Where were we?

[Rips]

A very long update from me, haven't posted since NR went subscription!

Last I was here, my mare Mocha had just been weaned from her foal, I had a fabulous summer job as sole groom on a lovely yard, and I was starting to bring her back to work.

She looked a bit poor but it didn't take long to get her back to blooming.

The foal took a lot out of her and she had a crack in the middle of her hoof at the site of an abscess she got just before she had Vega. With the foal taking all her nutrients, it was stubbornly refusing to grow down... and it all went a bit pearshaped from there really...

She was pampered a bit and had physio/dentist, regained her fitness on the horse walker.... Mocha has had a long and tangled history with bits and her speed demon issues ... she was much improved by the time she had her foal (long long months of reschooling) and her dentist at this point discovered she still had the roots of her wolf teeth in her gums (where whoever had removed them, broke them)

we managed a few sedate hacks before it became obvious that loading her foot was aggravating the crack ... it was moving and spreading upwards and downwards...

Vega meanwhile was out growing like a weed with her friend Odie ...

I had stopped riding and she was being remedially shod, but even her own weightbearing was causing the crack to move and spread, farrier at the time didn't want to fill it because of the risk of trapping infection ... the crack spread until it pierced the coronet. It was depressing and I didn't take many pics ... I took her home and my young farrier fixed her up with a homemade brace to limit the spreading of her foot and for the first time it started to grow out!

Took about 6months from here to grow down to the ground, it healed out as it did so and we didn't have any issues when it got that far.

It was the following August before she came back into work, but the break did her good...

By this stage I had yet another live in yard job, this time on a small yard with breaker ponies and some SJers ... funnily enough, thats a photo of her 'uncle' there on the wall!

Same day after a tidy up!

Off with that awful mane!

She was definitely ready to be back to work!

And for the first time in about ... uh ...3 years??
We finally got around to riding in an actual school!

(and found that Mocha had forgotten nothing, and I had forgotten everything!)

She certainly hadn't forgotten about this business...


Part of my job was to ride out in the morning and count their 180 head of cattle ... and of course the minding of 6 dogs, 2 cats, and 20 or so horses.

Much fun!

TBC...

 

[Ginger Thing]

Great pics! I love Mocha and Odie (I now have a matching pair too, having bought a little ex-racer last June :biggrin. That crack sounds very scary, think I would have panicked at that one, glad it's all sorted out :smile:

 

[KarinUS]

Wow. How genius of that farrier! can't believe that healed. I agree with GT -it looks very very serious

Mocha is beautiful by the way but you already know that of course

 

[Rips]

I know - the crack was bad, and her hooves were worse, dry brittle, shelly, very slow growth. Its hard to see in the photo but her foot was totally warped, there was a 'dish' like a concave curve where the crack was, and the new growth from where her coronet had been damaged was proud, like raised from the profile of the wall.

When I posted that photo I got a lot of stick about it actually, lots and lots of people who either thought she should be barefoot, or in wedged heartbars, or a poly cast... but as soon as that brace went on, her foot started to heal and she's never looked back.

In ten years its *touch wood* been her only serious illness/injury - I'm thrilled she was able to return to full work and didn't have any complications (tendon/internal hoof damage/arthritis) with was a distinct possibilty, given her age.


So continuing!

Obligatory ear shots...

And a short video of us gettting back to jumping...



She was going extremely well in just a simple curved peanut snaffle at this point (no doubt thanks to the dentistry, the break and 'starting afresh' but we introduced the kineton, so we have an option for our more exhilarating challenges! It works really well, she has a sensitive mouth and transferring pressure from the bars onto the nose seems to suit her.

She was so good, that once she regained her fitness, we trecked halfway up the country to stay overnight with Fitz (ex Irish member) and (BIrish - still active I think?) and go on a charity ride.

Up until this time, rabid dog Mocha had not raised so much as a hair ... she was so obliging, really enjoying her work, and also very mellow in herself ... I noticed things like introducing her to new herds/company was virtually now a 'non event' whereas previous to this, she had very bad Alpha mare tendancies.

How to clip the elbows of the good horse...

