Monday Morning Minutes

This weekend was super uneventful, per the trend of the week, but it was with good reason. As stated previously, I've mostly been toodling with B in order to keep him in work while he sorted out his issues, mentally and  physically. Fall is the worst for the Bacardi's, but he adjusted just in time for the heat wave this week--yay.

1. B got a massage and it was LIT. 

Massaging those ligaments and muscles

D worked on him for near two hours because he had several "problem" spots. Just like any athlete, he was showing some soreness and I was not surprised at all with his slight struggles on the right lead these days. 

She said he had some pretty sore hamstrings, definitely worse on the right, which explains his on and off issues with picking up the right lead. D also said she hasn't seen a reaction that strong to deep tissue massage in the hindquarters in a long while. I told her this makes sense because before he cut his hock last week, we were mostly doing long and low workouts with lots of poles to work that booty, in addition to conditioning work. Meaning, his ass has been WORKED, literally. She said its paying off big time and thinks he's put on about 50lbs of straight muscle since she' seen him last. I don't disagree. This does make for sore ponies though and he LOVED the massage. He leaned so hard into her for both sides of his hindquarters and his little nose was wiggling, it was cute.

Leaning into it

One area of slight concern for her is his C1 and C2 in his neck, especially to the left. I could see the difference when she bent him each way, and he truly did react more and not melt into the massage like his did to the right....but he's never been resistant to the left bend...always the right. Either way, I see a chiro in our future to see if its out of alignment, or he's just sore from carrying himself differently. 

D thinks going barefoot has changed him all over, for the better, but that doesn't come without some soreness which is presenting itself in his hindquarters and neck most prominently. We discussed more frequent massages, liniment after every ride on problem areas and hand massage in addition to Equitape in the future. I use Rocktape for myself and lifting and I'm a big believer, so it won't hurt to try it I think!

2. Depending how he does this week and next we MIGHT show rated on the 16th. V plans to take Yankee, so I will already be going, and it may work out. However, I don't know if I want to dive into the rated scene a whole month before I had planned. For one, I don't have a show coat because some asshole stole my wardrobe and I haven't gotten around to replacing it. For two, we haven't jumped in 2 weeks, but we do have two weeks to prepare.  I don't want to rush back into anything since we haven't jumped since the last show, but he's feeling great, especially after the massage.  Thinking we will stick to the baby baby jumpers, since it will be his first rated outing, if we even go. Hoping we can keep fall theatrics to a minimum, but overall he's feeling good despite the few days rest for hock healing (which by the way, surprised us ALL, and healed without issue) and is raring to get back in the full swing of work again. His tear duct looks better too, but we will still check tomorrow with vet.

Impromptu ride led to me riding in rainboots and leggings, lolz

Hover horse

3. V and Yankee are making HUGE improvements in the ways of dressage. (for new readers, V leases Yankee)  I don't update much on these two since V's life is hers and I don't want to broadcast every single thing they do together on here. But, I do want to brag a bit on her hard work and taking the initiative to really work at this. Dressage is her weakest phase and it finally seems to be clicking for her with Yankee. Friday she demonstrated things she learned at a clinic she rode in 2 weeks ago and I was quite impressed when she came out of the gate with him on the bit, forward and listening to her. This is big guys!

Getting it down pat!

And that's about that in our boring world. It pretty much rained all weekend too, but now its fixing' to get hot again (WTF FALL ITS OCTOBER) and dry up all the rain puddles. Looking forward to a busy week of training in the gym and the barn. 

Happy Monday ya'll!