Me So Handy

I am hoping the warming weekends mean that winter is moving on out. If it's not, I may use the pitchfork in a forceful manner to encourage it to do so.

Solo is finishing up his bute regimen and I will attempt to get on him tomorrow to see what I have under me. Keep your hooves crossed please!

Since one must keep oneself busy in winter to avoid assuming the shape of an eggplant, I decided to load all my power tools in the truck last weekend and attack some crippled jump standards we'd been storing. Yay, power tools! Music to a girl's ears...

There were four gate wing standards.  Two had legs rotted off and several of the middle boards were, well, held together by duct tape.

I'm on it!! Just give me an extension cord and I'm entertained for hours! Ok, at least an hour till I get impatient and figure out some shortcut that won't look quite as good but hey, it's fixed! Check out the prowess in action! Thank god I am better at building things than I am at dressage.

I know, it's amazing I didn't saw a finger off. Solo and I share accident-prone genes. We make up for it with, uh, our charmingness, of course!

Voila! One of my newly patched masterpieces. Mad skillz, baby, mad skillz.

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Big Red Fire

I spoke to Dr. Bob again on Tuesday.  We agreed given the sudden onset of Solo's discomfort and the fact that he wasn't "warming up out of it," he's probably tweaked something while leaping around in the pasture on the crappy winter ground.  So now it's a week of bute and no work for him and a week of staring despondently for me, while I hope fervently every day that this is just a passing ache and that I'll soon have my horse back.

As a consolation prize, I had the DVD release of the 2010 film "Secretariat" in hand, eager to revisit the magnificent horse I met long ago (left). Since it was the Disney version, I braced myself for historical inaccuracy and cheesiness. Turns out, they should have named it "The Penny Chenery Story," as Secretariat seemed to play a minor supporting role. And the horse who played Red could not capture the legend's incredibly regal eye and proud soul. But it was a fair introduction to this mind-blowing athlete for people who may not have grown up with his story and included Big Red's bitter rivalry with Sham, a brave bay (ironically, bred and owned by Claiborne farm, where Secretariat retired) who never raced again after his defeat in the 1973 Belmont Stakes.

But the redemption of the film is in watching beautiful horses run; it never fails to make me catch my breath and go still. Because I know how it feels to sit on top of 1200 pounds of red fire. I know the sound of each foot as it hits the ground and pushes off, propelling a chestnut rocket to ever greater speed. I know the chug of air that rushes into two flared nostrils to fuel the flame stoked within. I know the incredible surge of muscle as a burnished copper back and hindquarter coils and releases immense energy in the name of the gallop. And I know the electricity of sitting on top of the unadulterated joy of running, the flaming of a soul who lives to stretch out well-muscled legs and eat up the earth in quickening strides.

I have been lucky. I have been blessed. And I will never forget it.

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Hamsters On Drugs

This is how my brain operates: (1) Imagine a hamster's feet while he is running on a wheel. (2) Put that hamster on speed. (3) Now put him in a hurricane.  And the hamster may at any time leap completely off that wheel and shoot into a different one that you didn't even know was there.

That's the general idea. Fast and crazed and completely unpredictable. 

There's a lot going on. I spoke with Dr. Bob as I mentioned in my previous post. Ok, by "spoke," I may mean "I called and blabbered my general freaked-out state in some nutty horse-woman fashion, convinced that I had ruined my horse forever." He says I am a crazy person (well, I don't see how that is relevant!). But he feels that Solo's stiffness is rather due to the prolonged and bitter cold and the frozen ground (Mr. Shiny does enjoy airs above the ground in his pasture on a regular basis), not any changes in management. However, since he is the lovely Dr. Bob, he had already faxed in a new Adequan Rx for us and hoped that I was right anyway and after a few shots, I'd have my horse back. Otherwise, I just have to wait for it to get warmer and hopefully, the stiffness will subside. It better, because wouldn't you know I just planned out our spring season...

On Saturday, I also attended the USEA Area II Annual Meeting in Leesburg, VA. A whole day of sitting around just talking about horses and eventing -- what could be better than that (aside from actually riding said horses)? It was a great time with some really well-done presentations (and OMG, Eventing Nation actually reported on something I went to!!). We have a new Adult Rider chairperson and she has loads of fantastic ideas. A local physical therapist talked to us about human biomechanics in relation to riding and how we should shape our fitness accordingly (this one had a lot of surprises). John DeSilva of Ecogold gave a hilarious and informative presentation on their boots and saddle pads. He just made me want to buy his stuff because he was awesome! A geneticist/breeder also talked about equine conformation on a skeletal level and had quite a few fascinating illustrations. It was well worth the drive north (and freezing my ass off up there)!

Today, BO and I took our boys out XC schooling. It was her young TB's first time out, so Solo was needed for "lead" duty. Solo was still stiff so we didn't do as much as I would have liked, but we did tackle a few of the big things out there and, though he wavered a bit, I kept my leg on, DIDN'T CHICKEN OUT, and we had ZERO refusals, which is a big BIG step up for us in the "Quest To Jump Big Scary Jumps." You might remember this giant (2010 photo below) from last year. Last February, it took me three tries and some serious gulping to get over it. Today, I sat down, wrapped my legs around that horse, and we leaped it (not pretty, but hey, it was clean) in one go.

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Epiphany?

I think I found our problem. We have been trying a new joint support program as per Dr. Bob: a monthly IM injection and an IV shot of polyglycan every 3 months. He thought it might be more affordable and offer similar or better results than our Adequan regime. We're about a month and half in.

And I don't think it's doing a damn thing.

Solo was rushing and on his forehand. He could not step up under himself and was bearing down on the bridle. The whole left side of his body is locked tighter than it has been in a long time.

I know this horse. After almost five years, I know how he feels, I know his mind and body inside and out. And I know that I should listen to my gut, which is telling me we should go back to the Adequan.

I'll chat with Dr. Bob tomorrow and see what his thoughts are...

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Gritted Teeth

It's always been a problem.  Solo locks the left side of his jaw and just. won't. let. go.  Meanwhile I descend into frustration and the whole left side of my body takes on the approximate suppleness of an I-beam.

Sigh.

So, not the best ride tonight. I'm not sure why. I've been working hard with the chiro and feel much MUCH better in my own vertebral sections. Solo is muscle-y and had been going along nicely.

Could it be the cut on his jaw is irritated despite the super-fabulous horsey band-aid I made to protect it from bit rubbing?

Exhibit A at left.

Could it be he's still a bit stiff from the 3 hour ride in the woods on Sunday picking our way through ankle-grabbing, bent over pine yearlings that exasperated the both of us? I gave him Monday and Tuesday off to rest...

It could be both. It could be neither. It could be something else entirely among the 1,208 variables I can think of off the top of my head. I don't suppose it matters too much -- although perhaps just knowing could abate my own knotted jaw muscles. The jaw thing is something that's always been an issue: he clenches, I clench back, then we both just hang there and growl at each other. So when it rears its (ugly ugly) head, I get mad that I have not yet defeated this persistent monster.

I need to let go, take a deep breath, keep the frustration locked in its closet, and use the lateral work to soften him back up. Of course, remembering to do that AT THE TIME is the challenge I continue to fail. Grrr.

Focus on the positive: after every crap ride comes a good ride. I will be eagerly awaiting its appearance tomorrow. I need someone standing next to the arena just chanting, "Supple the horse, supple the horse, supple the horse..." Maybe then I will get it through my thick, thick skull.

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