Eye and Jump club!

I got the vet out for Allie's eye. It's a bit of a weird one because she isn't in any discomfort. The vet gave me some antibiotics just in case, and so far so good, it looks to have shrunk a little.

The vet that came out was a different vet to the ones I normally use and would you know it, she has a special interest in podiatry and laminitis in particular! She does venograms and stuff, so she said if I have a client who needs a vet to refer to her and we can work together. Yay! Maybe that's why Allie hurt her eye? Not to shit me, but to help me find a vet who is barefoot friendly?

Anyway, I took Allie to jump club today. We had a blast! She was in a mood (she HATES having travel boots put on, it sends her bonkers), buy it translated to a really forward determined horse!

We only did the 60cm and the 75cm, but it wasn't about height, but rather a nice easy fun day out. I was so nervous on the drive over there but I forced myself to introduce myself and help set up the jumps. I'm really glad I did that, because recently my stupid anxiety has been a bit of a shadow over my life, but I'm done with it.

I only have crappy blurry screen caps but that will do I guess!

Next stop: I've entered Sydney at SIEC eventing on the 3rd September! 60cm again because of the scary Cross country. Hopefully we have a super fun day!

Wtaf Allie?!?!

This horse wants to kill me with anxiety. I swear.

Getting there.

So, Allie has a part time lessor! Her name is Andrea and she rides beautifully. So far I've been really happy with the arrangement. She's lessoning with me once a week or two weeks, and riding Allie without me there another 1-2 times a week. Teamed with me riding 1-3 times a week I'm hoping Allie gains some fitness leading up to the end of year events.

Andrea up on Allie

Allie had her teeth done on Monday. She had them done 4 months ago but needed another dental because of her wave mouth from the big space in the top left where her tumour was. The dental pack was way overdue to come out (it should have fallen out on it's own probably a year and a half ago) and it was trapping food up against her cheek and gum causing substantial ulcering. D:

I tell you what, that mare would have been in quite a bit of pain but she didn't go off her food and she only got a little fussy in the bridle at walk. That's it. She should have been rooting the reins out of my hands and bucking me off to be honest. 

Allie still doped up, just had a painful pack extraction, still wants to graze. She's such a different horse post-surgery!!!

The vet removed the old dental pack as she no longer needed it and it was causing issues (clearly). She has a week off from work in a bit (but can be ridden in a bitless) and that should give her enough time to heal. The vet said she'll be like a different horse after this! Poor Allie. I'm so glad I didn;t put off her dental (due to finances) til next month. Imagine!!

In other news, (and shhhhh, don't you dare tell Allie, I'm trying to keep her in the dark so she doesn't get 'sick' again), I'm scoping out some events to attend in the next few months. There's Sydney @ SIEC at the beginning of September I'm hoping to go to at 60cm (this is where we did our first event) plus I want to do the 80cm hunter trial again at Silver Hills end of September before going to the Silver Hills event in November. Throw in jump club at say 90cm a couple of times in there plus a dressage and jump lesson or two and I think I will be sufficiently busy. Is my gut rolling again just thinking about it? YEP! But am I going to book all this anyway? Yep! I desperately want to bloody get out and show her properly. If I can finish this year with one or two more official outings then start next year with the clinics in Jan/Feb then hopefully I can get to the early 2017 events at 80cm confidently. That's if I keep her RAO under control (she's been doing good with this, but it's been raining a fair bit so no dust), and if she doesn't go and do something else health wise to stop me.

There's been a horse photo challenge going around on FB the last week or so, where you post a photo of an influential horse in your life each day for 7 days. Reading everyone's stories makes me think "why the hell can;t I get out and show like they do?". Maybe it's because I've got all my eggs in one basket only having one horse but that's the way I like to do horse ownership - one at a time. It's so cost prohibitive! I do all the hoof work on her as you know, and it still costs me almost $12,000 a year to keep her (agistment, feed, dentals, basic non-emergency vet care). Yes, I have a child, but so do so many other riders out there regularly competing. Sometimes (all the times) I feel like I'm trying to kick down a solid brick wall when it comes to horses. No matter how much effort I put in, I don't see results - I'm not even wanting to win out competing, I just want to participate!

I guess I'll just keep swimming, til we get 'there'. Wherever 'there' is.

Our very first show. She looks like such a baby!

Nerves

Allie has been doing well lately. I've only been able to ride her once or twice a week but those rides have been good. She's due some body work and her teeth (both booked in for the next few weeks) so she's a little wonky but still trying hard as per usual. It's been generally wet so the dust levels are low and her coughing is non-existent, so yay for that. She's jumping amazingly, her dressage is going well. I need to take her out for some dressage lessons, I need more direction there. Jumping too I guess.

She's plenty fit enough to do a dressage day so yesterday I started looking at when I could take her out for a prelim test or two. I immediately got nervous for no bloody reason and ended up shutting the browser down. Like, seriously, we can handle a little prelim test. But apparently I'm traumatised and just can't not stress about it.

Bah.

I'll try again in a few days.

