August 19, 2024
It has been just over one month since Sophie and I moved back to Mass, and a fair bit has happened that I wanted to update interested readers about.
First I wanted to just shout out the amazing staff and clients at Apple Knoll Farm in Millis, MA. Sophie and I are still technically newbies, but it already feels like home. I have the privilege of already knowing barn manager Adri extremely well (my first riding instructor over 20 years ago!!!!), but everyone else has also been so incredibly kind and welcoming - I am so grateful!! Sophie and I are already making good riding and hacking buddies.
-
Before Sophie and I left Virginia, Jacqui and I had discussed with the amazing team of vets at Piedmont Equine about looking a little deeper into Sophie's fetlocks. For as long as I've known her, she's gotten her fetlocks done every spring, and the vets wanted to take a closer look to see if there might be a better solution for her long term as an upper level performance horse. They came to see Sophie following our go at Maryland and, after a few radiographs, they discovered some expected arthritis and also some calcification around her fetlock joints. I was not surprised in the slightest. As the vet explained to me, this is a very common problem a lot of jumping horses will run into, and hers is far from the worst they've ever seen, which helped squelch my anxiety. They were relieved that it was bone related and not soft tissue related. The solution suggestions ranged from surgery, to Osphos, to specialized injections - all which caused my vision to be blurred by dollar signs. I told them I needed time to think about the best approach for me and Sophie as a team. Soph was going on a planned vacation anyway, so I was not in a rush for an immediate solution.
Following our move north, the also wonderful team of vets at Northbridge Equine came out to see her to follow up on what the vets in Virginia had seen. They had a look at the radiographs from Virginia, and their gut reaction was actually the same as the team in Virginia - with the favored solution at both practices being Arthramid injections. I guess that it is a commonly used injection for this type of problem, and both teams of vets have seen marked improvements on other horses with similar cases. Since two highly respected teams of vets had the same reaction, I decided to go forth with that plan against my bank account's wishes.
Sophie received the Arthramid in her front fetlocks several weeks ago now, and has since been on a steady back to work plan to gear up for Town Hill at the end of the month. She has been given the green light after being checked post-injections, and I am happy to say that she is feeling great.
On top of that, the vets also suggested some changes to her shoes, and the amazing farrier Dave Clancy has put in the work on that! Sophie has lifts in her front shoes, like wedges, with a slightly thicker one on her left front to offset how much flatter that foot had gotten compared to her right front. After one cycle of these shoes we are already seeing a huge difference in the shape and angulation of her feet!! I am so thrilled. At some point I will make a separate mini post on her feet, because I think it has been interesting to watch how they can change so drastically with different shoes. Message me if that's something you'd like to see!! I try to take progress pics when I can.
_
Now that we are back to our regularly scheduled program, we have been carefully getting back to work in order to prep for Town Hill. At first Soph was a bit cracked out getting back into the swing of things. I get it: she went from being super fit for the last 1* we did, to moving barns again, to immediate vacation. It is a lot of change at once, especially for a horse that has a fair bit of anxiety and holds fitness stupid well. Most of our flat rides have included lots of downward transitions and lateral work to keep her mind busy. She has been finding all of the things to spook at in every ring at Apple Knoll so keeping the mind working is key with this mare!
I think she has finally started to settle a bit now that we have gotten back to some jumping, and our first jump ride back was the most relaxed she had felt in a minute, shockingly enough. She continues to make it clear that jumping is her favorite. I've also been trying to squeeze in hacks with our new friends at the farm when the time allows - she is also slowly starting to enjoy those more as well. Apple Knoll has acres and acres of trails that allow for us to find new paths every time we venture out, which has been so amazing to have access to!
_
In getting back to work, there has been one thing in particular I have been trying really hard to work on. I am going to be fully transparent here - Sophie and I have been struggling for the last several months when it comes to the bit I choose to use for jumping. Right now, I have her in a gag for both of the jumping phases. She has been in a gag for as long as I've known her, and I will swap back and forth between the loop and the snaffle depending on how things are going. With her level of fitness increasing drastically over the last year, I nearly always jump with it on the loop when at shows.
For those of you who have not ridden Sophie or have not really seen her go, she is INCREDIBLY hard in the mouth and wicked strong at the jumps, particularly in the show jumping. She is naturally a bit more backed off on cross country, but we still use the loop on the gag there currently as well.
I am a firm believer that a strong bit in good hands is better than a soft bit in bad hands, but I also would really like to be able to do everything in a snaffle. However, it is not a move that I can make right now for the sake of safe and proper riding with this horse at this time. Unfortunately I think she has been in the gag for so long that it has further desensitized her in many ways. Jacqui provided me the solution of double reins, which I would do in a heartbeat - but with all the damn finger issues, I struggle greatly with using the double reins in my right hand. That is a priority for me to work on over the winter months in order to get that skill back.
My next quick answer was a bit converter. I put it on her for the first time the other day for trot and gallop sets, and it felt quite dull. I adjusted the way the holes sat so that it was one hole tighter on the loop and one looser on the snaffle, and that is how I jumped her in a clinic with Jerry Schurink the other day. She was still wicked strong, and several times got flat as she got further away from me causing us to take rails we normally would not. Jerry had some great food for thought, but he absolutely did not see the best of us during that ride, which was frustrating.
Yesterday I went up to the new Greenhawk tack shop (where SmartPak in Natick used to be) and I grabbed one of those Beval bits that have become all the rage lately, and I think that will be my next attempt at a solution in between now and when I become better equipped to handle the double reins. I took her out for a trot set the other day and I was pleased with how she felt and the level of receptiveness she had towards me in it. As with literally everything in the horse world, it's a learning curve!
My desperation to move away from this current gag set up is simple: it is factually too strong for us. One incorrect pump of those 'e brakes' and she loses all impulsion from her hind end. With our continuation up the levels, it's going to become more of a hinderance than a help as I need her to be able to carry some serious impulsion over bigger strides to get over prelim+ sized fences with any success rate. We've been able to make it work so far, because I have a fairly good feel of when I need to use it more versus less, but I do not want this to be my long term solution. With her natural inverted way of going, plus hard mouth, plus eagerness to jump the sticks, it has become the current easiest solution to simply get any method of communication her way, but I want to be better and I want to do better by Sophie.
TLDR: Sophie has a very hard mouth, and naturally goes in a very inverted way. In order for her to jump well, I need her to lift her back and really use her hind end in a powerful way and not have her just run on her forehand (hence why I sometimes wear bigger spurs - they are not for forward motion, they are all for getting those tight shoulders and back up!!). The gag gets a quicker reaction from me to her, but it puts pressure on her lips that lifts her head in a way that increases her likeliness of getting inverted and hollowing her back.
I am looking forward to getting her back out at Town Hill and giving it a good go! It's one of my favorite Area 1 events, and I can't wait to see so many of our friends there.
Following Town Hill, Sophie will get another mini break as we prep to head back to Morven in October. I kept the September schedule open, and I will only plan on something that month if for some reason Town Hill goes horribly wrong (here's hoping that is not the case!!). Sophie has had a very busy year, and I want her to feel her absolute best going back down to VA for one more show before the end of the season. I will be back with another blog update after Town Hill, and hopefully it's a good one :)
Thanks for checking back in to the blog! I appreciate all the continued support ♥️
K
Comments