Camas Creek Canter

Ok, so I didn't have a horse with me, but Matt and I did make the drive over to Potomac and hiked the "blue trail" - which was 9 miles of the LD distance. I took a ton of photos so I will have a story and report on the 'ride' soon. :) I MUST return with a horse for this ride in the near future!

Decision Time

Well today was the last day to observe Sinwaan before deciding if we would be making the trek to the Camas Creek Canter in Potomac, Montana.

I have been religiously going out twice a day to soak and hose down his legs and reapply the oiuntment to both help him heal and to keep the flies off his banged-up knees.

Thankfully, Cassandra Berube was out to the barn to work with some other horses there and Cindy offered to trot Sinwaan out for her to get another opinion. Cassandra has completed Tevis and understood what I was up against in making this decision.

I got the phone call at work and saw Cassandra on the caller ID. I held my breath, but knew deep down what she would say. She hesitated and told me she had some sad news.

Trotting straight, she said he looked sound but as soon as Cindy turned him to the left she saw a misstep. So she asked for the same thing again. Sound going forward, and another misstep to the left. She then took the lead and lounged him in a tight circle to the left and it was obvious to both of them that he was lame.

I had felt some heat in his left fore that morning when I was out to soak his legs, so I was already thinking I wouldn't be taking him, but I hadn't trotted him out.

Cassandra related to me that Cindy had told her "you be the one to call her, I'm not delivering the bad news!" Ha ha. I had to laugh over that, and assured both of them that it was really not the end of the world for me, I wasn't surprised at their conclusion.

I am appreciative to everyone who has come by and looked at him for me and offered advice and support. Thank you all, I love you ladies! :)

Oh, and I quit the team. Call me superstitious but this is the third ride this year that hasn't worked out since I joined a team. There are still a handful of rides I could try for. Here's hoping...

Bummed out

This morning I went out the barn for a last conditioning ride this week before we head to Montana on Thursday. I had planned to work in the round pen for about 10 minutes before the ride but because it took me so long to get my saddlebags back on and the HR monitor on, etc, well - time got away from me and we just headed out for our usual 6 mi ride on the roadside. I wanted to be back before it got too hot.

I started working with him right off the bat as we headed down the drive, asking him to bend and soften and I did feel a little progress already, he was very willing and wanting to please me today. It was easy to ride out on a loose rein.

I had brought out my GPS and was wearing it so I know that not even a mile in, 0.89 mi to be exact, Sinwaan tripped, slipped, scrambled and completely fell down, in a section that I would consider easy. I don't know what happened but it was not good. I was trying to decide if I needed to bail off or stay on, well I ended up staying on him and he got back up to his feet quickly but then he was holding his left fore off the ground and not wanting to put weight on it. I dismounted immediately to look him over and he still was just hanging his foot out in front of him. I was pretty worried about him now. We were close enough to home to walk back, but would he do it?

I waited for a car to pass and then turned him back and started off on foot, leading him. He came along willingly and started putting weight on his leg. I was relieved by that. After a couple steps he seemed pretty sound at the walk. His knees were banged up pretty bad, and he had a spot on his fetlock (on the hurt leg) that was bleeding - I suspected he clipped it with a hind when he fell down and that is what was causing him the pain.

On the walk home I realized my heel was hurting pretty bad, I guess after 4 years it's time to replace my ride shoes!

When I got him back to the barn I hosed off his legs and he looked ok. I trotted him out and he was favoring the left fore still. Cindy came out and I showed her his wounds and she had a better ointment then I did for them so we doctored him up and she promised to keep me updated. She noticed some swelling on his knee.

At this point I am so discouraged. He could be sound by Wednesday, but then will the long trailer ride to Montana make him lame again? It is a lot of money to spend on gas to haul him there only to have there be a question of if I get to ride. I was so looking forward to this ride!

The day started off so well. His HR was 37 when I tacked him up. I have been working on getting everything together. I had Matt help me with his electric fence charger last night and got that working again. I replaced the worn out shoelace on my boots and washed out my buckets. So much prep and so little time.

Now we wait and see...

Preparations...

Predicted weather for the Camas Creek Canter, looks pretty good!

Today I printed out the PNER entry form and AHA form, filled them both out, wrote out my check to the RM, printed the directions and information for the ride and started thinking about what to unload from my horse trailer to make room for the things I will have to have.

Cassandra and AVMC

Today I met Cassandra out at the barn to see her work with Sinwaan. She showed me some techniques to help him bend and flex and soften up on the bit. She was glad to see he had retained what she taught him on Monday and said he was doing much better today. Everything she showed and taught me was very helpful and I plan to apply it as soon as possible to see what kind of difference it makes for us both on the trail.

After the lesson, I hauled Sinwaan in to AVMC for his traveling papers. Dr Sarah Campbell met us for the appointment. She took his temp and drew blood for a coggins and her assistant worked on a health certificate and I was happy that it was under $100! My mom's Explorer did a good job hauling my trailer and I am really getting excited now about the Montana ride since it is looking like it will happen!! Still more details to work out but the major part is looking positive.

Trainer

Today Cassandra rode Sinwaan for the first time. I think she has some things to show me!

Early ride

It's been hot here this past week but high winds yesterday cooled everything off. All was still and calm this morning at 5 am so I headed out to the barn for a ride before work. It was chilly enough for me to wear a jacket on the ride. Sinwaan was slightly mischievous the first mile (as expected) but soon settled in and set a good pace. We did our 6 miles in 1 hr 10 min and had no trouble. Not a lot of traffic that early in the morning, which was really nice. The sun was coming up and it was a real treat to see it from horseback.

After I got back to the barn and un-tacked a breeze kicked up. Quite the timing!

I am currently trying to work out all the details to get Sinwaan to Potomac, MT for a ride the end of this month.

4th of July

Fourth of July ride! Cindy thought I was nuts for riding on this holiday but since I went out in the morning on back country roads I wasn't too worried about fireworks.

I got out to the barn later than I had planned in the morning and it was already getting quite warm.

We did encounter a large semi-truck coming at us on the first hill climb. The shoulder in that section is very soft and a drop-off so I didn't waste any time dismounting. The driver of the truck was very polite and crept towards/past us at about 5 mph. After that I got back on and we continued. At the end of Forest Rd Sinwaan spied two deer in the pea field and we watched them bound away.

We had another big truck barrel towards us at the end of Froghollow but we had ample room to get off the road so it wasn't a problem there.

We had a nice ride but I got a sunburn on my shoulders since I wore a tank top today. I hosed Sinwaan off and let him graze until he dried.

6 miles

Rode the 6 mile loop this morning and enjoyed the cooler weather. Sinwaan did great.

We had a Raccoon sighting as one ran towards us in the road a couple hundred feet but soon noticed us and scampered off into the bushes.

He is getting fat on all the growth in his paddock. Starting to develop a dimple above his tail. So my goal is to ride 2x a week up until our planned endurance ride on July 23. At the moment we have some questions about transport so I hope it all works out! Even if it doesn't, I guess the exercise will be good for him to work off some of that weight.