It is good, it is bad

So the App is still slightly off, he has been off in the right hind before the vet was out and he is still slightly off despite a week of bute.  It has been a pretty low dose, 1/2 gram 2x a day but he hasn't became sound yet and that is frustrating.  The vet had said it wasn't joint related and is probably soft tissue, maybe a slight strain thanks to the mud, but I had hoped it would be better by now.  I will do another recheck tomorrow, hopefully he will be sound.  I could probably ride him now since the lameness is so mild but don't want to cause more damage since I am not trying to make the problem worse.  Hope he's liking his time off, he has 4 weeks until we xc schooling and he has to be good to go by then!

I am also getting quite frustrated thanks to my non trotting horse.  I had emailed the local dressage organization and talked to them about doing "gaited dressage" back in December and they said they wouldn't have a problem with that but they didn't know how they would handle awards and such.  I emailed them a couple of weeks ago with a link to the updated NWHA dressage tests so they would have easy access to them and got an email back.  The email stated they had talked about my situation with the board and they do not feel they can offer assistance to me.  They couldn't offer a "new" division for gaited dressage because they said they would then have to open divisions for other specific breeds as well.  They won't let me compete in the "normal" divisions because I have an unfair advantage since we wouldn't be trotting.  They then went on to advise I could ride in a Test of Choice/Percentage class.  I am okay with this, this is how I have ridden dressage in the past.  They continued in saying that in most instances I would be riding for a score only and would not be placed because I, again, would have an unfair advantage.  They operate by the USDF/USEF rules and the rules require trotting so that is that.

Am so frustrated I am seriously considering not showing dressage anymore.  I truly don't enjoy doing dressage, I really dislike it.  The App truly dislikes it and the TWH doesn't mind it and tries hard.  I understand I wouldn't be trotting but I would be doing a gait in place of a trot.  I experienced a similar situation in Ohio when I started riding the TWH and had given up when I met up with a dressage organization that was understanding.  It had totally renewed my faith in dressage and kept me going at it for the past 3 years.  It is disappointing that this organization doesn't really want me to compete in their sport because we don't naturally trot.  There is the possibility to rejoin my old association, ride up here for score only and mail my tests down to my old association for year end awards.  It is the principle though, I am not sure.

On the flip side with good news, the TWH and I are actually trotting very well right now.  We are going to be able to show intro classes in a walk/trot and are working hard to get a canter/trot transition so we could show in normal training classes if we so chose.  Or we can continue down a new path of hunter/jumper with some eventing thrown in which is more what I am considering.  I really am serious about the consideration of not showing dressage anymore.  We had a lesson last night and it went very well, complete difference from last weekend. I had to ask, multiple times, to get the feedback I was looking for but in the end I enjoyed the lesson.  Need to work on getting the TWH actually ON the bit all of the time and lots of work on 10m/15m circles at the trot.  If we can get that then I am pretty confident we will have a good show season regardless of the discipline.  So I guess we will see how things play out.