Ben tries his nose at abstract art

Alternate title: Ulcer and saddle update

Ben will finish his 28d course of GastroGard today. His vet was coming out to chiro him on Friday and make sure he wasn't too out of whack from his trip into a jump, so we decided to combine the two and recheck his scope after he got adjusted. I gotta hand it to him, as usual he was the perfect patient. He hadn't eaten since 8 PM the night before and his buddies were all in munching on hay, but he was very compliant for his adjustment.

His adjustment went well. Way more out in his neck than usual, but not surprising. She said she was happy we sedated him right after, she feels like sometimes when there is a lot of muscle soreness the sedation lets the muscles relax and not immediately pull the vertebrae back. 

His back was unhappy too, but that is the fault of my dressage saddle. It was sent away at not insubstantial cost to get THE SAME panels as the jump saddle. But it came back not with those panels. Well, I thought, maybe they know what they're doing, but it is making him sore in the exact same spot as before. The fitter picked it up today and offered me a free saddle pad to make up for the inconvenience. No offer of refunding part of the cost of panels or shipping (to be clear, I am not paying for anything this time they are taking it). Definitely will be the last time I ever use Forestier, this has not been a great experience. I think if their saddles fit initially that would've been fine and great, but the experience of trying to get it to fit... not great AT ALL. And they DO NOT seem made for "typical" TB backs. I know every horse is different, but these saddles are WIDE with WIDE panels and a WIDE gullet channel, made for WIDE WBs IMO. 

To summarize: First I bought a dressage saddle and a jump saddle in May, and then pretty promptly paid to change the jump saddle panels. The rep then never rechecked after the saddle was returned from NJ. Second rep looks a few months later, agrees completely with me that the saddle DOES NOT FIT AT ALL and is making him sore. Ships it off for free and gets it right, YAY! I ride solely in the jump saddle for a month, we make sure it does not make him sore over time, and then I pay to ship off the dressage saddle to get the same panels. Lo and behold, it returns a month later without the same panels as the jump saddle, and here we are. Roughly eight months after buying two saddles from them, and I still do not have two saddles that fit him. They've also had three different reps since May when I first bought the saddles. I'm sure that has not helped. Any time we make changes, the saddles get shipped to NJ and are gone for 4-6 weeks which does not help my satisfaction levels, especially since I previously used wool saddles where adjustments were made on the farm the same day.

Anyways, small saddle rant aside, back to ulcers. To summarize our current protocol: 

Full tube of gastrogard 1x/day since scope. Trying my best to get it on an empty stomach, but not killing myself if that doesn't happen.

Lifestyle changes: 

• Out with whole herd during the day, since we came back from Rocking Horse. I figured he needed emotional health more than all his hair. Knock on wood, he's not getting chewed on so far.
• Alfalfa cubes mixed with his lunch daily. 

Supplement: KER Resolvin EQ

I did not do the KER ResolvinEQ  product justice when I described their research and the changes in Grade 1 or 2 horses. My initial interpretation was that there wasn't a change in the number of horses with grade 1 or 2 ulcers. While technically correct, the HORSES themselves changed grades, just not the total number of horses with grade 1 or 2. With one exception, the more severe horses (grade 3 or 4)  improved to grade 0, 1 or 2. The grade 1 or 2 horses resolved with the supplement. This chart from their paper does a better job showing what I'm trying to describe: 

Results: Ben is VASTLY improved. He still had one grade one, sitting conveniently right near a bot, potentially the causative agent for that one. So he got a tube of Quest Plus on Friday as well. The whole mucosa looked much healthier and there were fewer gobs of goo stuck to it. 

When his vet went to pull the tube he moved his head a tiny bit. Cue large nose bleed. 

