Not AGAIN. !!!

A friend came to watch me ride Ace today. As I did up the girth he swished his tail and I turned to her and said 'that's not right'. When I got on, he humped his back a little and shuffled backwards. My friend told me he was kicking at his belly too. He was tense until he had poo'd and then he worked beautifully and showed off his new flexible paces. I had done several lots of medium trot and was coming to the end of a diagonal and felt I needed to send him on and he humped his back, unbalancing me, and then did one enormous catapulting buck that shot me right up into the air and out of the saddle.

To say the least I am not amused. I did not need this again. But, we have had masses of rain and then high temperatures, and it's perfectly clear that the grass flush has got to his stomach again.   I think we have to assume that the first lot of omeprazole has not cleared his ulcer problem, and that this flush of grass has set them off again. I have heard of many horses which need two goes of 800mg a day for 28 days before they are resolved, and he looks like he's one of them.  I have had him on 200mg a day, the preventative dose, for several weeks now, but it isn't enough.

If it wasn't for the fact that it is really easy to tell the back and the stomach issue apart, I'd now be really uncertain about whether to spend the money on the operation. Hopefully, if we can get the ulcers completely clear and stop the back from ever hurting again, then the ulcer problem will not return next year when the grass comes through.

Radar has had some challenges the last few days. On Tuesday I hacked him out and made him stay in walk for the whole ride. He has been too boisterous for his own good lately. I can't let him start the hunting season thinking he can dictate how fast we go. He was pretty cross, but he did behave.

Then this morning he walked and trotted OK so we did some canter. The transitions were like a bullet out of a gun, so I put him on a 30m circle and did canter/walk/canter until he behaved. There were some pretty horrific transitions going on until he finally realised that gallop was not available as an option, and stop meant stop. Then, as normal, he suddenly cottoned on, and did it really well. His walk to canter and canter to walk are both really lovely when he puts his mind to work keeping his body in the right place :-)

Only my pride is bruised today, the airbag went off and the fall was easy even though it was fast and from a considerable height. My purse is also £20 lighter!

C