Thursday, June 9, 2011

Incognito Diddy-Man

After a wonderful weekend at Longleaf (which I didn't blog about, so I will explain here), Prophet's life has been a bit quiet.

At Longleaf, he raised the bar a bit for himself. One thing that always has me wondering with this horse is how he will handle things once they start going bad.  In the past, one bad fence has been known to wreck his confidence and lead us to a downward spiral throughout the XC course.  We haven't had to test that theory for a while (thankfully), until Longleaf. Approaching the Trekhener, I saw a perfect distance, with a lovely pace, and rode to it. A stride out, P peaked down and saw the ditch, scooting sideways.  I'd already accepted the run-out in my head but yet, here my horse was pulling me to the other side, between the red and white flags.  It was like he said, "hey mom, catch up, I just needed a little look!".  Once I got my stirrup, we galloped on to the next fence (a corner), where some sapling trees, freshly planted gave us a lovely spook and missed line.  Once again, I found myself re-gathering my stirrups and wits on the other side.  We had one galloping table and then the water. Awesome. I tried to put the last two jumps out of my mind, but all I could think was many four letter words.  My horse on the other hand, has grown up a bit and didn't miss a beat throughout the rest of the course. Could. Not. Love. Him. More.  He ended up the weekend with a pretty pink ribbon, and thoroughly enjoyed his jaunt in the victory gallop.

Here's the helmet cam of our ride (notice my slight cursing at the fence 8 :)


Now, I'd decided that a good run at Longleaf would mean no Virginia Horse Trials, so I could focus on things like getting married. Thus Prophet got a light couple of weeks. Some hacks, some trots, but nothing serious.  It soon became apparent to me though that something was amiss. P's a hard-keeper, very difficult on the management side, and I try everything in my power to keep that horse happy and feeling 100%.  However, with my mind of wedding and clients and a new house and everything else, I found that my horse wasn't quite himself.  A bit lethargic, and losing a bit of weight... and it wasn't coming back no matter what I tried. But he was happy to go back to work, his vitals were all good, his coat very shiny.  All systems seemed go besides the weight and the general feeling I was getting from him.

After trying many things (change in feed, PowerPac, supplements, etc..) a quick call to my vet re-affirmed what I was thinking - ULCERS.  So now after a small fortune in UlcerGuard, P is back in action... putting on weight, feeling great, and being his normal cheeky self (aka, has nearly dumped me twice on trot sets). And now I think I need UlcerGuard for myself after all the worry this horse causes me!

I've avoided traveling with him until I'm sure he's gotten a good several weeks of treatment, so our first lesson back won't be until next week.  Then we plan on traveling up to the Maryland Horse Trials in July.

Other then all the P worry, things have been chugging right along around here. LOTS of baby horses to sit on, and some super nice sale horses. Busy busy busy - and so nice of summer to come blazing in with 100 temps, just as I'm getting to 12-14 hour days.

2 comments:

Boss Mare Eventing said...

Ulcers....I am thinking my horse is a victim too. Glad you discovered what it was so quickly. It's a hard time when you are getting married or newly married and balancing life and your horses. Sounds like you are figuring it out.

Cass said...

Trying to figure it out anyway!

Thanks Veronica!