Check-up on Doc

Hi All,

Doc gave us all a little scare over the weekend.  By Wednesday of last week he was more or less sound on the left front leg -- the one we had all been so worried about.  By the weekend, however, he was dead lame on his OTHER front leg!  He also had swelling running up from his knee.  I knew he had hit a jump with that knee at Fair Hill because he came off course with a half inch piece of brush sticking out from it.  At the time, we pulled the splinter out, it bled a lot, we iced it, and we didn't think much more of it.  It turns out the inside had gotten infected and that small infection turned into lymphangitis by late last week.  This type of infection likes to climb upwards and, according to Doc, it is very painful!  After two days he wouldn't even put weight on his leg.  

Dr. Blauner came right out.  He has been fantastic with Doc and I am lucky for his expertise.  He knows how important every detail is with upper level horses, especially when you are coming into a big competition.  Dr. Blauner has been helping me keep Doc on track all summer.  When this development with Doc cropped up, Dr. Blauner came right out.  He put Doc on a heavy duty antibiotic and he is now looking much more comfortable.  I am hoping that by Monday Doc will be 95% well and he will actually be able to start enjoying his time off!  We shall see.  At the moment he is fairly indignant that he is not getting ridden.  Every time I am in the barn he has his head out of his stall watching me.  He even bangs on his stall door sometimes.  Apparently he is a workaholic just like me!  Vacation is important, though.  We have a lot of work in front of us this Spring.  

Rivi was a good dressage horse last weekend.  We scored a 60% in our third level test at the BCHP recognized show.  I know he can put in a better performance than that, but I need to get him stronger physically and get his flying changes more confirmed.  That will be our goal for the winter.  Carmella Clark and Tachyon also competed at the show in training level.  I think she was aiming for better scores than what she got, but I was pleased with her improvements over last year. 

On Sunday I decided to skip the horse trials with Jet and instead go and gallop at Valley Forge Park.  Next week Jet and I go to Florida for ten days for the Ocala CCI*.  It will be his first FEI competition.  Until then, dressage, dressage, dressage!

Ashley

Pics from the Lucinda clinic

Pictures and youtube of Fair Hill

Good Morning!

There are some great pictures on the internet of everyone at Fair Hill.  One website with a lot of pictures is www.photoreflect.com.  They have each horse and rider separated by number, so you can compare everyone's riding style over similar jumps.  The link to our pictures is below.  Doc looked so stylish on the cross country!  I am very proud of our boy.  

Another link to Fair Hill footage comes from my student Diane Garvey.  She found an eight minute video on youtube of clips of about twenty riders as they jumped around the course.  I had a great time watching it.  We are the third horse on the youtube link below.

Doc will spend the next week in a smaller turn-out space so that he can't go any faster than a few steps of trot.  We will continue to ice and laser his fetlock until he comes sound.  After that he will get a few weeks of well deserved vacation time!

The Lucinda Green clinic with Jet was fabulous.  She is such an inspiring teacher and Jet learned so much in two days.  She works a lot on cross country position for the rider and footwork for the horses.  She comes over from England about twice a year to do clinics and I try to ride in them whenever I can.  Her style is very refreshing.  Gina took some pictures which I will post as soon as I get them.  

This weekend Riviera and I will be competing at third level at the Bucks County Horse Park dressage show on Saturday and Jet and I will be competing at preliminary at a horse trials on Sunday in Maryland.

Talk to you soon!

Ashley             

Good News

Hi All,

Good news.  Doc's has not injured any of the major tendons or ligaments in his pastern.  Basically, during our vet visit this afternoon with Dr. Blauner, we couldn't find anything wrong.  This is great news.  It means he probably just hit his fetlock/pastern very hard on the jump or with another foot and bruised the joint.  He will now get a few weeks of rest and we will see how quickly he comes sound.  He was scheduled to have a month long vacation after Fair Hill anyway, so this is entirely time for him to relax.

Thanks for checking in!  I'm off to teach!  

Ashley

Great Adventure!

After the sudden change in plans yesterday, Brian and I decided to take a non-horse day and we spent the afternoon riding roller coasters at Great Adventure.  It was quite a re-introduction to mainstream American culture!  I have been so immersed in competing all summer I have hardly been anywhere aside from the barn and horse shows.  First of all, the demographics were much more cosmopolitan than the predominantly white horse world.  Secondly, I had forgotten how most normal girls actually make an effort to do their hair and wear cute clothes even if it is completely impractical.  I saw a lot of high heeled boots as well as skirts while waiting in line for roller coasters!  Plus, when the sun started to go down and it got chilly everyone started to shiver but I just pulled out my crazy fleece teaching hat.  I got some funny looks, but I was warm!  The Superman ride gets a good review from me, though it is too short.  Brian and I both really enjoyed El Toro which is a huge wooden roller coaster.  Our lesson for next time is that Flash Pass is the way to go.  We spent way too long in lines!

Doc looked better yesterday and pretty comfortable today, though still too lame to ride.  Unfortunately, it was the right choice to withdraw him.  Peter Blauner is going to come ultrasound him on Wednesday.  He could have strained a ligament in his pastern, but from his symptoms and the lack of significant swelling, I am keeping my fingers crossed that he just cracked his fetlock and has a bone bruise.

This afternoon Jet and I are off to ride in a cross country clinic with Lucinda Green at the New Jersey Horse Park.  I am looking ahead to a strong finish from him at the Ocala CCI*.

