Bad News

Well the bad news from me is that I am now in plaster! After 4 weeks of hobbling around and still barely able to put weight on my left foot to rise to the trot I decided I had better go see the Dr about it. I came out in plaster. It seems that when Finn jumped on my foot he managed to break two bones. No wonder its been so painful! So now I am completely out of action. I am still able to get around enough to lunge both horses a few days a week but thats about it for them for a while. Sadly my achilles specialist is thinking I may need be put in a moon boot for a month on that leg too so when my next appointment comes up in 2 weeks I may be in plaster on one leg and a moon boot on the other. Now won't that be a pretty look!
Good thing is that its winter. I was tossing up about doing the winter series anyway so now the decision has been taken out of my hands. My achilles has been giving me a lot of pain since January and has really affected my riding so maybe its time to get it sorted properly. Sadly Pumpkin was really only starting to work well again after his long break and now will be off again! Not what he needed.

Waitemata Dressage Autumn Day 2

Finn has almost recovered from his clipping ordeal. Hes been tight and tense in the back for the days after but by comp day he was nearly 100% again after 3 daily massages. This was to be his first reg Novice start and we decided to do the Prelim 1.5 as our last prelim and as a leadup to the relatively easy Novice 2.1. Don Diego the reigning Prelim Horse of the Year had the same plan so we were up against some stiff competition. I was pretty pleased with the Prelim test. He was just a little heavier in the hand than I would have liked but good enough for 3rd place.
The Novice test had some seasoned Novice horses in it as well as a few newcomers like us and Don Diego. It was a pretty pleasing test with him still getting a bit heavy and tense and we were very happy to finish in 4th place. We just have to get some more strength in his trot and we will be away. Because Finns tests were running late I had to really fly to unsaddle Finn and saddle up Pumpkin to be ready for being first up in the Elementary. Pumpkin does not like rush and our hurried half hour warmup told in our tests. My leg was also really starting to give me hell and sitting trot was murder. He was 3rd in the 3.5 but with only a 56.4 %.
5th in the 3.1 with 57.2 Horrible percentages! Theres still lots of ground to make up with Pumpkin to get him back up to speed again. Hes still tending to dive on the forehand as hes still not regained his strength. The plan is to get him out to do some Showhunter so hopefully that will help out with his restrengthening.