Canter... and More Canter

Butterball was doing his weekly splish-splash time when his doctor stopped by to chat. He said since he's doing well to add in more canter. And then he said work up to FIFTEEN MINUTES of canter. I swear Butterball gave him a dirty look from the aquatred. Oddly enough, he said canter is easier on the tendons than trot. 

So naturally this one remark prompted a mini mental breakdown. As I said in my last post, doing so much trot and walk-trot-walk-halt rinse repeat has been really, really good for the canter. But now we're supposed to do 15 minutes of canter? It's clearly going to fall apart and become incredibly unbalanced and only maintained by me pushing constantly. Fortunately I had time to mull this over for 48 hours before trying to put it into practice. 

"Please don't" -Butterball

I downloaded another app to try to break things up into bite sized intervals. I didn't like it that well though. The nice thing about the timers on the phone is that I don't have to remember how many intervals we've done. It's two big chunks and one short one. I think we'll go back to that for the next ride. I tried setting the interval app for seven sets of two minutes work, one minute recovery. That sort of fed into my fears of the canter falling apart. Mentally I felt like I had to start cantering when the work timer went off, stop roughly halfway through, and then take our break for a minute. So I basically just ignored the timer the whole time. Helpful LOL. 

Part of the problem was the time intervals I chose anyways, we definitely don't need to do even two minutes straight of cantering at this point. I'm mulling over a better way to divide this up and ensure a slow and steady progression. But I'm also wondering if I'm just over thinking it anyways... He's been sound the whole time, I palpate the tendon obsessively both before and after. The swelling is barely noticeable unless you're me, but has been slowly and steadily improving the whole three months now. 

Happy Herd

The right choice is probably to continue our current work intervals that have been working well for us and just add in more and more *quality* canter work. We're still to avoid tight turns and deep footing, which is totally fine. Without the ability to do tight turns, I've been forced to focus more on quality riding. I can't substitute *that* many exercises for just riding the horse straight and even with push from behind. We do play with lateral work, and I've been getting more and more precise with the angle of our leg yields and doing shoulder-in with the body, not just the neck. But I can't spiral, I can't do 10m trot circles or 10-15 m canter circles etc. 

Which means that meeting JV last summer was probably the biggest, best, and most important change Butterball and I have made. His teaching continually repeats in my head. Every aid should get a reaction. If it doesn't, correct that. Then repeat the light aid. This is true for every single thing. And since every aid adds tension, don't use aids unnecessarily. Don't squeeze every stride just to maintain the pace. I really, really wish I'd ridden with a trainer like him prior to a year ago, but c'est la vie. His training methods have made pony pants into SUCH a fun horse to ride. He's light, he's responsive, he's steady. It's a cool feeling to trot around on him with no aids on just letting him swing. But we've been told not to do too much of that, so I throw in some forward and back (eventually with the idea of extend-collect), changes of direction and bend, etc. 

Anyways, just more rambles about more flat work with the best buckskin pony with no relevant media. But that's summer in Florida while rehabbing a tendon I suppose. 

Still Here, Still Sweating

Life with horses has been trucking along. I went out of town for a week so Butterball did his aquapacing still thanks to Ms. GY, but had the rest of the week off. Now we're back to our "30-40 minute rides with 15-18 minutes of trotting, NOT all at the same time". Focus and awareness are still the name of the game and our last ride included a couple of really nice canter transitions. 

Living his best fat pony life

Poor kid, these rides, done at non-ideal times of day since this seems to be the season for me working until 12 - 3 AM consistently, are leaving him looking like he's run the Derby. Thoroughbred with base level of fitness he is not. I am going to check in with his vet to see if we can add a walk only ride or hand walk every other day. He seriously needs to lose weight. 

We also had an uncomfortable 30 minutes the other day when I noted that gross, black, goo of smegma + dirt + sweat on the inside of his hind legs. Normally he gets cleaned twice a year when he gets his teeth done. But apparently this summer heat meant we needed a mid-summer cleaning. 

Charlie has continued to be absolutely adorable and mostly the best little egg. He chomped both my wrist and shoe the other day, but continues to learn from these experiences that cause a high-pitched squeak and not repeat *exactly* that method of biting again (shoe was a new one and wrist was while we were leading). He also made me proud when Maddie actually galloped into his hind end while he was on the lead. He remembered he was tethered to me and didn't even try to exit with her as she breezed on by. 

We've practiced leading from both sides now, exciting stuff. I've also kinda sorta introduced the hose by hosing off both mares while the babies creep closer and closer. Also exciting stuff. Not super helpful that neither mare seems to appreciate getting cooled off when it is 500 degrees. C'mon ladies, doesn't this feel good? 

Saturday I get to play with Henny more cross country; we're headed over to Rocking Horse in the morning. I haven't gotten to do much with him lately because by the time I get up it is too hot to do much of anything other than strategically walk and trot in the shade for BB's rehab. Anyways, that's about it as far as goings on, but we're still here, still moving forward. 

