:)

Well, it's been more of the same, really. Little walky hacks, Hibiscrubbing her leggies and feeding her Budgens Value apples, ahaha.

She had a leisurely weekend moseying about in the field... although I did see her and Mayfly decided to have a bit of a moment and go charging about the field together on Saturday. :) So today we went for a bit of a longer hack, and had a short trot on the homeward stretch. Bonnie seemed to be feeling a little full of herself today as it was, she was being quite silly and spooky, so she was more than eager to go springing off into a power-trot, ahah. We only did a few strides, which she was not happy about and decided to do some kind of weird sidestep and drag me into a hedge... laddered my tights! (Yes, I do ride in shorts and tights, cos I'm cool! :D)

So providing she seems comfortable tomorrow, and in subsequent days, we'll be building up her trot work over the next couple of weeks.

Walky walky walky.

Well, Bonnie has been back on turnout again since yesterday, and she's seeming much more chilled about this walking out in a straight line business. Although we do still have quite a lot of spooking and trying to run off to deal with. Why does all the wildlife seem to emerge as soon as I set off for a hack?!

But yeah, we're starting to build up the walk work slightly so she is doing a bit more, before we start incorporating some short trots as well. Today we had our first longer walk, of just over 45mins. It was about as eventful as walking can be, with various pheasants and ducks and tarps and things to overcome. At one point I ended up having to get off because she decided she didn't want to walk past a flower pot or something and decided to put in a little rear! Which really really really can't be good for her hocks, so instead of battling to get her past it I just walked ahead of her and that solved all her issues with it. :)

Poor Bonnie.

I don't think she's enjoying her box rest immensely, but she's seeming a cheery pony regardless.

I took her for the first of her 'walking in a straight line' hacks for half an hour or so yesterday. She was as well behaved as I can really expect her to be, having been stuck in a stable for nearly a week. I just wish there was some way for me to make her understand that, despite the fact she is buted up, her hocks are still sore and could really do without her trying to jog off, or leaping up in the air as she crosses the little bridge.

I'd forgotten how dull handgrazing can be. :) I let her mooch about and eat the verges for nearly an hour yesterday, and 40 minutes or so today as I had to dash off to work. And I think I've still got a way to go I think with perfecting my bandaging technique... ah well, I suppose I'll be getting lots of practice!

She's home. :)

In all her bloody-legged glory, ahah.

Poor marey has got lots of shav-y bits gone on her hind legs, and they were a bit bloody from her injections in her hocks too. She seemed in pretty good spirits though, especially as I came bearing treats. :)

She's on box rest for the next two days, then hand-walking for five with controlled turnout, before I start slowly building up her workload in walk and trot. She's also on bute for a couple of weeks and a joint supplement. Oh, and she is being bandaged in her hindlegs overnight. It's all such fun.

But hopefully it will all be worth it and I will have a happy comfortable Bonnie in the end.

What a good little patient. :)

Well, Catherine kindly drove Bonnie to the vets yesterday so they could do the lameness assessment and things. She didn't seem particularly phased about being in a strange place, she went quite happily into her stable and started pulling faces at her neighbour. :)

After we'd dropped her off I just went back to school and waited for them to get back to me to let me know how it went. I got a text from the vet at about quarter to 9 in the end to say they'd just finished with her and she would ring tomorrow to tell me about things properly.

So I got a ring today whilst I was in my french lesson, ahaha. Basically, they did the nerve blocks and she is, like they expected, lame in both of her hocks. However, they also found she is also slightly lame around her near hind fetlock, so she will be having a scan to assess that further. They did x-rays of her hocks and there are some 'bony changes' but nothing too dramatic.

So the plan is, she gets some treatment for her hocks, then she will have a work programme to follow to give her the best chance of returning to full-ish work. But she can't have any injections in her hocks for 48 hours to reduce the risk of joint infection, so she is going to be staying at the vets until Thursday to have that done. Then hopefully she will be coming home Thursday afternoon. :)

So all in all, everything is seeming hopeful.

