First BE ODE next month, any advice welcome!

Very nice, well done!

Loving his knees!!!! Well done!

Thank you it got filmed as well so waiting patiently for my "best bits" video...not so patiently for the "training" video which will have all the fails on

Well i had a disaster yesterday... went to a local show, warmed up but thought he was being a bit sluggish in the warm up, sort of throwing himself over the jumps but I thought he'd perk up once we got in. Refused the first jump then when he got over refused the second 3 times bless him he jumped the rest after that (even going over one everyone else had trouble with) but it's wasn't flowing and he knocked two. I don't know what was up with him :( and I was so disappointed I burst into tears when I got off! We'd been working so hard on getting a clear round.
I took him for a very gentle hack today and he was still pretty sluggish, I'm not sure whether it was the heat, the fact he's been down on the summer field for a week (and looking very bloated!) Or that he was vaccinated end of last week, or a combination of all three! Is anyone else's horse feeling the heat?
I've got a little Hunter trial on Saturday and I'm dreading it

I spoke to his old owners and he apparently gets like this every time he has a vaccination! So now I feel guilty that I rode him. I didn't notice last year because he was vaccinated when he was on box rest. I'm giving him a few more days off then will see how he is Fri. The Hunter trial is tiny jumps so he'll just be able to trot round if he's feeling up to it but I'm relieved it's not something more sinister!

We came 2nd out of 11! It was pairs but we managed to do half the course in front, he didn't even look at the jumps, just flew round! And we won the dressing fence too.
Well done! I'm planning on doing a 60cm ODE to finish the season in September so hoping for the same

In a moment of madness I've booked into a 70cm Hunter trial in July 😯 it's at the place where I did the clinic a few weeks ago so I have jumped most of the jumps on the course already but I'm still wondering wtf I've done! He's rather round at the moment so will have to get him a bit fitter. Was planning on staying at 60cm this summer but technically not all of them are full up 70cm.....

Well done you! I went xc schooling yesterday and he was so good, jumping some of the bigger fences apart from one brush skinny that he absolutely would not go over, it was really quite narrow and it's only his 3rd time xc so we didn't end up doing It, must've attempted it about 20 times though! He's so stubborn. He did really well though and jumped everything else first time. The hire also included a SJ course so did a few 70cm show jumps, he has a habit of knocking poles with his hind legs and hit the xc jumps once or twice which meant he went clear over the poles!

Wow, well done both. I’ve had my lovely grey off sick for the last few weeks with an ulcerated eye, then he trod on a 3” nail, 1.5” of which went in his foot (still dealing with that) and then naughty new horse kicked him on his knee so that’s being cold hosed 3 times a day. Fingers crossed that’s it for now.

New horse had to stand in at a hound parade recently and it was a rather scary 20 minutes, he was hugely excited and spent quite a lot of the time with at least 2 feet off the ground - much to the entertainment of those watching. Please god let grey horse be fixed before our next parade! Pic attached of naughty new boy, before he went airborne (me on the left, btw), plus another of my practice plaiting beforehand because he is rather handsome! (He’s tied to a bit of string, not the gate in case you were wondering.....)

Well they do say bad luck comes in threes so hopefully that's It!
What a handsome boy

This is what came out of his foot, where it bends is how far in it was. I flushed it with hydrogen peroxide & sprayed Terramycin in, then wet poulticed for 3 days, dry for 2. Nothing has come out, there’s no longer any heat (there was on day 1), and it’s not tender. He’s had 5 days of antibiotics & danilon as well. I haven’t dared trot him up yet, partly because he’s got a kick on his knee and partly because his other hind shoe is now loose so that will have to wait. Do you reckon we’ve escaped or could something still be brewing?

That was my hope - he seems quite comfortable and is happy to weight bear and gallop around, even on this hard ground. My only fear is that because it went in so far something might be brewing right up inside at the farthest end. Farrier is coming Sunday to fix other shoes so I’ll ask him to have a really good look too. It gave me nightmares for the first few days!

