Things are quietly turning around for Bear since my last post. Once he got his shoe back on, he seemed fairly sound. I had Nicky come over on Saturday for a lesson with Oh So and she lunged Bear and walked him around under saddle.

She thought he was still unsound on the lunge, perhaps a little stifle-y due to a growth spurt in combination with a little leftover soreness from the bruise, and suggested I have a different vet look at him with a fresh set of eyes.

I could barely tell on the lunge and when I rode him today, I just couldn’t feel anything. I had my dad video us to show to Lisa today when I took Oh So to his first jump lesson since his injury.

She thought he looked fine, but still advised I get a second opinion before we start up jumping again, so I’m going to try to make an appointment for this week.

As for Oh So, we had a nice flat lesson, focusing on keeping his neck out at the base and starting to think more about test riding.

Today I took him for our first jump lesson since his injury. Lisa hasn’t seen him in person since last August, and she thought he looked good in his weight, but noticed he’s lacking a bit of strength from behind when he tripped a couple of times upon landing.

We didn’t jump more than 2’6″ since I’m still in my dressage saddle, but Lisa actually thought my position looked pretty good!

We just focused on keeping a steady pace and cantered over some hunter-type lines. I found myself riding him a bit like he was Bear, slow and steady, and he actually waited in most of the lines. He almost got me “making a move” a few times, but I tried just to stay relaxed.

I’ve found that riding Bear, who is very “hunter-like” over fences, makes me wait with my upper body and let the fences come to me. It will be interesting once he gets going again to see if I can continue to let that positively influence my rides on Oh So.

The plan now is to keep working on Oh So’s fitness by working on some hills and continuing to raise the fences. My new jumping saddle should be here this weekend, so that will be good to get back into a proper fitting one!

I’m taking it one day at a time with Bear, but I’m hoping we’re over this bruise and that we can continue on to the fall season. I’m excited to hopefully have two horses to compete.

EDITED JULY 9

Bear is sound! I took him to another vet who specializes in racehorses today and after a 10 minute lameness exam he determined he looked great, so we’re ready to go full steam ahead again.

Now to start picking out competitions…