January Wrap Up

Ben had: 

• 23 rides
• Two 1.0m rounds at a schooling show - 1 rail and 0 rails
• Two jump lessons at JT's, 1 cavaletti lesson, 1 cross country school 
• A training level HT at Rocking Horse with 28.3 for dressage, 0 penalties in stadium, and then a slip cross country that ended us up in a frangible oxer
• 1 trail ride where I ponied him while riding his BFF 
• An appointment with his vet to recheck his mystery lameness that started after tearing around in the field on 12/31. But his lameness had resolved, so we scoped him and found grade 2 ulcers. 
• Continued ground work with balance pads under his hind feet and belly lifts

Looking ahead: 

• Weekly ponying off of his friend to improve his bravery on the trails around our neighborhood - Ben and I enjoyed this SO MUCH! His friend tolerated it LOL
• Acupuncture at the Chi Institute next Thursday - I am curious to ask them their approach to ulcers, since in part it was their diagnosis that his stomach points were hot that made me get him scoped. 
• Chiro appointment and recheck scope tomorrow
• Several cross country schools and gymnastic type lessons to confirm that we are making a good shape over jumps and are safe to go back out at training level 
• If things are ticking along well, then possibly Rocking Horse Winter III at the start of March. It is not actually my goal to ONLY compete at Rocking Horse, it is just what lines up with my work schedule for the time being. All things pending, we are going to TerraNova at the end of March and then the Ocala Eventing Festival in April, so we will in fact go to a few different venus. 

Also, I am going to continue to sprinkle the Rocking Horse pro pics, all from Xpress foto, throughout posts for the next several months...