LegUp Life March 2010 Update 

Read on for an insight into happenings at home and the latest news.

My summary of February on a personal level has very much felt like a case of two steps forward, three steps back including some not very good news about my youngster Star.

The weather continued to be unkind with much of the time a thin layer of snow covering the arena which is just enough to ball up in the horses feet to make it difficult to ride.  This combined with me having some time off ill which resulted in me loosing about 1/2 a stone....  However I am back to full fitness now but due to lack of suitable weather for riding and teaching I am now busy eating too much chocolate and puddings with custard so should soon put it all back on again! Role on Spring please!!!!!!!!!!


Educating Sienna

Sienna went to the Horse Security day up at Churchfield vets for Micro chipping. For me this is the first time I have had any of my horses microchipped. Sienna is a bit of a feisty lady and has not been an easy horse for vets to deal with, but with 4 or 5 horses in the barn up at Churchfield Vets and people coming in and out she was too busy watching everybody coming and going to notice the vet walk up to her and give her a local anaesthetic followed a short time after by the microchip. I am so glad I took her to this group day to have it done as I think, if she had been at home in her own stable it would have been a much more difficult job. Having previously had horses freeze branded for security this definitely seems like a much easier method.

Riding has been of a rather stop start nature in February the only thing I have learned about Sienna this month is that for a youngster she is pretty tolerant of only being ridden once every 7 to 14 days without her becoming a difficult person.


My Horses

Star my one rising two year old has not been moving right behind since the end of January when I suspected she may off hurt herself slipping in the snow. She has been making steady progress but is still not moving 100% straight behind or flexing her joints quite the same as normal which is more noticeable when she is reversing or turning.  I decided to give her a month to see if she returned to normal without any assistance.  As I still have been observing unusual movement when turning and in canter I decided to now have out the vet.  Unfortunately the prognosis is not good.  When moved in a tight circle she struggles to balance and is showing in co-ordination of the back end.  It is suspected she may have Wobbler Syndrome, which if it occurs usually develops in horses age 12months -3 years and is caused by pressure on the spinal cord.  She appears to have quite classic symptoms and is in that danger zone in terms of age.  To get a definitive diagnosis we would need to Xray her but this would cost thousands and even if diagnosed there is no reliable cure and she would never be suitable to ride.   The only good thing is that she is not in any pain.  As we are coming towards summer I am going to give her a few months to see if she improves just in case the prognosis is wrong and it is a problem caused by a 'trauma' rather than Wobbler Syndrome if she does not show improvement after that I will be faced with the horrible sickening decision to have my lovely youngster put down.  

Group Training

12 riders attended the training sessions held at Bromley Farm on Saturday 13th February to read the full report click here. Many of the riders made some very good progress and I hope they enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed having them to coach.

Our evening session this winter have also all had enough riders ringing in to join groups that we have not cancelled any sessions, other than the odd date that has clashed with extreme weather.   See our events page for our forthcoming March training dates. At the time of writing this there are about 6 places available on the 13th March training session.  I have also seen a couple of other interesting equine events taking place at the beginning of March which are an open evening for Barnsley riders regarding Bridleways and a talk about Colic with top Equine Lecturer Dr Debbie Archer of Liverpool University both are to be held at Silkstone lodge I have put their details on to the website, for more details scroll down to the bottom of the events page.


Shows

Thank you to all those who came to the new years show. As it was so cold I really did have visions of it being me, the catering van and one or 2 competitors riding about, but I need not of worried as plenty of competitors turned out who produced some good competitive classes. To read the report click here

Our next show is the Easter Show with loads of chocolate Easter Eggs for 1st to 3rd in all classes + points championship rug awards for jumping and showing. The Easter show has the option to be indoors or outdoor depending on the weather on the day and the run up to the show. 

There are just a few small schedule changes for our Easter show.
This time we are running 2 style and performance jumping classes.
The Have a go Showing Classes this time are split by age rather than size of horse.  Further details can be found via the events page plus you will see dates for other forthcoming shows.



My Favourite Products
Pikeur Jodhpurs

I am a big fan of these jodphurs as they are stretchy, comfortable and very hard wearing both in terms of the material and all the stitching.  

Disposable Horse Razor

I purchased one of these at the end of last summer for tidying up my horses muzzles before shows.  It said on the instruction apply light pressure so I assumed it was a similar pressure to that which you would use with a normal human disposable razor.  Whoops!!! I scalped a patch of fine hair off as well as the whiskers (but no skin I am glad to say) when it says light it means feather light pressure please learn from my mistake!  However once I had sorted my handling of it.... it is a very effective and easy tool to use which I will purchase again for the forthcoming show season.

Carolyn