In other news, I offered Allie up for part lease again and a girl came and tried her yesterday. I need help keeping her in full work so she's fit for eventing and a part lease with the right rider really is the answer. She went well, wasn't scared or worried about Allie but is happy to have a string of lessons with me so she undershot to ride Allie and the direction we are going. She's coming again tomorrow morning for another ride/lesson, so hopefully she goes well. She seemed to really like Allie yesterday. :)

I'll leave you with a throwback to Silver Hills hunter trial, just when her coughing issues were starting. Poor mare.

The Horses Hoof

A while ago (back in February I think) I entered a photo of Allie into a cover photo competition for the U.S magazine The Horses Hoof. It's a barefoot mag and they were after photos of barefoot horses doing their thing. I wrote a little blurb about why I thought Allie should be a cover model with her story about her complex odontoma and our struggle to get competing.

She didn't win the comp but did get an honorable mention.

However, the magazine editor contacted me because she loved Allies story and wanted to do a full article about her! So I provided pictures and I wrote up an article for the magazine and it is about to be published on the 1st July. I've been keeping it a bit of a secret in case it all fell through.

If you don't have a subscription but would love to have a read of the article, send me an email to lisa@theglorioushoof.com.au and I'll email you a copy.

I'm very excited that she's being featured in a magazine, she's such a great horse and we have overcome so much (with still more to overcome of course, with her latest breathing issues).

Hopefully I can get her fit and healthy enough again to get out to one more comp this year. Fingers crossed!

Secrets and Guilt

I've got a little secret. It's not revolutionary or juicy or anything. But it surprised me.

When Allie had her most recent bought of coughing and I had to leave her and not ride for a few weeks I was disappointed, yes, but mostly I was relieved. I had been scrambling to get her worked for so long and my stress levels were starting to reach threshold, with interstate and overseas trips and final exams coming up. Dropping the stress of trying to get her worked most days (and trying to get her fit enough to compete) when I was battling time constraints and the weather really took the pressure off and suddenly I could handle everything else just fine. When I scratched from Mudgee I was disappointed but again, incredibly relieved.

I have always been a super busy person. If there is a spare gap in my life I always fill it with some sort of commitment. At the moment I work in an office two days a week, trim another couple of days a week, I have 10-12 hours of uni each week (but am on holidays at the moment, yay!), I'm selling hoof boots, and of course, trying to be a good mum to Evie, playing with her, teaching her things, trying not to drag her around in the car too much (always too much). Plus, I should be riding and having lessons and working on my riding. But I'm not.

Allie seems to be better at the moment and I have had a couple of rides on her lately where she has been a dream to ride and only coughed a little once or twice, but I haven't put her back in work yet. What if she starts coughing again? What if she doesn't cope with the work? What if I get all stressed out again and don't enjoy riding her (that never happens, I always enjoy the actual riding part, just not the stress of finding the time). Also, we have had flooding from extensive rain in our area and the footing is rubbish at the moment so we are waiting for that to dry out. So she hasn't had much work at all.

This is a bit of a pointless post really. I have put Evie into day care for a second day each week so I can trim/ride/lesson/study on Mondays without having to try to drag her along (also, she wasn't dealing well at day care only going one day a week and needed more consistency there. It's worked a charm - no day care drop off tears this week!!). But, of course, I'm feeling guilty about that too.

I did the yearly budget recently and nearly died when I saw that Allie is the second biggest cost after our mortgage. Just normal agistment, feed, basic regular vet/dental, a few shows and memberships cost us over $11,000 a year.

Holy crap. And, again, guilt guilt guilt. Look at how much money we would save if I didn't have a horse! What an amazing family holiday we could take each year. Or shorten the length of our mortgage significantly. And Andrew doesn't spend that much on his race car (unless he breaks something). Plus he doesn't get a day off each week to have a car day, but I can.

Today, I'm not trimming and it's not raining so normally  I would try to go do something with Allie but Evie has a cold an is a bit miserable so it will just be a quick visit to feed ad maybe trot Allie around the property out the car window while Evie naps in her car seat,

How do you guys balance out your lives? I wish I had the horses at home again, it would make it so much easier to do what I need to do.

Little update

Quick update - Allie had a few weeks off as I've been busy and to be honest, I'm really not motivated to ride at all in case she gets worse.

But if I'm ever going to get through this I've got to ride her, so I have ridden the past couple of days. Yesterday we rode out and she didn't cough at all, not once, but it was mostly walk and trot with only a little canter.

Today I schooled in jump tack and she coughed 3 times warming up, but that's it. Riding her felt like a dream (although a VERY FORWARD dream that keeps anticipating) but for a horse who hasn't been in work she rode excellently.

We worked on waiting and not fussing and anticipating but did quite a bit of trot and canter. She even had a few jumps over a little cross rail which she fkn LOVED. I know horse, me too.

Anyway, she gets Wednesday and Thursday off because I'm working at the office and then I'll be back on her Friday and Saturday.

She looks amazing and fat by the way. Will have to get some footage next time.