I’ve had a bit of a disappointing few weeks. I was really excited about having my lesson with Sue on Friday, and doing my first British Dressage competition the following day at Windmill Farm but unfortunately, this wasn’t meant to be! I warmed Guinness up for my lesson only to find that he was a little ‘hoppy’ on his near hind. He is always a little stiff to start with, especially if he has been standing in his box for a while but this improves once he’s warmed up. However, this was different and although most of the time he felt fine, every now and then he would ’skip’ a little with his off hind so that was that!! I was gutted to miss my lesson and this also meant I wouldn’t be going to Windmill the next day. I started to feel I’m obviously not meant to do a BD as 2 weeks ago when I was entered for Oaklands, Guinness had a fat knee the morning of the competition and I couldn’t go to that either.
We think he may have just strained or tweaked something in the field as the stable girls had said the horses had been haring around that day, so I kept him in all of Saturday so he couldn’t make it any worse.
Elaine at Windmill very kindly let me pass my entry to Dawn, so at the last minute we changed plans and I platted up ‘Biggie’ and Martina, Dawn and I took Big instead. Dawn was not really sure what to expect having not practised for the test and Big hadn’t been ridden for 3 days!
Jane with Kenny at my yard was also competing at Windmill in an unaffiliated prelim class and kindly let me ride her horse Kenny in the 2nd Prelim. It was nice to still be able to compete (and not waste all my money!) and it was good practise for me. Kenny is completely different to Guinness. Apart from being a bit smaller, he is also very tense and I spent 40 minutes before my test trying to get him soft and relaxed. He immediately tensed up when we went into the main arena, but despite this there were a few nice parts and I was pleased. It was also a valuable learning experience for me, as I don’t ride that many different horses these days with all the time I put into Guinness.
It was also Dawns birthday that day and so Biggie got to wear his smart new travel sheet (Dawns birthday pressie!) and we ate lemon drizzle birthday cake. Dawn rode an immaculate test and recorded a new personal best of over 72%!!!
Celebrations!
In the evening Martina, Dave and I all went out for dinner in London Hyde Park where she runs a riding school. It was fascinating to see how horses live in central London London
After we’d had a nose around, we walked round the corner and had a lovely Chinese meal together and all of Dawn’s friends were equally as entertaining as she is!
Still lame!
Back to Guinness…. I turned him out on Sunday and popped him on the lunge in the afternoon to see if he was still ‘hoppy’. I couldn’t notice anything unusual but in walk I could definitely hear something clicking in his off hind but only in walk. I did some internet research when I got home and this clicking sound is apparently the tendon or ligaments, clicking as they pass over the joint and if the horse isn’t lame, there’s nothing to worry about. Nether the less, I shall keep my eye on it (or ear!) as I’m sure it has never done this before (or maybe I’ve just never noticed??).
Guinness had another couple of days off and on Wednesday I took him for a walk round the woods. He was clearly not right and disinclined to go forward and un-level in trot so I decided it was best to keep him stabled to see if this helped.
On Thursday I popped up to the yard to see Guinness and give him a bit of attention whilst he’s stuck in his box. I took him to pick at some grass and would you believe it, his head got stuck again! If you follow my blog you will know what I’m talking about but Guinness randomly seems to get his head stuck in grazing position and then cannot lift it. It’s the most bizarre thing to witness and my vets are none the wiser to what could be the cause, but we’ve worked out that walking on circles and encouraging him to stretch sideways means he recovers within about 10 minutes. After an ‘episode’ you wouldn’t know there is anything wrong!
Visit from the vets
On Friday morning, Mark from Park Vets came to see Guinness. We investigated the off-hind and typically, Guinness was sound, even when we did a low level and hind level flexion test. On the lunge in walk the clicking was audible and Mark identified that it was coming from both of his stifles. He explained that a horse has 3 ligaments that run over the equivalent of their knee joint (the stifle) and that when they are at rest the knee cap actually moves to one side into a little nook. When they move it moves into the groove where it sits with the 3 ligaments running over it and the clicking noise is the sound of the knee cap moving against the ligaments. Many horses always click and it doesn’t cause any problems at all.
We discussed the ‘head stuck on the floor’ issue and decided as we are still none the wiser to the cause, that he should be referred to Newmarket
