Tonight was a lesson on Jimmy @ Heide's. He was great, as always. I...wasn't. Which is the core of our problem: me. WARNING: This post will be in fragment-sentences.
He didn't want to load, typical. Then he loaded & as he got off the trailer Steve said he took a weird step and looked stiff. I tried to ignore it. I tacked him up and got on him, while he was still warm and shaky from the loading incidents. I tried to ignore it. I got on & he seemed a tiny bit stiff, but he seemed to be working out of it, so? I tried to ignore it. Then when we were jumping I missed at least 50% of the spots and just rode like total doo-doo. Jimmy, un-phased, kept truckin'.
He loaded well coming home. Abnormal, but good. He stood still for his bath. Abnormal, but good. He was fine while I rubbed down his legs, normal and good. He kicked me while I was wrapping the final leg. ABNORMAL and BAD. (he was thoroughly punished)
Steve said we might need to consider putting shoes on him "sometime soon" because he's getting a minor case of "jumper toe". That made me nervous.
Heide said he needs to be "fuller" through the barrel and she'd like to see him shed out faster & have a shinier coat. That (for whatever reason) also made me nervous.
All these things have now piled up and I'm losing my mind! He colicked this time last year & I'm not sure if it's that which I am a ball of nerves about or what. Maybe it's that when I was at this point in the year with Doobie he had his injury (6 long years ago)... I don't know what it is. But I feel like Jimmy is trying to tell me something and I have been too stubborn to listen. I will not be showing this weekend, nor at all this summer most likely. I don't have a solid feeling about Jimmy's health and although there is little to no reason for me to feel this way, I think he and I have a connection on a stronger level and he has been trying to tell me something for a while.
So, we will work on flatwork and spoiling him, because those are two things lately that make me the happiest with him. I don't want him to be stressed, so a little pampering throughout the next few weeks will help both of us.
I love him so much.
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