Vet visits and pre-season training

The last two weeks we have been spending even more time at the vet with Dakota. Last Wednesday I dropped her off in the morning to have more nerve blocks to confirm the site of the lameness. She blocks out to her coffin joint so we are in the same place.

Yesterday I took her back for more injections, this time cortisone and synthetic joint fluid. Before the injection, she has a lot of fluid drain from the joint indication that there is inflammation there. Unfortunately we don't know what is causing it as radio-graphs don't show much for this joint and we don't have access to MRI.

The vet is hopeful we will see an improvement following this combination, and I have her booked in again for next Wednesday to see if any progress has been made.

A very full water jump, we had a bit of flooding!

Coolie has had a big few days, getting ready for the first event of the season. Saturday we went to a show jumping training day and did 2 rounds at 90 to get back into the swing of things.

Saturday morning did not go as planned at all. The horses went feral when I let them out, galloping around like idiots. It took me an age to catch and settle them. Then I realised Coolie had a lump on his chest from is pentosan injection so I had to cold hose that.

When we got to Taminga, I realised I had forgotten my girth, so a panicked call to Mum was made and she rushed over with it.

After I remembered how to ride things went ok!

I hopped on and started warming up. pooped the cross rail, then cantered around to the upright. I got to the base of the fence couldn't see a stride, and instead of keeping my leg on I abandoned Coolie at the base of the fence. He stopped and I smacked my chin into his neck. Lesson learnt, and a timely reminder on how to RIDE!

Little jump but we got everything right

We went into the ring and had 2 nice rounds, no pulling, but I needed to allow him more forward. We had 2 rails down, but it was a good effort for the first outing of the season and gave me a good gauge of where we are sitting.

'Need bigger jumps!'

Sunday we went cross country training at the State Equestrian Centre. We worked on getting the right pace between the fences, so didn't jump anything huge. it was a great training session for the start of the season and my coach was very impressed with us. I think the take home comment of the day was 'he needs bigger fences!'. Again we didn't have any pulling and Coolie felt so consolidated. I am really looking forward to this year with him!

In non-horsey news we have a new addition to the family! Lucy is a beagle x cocker spaniel and just so cute. She is so happy all the time and loves everyone.