Much better tonight

Had a hack out again last night and Lutine's behaviour was much better. We only had one spot of napping and that was because of a field of cows (albiet the cows were 100m away LOL) Luckily, my hubby was with us so he just got off his bicycle and came over and led her past them. She bounced a bit but it was no big drama and then we were able to carry on. We even had a practice at standing nicely at the top of the lane waiting for hubby to get up the hill and then again in the village as we stopped to say hello to a neighbour. Don't know what might have caused her to turn over a new leaf but she'd been on Top Spec Calmer for 2 days and also the roaring breeze had tuned down to a much more gentle level.

The View from Up Top

Had another bouncy and somewhat argumentative ride out with Lutine. It was our most demanding hack out yet where we tackled several big ascents and descents and she was still powering away and just about settled on the last 500m home. Not quite as sweaty this time, though there was a heck of a wind blowing. The strong breeze seems to be a permanent feature of where we live this year, for some reason. She still feels very strong and sound and though she's sweaty, it has to be said it's pretty humid and warm so not entirely surprising. I did write to Beth Valentine about this a few weeks ago and she said,

"I would not worry about the sweating since she is otherwise doing so well. It is when horses stop sweating that we worry! Sweating helps her to cool, and as she builds muscle and exercises more she’ll create more heat during exercise. So, that may explain the increase in sweating, which should then be considered a very good thing!

Beth V"

So alongside the fact that she's so well and that she exercising fairly energetically, it's not something to worry about. Obviously, I'm watching her like a hawk for any signs of being sore and stiff. But she's not puffing abnormally or showing signs of running out of energy - in fact, she's got lots of energy in the tank. Research by Dr Stephanie Valburg recently concluded that exercise was even more important to EPSM horses than oil supplementation so all I can do is keep feeling our way forward and trying to listen to Lutine. She was less nappy tonight and much more happy to follow my hubby and the children on their bicycles and I actually got her to stand still and wait at the top of a long hill while they made their way up. This is usually my long canter hill where my other horse and I used to have a gallop and Lutine totally powered up it tonight in trot.

Still feeling great but we do napping...

Rode last night and she felt great physically but now we're starting to do napping. Sigh.. it's so not ideal to be trying to hack her out on her own but I'm so stuck because there's no one else to ride out with and our field has waist high grass in it at the moment, waiting to be cut for haylage. She's not uncontrollable when she naps. It's just planting, backing up and refusing to go forward at certain points and we're having the discussion every time and I'm making her go on a little bit then praising her for it. Last night she napped right down at the bottom of a neighbouring lane - just decided she wouldn't go any further - I think because she'd seen the traffic on the road another 100m on and was worried we were going into the traffic. So we had a discussion, with her planting, trying to back up and spin round and me backing her up in the opposite direction, circling her, bumping her forwards and sideways. She also threatened to jump down the ditch at the side of the road until I said 'well, fill your boots. Jump in the ditch then' and she put one foot off the edge, thought better of it and hopped back on to the lane. She's such a clever minx! She works out when you're worried about her doing something and then goes for it to try and distract you from what you are trying to get her to do. But she has a better survival instinct than to really chuck herself in the ditch. Obviously, if we had been really risking a wreck I wouldn't have called her bluff on it but she could have hopped into and out of this ditch quite easily without hurting herself. But AGH! for a hacking partner. :-/ She did finally walk on after a 10 minute interlude and then after 10m I stopped her, gave her loads of praise and scratches and waited until her head dropped and she sighed and then we turned back home.

Feeling Really Good Again

Took Lutine out for a hack last night and she felt really well. Did a fair amount of trotting on the road (she had boots on all round) and she just felt totally sound and so powerful. Bot oh my! She really doesn't 'do' cows. Our neighbour has put his cows back out in their fields, complete with a bull who insisted on following us next to the fence whilst bellowing and roaring loudly and Lutine FREAKED! I was leading her past them on the way out and she was a lunatic, absolutely frantic. I got on after we'd passed them and she was fine though she insisted on trotting away from them smartly for 200m after I'd mounted. Then when we came back and got to the same spot, she absolutely threw her toys out of the pram and flatly refused to go past them, to the point where we had some fairly interesting shennanigans including her crouching right down and saying 'I'm going to leap right into the air you know!!!!!!!' Sigh..... so we had to double back and take the long route home where there are no cows but there was a big steep hill to climb and it took an extra 3km or so. She was totally lathered in sweat when we got home so I walked her round while she cooled off and then popped her thermatex cooler on until she dried off. Then I took her a feed with oil in it about an hour later and tucked her up in front of a bail of hay.

This morning she seems right as rain and not at all stiff or sore so that's a very good sign.