La, la, la.

I think Bonnie could get used to this sedentary lifestyle.

All she's done is eat haylage in her stable, graze in the field, and have a bit of a run around before doing some carrot stretches, begging, backing up and things in the arena.

I don't think she is complaining. :)

But, her lovely little lifestyle is going to be altered somewhat tomorrow, as she is off to the vet for her lameness assessment. I'll be accompanying her there, but I'm not sure yet whether I'm going to stay with her, seeing as I should really not skive school, and nerve blocks aren't that thrilling, hehe.

Fingers crossed, any conclusions drawn from what they do at the vets tomorrow won't be too doom and gloom-ish.

Nawww. :)

Bonnie seemed oddly pleased to see me today, I even got a greeting when I started walking to the field to go and get her and Mayfly in!

I was pleased to see she hadn't made herself too dirty today for once, but I still had some yummy muddy legs and feet to hose off and HibiScrub. The mud fever is starting to come back under control I think, there were no new scabs today although her skin does still look a bit pink and sore in places.

So after that, I figured I would just let her run about in the arena for a bit to stretch her legs, seeing as I couldn't be bothered to have any spooking battles again! But my silly horse was very reluctant to leave me, I ended up having to give her a little flick on the bum with a leadrope just to get her to trot off, and even then she kept turning and trying to trot in to me. She is very sweet but I would appreciate getting a chance to see her move! :)

I let her have a trot and a canter in both directions, then let her come trotting in for some love and carrot stretches. We did a bit of yielding, begging and backing up, and I've started teaching her to give kisses too, ahah.

Am going to have to pop up to see her again tomorrow afternoon as I have to get her passport and things to send to the insurance company to start making claims, uggggh. :)

So.

Well, the vet came to see Bonnie today.

And basically, she has confirmed our suspicions that the problem is likely to be in her hocks. So Bonnie will be going for a trip to the vets on Monday so they can do a full lameness assessment, nerve blocks etc. Then at least I'll know for definite what the problem is and what further action may need to be taken.

It seems like she might even have to have the same treatment as Mayfly had. Like Annabel said, they really are as bad as each other. :)

I just hope that this can all get sorted out, and I can have a happy comfortable Bonnie!

This weekend. :)

Well, yesterday I didn't do much with Bonnie, just gave her a trot up (seemed ok!) and a lunge. She was in a bit of a loopy mood on the lunge again, we had lots of bucking and silliness going on. Stupid horse kept spooking at a jump wing, then getting all freaked when I tried to stop her falling in on the circle with the lunge whip. I just can't win. :)

Then today, I had intended to hack, but as it was so windy I figured Bonnie would just been in a stupid mood again so couldn't be bothered to have to deal with her idiocy for an hour or so. :) So instead we just went up the track and back for a little warmup before doing a bit of schooling. She was in a bit of a weird mood today, she seemed very 'behind' my leg and wiggly and silly because she was spending most of her time spooking at EVERYTHING. So I didn't try anything too taxing because I knew I'd just get wound up with her, there's no use trying to achieve much when she's in a funny mood like that. But having said that, she was a lot better at adjusting her canter stride than when we last had a go. Getting a left bend from her was still quite a battle though, especially when she's trying to spook at a jump block to her right. :)

Bit of jumping. :)

So, I trotted Bonnie up again today and she seemed to have improved again with regard to her 'hip swinging'. But she did have more random chunks out of her and scabby mud fever-y bits. Hmm. :)

But anyway, I figured I would get on and have another go at getting her to do some decent 'bending' and altering her paces, seeing as Tuesday turned out to be more of a battle than I would have liked! She seemed much more willing to be co-operative today, although she definitely does find flexion much harder to the left. I'm finding that being more aware of my own position is really helping to encourage her though, and after a brief argument when I put my inside leg on to stop her falling in a little to hard for her liking, she was very good.

