It’s been over a year, but I finally got to head out of the start box, even if it was to jump 2’3″ fences!

Bear stood nicely for his first braid job (only 11 instead of the 16 or 17 that Oh So requires!) and my dad and I headed up to Loch Moy for their fall starter trials.

He was great to hang out while I walked my courses, even though the atmosphere was quite big–think 4 dressage rings, 2 show jumping rings, 2 cross-country courses going at once and a trade fair area.

He didn’t seem too overwhelmed when I went into the expansive warm up ring for dressage. He was a little distracted, which was to be expected, but for the most part he put his head down and went to work.

I trotted around the ring a few times and let him take a peak at the trade fair area at the C end of the ring and he didn’t seem to mind too much. We started off the test well, did our centerline, trot circle and change of rein on the diagonal, and as we came around to do our left trot circle, he must have heard a horse that sounded like someone he knew, because he neighed, bucked and then carried on as best he could.

I was definitely not expecting the buck! I tried to settle him for the canter work, and it wasn’t pretty, but we got it done. I should have kept him on the bit and round in the free walk, but I let the reins go for some reason and he caught wind of the horse again and kept screaming. The final centerline was a little rough and he wouldn’t stop neighing while the judge tried to talk to us (she did that for everyone). She was sympathetic to my cause and just said to make sure to ride every step when he acts like that.

The ride back to the trailer featured more screaming and a rear and spin, and it took awhile for him to stop screaming back at the trailer. But he was just neighing, not being fidgety, dancy or silly.

Oh well…he is four and he decided to choose his dressage test to act that way. I guess I’d rather it be there than during the jumping.

He neighed a bit during his jumping warmup, but once we actually started jumping, he was fine. He did one neigh as we went into the ring, but then settled in to his job. The jumps were so small that he kind of puked over a couple, but as Lisa said, it was all about going through the motions that day.

We were the last ones to go cross-country for our division and the starter let us pop over a couple warmup jumps by using the intro level ones, then we were off!

He really didn’t back off anything over our little 10 jump course. It was tough to get in a rhythm, since it was just a loop basically and I took my leg off and got him close to a couple of them, but he wasn’t going to stop or runout.

We ended up with a 38 in dressage for 6th place. Yay! We survived and now it’s time to move on to beginner novice. He’s jumping bigger at home so now we need to take those skills to the real world.

Oh So has been doing well…until this week. I’ve learned that every time I mention a show these days, he comes up lame. We had planned on doing a schooling show at CDCTA this Thursday to run through a couple of dressage tests, then do Seneca novice on Sunday.

I had a great jumping lesson on Saturday with Lisa. We set the jumps up to solid training and maybe a bit bigger and I really felt that we were back in sync. It was fun! He had a day off Sunday, then Monday he just didn’t feel quite right from behind, so now I’ve scratched from both shows.

The vet came out on Thursday and did complete flexions with no real issues, but when she palpated his SI joint on the right side, he kept in the air and nearly kicked her teeth out!

She recommended an injection, so he went down to the clinic on Friday and got a little chiropractic adjustment too.

To say I’m discouraged is an understatement. We’ve been very careful bringing him back slowly, and while I’m relieved it’s not a front leg or the same tendon he injured, I was so close to being able to compete that I could taste it! We were ready, but now I wonder if maybe the increase in intensity of jumping and galloping (although just novice XC fences and training show jumps) was too much? Or maybe he did something in the field? Or it could be a combination of both.

Ever since he’s come back into work, we’ve been working on strengthening his hind end, but maybe he’s saying he needs more hill work, which is a pain to do, but I’ve always tried to make the time to do it. I’ve also felt that he’s starting to feel “old” since he’s come back. I know he’s 14, but before his injury last year, he’d hardly taken a lame step in his life and always acted like a 5 year old. Maybe the time off has accelerated his aging, or maybe he really does just need more time to get his hind end back.

Either way, the idea of a fall season, even just the three events I’d planned at novice and training, is looking unlikely. I’ve scratched Morven and now with a week off, then slowly coming back into work for the next two weeks after that, we’ll be lucky if we make it to one event.