[Monthly Review] February 2015

February has resulted in another set back! If you read my post from my riding lesson then you'll know that pea's hind legs are causing him a bit of pain :( He's been walking & trotting in the arena and only cantering out hacking or on the lunge on a really large circle. I did once try and school him in the indoor which is 20x40m and it was then that I truly realised just how hard he finds it working in a small space! I had hoped to maybe do an intro test but he finds the half 10m circle after coming down the centre line so difficult that it just wouldn't be fair on him! 

We've also been doing some in-hand pole work getting him to stop half way over a raised pole for a few seconds before walking on again so he has to try and remember how much he needs to pick his hind legs up. It's something a woman who does horse massages at my yard once told me about as it helps them to engage their back end and pick it up! We've also done some lunging so he can have a bit if a canter and also allows me to see what his hind legs are like. 

The past week we've had a bit of issue as Pea's seemed a bit down in the dumps so to speak and he's also stopped eating whilst in the stable over the past few days. At first I thought it was down to the new supplement I was trying so I stopped it but he still refused to eat his food - only carrots. Saturday night I ended up turning him back out as I was so paranoid that he wasn't eating anything and I knew he would being out so put a heavyweight on him and chucked him back out. He took a bit of coaxing to come back out the stable and stood confused when I put him back out but he soon went off to munch on the grass. I then popped down first thing this morning (Sunday) to swap rugs and try him with so food which he luckily ate! However, as the temperature drops so much overnight, I don't want him out full time yet as he's still fully clipped so I'm going to try only giving him a handful of food at night and then giving him his main food in the morning whilst I muck out as it may be that he's a bit full of grass and hay whilst he's out. They sure do like to test us! 

I think I will end up getting the vet out for Pea over March as I lunged him today and he just didn't seem right. When I asked for trot he had his ears back and really didn't look happy so I'll see how he goes. We have vet visits once a month, though annoyingly he's not out until the end of March so I might see if anyone's getting him out earlier or just have to cope with the silly call out fees! It might be that we try him on bute for a bit but I think he really needs looking at to see what the problem actually is and what to do as it's evident he's in a bit of pain and also a bit bored at not being able to do much!

Thanks for reading,
Laura xx