Sunday 24 January 2016

Physio Time!



First of all, apologies for the delay in this post! Procrastination is my worst habit and then with work I just never got round to it! Oops!

On Tuesday, Etti was doing another routine visit and I popped Pea on the list after agreeing with the vet that it would be a good idea for him to see her after the injections in his back. Etti mainly focused on Pea's back and finished the session by placing a magnetic pad on his back. He wears the Equilibrium magnetic pad during the night but Etti explained that hers is slightly stronger as the magnets are placed strategically to repel each other, causing a stronger current which helps increase the circulation. 

Pea's not done much work recently due to frozen arena's and work but after hacking him yesterday, he feels pretty good. The real test will come when I school him but fingers crossed we'll be on the right track. I'm also focusing on remembering to do some carrot stretches everyday to really open his back up and strengthen his core which will also help. 

Thanks for reading,
Laura xx

Wednesday 13 January 2016

Pea Sees The Vet....again!



Oh the joys of horse ownership! I popped Pea on the list for the monthly vet visit to have a look at his front end seeing as that's where my instructor reckoned there could be a problem. I kind of expected Alex, my vet, to trot Pea up and declare there not be much of a problem. However, we ended up spending about 2 hours doing various tests, etc!

We started off by trotting him up and then doing a flexion test on each hind leg before popping Pea on the lunge. As expected, Pea was fine on the lunge and went into each gait on each rein as good as gold. After a brief chat with Alex where I said that he does tend to be fine on the lunge and that it is mainly just ridden that I have the issues, he decided to see me ride him. 

After tacking Pea up, Alex said to keep a long rein and as soon as we were in the arena we were to head off into trot. Typically, Pea decided to be as good as gold and willingly trotted off as if to say 'I don't know what that crazy person on board is on about'!. He did have one mini napping episode towards another horse but other than that, he was quite well behaved. We then had a little canter on a long rein and whilst he behaved, he did still break into trot regularly. Alex then said to gather the reins and school him more, so do more circles, etc on a shorter rein so that he could see the difference. We did a few circles and puddle dodging before finishing off. 

Alex agreed that he is definitely uncomfortable under the saddle compared to what he was on the lunge and asked if I was happy for his back to be x-rayed. Seeing as I want to get to the bottom of Pea's 7 month bucking stint, I decided to agree and luckily he had the portable x-ray machine with him as he was x-raying another horse on the yard. Pea was as good as gold to be x-rayed this time and didn't need any sedation. He had three pictures taken along his back, two of his left hock and one of his left stifle. His hock and stifle were fine but his back showed a couple of vertebrae that were slightly closer together than normal. Although it's minor and not kissing spine, Alex suggested trying some steroid injections as it could be that causing the issue. Pea does have a bit of a low pain threshold (he tries to kick over me cleaning a little cut!) so I'm hoping that maybe this is the answer. The x-ray also showed an old wither injury that I had no idea he had, although it's nothing to be concerned about. 

Now Alex has been doing Pea for 7 and a half years and knows what a little monster he can be...however, he decided that it would be perfectly fine to inject Pea with just a twitch being used and no sedation. I don't think it went quite as well as Alex predicted seeing as he had to dodge a hind leg coming at him once or twice and I had to try and avoid being knocked out by the twitch as well as try and keep Pea still! However, he had all four injections and unfortunately for Pea had to stay in for the day. He didn't seem too fussed returning to a stable with a large haynet in though! 

Pea's allowed out tomorrow and I'm to lunge him until Monday. We're lunging with no tack tomorrow and Saturday and then with side reins Friday and Sunday. He's also got the physio next week which Alex has suggested we keep so I'll let you know next week what Etti says. 

I'm really hoping that this works and gives some answers! 

Thanks for reading,
Laura xx

Friday 8 January 2016

[Product Review] HyShine Miracle Brush



Each winter sees Pea decide that rolling is a a daily ritual and that there cannot possibly be a day that he comes in clean. Therefore, having a pretty good collection of brushes seems to be a bit of a must have for me including a drawer full of various sprays! 

I originally picked up the HyShine miracle brush from my local tack store as a hope of trying to remove some of the carpet and sand surface that we have from Pea's boots. However, after Pea came in virtually brown one day, I decided to test it out on him and now it's a new staple for grooming. It's very similar to the Magic brushes that are floating around and I can safely say that I truly get the hype with them now! 

I love my little miracle brush that much that I might need to grab a few
more. They're quite cheap and do a great job at getting rid of the large amounts of dried mud that Pea seems to keep getting covered with (can I also add that it's always the same side and spot!!). They're not too rough on his clipped areas but work equally as well on his rather fluffy legs and hind quarters. 

If you have a horse who likes to take regular mud baths then I would definitely recommend you look into getting either a HyShine Miracle brush or one of the magic brushes as they are definitely worth the hype! It's currently the only reason I can get Pea going from the picture one the left to the one on the right!

Thanks for reading,
Laura xx

Friday 1 January 2016

Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!


2015 was a funny year full of disappointments but also some high points mingled along the way. We only competed once which resulted in me landing on the floor at C rather than cantering a circle but hey ho! We're still no clearer to knowing if there's anything major with Pea and the past month I've been so busy and just lost a bit of motivation to ride if I'm honest. However, this pony still means the world and hopefully we'll get a few more answers in 2016. 

So, this year, I'm not making any goals with Pea. We're just going to see where the year takes us and have fun (hopefully) along the way. 

However, I have made a resolution for myself which is to push myself out of my comfort zone more. I'm generally a more reserved person and worry about putting myself out there and doing things outside my comfort zone so I'm going to work on changing that :) 

Thanks for reading,
Laura xx