Fiddle F*cking with Things that Ain't Broke

If you'll recall, I pulled Butterball's hind shoes in early January. I had major doubts about the farrier I was using and figured there was less to screw up if there weren't shoes involved. We had a mostly great January after that, including joyfully bouncing around Majestic, feeling like we could just pop right over anything I pointed him at. We did have our blip at the horse eating pink roll top, but that felt like green horse + spooky jump + leaning adult ammy rider combo going wrong, as it will sometimes. Then Hillary and I went back to Majestic on Friday. And it wasn't as much rainbows and sunshine as it had been on our prior trip. 

He was a very good boy, but was just kinda weird. Spooky to jumps he has been fine with in the past, including the tires where he said no freaking way about 30 feet out. So basically very not himself. 

We were thinking hind foot soreness was the issue because his hind feet had worn A LOT. I think he definitely CAN go barefoot behind, but he'll need an adjustment period where he only does light work and potentially some hoof boots for the road hacking we do. Fortunately the farrier was coming on Monday. Later that day I also remembered that he had run out of his Relyne GI about a week prior and because I'm an asshole I had not gotten around to ordering more yet. He's not a particularly stereotypically ulcery horse, but he does do a TON of travelling and competing, so I've had him on it since I got him and being off of it coincided with new spooky behavior. Alright, then hind feet? Tummy? Both are fixable, yay!  

I started him on 1/3 tube of GG daily until I could get him back on the Relyne. He had Saturday off, but then Sunday when I groomed him, he had muscle spasms in his epaxials basically any time I touched from mid-barrel up to the muscles themselves. I palpate his back EVERY TIME I ride him and had not gotten any soreness leading up to that day so felt very WTF about everything. He had also just gotten drenched with a slightly chilly rain, so I considered my options. I ended up taking the front shims out of my mattes pad in case that was dumping too much weight on the back part of it. The fitter had told me that the panels were too long for his back but it was probably temporarily fine since I'm not that heavy. Then I tacked him up and we did a nice, loose, stretchy 15 minute ride. After I untacked I palpated all over again and got absolutely no spasms. So whether that was the rain, the shims, or some other freak thing, it seemed better. 

Monday he got his hind shoes back. The farrier barely had any foot to trim, soooo yeah. Not great. We did a little dressaging on Tuesday. Today we headed over to Majestic for the schooling show. Our dressage was... meh. I'm tired of saying the same things about the canter, so see prior posts. I was a bit bummed about the centerlines because I had scribed for this judge a couple of weeks ago and thought I was being SO DEAD ON. Apparently my dead on is to the left. I was very pleased with the final halt though. The day prior it had finally occurred to me to trick train it with the click and treat. We started working on it on our hack so that there was minimal pressure to feel like we ARE WORKING ON HALTING NOW DAMMIT, I'M GOING TO TENSE EVERY PART OF ME AND ATTEMPT TO SHOVE YOU INTO A BOX. I breathed out with a light "wooahh" and then just tried to close my upper thigh and softly halt. If he stayed square and straight he got a click and cookie. If he wiggled into it but halted there was a pat but no treat. This worked like gang busters and honestly worked a bit too well down the centerline which was part of our not getting to G. If I'd found the centerline though and made it to G it would've been a much better halt than any prior test. 

Stadium was an experience. Parts of it were absolutely great. But I forgot that the outside line was a 5 to a 2 and tried to make it a 6 to a 2, which led to a great chip for the 6th stride and then 3 strides in the 2. After that fuckery on my part, he opted out of chipping to the base of the next oxer and ended up stopping, knocking rails, and kneeling in the jump. He paused for two seconds on his knees, I think assessing the situation, and then pulled us back upright. He was actively shaking, so I patted him a few times while they reset the jump. I trimmed the actual crunch into the jump out of the video because nobody needs to see that. We then picked the canter back up and carried on, with one other weird windmill jump. I think that one was him just trying to be careful from a weird spot with a bit of a shake to his confidence. Afterwards, we felt him all over and nothing palpated sore. I added studs since it was wet and I was unclear exactly what the refusal had been about, then headed to warm up. JT instructed that if he felt weird then I was to pull up. But if we were going, I needed to be committed to going. Y'know? Don't half ass it and question every single step leading to bad jumps that knock both of our confidence, but if he's doing weird things then stop. 

He warmed up great, so we headed out on course with her and my friend who had shot his rads in the chase cart. The course was pretty long with an optimum time of 5:09.

1- Honestly this was the weirdest one. He was quite spooky and it took a tap on the shoulder to get him to commit to the jump. 

2- Bench, Canter it, jump it, don't do anything weird 

3- Boathouse that can be quite spooky, but was not for him 

4- Ramp

5- Wagon

6- Water

7- Table

8AB- Brush rails to corner, these were not at all related really

He jumped the SNOT out of this one, but because of the shrubs his front half was immediately cut off, so you get a take off picture

I was unsure of what spot we were getting to this and rode it a bit in the backseat

But at least gave him the reins

9- Chevron

So cute!

10AB- half coffin

11- Roll, shared with BN 

12- Cabin 

13- Cut out cabin

14- More rails

15- Down bank

16- Trakehner

17- Log and box 

After the water the whole course felt pretty great. We did of course chip the final fence, but y'know, other than that... He was responding to my half halts with my body and felt light and pleasant over things. The verdict from JT and my friend was definitely hind feet though, he was reluctant to take the spots where he really had to sit and push. He got his feet packed after and will get Equioxx as well as a few days off. 

The moral of the story is don't screw with things that are working. Keep his hind shoes on, keep him on the Relyne. 

Edited to add these because I don't know when/where else I'll post them, but lookit the speedy pony! Also I posted the heart rate because I found it hilarious it dropped from the start. I wouldn't say I'm nervous before leaving the box, but I guess my heart rate disagrees. I think the low point towards the very end was a glitch.