Injections...and soundness!

Things have been a bit quiet for a little while with Echo, as last time Ella the physio visited her, she was much more sore than she had been for a while, so we decided now would be a good time to get the vet out to medicate her back. Last time he saw her - about 6 weeks ago - he said he wanted to come back when she'd started cantering properly with the idea of medicating her lumbar spine area and sacroiliac. But last week Tammy had felt her go very weird when she was riding her - almost as if her back went into spasm and then Ella found the soreness in the same place, so we booked the vet to come out. So for the last 5 or 6 days she has only been walking and then Ben came out to see her yesterday.

I couldn't be there, but I had a long chat with Ben afterwards and it all sounds really positive. He watched Echo trot up, lunge, did flexion tests and did loads of manipulation on her back and said that she is 100% sound and looks the best he's ever seen her. He said he really put her through her paces but couldn't see anything that he could pick up on - he said if he looked at her for the first time, he would say she was sound. Which is fantastic. It really is. But at the same time, she is consistently getting sore in that one area and I was really hoping that we could do something to eliminate this so we can get on with getting her to full fitness. Luckily, Ben thought that it was worth medicating the lumbar thoracic junction where she is getting the pain, although he didn't inject the sacroiliac as he said that he couldn't get any kind of pain reaction from this area at all. He said to keep an eye on it and we'll see whether the pain further forward is a result of the sacroiliac or whether it's just a tricky area that she finds it difficult to mobilise. 

The only thing I had thought is that watching her from behind on the video my boyfriend took on our hack, I noticed just how close together her hind legs are at the bottom when she moves. She's always brushed a bit behind, but watching videos of her when she was sound before, her hock action was much straighter. I had wondered whether this was something to do with some sacroiliac pain. Ben said that was unlikely and could well be a way she has developed over a prolonged period of suspensory pain - a way of compensating for the pain. Another reason for me to feel guilty for not realising what was wrong earlier. But he said we probably can't do much to change that (it was also probably the reason her feet wore down on the outsides) and we should just work to get her stronger.

So she has a couple of days off, then the rest of the week just walking, then hopefully, provided she isn't too sore from the medication, she should be able to pick up the work again. I've sold my old saddle, so as soon as she's back in work again, we will sort out getting her a new one specially made for her. I WILL get a saddle to fit my horse! From then, we will get her home at the end of July  and start to have some fun! Long term, both the vet and Jo Spear - the Animal Health Trust physio - have advised that we do very little work on a surface, only using a surface when we want to compete. Ella suggested I look for affiliated dressage shows that are on grass rather than on a surface - or at least where the warm up is on grass. The more hacking I do, the happier I get with this situation - I am just loving riding my horse again, so if we can't do much dressage that really is fine. We will do some pleasure rides - maybe even some Le Trec and just have a lot of fun. I need to start to contain and limit her movement to keep her sound, so this sort of thing will be great. I think if I did too much schooling, the perfectionist in me would want to push for more.

So I'm seeing her on Saturday but she probably won't be up to being ridden yet by then. Annoyingly I am away next weekend so it will be a while before I get to ride her now...but hopefully she will be back in proper work and feeling good by then. I can't wait to get her home in the summer! 

Straightness: one word, LOTS to think about.

I have had such an interesting morning. Regular readers will know that I have struggled with straightness in my riding for years- I know that many of Echo's straightness problems are actually mine and having a couple of years off regular riding has only exacerbated these. Tammy has tried to get me to bring my right leg further back when I'm riding and twist myself a little to try to get me straight, bu the habits are fairly solidly ingrained. So after my hack yesterday, Tammy asked if I'd be interested in taking part in a straightness clinic with a physio called Jo Spear, who is extremely highly regarded and is the consultant physio for the Animal Health Trust at Newmarket. I jumped at the chance!

Basically, Tammy and Jo gave me a lesson together, then Jo worked with me off the horse, to see how I could make some changes to improve things. I rode Echo while they talked at first, then Jo got me to adjust my upper body, as I tend to twist to the right, collapsing my right side, which forces my right leg forward and means I have little influence or strength in my left seatbone and leg. It even means that I can't really take a contact with the left rein properly. So, I twisted to the left more, sat more evenly on both seatbones (which felt awful on the right rein) and then Tammy tried to get me to turn my right thigh in and lift it away from her side so that I could reposition it. What we found is that I could hardly manage to lift it from the hip without tensing every muscle on that side. I was able to do it if I physically picked up my thigh and rotated it, but I found it really difficult to maintain.

When I did manage to get the two things - the upper body position and the leg position- in place, Echo was suddenly much straighter and more forward. And- weirdly- I softened my right hand and was much more effective with my left hand and leg. So that was interesting lesson number one- I just need to work on keeping that!

I was chatting to Jo at some length about Echo's suspensories and her back soreness. She said that Echo has masses of mobility in her hind legs- probably actually too much, as she over tracks far more than necessary and her fetlocks sink right down. She said that this is almost certainly why her suspensories went, as she is producing so much movement and is always at full stretch, so when working on an arena surface, it makes it even worse. Echo and I have spent a lot of time schooling, so I feel terrible that I'm partly to blame for it. 

She also said that people think that cobs don't have much movement, but actually the majority of cobs are extremely naturally mobile and many are hyper-mobile, like Echo. She said that one of the reasons people don't think this of cobs is that often they are ridden by less experienced, less balanced, perhaps more nervous riders, so the horse learns to limit its movement to stay comfortable. Because I have always ridden Echo and, for all my issues, I'm a fairly competent, balanced rider, she has never had to limit her movement and has therefore offered me her full range. If you add to this the fact that Jo thinks I am also extremely mobile, I have not restricted her movement at all and so she has always worked at her full range. In order for her to stay sound in future, Jo has recommended that I do as little schooling as possible on a surface, and that I do the majority of my schooling on hacks, working on getting her as straight as possible, containing the movement and building her core stability.

This is fine- it's what the vet has been saying since he first saw her and Echo is my baby before she's a dressage horse - I just want her in work and sound. Jo is concerned that if I don't work to contain her movement then we may end up with front leg lameness, as she is putting a lot of pressure on the front limbs, particularly as her front legs turn in a little and are a bit wobbly. 

After I had ridden Echo, Jo had a look at me on her table and we found that I have a real weakness in my right mid glute muscle. Lying on my left side with my feet together and knees fairly bent, she asked me to lift my right knee- I could only lift it about 10cm off my left knee (still keeping my feet together) whereas on the other side I could lift my left knee more than twice as high. It isn't that it's stiff- Jo could lift it and there was loads if movement, but the muscle won't lift it, which is exactly what was happening when I was riding. She's given me some exercises to work on this - which will hopefully make my right hip much more stable when I'm on Echo. 

So it was a really interesting experience, particularly in understanding a bit more about our problems and what we are working with. 

In other news, Echo and I have now cantered twice and both times she was brilliant- she was pretty strong but just felt like she was loving it. Tomorrow, my boyfriend is coming hacking with me, so I should get a few photos of me riding.