Ashley  

Success and Disappointment

Hi All!  Doc jumped around the cross country course today like a million bucks.  He was fantastic and accurate the whole way around and he loved the crowd.  Fair Hill was really spectacular today.  We were the third horse out of 53 to go on course and being at the beginning is always a challenge.  You don't get the benefit of learning where other horses are having trouble.  Luckily, I like being a trailblazer at horse shows because then it gives me less of a chance to get nervous.  I just ride the way I planned to ride in my head and I don't over-think it.  Not only were we clear, going all of the direct routes, but I had the fastest three star cross country round that I have ever had.  I finished with sixteen time faults and our placing moved into the 20's.  Normally I ride cautiously and will go more slowly.  Today I knew Doc was fit and that he felt great and I pressed him on.  

The great disappointment of the day, though, was that when we pulled up at the end of the course Doc was completely lame.  He was so lame, in fact, that we worried he had fractured his pastern somehow.  When we took him back to the barn I had the treating vet palpate him.  We wound up doing x-rays right there at the show.  The x-rays were clean, so we had no answers.  I decided that no matter what it was, I was going to withdraw him from the rest of the competition.  Under FEI rules a horse is not allowed to have any drugs that reduce inflammation like banamine or bute.  I felt that Doc really needed drugs to ease his discomfort, so I decided to withdraw him so that we could medicate him.  With no answers as of yet, my vet is going to come to the farm tomorrow to further asses Doc.  Sometimes the day after diagnoses are more accurate than the ones given on the day.  Strangely enough, when we got him home Doc was almost perfectly sound.  Brian's theory is that he hit his leg hard on the third to last jump (where I know he hit the jump) and stung his leg pretty badly.  Let's hope that's all it is.  The alternative at this point is a strain or tear to a tendon or ligament.  

Thank you to all of my friends and clients who came to support us and cheer us on today.  In particular thank you to the Wetherills, Lynn and Craig Rzonca, Dr. Patricia Bona, and Tara and PJ from Kendalwood farm where I regularly take Doc to swim for conditioning.  We really had a support team there!  And of course thank you to Brian for being my number one and Gina for all of her help this weekend.  Tomorrow we will see if I made the right decision.

Ashley    

The Cross Country Course

Here is a sampling of some of our cross country jumps for tomorrow.  The course has twenty six numbered jumps with about forty jumping efforts.  The optimum time is just over ten minutes.  It will be a course with a lot of galloping and traditionally the long, slow hills at Fair Hill take a toll on the horses.  

The weather looks beautiful for the weekend and I am looking forward to the cross country with Doc.  He has been jumping really well.  

Today we already did an equisage (equine massage) treatment on Doc to help relax him and we will go hacking around the show grounds.  We will also try to get Doc to eat as much grass as possible on the lead line!  When he gets to big shows he doesn't like his hay anymore and he needs a tummy with something in it.

 Note on the brush jump below that it is shaped like a Maryland Crab.  

Dressage today was productive but disappointing.  Although I felt I had a much better ride and a much more correct horse than last year, we only scored one point higher.  I was really excited by the fact that Doc did all of his counter canter work and both of his flying changes quietly, but other moments of tension in the test kept our score in the bottom third of the pack.  

Tomorrow I will walk my cross country course and plan my mental ride.  We will go Saturday around 12:30.  Brian got in last night and will be here the rest of the weekend.

More tomorrow!

Dressage Today

Fair Hill Trot Up

Hi All,

We just finished the CCI*** trot up at Fair Hill.  It was a close call.  For some reason on the hard surface Doc looked slightly off up front.  They called me into the holding area, which is a bad sign on the first day, and had a vet go over Doc.  He looked fine and so they had me represent.  On the second presentation they passed us.  Hopefully the rest of the weekend will get better from here!

Mr. Wetherill came to watch and Carmella and Gina came today to groom.  Doc looked very fancy all turned out.  We do dressage tomorrow at about 11:00.

Ashley

Jet Finishes Qualifications for CCI*

Jet had a fantastic day yesterday at the Maryland Horse Trials near Frederick, MD and is now fully qualified to compete at the Ocala CCI* in November.  We were the second ride of the day in dressage and the first ride of the day in both of the jumping phases.  Jet continues to find relaxing in the dressage problematical, but he tried very hard and put in an obedient, if underpowered, test.  In the jumping phases, however, he really shone.  He jumped double clean in both the stadium and the cross country phases to finish the day on his dressage score alone.  This is the first time at preliminary level that he has done this.  He literally ate up the cross country course and when he crossed the finish line he was barely winded.  

My students Holley Russell and Sandra Stocks also had brilliant days yesterday at the more local Bucks County Horse Park.  Holley jumped double clear jumping rounds to finish first in the beginner novice devision on Towanda.  Sandra had clean jumping rounds at starter level on Dakota but incurred a few time faults in stadium and finished in third place.  Wonderful job girls!

Tomorrow Doc and I ship to Fair Hill.  You can find out more about Fair Hill on the website, www.fairhillinternational.com.  Come and watch us compete this week or this weekend!  

-Ashley   

Getting no sleep is the answer for dressage?

I know everyone tells me that I am a morning person, but getting up at 3:30 AM like I did today is just not my cup of tea!  

Doc and I made the wee hour drive to Leesburg, VA today to compete in the Morven Park advanced combined test.  The critical element to the day was being able to practice our Fair Hill FEI dressage test in a competition.  Our horse trials dressage tests are different than the FEI tests, so we usually only get to ride the FEI tests once or twice a season.  Morven Park offered this dressage and show jumping combo specifically for riders prepping for Fair Hill.

My conclusion from the day is that Doc needs to get up at 3:30 AM every time it is dressage day.  He was the calmest he's ever been in dressage and he bested his previous score on the same test by nine points.

We did have rails in stadium, but we finished sixth and all in all Doc felt very good.  We have two more gallops, one more jump school, and one more dressage lesson and then we are off to Fair Hill next Tuesday.  Between now and then, Jet and I will compete in an open preliminary horse trials on the 12th in Maryland.