Grounded

My jumper show was (tragically) cancelled due to rain, making it the sixth consecutive jumper show that I have signed up for and summarily been unable to attend due to cancellation. I have come to the conclusion that I'm most likely never going to show jumpers.

Spring seemed to recover from the Hunter Pace well, and we had a beautiful ride the Saturday after where she was holding herself up at the canter,  not motorcycling around turns, and trotting poles like a boss. Two days later, we had a slight incident during the warm-up of our weekly lesson - walk/trot was fine, but when it came time to canter she just...couldn't. She'd hold it for maybe 2 strides before crossfiring, and then would start crow hopping repeatedly as she attempted to switch it back. We tried the other direction and it was the same thing, and as I halted to talk to Trainer K about what was going on, she backed up fast and reared before I had time to think. 

Spring has never offered to rear before. The second she stood still I hopped to the ground, and Trainer and I looked her over. I pulled her boots off and checked her legs, and Trainer checked her back. The only indication she gave of discomfort was in the hips, and it was not particularly replicable. I threw her on the lunge and she was still struggling, and Trainer agreed with me that this was some sort of pain response - although to what, we couldn't say.  My only thought was that the work we'd done on Saturday had been too much for her - we did do a lot of trot poles - and that she was sore. Still, I opted to keep her in a stall overnight, just in case something soft tissue was lying in wait for the opportunity to swell up. 

I untacked her, groomed her, rubbed her down with liniment, and tried not to play all of the worst-case-scenarios (neuro...) in my mind as I drove home. 

She was bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning, and her legs remained tight and cold. The suggestion of pain in response to pressure along her hips was completely gone, and when I threw her on the lunge she was calm, sound, and seemed to be back to her normal self. Under the watchful eye of Trainer A, I tacked up, hopped on, and proceeded to have a brief but lovely w/t/c session as if nothing had ever been wrong. After conferring with Trainers A and K, we came back to the same conclusion - that she had been sore in an unprecedented way after the hunter pace / a difficult lesson the previous week / trot poles. 

Because I don't want to push her too hard, my decision moving forward was made almost instantaneously. The chiropractor comes once a month, and is scheduled to be at CEC on November 29. From the rearing incident until then, Spring is grounded. 20 days of ground work, to be precise (minus days off, obv). We are doing a variety of exercises on the lunge to strengthen her hind end, combined with weekly training sessions from Trainer K. Spring also got hind shoes for the first time, which the farrier thinks will help balance her. After her chiro visit (and with the chiro's blessing) she'll get a day off, and then I'll start flatting her again. 

Her feelings about this are very, very clear

There is no rush. There are no deadlines. Spring's health and enjoyment of her job are the number one priorities here. Although she hasn't taken a single lame step, she was telling us that something was wrong - and even though it seemed to have resolved by the next day, it isn't  worth it to me to push where there  may be a future problem. There are plenty of lesson horses available for me to suffer through No-Stirrups November with, and already I'm seeing improvements in Spring's capabilities on the lunge. 

So that's what we've been up to over the last few weeks, along with struggling to enjoy the rapidly fading fall days. Has winter come to you yet?