not as dramatically as Funny. Good girl! Then we walked and trotted up the hill and headed to stadium. I told Jacel that I was worried but was hoping she would be fine. And we picked up the trot and... holy cow, she's SUPER LAME! Noooooooo!!!! Why?! She's been feeling so good! So Jacel and Laura watched us go. And she was doing that annoying head tossing thing and chewing and rooting, which makes it really hard to tell if she's lame or not. She felt fine tracking left but awful tracking right. Like, I almost got off awful. So Jacel watched her and then asked me to get off and pull my saddle way back. Like way back even more. And.. it helped, a tiny bit. She palpated underneath the saddle behind her scapula and Lyric was angry about it. She felt a big knot. So..... that sort of makes sense. It actually makes a lot of sense. I remember telling Kelli awhile back that it seemed like when I first got the new dressage saddle she was great but then she started to feel mincy and sticky and footsore. And I had noticed that she had developed a few white hairs at the back of her scapula. To be honest though, and I said that then too, I have no idea how long it takes those white hairs to develop. So, maybe the saddle, being too wide, dropped down and every time she walked, it was smashing into her scapular cartilage. And maybe, for whatever reason, the right side was worse. 

 

I debated whether I should keep riding on not. And probably should have gotten off, but... she seems like she's been getting sounder the more I've been riding and the fact that she had a few days off again and was worse, makes it hard to know what the right answer is. Jacel had me trot her around again with no contact and when I let her stretch her head down and forward, she was sounder. So then we decided that we could do a little jumping and let her tell us. She's emotional but she also says no. So... okay. Let's give it a go. 

We started with the grid. It was a 3 jump bounce grid and then she built it up to the other two jumps. Lyric actually started out better than when she went through it New Years Day, so.. there was that. She was more forward, although she was drifting right. We ran through it a few times and I had to find my balance again on her. She seemed to be enjoying herself and was happy, so... I kept going. She felt better at times trotting but then still felt pretty bad if I shortened the reins or turned too sharp. Jacel raised it up a bit and things kept going decently. 

So then we went to a different grid. It was a hard turn, because it sucked you into turning early but really you needed to stay on the rail a bit more. It was a low vertical bounce to a bigger vertical to a bounce to a small vertical. The middle vertical was the purple gate, which she didn't like the other day. And... I got in my head and she came to it and chipped and then had to heave over it and then ran out at the gate. I let her. I was about to quit thinking she hurt and Jacel told me that it was my fault for cutting my line and not being brave. She also said she thought Lyric was looking hard at the gate and struggling to process. So she dropped the middle vertical and we came again. And I rode a better line and rode better and it worked. So we did that a few times and added a low wide oxer about 7 strides out and she was wiggly and squirted hard right and almost slung me off but then jumped anyways. Which is interesting, because she's always said no if given the chance and I didn't fight for it. So... ?? Not sure if I'm making excuses but.. seemed like she could have easily said no if she was really hurting. So we finally got it right and then we did it "backwards" and off the left lead she was braver and better. But it was also a slightly easier line kind of. We finished with a really good pass off the left lead and then I made the comment about it being left lead vs right lead, so Jacel told me to ride it again but ride it more proactively and braver and not in my head and... it was pretty darn nice that way too!

We quit with that. I do think I need to get someone to look at my saddles. Because now I'm all paranoid that the fixed dressage saddle may not actually be fixed and ever more paranoid that her jump saddle isn't going to work for her. Although, Jacel reminded me that she was going really well in that for a long time. It was just now that she was aggravated, the forward flap might be bothering her, especially as it wants to slide up. So the plan is to shockwave her scapula, put her on previcox, keep her on robaxin, and then add a mattes fleecey pad to her saddle, make sure I put her saddle far enough back, and consider a no slip pad. And call someone out to check the fit. And see what happens at the conference and hope that it will confirm the scapula stuff or not. 

 

I put the back on track on her for the ride home and then when we got home, she tried on her new blanket. It was Sunny's old show blanket that doesn't fit Cuart, so Peri gave it to me. It's an 84 but it seems to fit her really well! And it's a heavy weight with a neck, so she was super toasty warm in it. I really hope it's waterproof, but it seems like it is. I guess I'll find out tomorrow! (Although Peri said it's a turn out but also only 200 gram... it seems way toastier than a 200 gram, but either way!).  Then I pulled it off and shockwaved her scapula. She seemed mildly annoyed but also like she was enjoying it, so hopefully that's a sign that she's sore there but it was helping? Although after the fact, I messaged Dr. Kate and she said that she would have done E6 instead of E4 and mentioned bilateral. Oh duh... Just because the right side is worse, doesn't mean the saddle wasn't smashing the left side too! So... I guess tomorrow I'll do both sides and do E6. Although she said to just repeat next week (but didn't realize I had only done one side), which... I guess if I do her tomorrow, I can do her again Thursday before I leave for the conference and... close enough. ;) Then when I get back I can do her again and hopefully she'll be cured at that point!