(you can still see a slight 'warp' to the inside quarter of the hoof on the stool - totally gone now - you'd never know)

So off with trecced with the lovely Giddy... we travelled an 1hr20 mins to get to him...

Travelled 3.5hours and stayed overnight in beautiful Carlow...

And boxed to the ride the next day...

Whoops brain overload!!

There are no more photos of that day, as it was a total disaster!

She was so wired we tried to avoid jumping at all, until we were forced to (lane with obligatory barrell jumps) ... she didn't stop at the end of the lane, she had her sights set on a lovely 4ft post and rail fence into someones garden ... she was so excited!

When I eventually threw in the towel and got off, it took two of us to lead her (one on each side) back to the box. She ripped a nice slice in her cannon open from knee to pastern ... and WORSE, when I had BIrish try and hold her for me so I could iodine it and wrap it ... she sought the most vunerable spot and biffed B one in the stomach (B at the time was awaiting major abdominal surgery!!!)

Oh dear.

We put aside any aspirations of returning to hunting that season!

I was by then busy with graduating, and starting my real job... which would take me away from my Mochalie once more.

I put her on livery and we had lots and lots of lessons and also started a new discipline, Le Trec!

It has proved to offer just the right amount of exhilration and activities that require a horse to actually 'THINK' ... that for the most part we have a calm and settled Mocha, still enjoying herself!

I took her to her first competition (I have done Trec before, but she had never seen a trec obstacl in her life!!) and she excelled at it.

Tackling obstacles like the ridden bridge, jumps, S-bends, bending poles etc as if she were a pro, and scoring full marks in all of them, with only her lead excercises letting her down.

We actually managed to canter- halt-reinback in the middle of a field, after jumping and cantering... que amazement.

Theres just something about the atmosphere at the events that doesn't rattle her as much as SJ/XC etc

It helps that Trec is fairly new here and they are small local, low key events.

Video of our first competition ... she was just excellent from from beginning to end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU-8bF-sPeg

It basically sums up the sort of summer we had.

The end of that video contains some clips of us schooling at an XC event we did the following day ....a culmination of disasters meant that we ended up arriving late and I didn't have time to walk the course. In the actual run (of which there is no footage) ... we got very lost and Mocha had her own ideas about what she thought she should be doing ... we jumped most of the Open course, quite by accident ... it was sleeting, my eyesight is abysmal anyway (couldn't see the numbers) and Mocha is usually bound and determined to jump 'the biggest thing within radar', We eventually retired when we were well and truly lost ... but I must say - it was an absolutely fabulous feeling to have her back on form... it wouldn't be Mocha without a dash of uncertainty, a little bit of crazy and a whole lot of 'I didn't really expect to do that, but ok!!' She flew some whopper fences and had a blast, and we got to go back and do some actual schooling at the end (where she jumped what she was supposed to!!)

When she had all that time off work, and the foaling caused her so many issues, and her foot etc I went to bed everynight with all her photos and rosettes hanging on the wall, and would dream and wake up in a cold sweat, that we would never do those things again. That weekend, even if it was a little unorthodox, just felt like we could, and we were, and she was back for good and always.

I very much doubt we will ever return to serious competition again, she's 17 this year, and I'd rather have a long low intensity life, then a short high intensity one, and circumstances prevent it anyway (lack of funds, work commitment etc)

I only get to ride weekends these days, with the odd fun-filled weekend thrown in, some of which included horsey camp...

4 days of lessons in dressage, XC and SJ

SJ was equitation class

... and apart from that ... well just a lot of hacking really!

She's had a quite winter because I've been busy at work... I absolutely love my job, totally landed on my feet into a fantastic practice with 7 fulltime vets and 6 fulltime vet nurses, we are super busy, and there is so much variety, its such good experience - I do wish I could put her ice and not waste our last few years.

First mentionable 'events' of the year in the offing, doing some training at a friends yard this weekend, and we have an indoor Trec competition in a forthnight. So hopefully lots more updates to come!

 

[Rips]

Not forgetting the rest of course...

I have a happy healthy herd...

