In the Interim...

Winds has been living the life the last couple of weeks.  Lots of turnout, some down time, and a bit of a dialed back routine while we take advantage of a few weeks at home.

Totally deserved after two weeks of this

The vet did come out when we got home from the June shows, and I made sure to be there so I could provide intricate details about what was feeling a tad off.

well, he's cross-leading a bit on landings.. but only from a tighter distance or weaker pace...

I see.

And he's feeling a bit sulky in the corners, though that might be ulcers because it wasn't really a thing the first week and I do think his tummy might hurt and that's the sort of thing that would really flare up week two of showing and no he's not on any gastrogard or anything right now so yeah.

Ok.

And what else, well, the cross lead never happens with me, but I only show him 2'9"  It happens in the pro classes at 3'3", but more in warm up where the ring has a shorter approach and only twice in competition

not hard - not trying

once was in the morning and I had fed him two carrots, so the next day I fed him THREE carrots and it didn't happen so maybe it has to do with carrots and not anything else but I don't really know because it's really subtle and he still won the derby so obviously he's still "going" well it just feels subtly different and I don't know if we'll be able to pinpoint it.

You get it - the all too familiar vet-ramble where we verbally diarrhea all the crazy-ass conspiracy theories we've brainstormed at 2am to explain the mystery lameness/illness/moodiness/whatever in our horses.

I asked if the vet wanted to see him under saddle since whatever the issue was, it was weird and subtle and hard to replicate.

But instead we started on the lunge, where my 18 minute preamble became immediately irrelevant as the horse was clearly stepping short on the left front.

(not weird, not subtle, not actually hard to replicate)

It was mostly gone when tracking to the right, and not any worse on the hard ground outside.... and Windsor flexed negative everywhere.... so aside from the slightly short step, there wasn't really anything obvious to pursue diagnostically.

So without going on a crazy lameness witch-hunt we decided to give him a few days of anti-inflams and the rest of the week off before pulling him out on Monday to see how he looked.

He looked sound.

Which meant we moved forward with a light week of flatwork and some cavaletti whereby he felt awesome and worked well.

Oh - I forgot to mention that the extended week off included a gastroscopy and diagnosis for some ulcers which were consistent for a horse in his level of work who's been traveling and showing and flying around the world and whatnot (as you do).

That all means he's on some tummy meds to address that particular issue and we'll see where we end up in a month.

Aside from that - all is well.  Winds is happy and sound and relishing his big grassy field. 

As for me, I am finally in town for an uninterrupted stint and trying to get back in some semblance of riding shape before our next outing up to Canada again on the 20th.