And his abstract art on the stall wall, not even his stall, we'd swapped him to be closer to the electric and her truck

It had almost stopped and then he sneezed out this blood clot

She said if that was going to be the way she started her Friday, at least it was with another vet. Nose bleeds are annoying, but not life threatening (at least not when they come from gently bonking the ethmoids in an inconvenient spot with a tube on the way out), so I was more so amused at the range on his spray than concerned about the blood. She pretty quickly got the rag over his halter to minimize it, but even so he did a number on the wall. She hung out till it had completely stopped, and he was eating hay. Poor kid did make a few funny faces and spit out some hay because it was kinda bloody at first. But by 10 minutes later he was eating like a champ and super ready to go out with his friends. 

Going forward, we're going to do 1/4 tube of GG any day he travels. I'm messing with things that haven't been studied and I'm decreasing his ResolvinEQ to 30mL twice daily instead of the studied 60mL. It makes it much more palatable at $107 per month instead of $215. We're going to keep up the alfalfa cubes and if I remember it, we're going to pick up some Purina Outlast to use at shows or at other high stress times. 

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... 

WW (kinda): Ben and Friend, ponying adventures

I wanted Ben to stretch his legs Monday, but relax his brain. So we went for a hack with me on his incredibly comfy, saintly 25 yo pasture mate and Ben in tow. They were PERFECT for it. Really Ben is set up to be excellent at this - he's super agreeable and happy to go wherever, listen to whatever cues, he just needs someone to help with the bravery. And his pasture buddy is unspookable but could use some motivation to go into a big, swinging forward walk. Ben naturally strides out in that nice big forward walk, making them perfect. Ben occasionally rubbed his mouth/lips on his buddies shoulder and got some pinned ears to put him back in line. Good boys!! 

Honestly, one of the most fun/cutest things I've ever done. Good for both of them, I'm going to keep it up for sure. In other news of "things Ben loves", we're going back to the Chi Institute next week. 

I told Ms. GY if we couldn't navigate the gate at the end of the pasture then I shouldn't be out on the trails, but they did it like pros. The only hairy part was when we came back in and his buddy was totally sure we were done after entering the gate and started off pretty quick towards the barn while Ben was snatching grass. Ben caught up nicely and without a fuss, but I had to reel them both back in to circle back to the gate. 

Blogger inserted these pics backwards, so the end of the ride is first. 

Ben continues posing, pasture buddy is tired of the paparazzi trying to get his ears up

Happy ears from both of them

Ben was THE MOST PLEASED and RELAXED the whole time. My <3 was so happy. We met a new mini in a pasture at one point and Ben was totally chill with his buddy there to make it NBD. 

Start of the ride, pasture buddy wonders what he's gotten himself into 

Rocking Horse Winter I - Cross Country

I walked the course Friday after hacking, which is when these nice sunset pictures are from. And then JT and I walked it again on Saturday after dressage. 

#1 - Log box - get going, set the tone for the rest of the course

#2 - Bench - this was a left hand turn instead of going back to stabling - get his eye on it, turn early, mean it

#3 - mushroom table - canter it, jump it

#4 - approach this in a forward, uphill canter because you have to land and turn to 5ab

#5ab - angled 4 stride line of coops 

#6 - triple bar - jump on a bit of an angle to show him the opening in the trees

#7ab - roller coaster - this was the roll top, downhill then slight uphill then downhill again to chevrons for b. Possibly very spooky, so spurs in until he leaves the ground for a. 

#7b

#8 - Oxer - show jumping canter for a big oxer because you have to land and turn right 

#9ab - roll top through the water to a log - off a right hand turn under the tree - if you overshot this turn from 8 you were on the wrong angle for b - the log out of the water

Pretty sunset over the course

#10 - table - canter it, jump it, don't do anything weird

#11 - "Big Red", then down a hill then up a hill to #12 - show him you're going left in the depression (the up banks were straight ahead)

View from inside the depression up to #12, the straight ahead line to the double up banks barely visible on the right hand side there

#12 - wedge

#13 - brush - don't jump it like a brush though because you have to line up #13 as you're doing 12 