Well done, Butterball

Pony pants had his recheck ultrasound on Monday. On ultrasound, the lesion is healed, hooray! So we're back to aqua pacing and trotting under saddle. But according to histology studies, these injuries take a FULL YEAR to heal completely. Fun stuff ya'll, but still, I'm so happy he's doing as well as he possibly could. 

Don't mind the poo colored water, he had to go! 

He'll have another check at the end of August, just prior to insurance coverage for this injury expiring, then we'll start with canter. His vet did say I could canter "a few strides in straight lines". But that's kinda tricky, y'know? The canter is our weakest gait by far. So will it be beneficial to be able to pick up the canter then need to immediately trot again? Who knows, we've got some time to play with it. 

Strolling Butters

Butterball had his ultrasound recheck yesterday morning, almost 4 weeks after his initial diagnosis and was pronounced "as good as we could possibly expect". There was a 40-50% improvement from the initial lesion. No need for Renovo injection at this time since he seems to be doing an excellent job of healing on his own. This means we got the go ahead to start tack walking for 30 minutes every other day on good footing, avoiding small circles. We also are allowed to do "small amounts" of trotting in straight lines only. 

Thank goodness! Pony is ROUND. It's also five million degrees so putting his grazing muzzle on seems rude. Hopefully the walking will help stabilize his weight if not lead to a bit of weight loss. 

Walking in hand along the uneven dirt road where things are most likely to be spooky 

To then get on to walk the paved road to see his moo friends 

Promised Charlie picture 

We'll do this for roughly three weeks and then recheck the ultrasound again. If there is continued healing, canter work will be added in. Theoretically by the fall (I didn't ask which fall month he meant although I desperately wanted to) he will be back in full work. 

It's odd, this may end up being the longest time I've had a horse out of work. But unlike Ben's various amorphous lamenesses (that in hindsight were almost always feet induced), this feels manageable with much less of an emotional spiral (we're just gonna ignore the baby pony purchase). I think having a set timeline and a very concrete way to show that things are getting better is VERY helpful. It did sting to hear that horses who have had this type of injury have a 30-40% higher risk of re-injury. But, y'know, we're doing everything we can. 

He'll Heal

Those are certainly reassuring words, thank you to the lovely vet who scanned the pony's leg. Since we were on roughly day 11 of this swelling, I was relatively certain it wasn't a nothing. And it in fact is not. Pony pants has a 3x4mm tear in his SDFT. An injury most common from either being a fool in the pasture or knocking themselves. Who knows which one and really it doesn't matter much. 

Proof he has muscle over the spine of his scapula

Close to the first words out of the vet's mouth were "he'll heal regardless". He said that on the track horses would just get turned out for 6-8 months then brought back into work. But given that he's my only horse, and I want him to heal as well as possible, we're doing three shockwave treatments 10-14 days apart and then we'll rescan him. If he hasn't healed at that point (June 15th, 36 days away, but who is counting...), we'll consider PRP or Renovo. If he has healed, we'll get him back aquatredding at that time. How fortuitous I bought that package... 

Now, for Butterball's perspective on the visit, stealing a page from Carmen and Quaid. He was cracking me up when we were waiting for the shockwave. He so clearly communicates his feelings, it is hilarious. 

I thought we were here for forced water splashing with the girl who tells me I'm perfect. But instead I got to EAT GOOD GRASS! IT WAS SO TASTY! I found some acorns but mom told me I wasn't a pig and they could make my belly hurt. Who would even think I'm a pig??? I HATE those things. BUT there was grass, so it was okay I didn't get many acorns. And then a cool guy came over who smelled reallllllly interesting (I'm told it was pla-cen-ta??? Smelled cool!!!). He talked some while I inspected him. 

Then I had to walk past a BIG fan. It was kinda scary at first, but I was really brave. Then they talked and a guy sat by my leg like mom has A LOT recently. I got to talk to my favorite tech though while he messed with my leg so it was fine. I tried to leave once but she told me I couldn't and then that I was GOOD. 

Afterwards everyone started standing around and thought I should too. But I really wanted to meet everyone else in the barn. There were nice horses and people who I COULD HAVE BEEN TALKING TO. And then the people started EATING! While I was standing there!! Can you believe that???? 

So I got my friend to come over and talk to me. Which was nice and all... but it wasn't FOOD! 

FINALLY! I was two seconds away from getting WATERMELON in this picture. I tried making cute faces and then I tried pawing to tell them how much I wanted some. Gosh people are dumb. Finally this girl brought me a few pieces though and it was AMAZING. She didn't bring me the whole bowl though. That was kinda rude. I'm really cute, I deserve it. 

Then I got poked in the neck. There seems to be a lot of that going on lately. I don't know what everyone's deal is. Let's just stab the pony for fun! But then I got really, really, really sleepy. The guy went back to my leg again... I think... I don't really remember... and something was kinda loud. But mostly I was napping. He said I was a "lightweight??" I knew mom should be feeding me more!!! 

When I woke up I was standing in a stall and suuuuppppper hungry. Mom said it was time to go home, so we did. I peed right when we went outside. Waking up from those naps I always reallllly need to pee. And I hate peeing inside where it splashes my legs, that is gross.