Walk On

Don't tell my husband or dressage coach, but deep down inside me there's a person who is secretly happy to put training and showing goals on hold and just go out for a trail ride.  And let me just tell you I have a really fancy trail horse.

All kidding aside, I'm so grateful for all the excellent footing options at Twinwood while Rijkens is recovering from a bruise in his foot.  We have about a mile of groomed race track, and several acres of groomed sand footing outdoor space, and dozens of acres of soft turf on which to saddle walk.  

I contacted Adrienne Lyle this weekend and told her about mine and Rijkens' situation-- so similar to hers and Wizard's last year.  Adrienne graciously took time to inbox me while busy competing at this weekend's Adequan Global Dressage Festival CDI5* in Wellington Florida.  She and her horse Wizard went through the same scenario of recovering from a coffin bone bruise last year.

Adrienne shared this wise advice: 

     "The good news is that it should heal 100% and not be a reoccurring issue, as long as you give it ample time to heal."  

     "I think tack walking is a good idea. It keeps them a little fit and it also keeps them mentally sane.  And as long as you stay at the walk, you can do a lot of work just doing collected walk, medium walk, work on halts etc.  No lateral stuff and I wouldn't make him walk so big or fast he puts undo stress on the coffin bone. Obviously, make sure the footing is good and not too hard.  With Wizard we gave him 4 months of tack walking twice a day.  He has been fine ever since coming back, so I'm sure you will be in good shape too.  It just takes time."

     "Best of luck!" Adrienne told me.  And right back at her and Wizard!

So it is with great gusto and happiness that we watched Adrienne Lyle and Wizard claim back to back victories in the CDI5* Grand Prix arena this weekend, winning the class with a more than six point margin.  Doing the right thing by your horse proves successful once again.

To Adrienne's good advice I'll add another pearl of wisdom I learned from trainer Lurena Bell.  When I asked Lurena previously if trail riding is indeed a good idea for dressage horses, she said "Yes" but with this caveat: 

     "As long as they're marching with their ears lower than their withers, and not allowed to strain their necks upward like a llama gawking at everything in site.  Keep their neck low and their walk marching."

Our 90 days of saddle walking has begun.

Treasuring the small yet meaningful moments between six minute bouts in front of a judge,

Ri and I were both unaware we were being photographed during this amicable moment:

Silver Lining

A truly impressive equine hospital that I hope never to visit again, the folks at Texas A&M University (TAMU) large animal clinic were amazing during Rijkens' recent visit there.

The silver lining is that he will make a full recovery from the bone bruise in his front right hoof.  It may take up to 90 days of time, but he will return to 100 percent.

Similar to what Adrienne Lyle's olympic horse Wizard went through last year (see the full story here and here) Rijkens was a bit off so we decided to have a lameness evaluation with our veterinarian Dr. Bill Stone who suggested an MRI based on his findings.  We now know exactly what we're dealing with, and as Adrienne Lyle expressed so well in an interview last year:

"He [Wizard] sustained a bruise to his coffin bone.  We went and got that MRIed, and they said he should have two to four months off.  We ended up giving him more than four months because we wanted to make sure he was 110 percent.  We didn't want to start him back, find out it was still there and then have to give him more time off.  He was tack walking the whole time, but it just takes a long time for a bone bruise to heal.  It's something that heals 100 percent-- you don't have to worry about it later-- but you have to give it the time."

So time is what we're giving to Rijkens.  He is definitely a horse worth waiting for.

My first visit there, TAMU campus was interesting in its own right:

TAMU large animal clinic, Rijkens in foreground:

 

The place was amazing.  The doors below that look like mouse holes were for people.  All the other doors were 10 feet tall and opened wide enough for a carriage to drive through:

A TAMU large animal veterinary ambulatory vehicle from the 1950s:

The appendage of interest.  They scrubbed his feet so clean they were almost white.  Dr. Chad Marsh MRIed both front limbs from the bottom of the hoof through the cannon bone:

When your babies are down, even for a short time and a very good reason, it ages you:

Don't you just hate those hospital gowns that tie in the front?  Rijkens waking up healthy, if hungover, in his hospital attire:

The detail an MRI shows is amazing:

Why yes, I believe that IS the emblem for SuperHorse:

Prescribed treatment for Rijkens is: put regular steel shoes on to support the coffin bone, NSAIDs for fourteen days, and up to 90 days rest from work.

As Adrienne Lyle so aptly put it when this same scenario happened to her own horse last year:

"It just needs a little bit of time," said Lyle.  "He'd been schooling so well before, so it's disappointing.  But that's horses.  There's never a good time for an injury."

The plan is for Rijkens to continue to be turned out at our home base of Twinwood Equestrian Center, and we can start tack walking next week.  

Jan Ebeling Clinic March 2014

Before I ever picked up the reins, Jan asked me how things were going.  I told him it was going very well, that I had been doing well showing just a couple of times at fourth level, and that I'd like to take a break from showing to focus on training to ready myself for Prix St Georges and then resume showing at that point. 

Jan emphatically told me that showing is part of the overall approach to my training, that I should continue to show at fourth level until I'm ready to go out and conquer at PSG.  He said that show butterflies never completely go away (he would know, he's shown all the way up through the Olympics!), and we as riders must keep going to shows until it is second nature to continue to grow our confidence.  Nothing can re-create a show experience, not even braiding and wearing show attire at home; nothing is quite the same for taming show nerves as riding often at actual shows in front of real judges. 

In our warm up we schooled shoulder fore in trot and canter, and Jan said I must do lots of transitions both between gaits but as importantly withing gaits as well.  Working, collected, medium, extended walk trot and canter every day, every ride, thousands of times in a week.  And by thousands per week he was NOT exaggerating.  The response to my giddyup aids must be prompt, crisp and when I give a driving aid it can be strong, but then I must sit there and let the horse do his job of carrying me and himself forward.

To improve canter pirouettes he had me do the following exercise, in addition to riding transitions in the canter from schooling canter to medium canter and back again.  Bring the horse onto a ten meter circle between the quaterlines.  From working canter go to four steps of medium canter then four steps of collected canter.  Spiral the collected canter in to a pirouette in school canter, remembering to keep the rein aid VERY LIGHT while the horse is in collection.  The aids should become lighter and lighter in the collected pirouette canter.  Rijkens has to maintain as much energy as a medium canter, but doing so while in a school canter.  Riding those thousands of transitions weekly will facilitate this access to medium canter level of energy as the horse becomes more and more prompt and obedient to my aids.

It was exciting to hear Jan talking about his plans that will include the upcoming WEG in Normandy, France!

 My barn buddy Carla, the Percheron cross Gryphon, and Jan:

 My barn buddy Maddie, the PRE Sandalo, and Jan:

The Holsteiner Rijkens, Jan and me: