Physio & life update - 01/07/24
- Bella Fricker
- Jul 2, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 23
A new week and actually a new month!
Despite not having endurance rides on the immediate agenda I have been quite busy with all of the horses and have been finding a good sense of achievement with Fern & Raine especially.
Yesterday, Chip & Fern both had physio which actually ended up falling a bit close to when they had osteopath, Christophe, just last week but I didn't want to cancel Siobhan. The osteo is brilliant but nearly impossible to pin down so I don't want to rely on him too much whereas Siobhan regularly comes every 6 weeks and that's a schedule I'd like to stick to.
Fern is definitely making such good progress and Siobhan has been instrumental to that as she's been consistently working with Fern for nearly a year now. Anyway, today was another good step forward and another person to reassure me that Fern is actually sound! It's been such a long time with intermittent lameness that I hardly believe it myself.
On Sunday, we went to our first riding lesson out since 2020! She was so well behaved and so relaxed that we even had our first trot under saddle in four years too! She was a very good girly and so I am really hoping we can continue to progress slowly but consistently.
My Granny did highlight that there's a local fun ride on the 17th August and it's only 8km (5 miles) with a 'Nervous and Novice' section which is for walk and trot only. So, if the next few weeks continue to go really, really well then I think I might even put my entry in for that! Eek!
I spoke to the vet last week about her new sarcoids too (which are particularly annoying as they are right on the girth) but Phil was confident we could try an imuno-cream due to their size and newness. Apparently this cream doesn't work well on old sarcoids or big ones.
Having spent so much on laser over the years I'm now starting to be sceptical if they are the right choice. It's such an invasive procedure and the recovery time is so long too.
It feels such a shame to have to stop riding her when she's just got going again but Phil also said that with this imuno-cream there shouldn't any reason to stop riding. He's coming this Friday so I will know more then.
Chip had some residual tightness in his pecks and his usual amount of tension in his loins (conformationally flawed being short-backed and croup-high) but nothing out of the ordinary or too concerning. All cleared within the treatment and Siobhan confirmed that he too is looking much sounder since the osteo treatment and importantly still moving nice and straight behind.
He does land very laterally behind but again this is due to his conformation and being cow hocked. It's just something we have to manage and luckily the Explora boots really do help with his landing pattern.
The plan at the moment is to take him to the 40km at Poplar Park on the 3rd August. Christophe was very confident that he is fit and sound and I should crack on with 80kms but I really feel that I need a confidence boost. There's also a chance my sister might come on her horse so we should be able to ride together which will be nice.
IF Poplar Park goes to plan then I think I will aim for the 80km CER at Three Rivers at the end of August. I haven't done this ride for years and years and I think it's a slightly technical route with quite a few stoney sections - but these shouldn't bother us in our boots. In fact, I think we will be quicker through those parts than shod horses as his soles are protected.
Mostly I want to go to Three Rivers because the organiser expressed an interest in hosting the Home Internationals in 2025 so I would like to ride some of the route and assess the venue and access links myself. As the host nation next year and as I'm the Chef d'Equipe of the England squad I do have a bit of a say in the venue choice so it would be good to weigh up all the options with more first hand experience.
Raine is proving to be the sweetest and most genuine youngster. I haven't made much progress with her this week at all as my sister has been on holiday and caring for an extra 5 horses at a different yard on top of my own has rather swallowed up a lot of time!
I knew this would be the case and so didn't put pressure on myself to do much with Raine. I also really truly believe in giving young horses 'half-terms' and with my own holiday coming up it was as good a time as any to give her a few weeks off.
My young rider friend Enya (11 years old) is here for a week in the summer holidays (though sadly this does in part clash with the Home Internationals in Ireland so I will be off to run my team there) but all being well Raine can do some more with Enya when she gets here.
So most of July Raine will not be doing much at all. We got up to riding independently with Chip as the lead horse down to the end of our lane and back though which is probably a really good note to end on. She was a little hesitant leaving our actual driveway but once out onto the lane was keen to take the lead which I thought was incredibly sweet!
I'm also still riding her bitless at the moment as I haven't had her wolf teeth taken out yet and the dentist advised that hers would be a problem. I will get onto that at some point but I also feel that whilst she is going okay bitless I might as well keep her like that.
Zest is of course not doing a lot at all! Though I must get organised and book her into her BEF Futurity Grading at the end of this month. Last year we missed her grading as I broke my wrist in the morning of travel (she was all plaited up and ready to go as well) so that was a huge shame and extra frustrating as it was the last grading of the season and we had missed the virtual grading cut off too. So this year I am going to one of the earlier gradings to account for any eventuality!
As for me, I've been doing okay though I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with the responsibility of so many horses whilst my sister has been away. Luckily, she is back on Thursday so not too many more days to go and I will have an easier time of it.
I am going on holiday myself on Sunday. My first holiday without a horse in 6 years! It will be the longest time away from my horses too as we are off for 10 days. I haven't ever spent so long without them since I was in hospital in 2021!
I'm not too sure how I'm going to feel about it in all honesty. I know they will be in good hands and my friend Fleur is planning to ride Chip for me whilst I'm away too so he can be kept ticking over.
I'm going away with my boyfriend and we are hiring a campervan to do the NC500 which is a 500 mile route around Scotland. I've never really explored Scotland so I'm really excited to have an active holiday - I don't do well laying by a pool as you can probably imagine!
We are also going to go via Tannasg Arabians which is a well-known Arabian stud in the UK. They breed pure bred Arabs and also more recently some Anglos. I think their eldest Anglos are three (so a year older than Zest) so I'm really looking forward to this part of the holiday especially.
Perhaps I can persuade my boyfriend to factor in some more horsey time whilst we are up there!
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