All good news today. Ace's operation has been brought forward to September 4th, so he'll be going in the day before which is now less than three weeks away.
The bute has done its stuff too. A tight muscle that I have felt in his back for the last few days has released. And when I took him out to lunge him, he behaved differently. He has always, even after the injections were done, glanced back at his loins when he starts off on the lunge. Today he did not do it at all. Not once. Not even the slightest move of the head. This is so different from normal that I'm very hopeful that I will be able to ride him tomorrow, or as soon as the weather is nice and calm and warm and we have the best chance of him being happy. And if he still won't let me ride him, there will be only 20 days to go anyway and I can keep him working on the lunge and lead him out on the hills. I am so relieved tonight.
There is still a 1 in 20 chance that the operation will not put his problems right, but at least we will know by the end of October whether it has or not.
C
He's a very lucky horse, to have found his way to you.
ReplyDeleteI do sometimes wonder how badly he would have been beaten if the dressage judge who told me 'he needs a man on him' had her way. On the other hand, if the operation doesn't work he'll either have to go to the blood bank or be put down, so I'm no selfless angel ER.
DeleteI just thank my lucky stars that I am fortunate enough to be in a place of my own where I can manage him how I need to, and that I saved all my money when I was working instead of spending it.
C
Good news indeed. I was, with you, getting a bit worried. However, your detective work may well have paid off. Don't pressure yourself to ride unless you are absolutely sure it's not going to cause problems for either of you. Better Ace not associate your being in the saddle with pain at this point.
ReplyDeleteYou could try a bit of ground driving too. It's a great way to train when for some reason or other, you can't ride. And the way to learn how to do it is simply by experimenting!
I won't ride unless I think he is happy Jean, it's too close now to bother about keeping him tiptop fit.
DeleteC