So after all that she seemed pretty chilled and to have loosened up nicely, so I figured I would do a little grid. :) We started it just as a few trotting poles to a cross pole, then changed it to a placing pole to a bounce, then added a little ascending oxer onto the back of it. We had a brief argument due to the fact that Bonnie seems to have it in her little head that as soon as we turn up to a jump, regardless of the time we may have spent establishing a nice, rhythmical, unrushed canter, she feels she just MUST zoom off. I just don't know how to make her understand that she jumps so much more nicely when she just takes it all a bit slower! But we did manage to finish on a good note, we found a happy balance between what we both wanted to do by me allowing her to have a bit more pace as long as she stayed in the same rhythm and didn't to the head up/falling through left shoulder thing she is so very talented at. :)

Well, after all that fun she can have a nice day off tomorrow. I guess we'll probably have a pretty leisurely weekend after this pretty intensive schooling we've done the last few times I've ridden. I might try and take her for a hack on Saturday to give her brain a break, then a bit of lunging on Sunday to finish off before the vet comes on Tuesday.

Windyyyy. :)

Bonnie was a bit of a loony today.

She was obviously having a whale of a time in the field because when she came in she had lot of cuts and scrapes all over from where she'd been running about being a div. I was actually quite worried when I went to pick her off hind out. When I put it down, I was like hmmmm, I shouldn't have all this blood on my hand. :) But I gave it a wash and it turned out to just be another tiny cut.

I did some severe leg scrubbing/scab removal this evening too, seeing as the mud fever seems to be making a comeback. Grahh.

But yeah, riding Bonnie was a bit of a fruitless exercise really. She was just in such a stupid mood, spooking and rushing and generally making life very hard for both of us. I was having a very hard time getting her to bend properly, because she was spending half of the time with her head stuck in the air and twisted to the outside snorting at things. :) But she finally chilled out and we managed to do a couple of decent circles on each rein in trot and canter, as well as doing the shortening/lengthening canter strides exercise Emma got us doing on Saturday. The best we managed was to extend to 9 and collect to 14 strides along the long side, which I don't think was too bad considering the battle I was having to just get her to stay on the track and not canter sideways away from all the 'scary' wings outside the arena!

But despite her silliness, she did seem a bit better when I trotted her up today than on Sunday. I videoed myself trotting her up seeing as no-one was about, ahaha. But yeah, from what I could see she seemed a little bit more comfy than she did on Sunday, none of the angry head shaking as she moved from walk to trot again. Which is hopeful? :)

Ooh, but I did book a vet appointment for her today. I'm skiving a day of school next Tuesday for it, so hopefully it will prove useful. :) She's getting her teeth done as well as getting him to have a lookie at her leggies. I get the feeling it will be leaving a nice void in my bank balance... hehe.

Doobeedoo.

Well, the good news is that Emma is very happy with Bonnie's progress so she is not going to be having such regular physio treatment anymore, but instead every couple of months. She's given me lots of ideas about how the way I ride has an affect on Bonnie's way of going, so I have lots to work before her next visit, particularly the way I use my body to ask her to bend.

However, the slightly bad news is that Bonnie doesn't seem to be perfectly sound at the mo. She is much more comfortable through her back etc. than she was, but when I'm riding I sometimes get the feeling she is having some discomfort in taking weight onto her back legs. For example, when I'm circling, particularly on the left rein, she will often trip with her back legs. And when Emma and Catherine were watching me ride her on Saturday they did say she did look a bit unlevel behind at times.

She's always had an issue with getting filled back legs in the mornings, particularly her near hind, but we're starting to think that there might be something else going on. Catherine trotted her up for me yesterday and she does seem to not 'swing' evenly with her back legs in the first stride or two of trot she does from walk.

So yeah, hopefully I am going to try and get a vet to come and have a look at her, and perhaps get some further investigation done if need be. She needs her teeth done anyway so it'll getting two jobs done at once I guess. :)