Lameness on, lameness off

After Mia FINALLY came off of her antibiotics and was moving FABULOUSLY, what happens?  She comes up lame.  Of COURSE she does.  I rode on the prior Wednesday and put in a semi-serious work out for the first time in 2 weeks and hoped to hit our show on Sept 3rd.  It went decently and I was optimistic.  By the time the farrier was out on Friday, Mia was lame. She was uncomfortable on her right front but showed no heat/swelling anywhere.  She then proceeded to stay like that for a solid week.  No heat.  No swelling.  Just a slight head bob at the trot and a short step over tight turns.  Argh horses are so frustrating at times!

But you give me treats so it is okay right?

Thankfully she wasn't super lame and I figured since she isn't all that lame (because she really wasn't), I could still make her earn her keep and walk around so we did several bareback walking with only a halter type rides.  She has become such a solid citizen, I remember all of her antics over the past 3 years and was always curious if I would be able to ride comfortably bareback, let alone in a halter.  Now I am doing that on a semi-regular basis!  One day we even went on a "trail ride" with another border and they were so impressed with my mare.  Even with others, on a trail in which we encountered turkey and deer, we were bareback in a halter and didn't have a single issue.

Someone was VERY happy to be out and about.

Finally on Sunday she came up sound.  Finally.  I hopped on bareback and we did some quick w/t/c in the arena and she felt good.  I kept it really short because I did NOT feel well at all (an allergic reaction which made every joint ache, along the lines of bad flu pain) but I had to finally sit on my horse at more than a walk!  I was impressed with my balance, considering I have effectively had 3 weeks off, and Mia did wonderfully.  She even hopped over the cavaletti that were out!

LOOK!  At anything and everything!

Last night I was going to give her a semi-relaxed ride, we were going to do some light fitness work in the form of some walking/trotting on the trails but in a non-structured format.  She is not in shape for the show on the 3rd and I don't think I will get her there in time, but no time like the present to get back to work. Mia, however, was super excited about being outside.  Look over there, look over here, spook at the fish, spook at the bird, spook at the stick, straight lines are for sissies.... all while having a huge ground covering walk.  Eventually I gave up on the semi-relaxed trail ride and went for some true fitness.  I made her trot up and walk down the big hill 3 times before trotting on our normal fitness route.  After the third trip up the hill, she finally settled down and was acting like her normal self.  Nothing like some good hard work to take the edge off of the energy tank!

Tired mare was tired

We had to bushwack the trails a couple of times due to downed trees but we finally got to the destination, the lower hay field.  It is the last field we come to during our normal fitness work and is a great place to really open her up and let Mia just fly.  This was the only place I let her canter last night and she was.....excited to say the least.  I let her canter, she took it to a gallop and then adamantly refused to come back to me.  Great.  Thanks Mia.  It took not only sawing on her mouth, but also pulley reining her to get her to stop before the 90 degree bend which was downhill thanks to the direction around the field we had went.  Uphill with no control?  Eh, maybe.  Downhill?  No.  Just no.  I then very sternly told her that if she wasn't going to respond when I asked her to slow down, she lost the privilege of cantering for the day.  I made her do 2 full laps of the big field in trot (approximately 5 mins, with pretty decent elevation changes) and by the second lap, as soon as I sat down and relaxed, Mia took the opportunity to slow down and walk.  Tired mare was tired!

I will do this same type of ride tonight to get Mia back into the "work" mindset and to skim off any remaining "extra" energy she has in reserve and will work on dressage on Wednesday.  Since our Sept 3rd show is shot, I'm not in a rush.  Here's to hoping she stays sound and injury/sickness free for a while!