All change

 

I'm aware it's been a long time since I last posted. Things have been a little...crazy...here. In a good way, though. Echo was fab over the summer and it was lovely having her back home. We moved back mid August...then in the first week of September we found out that we're having a baby!

We hadn't thought it would happen so quickly, so hadn't thought much about how it would affect Echo. But suddenly I needed to think about how it was going to work.
 

I've always thought I would ride through pregnancy if I could, and so for the first few weeks I continued to ride as normal, albeit with a little more caution! Echo was going brilliantly and I was enjoying the exercise - particularly mucking out.
 

But a few weeks ago, as the weather turned a little colder, Echo started getting much more lively out hacking. She was fine in the field, but out in the forest she was very spooky and on her toes. Normally this wouldn't worry me, but I was starting to get anxious about what would happen if she got me off. I never felt like I was going to come off, but I was obviously a bit more tense than usual and I think I was making things worse.
 

Then one Monday morning about 3 weeks ago, I hacked out and she was just an idiot from start to finish. She jogged constantly all the way round and I just got in a huge fight with her. I was worried about all the jiggling around for the baby and having to wrestle with her left my stomach muscles feeling really sore.

So I decided enough was enough.
 

I had always planned to send Echo back to Tammy at some point, as a discussion with the physio and the vet suggested that time off wouldn't do her suspensories or her back any good at all. So I gave Tammy a ring and asked if he could go there a bit sooner. She couldn't go immediately, so she ended up having a couple of weeks off, but now she is safely installed back in her old stable at Tammy's. 

She isn't doing loads of work - the suspensories, having had surgery, probably have limited work left in the structures, so I would like to make the most of this when I can ride again - but she is back doing daily exercise and is very happy.
 

I haven't ruled out the idea of going out for a quiet walk hack on her at Tammy's, as I would have someone walking with me and it's all very controlled. We'll see; Mark isn't that keen...

But hopefully she'll have a fun winter: Tammy is planning to take her to the forest to do some cantering at some stage and take her to a local huge indoor arena that has a good firm surface that she could do some cantering on.
 

I probably won't update my blog much over the winter, but I'll keep you posted on how she's doing from time to time. The baby is due at the beginning of May, so she will be at Tammy's until at least June/July I would have thought. If anyone is at all interested, I am blogging about my pregnancy at

www.pitterpatter82.wordpress.com
 

Wishing everybody a very happy horsey Christmas and New Year :)