Hacking Soap out in walk to aid the recovery of his strained muscle is very dull so to kill two birds with one stone I invited my friend Shelly to hack out with me so that I could get both horses exercised, and have a bit of a catch up with her! Soap was feeling very michevious and as we were leaving the yard he decided that the little pony coming the other way was just too scary, and so he shot off back down the road bucking!!!! You can see the moment just before he turned tail in the pic above as he has hunkered down, and his legs are doing all sorts of things! I think he is in desperate need of some faster work to help use up some of his excess energy!
Jack was good though and his new aluminium wedge shoes are really doing the trick as he is much more free and loose in his stride now, so I am looking forward to stepping up his work load when I get back from holiday next week.

In order to speed up the recovery of Soap's sore muscle I called out Mel Gurdon NAVP. She is a top physiotherapist who has worked wonders on other horses I have owned in the past. Mel gave him a quick once over to asses him, and he seems to have already improved as he exhibited much less reaction to having the sore muscle manipulated than he did for the vet's visit on Friday 3 days earlier, which hopefully points to a quick recovery! Mel then proceeded to set up what basically looked like a horsey Slendertone on Soap! It is in fact a 'Muscle-Stim' machine which sends a small electrical pulse through the muscle creating a rhythmic muscle contraction which increases blood flow, prevents adhesion forming and helps to maintain good elasticity in the muscle fibre. You can see in the video below how much the muscles are pinging! Soap was very well behaved and seemed almost oblivious to the treatment!

Soap's Slendertone!

Soap enjoying his temporary easy life!

Unfortunately when I brought Soap back into work after Mattingley he seemed a bit unlevel. I had the physio check him over, and she agreed that he was a little out behind. Soon after the physio he was shod and suffered a bit of nail bind on his off fore! I have been icing his foot for the nail bind and putting him in a magnetic rug to help with his muscles post physio, but then his leg blew up! So completely baffled at what the problem was I called the vet. After flexion tests, lunging, trotting him up, testing the leg and foot for pain he finally came to a decision. It seems that sometime during his week off after Mattingley Soap slipped/fell over in the field and pulled a muscle in his off hind 1/4s. This explains why he was out behind, and being so naughty to ride as it was probubly sore to work properly on, and then working him on the Pessoa just made it worse! He didn't find anything on the leg that has swollen up, and put it down to a knock, so I am cold hosing that.
Sadly we have withdrawn from BCA BE90 this weekend and have to hack out in walk for 2 weeks to ease off the muscle, and then slowly start to bring trot, canter, and jumping back into his routine. This is a shame as it means we will miss most of the June, and early July events, but fingers crossed he recovers well and we can be back on track for August. My vet didn't seem to think it was anything major and as he is fit he should bounce back fast. He is due to come out and do Soap's flu and tet in 3 weeks so he will check him over again then.
It's lucky I have a spare! so watch this space for Jack updates as he will be getting out and about more whist Soap is recovering.

My laptop is doing its best to try and stop me uploading video but I managed to get it behaving long enough to upload my round at Mattingley. I was really pleased with the round as the rhythm was much better, and he got a good stride (not a flyer!) to each fence, even if we did end up with 3 down! He has fence 2 which I think is because he just ran on a little down hill, and then we get it together (despite him trying to snatch with his head into 5!) until the last 2 fences where he just became too strong and flat, and I am too late to check him. It's a step in the right direction and a different round from both of us compared to our first of the season.
Fence by fence we will get there...

To activate Soap's hocks and strengthen his back muscles so that he can produce a more active canter my SJ instructor Rosie Moss suggested that I work him on a Pessoa training aid. I thought ok I'll give it a go, until I saw the price! eBay to the rescue once again, as I found this fantastic seller who makes an exact replica of the genuine Pessoa for a credit crunch friendly price. Click here to see their version of the gadget
The instruction diagrams are very easy to read, and they have even colour coded the clips! I set it fairly loose in the 'competition position' to begin with so that he could work out what to do without rushing or getting stressed. After a short while walking and trotting on both reins I tightened the aid so that it came into effect. He was a bit befuddled about the whole thing to begin with, and I think it worked his brain muscles more than any other! After a few circles he got the idea and quickly dropped into a fab even, soft, regular trot, with a much bigger action from behind than normal.
I swapped reins and did a further 10mins on the right rein, and then finished. I was really pleased with him, and how quickly it changed his way of going for the better, so now I can't wait to get on and feel the results for myself. I plan to use it for between 15/20mins 1 to 2 times a week on Soap to encourage more hock action, and on Jack to get him to work from behind rather than pull himself along with his forehand.

Last Sunday was a very rare non-horsey weekend, 4 friends and I took part in the Cancer Research Race for Life 5k run. It was a glorious hot sunny day, which made my desire to run about even less! We all completed and I came home in under 35mins which I was quite pleased with for my first ever (and probubly last!) 5k, and best of all we raised over £1000 in sponsorship.
After this Soap and I had a mini holiday, he switched round to being stabled during the day and out at night and feeling generous I gave him a week off to recover from Mattingley, big mistake! The combination of too much free time and spring grass seems to have turned him loopy! My calm and collected tb is now a crazed spooking jack in the box! Oh well...
My new Pessoa-esque training aid arrived last night so I am going to work him in that later, and on Saturday weather permitting we are off to our first SJ schooling session at Hoplands, I can't wait! If he's not too tired I might also put him through his paces on their gallop track! Hoplands have done a fab little piece about GHE on their news page, and I have persuaded 'camera 1' to come along on Saturday too so expect lots of photos of our day next week!