(though things have not been as fortunate for little Odiepup who's only job ATM is as a companion for Vega, he turns 8(!!!) this year )

Sometimes I think Vega is the spit and cut of her mother...

She certainly has no fear! Yet she is much calmer, much more docile ... (a good thing as she is built like a TANK!) She turns 4 this May, and I left her grow up as a horse, she's only just now starting leading and trailer loading, took her first trip last weekend (she was excellent) and has had no other 'training'.

(yes that is her having just wrecked all my fencing!!)

Last weekend...(in her dark and hairy winter coat)

(did far too well this winter, thankgod she is coming into work!)

 

[Rips]

Wow. How genius of that farrier! can't believe that healed. I agree with GT -it looks very very serious

Mocha is beautiful by the way but you already know that of course

Only when she's not pulling faces! :giggle:
Its very hard to catch 'bad Mocha' on camera ... I usually have my hands full!

Thanks.

Great pics! I love Mocha and Odie (I now have a matching pair too, having bought a little ex-racer last June ). That crack sounds very scary, think I would have panicked at that one, glad it's all sorted out

I'm glad you remember the good Odie. It gets increasingly hard for me!
Odie's sweet nature and fab start to work are sometimes, the only things that saved him from the factory. He's caused me no end of heartache unfortunately. He's sound at the moment (went through long periods of 'not') but not entirely happy (being a companion) I have doubts about him ever holding up as a ridden horse again, and he has rampant sarcoids, including a substantial one near his wither that interferes with saddle placement. He may also be becoming increasingly blind (just noted some strange behaviour, have to get it seen to...)

We had a good week last week (with Odie) and awaiting a treatment for his 'oids!!

 

[domane]

I remember Mocha's hoof, Rips... and the subsequent "healed" pics.... I was amazed. So lovely to see you both back in action.... she reminds me so much of Roo who went to a new mum a year ago. Lovely to see Giddy in action too... last thing I heard about him he was on box-rest, not behaving and was stuck in a pen of builders' fencing in a field which improved his mood no end!!!

 

[Rips]

I remember Mocha's hoof, Rips... and the subsequent "healed" pics.... I was amazed. So lovely to see you both back in action.... she reminds me so much of Roo who went to a new mum a year ago. Lovely to see Giddy in action too... last thing I heard about him he was on box-rest, not behaving and was stuck in a pen of builders' fencing in a field which improved his mood no end!!!

Poor Giddy, Mocha loved him. She is fine with TT (big liver chesnut fellow) but there is no 'love'! Not yet anyway.

(maybe she's afraid of the love, the last 'love' affair with a draught horse gave her a pesky foal and foot issues, although at least he wasn't a whopping 17hander!)

Aww yes, you still had Roo the last time I heard from you

 

[domane]

Took me two years to realise and admit that I was overhorsed with Roo. He never did anything wrong but because he was a TB I was constantly on alert, waiting for him to spook or do something and that gradually chipped away at my confidence until I was too scared to get on him. On the ground we were a great team, but we weren't a good ridden match at ALL.

Reverted back to type and now own cob, Jack, who is a Clydie/Welsh D mix. My husband fell in love with his picture and decided we just HAD to have him. At 16hh he's still a bit out of my height comfort zone and he's a nervous nelly on the ground.... but once on board he steps up to his responsibility and is a safe, fun ride...

We also have Arthur, who is a half-Comtois. He's nearly 4 and will be started shortly....

At 14.3hh he is much more in my height comfort zone.... :biggrin:

 

[Rips]

Like the look of Jack! 16h hands of heavy horse is nearly out of my comfort zone too - but erm *cough* Vega *cough* who knows if like you, I may have to be more accomdating in the future!

Do you ever get updates on Cherry? And ... the gate jumper? :biggrin: Ludo?

 

[shaka]

at that hoof.

What a journey you've been on! Lovely to see a happy healthy horse at the end of it and you back

 

[colettybetty]

at that hoof.

What a journey you've been on! Lovely to see a happy healthy horse at the end of it and you back

Ditto. Loved the photo's too.

 

[vels mum]

Loved reading your update, such a great feeling when you achieve your ambitions and you can look back and realise how far you have come.

Best of luck thi season with them all