Horsey and Maine Update (Photo Heavy)

so, it's been a while since I've been on.

Barney is now 16, I did have 2 girls sharing/part loaning him for a while (if anyone remembers?) and that ended in December 2016. since then, I've been riding him myself and we've done a bit of dressage and not as much jumping.

he went lame about 8 weeks ago, at first it didn't look like he was really off, and his feet were overdue so I got his feet done (which took nearly 2 weeks) and he still hadn't come right, so the vet came out. he was diagnosed with arthritis in his coffin joint in his left front. he's been treated with steroid injections, and if they work he'll hopefully be able to be back doing what he was before. I don't know if he'll be able to jump as big as he did (and he was only really jumping 80/90cm at most) or if he'll be able to jump, but he seems to be doing much better and the injections seem to have started to work. I'm finding him quite hard to ride as he's getting really wound up and unsettled as he's excited to be out and back in work, and we're only doing walk and trot lol

he is also getting his feet done today, to try natural balance shoes. his feet are due and he seems to be a wee bit off behind so I'm hoping that's just to do with his feet and I'm not going to have another big vet bill D:

anyway, pictures! the dressage photos are probably the oldest, as I don't have many recent photos.

as he's a trotter, we only do intro dressage as he can't canter 'normally' lol

we got our lowest score for this test, and I thought it was actually quite harshly marked.

for christmas, he got fairy lights in his mane :P

being silly on the lunge :P

our highest dressage score, where he managed to score a 9 for his free walk (I don't have as many photos of the actual test though) I was also really pleased as I was really, really unwell and had bad tonsillitis. I hadn't been able to ride all that week, and very nearly didn't do it. that's why I look like a zombie lol

and I don't have many photos of us jumping, especially as I haven't really been doing much jumping with him even before the arthritis was diagnosed too. but I do have a video (let me know if it isn't working!)

we then had our dressage league finals, we got a 6th in the test and a 3rd overall which I was super happy with. 

especially as I came off before the test started lol, he spooked at the judge putting the car window down so I could give my name and went from halt to leap-in-air-360 spin-teleport-across-arena and I landed in a heap. I think I've possibly damaged my shoulder as it still goes into spasm and I had a dead arm for the whole day (as well as a big brown stain on my breeches and sand covering my boots)

and then there was one day I came in and he was an absolute mess, I couldn't believe it. he was coated in his bedding (he's on pellets) from literally head to toe.

we'd started lunging and riding in a bungee too, which I really like using, to try and get him working round and from behind a bit more. it was going really, really well (and it was also really wet in the lunge pen lol)

and then he went lame :( this is after he got his injections done (there is a little blood, for those who don't like blood) and he was sedated too which is why he's all sleepy

aaaaand then, one of our first rides post injection! he's been coming a lot rounder, but he's taking so long to settle and really hotting up now that he's being too busy looking at everything to be really concentrating and coming round.

and he also got a pair of A&J Boots! They're not magnetic as I couldn't find magnetic boots with magnets that went down far enough to really help him, but they're fluffy and I think they've made a big difference as his legs aren't as puffy in general and they're giving him a bit of extra support. 

aaaaaand to finish the post off, I got to meet this handsome man ;)

(he's actually an Irish rugby player, and is now my second favourite after Ian Madigan lol. he plays for Leinster and Ireland and is only like 23, and I didn't have anything for him to sign as I only had my Ulster Rugby shirt as they're my team hehe)

I honestly love image heavy posts..but, I'm quite disappointed. None of the pictures will show, for me at least :( I'm trying to find a way to open them XD

None of the photos are showing for me either...

Yeah their not working for me either!! 

hmm, that's really odd. 

they were working fine when i made the post in the preview. 

i wonder if it's because the image was uploaded through facebook? not sure. i'll try fixing it. 

Photos aren't working for me either. It says I don't have permission to view them. I'm guessing your profile is set to private.

It's a Facebook thing...

oh, really? it used to be if you could get the image source you could use them.

right, I'll have to go and find some other way of posting them without having to save and upload them to imgur.

Yeah. My personal profile is public and my horse's page (attached to that profile) is globally public as well. When I was doing my update post the images hotlinked from his page did the same thing.