#14ab - half coffin

#15 - brush 

#16ab - coop to left hand turn around the tree to a corner

#16b - get his eye on it, land from the ramp and set up your turn in a nice forward, uphill canter 

#17 - loooong gallop uphill after 16 to the coop

#18 - wedge - kinda funky as a stand alone, 5-6 strides out get him uphill and listening then wide hand, take me to it

#19 - house 

Sunday I was putting a lot of pressure on Ben and myself - THIS could be our AEC qualifying score, we could actually do it!! Not a good attitude to start with, I think it led to some sub par riding and more chasing than supporting out on course. I also was feeling too comfortable at this level, taking some things for granted because we were "established" at this level (LOL). Not riding as Ms. GY put it "like you've already had a stop". 

Warm up was in a new location, next to some woods on the far side of the venue. We were the first to go, so we were alone by ourselves out there initially, which led to all kinds of spooking at a horse through the woods and the cross country jumps in warm up themselves. Once we got to work, he felt kinda heavy and downhill. JT and I simultaneously decided halts from the gallop would be a good exercise, so we did a few of those. He did those okay, but still felt less responsive than he has typically in the elevator/chain combo. He was jumping the jumps though, so we did a few more transitions then went to the start box  

#1 went well 

Gallop along, #2 also went well

#3 he chipped and got a little tight too 

#4 rode decently, #5ab we put in 5 strides not 4 though

5a - jumping in fine

5b - getting deep to the base and chipping 

7ab actually rode really well, I was determined to get it done and he responded perfectly. 8 is where it fell apart - I tried to get him up into a show jumping big oxer canter. And I think we got to a good spot. It felt like we took off appropriately, but landed in the jump. It was terrifying looking down and seeing his legs tangled up with the jump. I was in front of the saddle as we crashed, but he lifted his head and neck up and flung me back into the saddle and then backed himself out. It was a frangible oxer, thank goodness, and the pins dropped both rails on it. He ended up with just a couple of superficial scrapes around his left knee and a small scrape on his right hind.

Until we got the photo series from Xpress Foto (shout out to them for their order all package being so reasonable and for sending me ALLLLL the pictures of the crash so JT and I could sort it out) we couldn't figure out what went wrong. What it looks like though we got to a good spot and then his hind legs slipped and he couldn't save it. He looks pretty surprised to be ending up in the jump. 

He trotted a circle sound, and his legs looked okay, so I made the decision to keep going after they rebuilt the jump. 

Frangible pins down

He jumped the snot out of it the second time 

Not taking any chances with the rolltop either. 

Through the water

And out over the log 

Table at #10

#11 "Big red" down into the depression 

Then over the wedge up out of the depression

The rest isn't photographed, but #13, 14ab, and 15 rode okay. He knocked #16a on the way in and I fumbled around the left hand turn and didn't get his eye on b until about 1.5 strides out. Then it was going to be a looooong spot or a tight one at the base. I chased him rather than sitting up and supporting with leg the crummy distance and he rightly said NO WAY and stopped at b. We circled around and jumped it fine. #17, 18 and 19 all rode okay too. 

I'm still unpacking feelings about crashing into a jump. We're going to stud him behind in the future. The ground wasn't terrible, but it was sandy and fairly deep and this show was HUUUUUUGE. We were the first of training rider to go, but all of training horse and open training had gone on Saturday. We're also going to do a lot of schooling before the next show to make sure this is a level we are comfortable at. I do not blame him at all for 16b, that was absolutely the right call. But I want to make absolutely certain that if any part of 8 was caused by trying to chip at the base that we have got that part sorted out, and that we never do anything like that again. 

At the end of the day, I'm grateful for frangible technology, and I am very grateful to have Ben home in one piece. But we have a lot of work to do to make both of us comfortable out there again and make 100% certain that we are as safe as we can be in this inherently dangerous sport.