10 Getting Going Again – Fresh Horse & Too Much Mud
After a couple of months off it was time to get my pony back in work. Ok, she had done a lot more now than when I got her, but I wasn’t entirely confident. And on top of that while our farm grows grass well it does tend to be muddy, so riding in the safety of paddocks wasn’t an option except during frosty periods.
Because one of my other obsessions is recording weather data, I can tell you that on the first of July it hadn’t rained for nine days… so her first exercise was able to be the totally safe option of lunging. A week later I rode George and led Lace down the road. Yes, George was all better and Lace enjoyed tagging along on the lead with him. I also forgot to say that Lace had come home from Armstrong’s in March shortly after her second 25km ride.
So I took her to Armstrong’s so I could lunge her and get on in the lunging pen. All good, we went for a road ride, no problems. Still being careful though, road with George again on Monday – Queen’s birthday holiday I guess.
Then the following Saturday it was time to take the plunge and take her for a road ride on our own. I live on a very busy road it has a tendency to have periods of trucks per minute rather than minutes per truck, I need to ride on this road for 1km before I can get off it and on to quiet, country roads and at one point it is very narrow. So while riding out the gate on George is one thing, Lace wasn’t nearly ready for trucks yet thus I would float her a couple of kms to more quiet roads. There even used to room to lunge a little bit before getting on, but they’ve fenced it off now.
The ride went well. When we got back to the float there were some horses just over there… and Lace was totally obsessing with them and not paying any attention to me. She turned to look at them and, with the car being slightly turned, this meant her back legs were right up against the back hatch. Not so good. So I went to push her away, and of course she’s still totally focused on the other horses and doesn’t want to move… so she kicked…. OW! The back of the car was open and I grabbed the nearest thing, an umbrella. She had actually cracked at least one rib, so I was very sore… and justifiably cross… and very close to attacking her with the umbrella… but I was still sane enough to realise that was not a smart idea, especially while she was still tied to the float. So I took the time to untie her (having put the umbrella down!) and then whacked her with the end of the rope across the rump. Yelling at her the while.
It was then that I discovered something… when Lace goes over the top and is totally in the wrong, SHE KNOWS IT. And when she is punished she instantly becomes the most WELL BEHAVED horse you could possibly imagine. Tied up once more she didn’t look at the other horses again and stood like a rock.
The season got underway – 40km mid-August, then 40 more at the beginning of September. Coming back into work after that, 15 minutes of schooling on Friday, 30 minutes led from George on Saturday, then float out for a road ride on Sunday. Going well… and then not so well… Tossing her head, short stride, walk for a bit, try again, still not happy. I had not come across it before so it took me a while to work it out… Lace had tied up. This was to be an ongoing battle, she never tied up at rides, some people have trouble with their horses tying up during the first 10-20km of an endurance ride. Our problem was always getting back into work afterwards. It got to the stage where I used to not give her time off after big rides but do a short ride every day often before work just for 15-20 minutes. A great way to start the day, but does take a bit of motivation to get up half an hour earlier!
But as this was the first time I got the vet out to confirm. Now Lace was very uptight about anything around her tail… the vet tried to take her temperature… we found half the thermometer! Blood test confirmed tie-up. Two weeks off then only two weeks of quiet build up before our first 80, would she be fit enough?
It was a bit of a cheat, Counties were putting on an 80 with an overnight hold. Richard and I were the only ones from our team going so Lace and I could go in the truck. I took Lace to Armstrong’s the morning of the ride, and popped her in the lunging pen while we packed the truck and got ready. Sue turned up with her truck to take a horse Kerry was training away on trial, Lace was bucking like a maniac and charging around the pen… for a while Sue was worried that was the horse she was trying! So I was now pretty sure that Lace was, a) well over her tie up, and b) fit and ready for her 80km!
With an overnight hold we started the first loop at 3pm. Finishing at 6:15pm we had a 12 hour hold and started the next loop at 6:15am. The vet was there having a look at each horse before they were allowed to start, under saddle trot up. I was lunging Lace for a bit, she was fairly excited! Then it was out turn to start, she was literally bouncing on the line in anticipation, it was so nice to have a horse that really wanted to play the game. Success! We had managed to get that Lace determination focused on the job at hand, wanting to go down the trail… now it just needed controlling!
She was pretty unimpressed with having to walk at times, keeping an eye on that minimum time, “I do NOT need to walk!!!”
Yay! 14 months after George and I did our first 80 I was once more only one 80km ride away from being open!!
