I'm a lucky beggar

My wishes were horses,
and I got seals besides!

I posted the above photos and more of our family beach ride over at my Boulderneigh blog. I think Rick took some photos of Lance and me with his smart phone but I haven't seen them yet. I'll post them here if they exist!

Lance was a good boy, although still not a surfer dude in spite of his sandy-haired good looks and buff bod. ;-)  I did get him to follow the others horses through some still back water trapped by a rise in the sand – and I think he resented me for it! Seriously; for quite awhile afterwards he acted really PO'd at me. You'd think he, not his parents, came off the high desert range given his aversion to salt water....

We mostly walked, since my husband's and son's mounts have done little to nothing all winter and we went quite a distance. There was a little trotting and cantering, which my son thought was great fun. Rick had me trot in front of him so he could watch Lance's movement for soundness, and said Lance was absolutely even and steady. It felt flat, but then again it almost always has. It remains to be seen whether or not Lance ever develops some "loft."

What's up, pussycat?

I'm still riding Lance, lightly and not every day, trying to keep him in some condition and assess what is going on.

Rick watched Lance walk and remarked that Lance's cat-like front foot placement that concerned Suzan is the way he has walked the entire time Rick has known him. My wonderful farrier, whom I called right after my lesson/session with Suzan, came over the following Monday night and trimmed up Lance's front feet. There really wasn't much to trim, except to pare out some of his thick sole and trim his frogs. Lance had signs of bruising at the base of his right frog, but neither it nor any parts of either hoof was sensitive to the hoof testers – and Troy really torqued on them.

Suzan took my Black Country saddle with her last week in case it works for any of her clients. This week I shipped my Marvel saddle back to its maker, Mike Corcoran, who thinks he can sell it for me. He has a used Marvel in a wide tree that might work for Lance; if so, we can do a full or partial trade. In the meantime, I'm using the old Wintec with a Cashel lift back pad to keep the narrow part of that saddle up off Lance's back.

Because of weather and a houseguest Lance has been cooped up a few days, so this afternoon I turned him out in the arena to play. I had to shush him to get him to move around, though; the "green stuff" was just too tempting.

Tomorrow I think I'm getting my wish for Mother's Day – a family ride on the beach. Cross your fingers for me and look for photos on Monday!

Notes from Friday

In quick, get-it-down form, here are Suzan's comments:

From the ground:
Mike Corcoran Marvel saddle, M tree: way too small
Black Country Eloquence saddle, M/W tree: too tight in the front
Wintec: fits well in the front; narrow in the back

Lance palpated ouchy on either side of the base of his withers, at the back of the saddle (particularly on the left, there was a very tight structure there; on the left there was a calcification), and around his S/I (especially on right; he nearly dropped when she probed that). His hindquarter muscles were very tight; so were the muscles at the top of the neck (the head-release muscles).

Under saddle:
Felt like he was ouch in his front feet, particularly right front, particularly heel. She pointed out that that heel is collapsed a bit, and his toe is long. Lance toes out a bit anyway; need to have the farrier out more often to keep it in line.

The left hind also felt uncomfortable to her. Lance did not want to use his hindquarters, but when she asked for a better effort at the walk he lifted his back, used his hindquarters, and his walk and contact improved greatly. As soon as she asked for trot he flattened out, however. At the canter, he gave her some decent work when she asked for a bigger canter with more back/hindquarter engagement, but when she asked for the trot after that he throttled back quickly rather than benefitting from the correct work. That points to the front feet.

Sore front feet could cause the back/hindquarter soreness as he would brace back there to take some of the pressure off his feet. Back/hindquarter soreness would put more pressure on his lower leg structures, which could have caused the right rear suspensory injury.

For now...

. . . I give you my favorite of the photos I took today (actually, just a small part of one of the photos)  when I met up with Suzan for a lesson/consultation.

As I had hoped, Suzan was able to give me a LOT of feedback on the fit of all three saddles as well as on Lance's areas of discomfort (unfortunately, the number three figures into that as well). I need to write down what she told me ASAP so I don't forget it all; I'll record it here for my sake – and yours, if you're interested.

I give up!

The horses got their first authorized pasture turn-out today . . . after Lance let himself out . . . and then let Breezy out after he was put back in. And that was after I'd installed new latches on their doors!

In full disclosure, the grass has gotten mature enough that we were going to start turning them out anyway. The sheep spent most of the day out; then late in the afternoon I put them in and turned the horses out. The sheep haven't been able to keep up with the early, lush growth.

I'm hoping to have a lesson/evaluation with Suzan tomorrow, but haven't gotten confirmation yet. At least it is supposed to be cooler tomorrow; today got downright hot!

Speaking of summer weather, today I received a couple photos taken at one of our campouts last summer. I'm no equestrian fashion plate, but I think my mount sure is a looker! ;-)