Well disaster has struck 2 weeks before the "big" Hunter trial...
I was on holiday for 4 days at the weekend, so rode last Tues, weds was his normal day off then Thurs I just fly sprayed as I had to get off, had people coming to check him etc then went on Tuesday when back. Got on and he was lame could've cried!!
Trotted him up on the yard and he was lame on near fore, but not quite every stride and not consistently every time. So left him in (not stable, sand pen that's a little bigger than a stable - the flies bother him too much in a stable!). Weds trotted him up and he looked much better, maybe a little short strided.
Today did a bit of a work up so trotted up on yard (sound), turns fine in a small circle on yard both ways, trotted up and lunged in school (to check if soft tissue!) Was sound in straight line and right rein, striding out like normal, very very slightly on left that was very hard to see. This on different sized circles.
Then lunged in the grass field (like concrete!) And trotted up sound and again was fine on right rein, even doing his funny Welsh style trot - think he thinks he's Welsh because he was born in Wales 😅 - on left rein was lame, more obvious than in the school but still not much more than 1 or almost 2 out of 10. However he was striding out and was happy to keep trotting (and cantering, he has been on rest for 3 days!)

SO in summary he does appear to be getting better so I'm planning on resting him a couple more days, then if no better I'll call the vet out. The thing is I don't know whether Tuesday was day 1 or day 4! So it could've been worse and he's now feeling much better.
My thoughts are that their field is split into two and there's a gateway with big stones in the middle, they were in the "new" side when I went on Tues so they've been let through at some point and this is obviously super exciting and they probably all galloped though so I think he may have bruised or tweaked himself.
Not sure what to do about the comp! Depends how he is really. He's fit and ready to go so a week off won't do him any harm but I'm so gutted this has happened just before as I may have to miss It!!

Oops that was really long! Wanted to add that I'm obviously more bothered about him being sound and well rather than the competition

I’m not sure what it could be, but it might be worth involving the farrier - the dryness is causing havoc with feet, maybe a corn? If there’s no heat, pulse or swelling in the leg then that would be my first point of call - if there’s any swelling then cold hose 3 times a day and see if that makes a difference. I would also suggest you avoid trotting him up or lunging for a few days and give it a bit more rest time, hopefully it will go away but if it’s the same I’d definitely start with your farrier, perhaps even today/tomorrow if he’d come out. Mine had a corn and as soon as the shoe was off he was sound, 5 days without it and we put it back on and he was absolutely fine. I think horses have an inbuilt awareness of when something’s on the horizon and decide that your stress levels need raising accordingly! Fingers crossed it’s something straightforward.

No there's no heat, pulse or swelling at all so I will get the farrier, my first thought was an abscess brewing but as he's got sounder I'm not sure now. Could be a corn though! Yeah I won't do any more lunging etc I just wanted to ascertain whether it was still visible on a circle. I think they do!

He's fine Saturday he went back out and ran away from me as I took him through the gate ha ha. Trotting up sound but I'm still keeping a wary eye on him. Probably just tweaked it messing around in the field with the hard ground!

Oh bloody hell, more horse lameness heartache! So glad it's nothing serious Jonsnow. I was so pleased to read that some of you are getting out and about too! All sounds positive. Hi to foxinabox and Imapudding. How did Somerford go?

I'm back on board now, been walking for 6 weeks, now trotting and cantering in the school and popped a cross pole last week. There is SO much work to do though. His canter is completely unbalanced and he does everything he can to avoid softening to my hand and working over his back, he is a tense little worrier. Just got to get my head down and keep on with the schooling for the summer and hopefully we will gradually crack it towards the autumn and he might be ready to take somewhere. The splint has basically wiped out the whole of my summer . I could tell you all about the DD's eventing, which is all I've been doing for the past few months, but I'm not going to because I think this is a thread for US, not the children!