It's Already Wednesday!!!

I have soooo much to do it's not even funny. Show is T minus 2 days away and I need to get a move on my packing. So this whole week has just been a balancing act of barn and work. AFter work last nite I literally raced to the barn to make sure I had enough daylight. I got Possum out and groomed him and gave him a once over. Ever since this funky left hind thing has been going on I've been hyper vigilent in checking everything over and making sure there are no changes or anything. Everything looked the same as it did before. I got him all dressed and took him in the outdoor arena. He was super lazy. I felt like I almost needed a crop to get him going. We spent a bit of time on his warm-up, lots of trotting and then cantering big circles so as not to put any early stress on that left hind. Basically my rides right now consist of really reading how he feels. My gut still told me that something wasn;t just right but I had nothing to base it off of. He was perfect and balanced cantering to the right, but still to the left I felt that slight compensation.

I decided to press on and trot some smaller jumps and really stay in tune with how he was feeling. He went right up to the jumps and did his job great. We started cantering smaller lines and he was steady and quiet and calm. After about 10 minutes I decided to throw a roll back in to the left. Right after the jump on the turn he lost his hind end lead. I cooled him out and decided to lunge him to see if I could see anything from the ground. I had asked everyone I could especially in the past few days to see if they could see anything going on with him. Even the barn owner and trainer couldn't see anything. I put him on the lunge and started to trot him out in a large circle. I could see that he wasn't striding up as much with the left hind and seemed to be picking it up slighter quicker than the right. Again, it's hard to see, especially when your trying to see something. Then I asked him to canter. This was the tell tale sign. With no rider to keep him balanced he was a mess. (Ok a mess in my mind, maybe not a mess to some people) He even started out cross cantering. ONce he did get the lead he quickly lost it. I ended the lunge session immediately. I went and talked to the trainer and he was to be given a gram of bute that night and put on MSM to help if there was any inflammation going on. She said that it definately did not look like stifle and she thought that it might be a slight muscle pull. We can't really know for sure, but it's really frustrating.

Possum isn't in any pain that I can tell. I know this horse inside and out and we communicate on a level that's kinda cool. He's not in pain, but it seems that it's more of a nuisance for him, like "c'mon leg, stop doing that" After untacking him I spent a good 10 minutes going over his entire body taking mental note of how everything felt and looked. Everything appeared to be fine. I touched his hind all over from rump to the bottoms of his feet and found nothing odd. I again washed his hind and legs down with liniment and popped him a gram of bute and started him on the MSM. I will not ride him the rest of the week until Saturday. Saturday morning before the show I'll lunge him and then ride him and make an asessment from that. We're only in 6 classes Saturday with nothing above 3ft. I just want to make sure my horse is 100% before we do anything. Keeping my fingers cross that it is just a sprained muscle or something and move on from there. I feel bad because he wants to keep riding and working, but I'd much rather be safe than sorry. As I let him back out in his paddok he trotted away and cantered, crazy horse, I told him not to do that, he looked back at me like "what's the big deal dummy?"

So with not riding my guy for the rest of the week I should have plenty of time to pack. Tonight we;re going to my parents to get the camper and for me to throw in a load of wash since our washer is dead. Tomorrow I will be cleaning tack and packing grain and hay and shavings. Getting all my equipment and supplies in their respectful totes and starting to make a list of all the clothes that I need for myself. I feel like I have a child and then some, having a horse is so much work, but I have to admit that I love it. I am psyched for a good time this weekend and I have faith that Possum will be 100% and rarin to go. Think good thought for us please!!

Well I think that's about it. It's a gorgeous day and the weather sounds good for the weekend!