Firstly, I do apologise for the slight lapse in blogs, not of to the best of starts but I shall explain why below!
So we started of July with a bit of a spring clean meaning Jack had a proper scrub and a bath. When I'm saying bath, i mean I went all out, shampoo-ed the mane, the tail, the works. He's never been a massive fan of having a wash, especially in the oh so scary shower room (which we can now walk straight into!) but I can honestly say he stood like a rock the entire time, bar the last five minutes where he was starting to get a bit cold and shivery so he stamped his feet a bit, but other than that he was perfect, even to have his mane washed and rinsed so I was very pleased! I'm not sure if this was anything to do with the fact I used his spray on calmer about 20 minutes before but even so, it was a surprisingly stress free experience.
The week after he had a couple of pessoa sessions- this is all started off great, on his good rein he went absolutely beautifully, the best he's ever gone. He started off resisting it a little, so a tried a new method of pushing him more forward then I usually do so he was doing a proper working trot not just mooching along and he was just floated round the school like an absolute pro, I mean he actually looked like a proper Welsh for once! Then, as soon as he went into his worse rein I knew something wasn't right, he was incredibly tense and didn't want to go any faster than just a shuffle really, as soon as he broke into trot he looked very severely lame. When I took him to investigate he seemed very sore and tense around his back and hind quarters so I booked the physio straight away (hence no blogs!). However since then, after having 3/4 days off, he's come in completely sound so I'm thinking perhaps he'd just pulled himself and been kicked in the field. Obviously the physio is still coming to see him next week, but he's trotted up sound for the past three days so today it was time to get back to work- oh and his new saddle arrived!
He finally has his own grown up saddle all of his own that fits both of us! His old saddle has gotten a little too tight and has always been too big for me, plus the forward cut flaps of a jump saddle just don't suit him as he is very narrow round the shoulders so he's now got a working hunter cut Black Country saddle and it could not fit him any better. It's surprising how just a slight change in the cut can play such a big difference, now he's able to move more freely through his shoulder he felt completely different, I can honestly say I have never had such a brilliant schooling session with him (even if it was a tad forward at times, note to self, no more time off for Jack!!). His canter work felt so, so nice, his trot as always left a lot to be desired but could have been worse and his walk is getting to where I'd like it to be, so if he carries in the direction he was showing he can today, I won't be complaining. The plan for tomorrow, English weather permitting off course, is to possibly pessoa him for 5 minutes each way in walk and trot to warm him up and then jump on and have half an hour schooling.
Beth and Jack x
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