Holiday time for Chiara is now over although Fantom still has another week or so lazing around in the field and generally getting up to mischief.
All the horses have had their teeth checked and their vaccinations for flu and, where appropriate, for tetanus. Because of the worry about Chiara’s back being sore from the saddle no longer fitting her, she enjoyed a session with the physio and a thorough soundness check. She appears to be fine. Yesterday she had her shoes put back on and the saddle fitter came to fit her with a new saddle.
This was not quite as straightforward as you might expect as of course Chiara had put on some weight with her holiday and what might fit now probably wouldn’t when she regains her usual trim, honed look. I must admit it was wonderful to be on her back again even though it was only for about 5 minutes; I have missed riding her so much. The upshot is that her old saddle has been adjusted so that she will be comfortable for walking under saddle but once we are ready to do a little more she will need to have her new saddle fitted.
The plan now is for Chiara to do her basic conditioning in walk and the first trot stages by being led from one of the boys or by being walked in hand or, later on, by being lunged so this year will be a whole new approach to conditioning. Hopefully then the new saddle which I have chosen will fit her new, streamlined shape (fingers crossed).
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Dilmun and Wizard have been enjoying hacking and schooling sessions (actually I’m not sure Dilmun has really been enjoying schooling!) for the past few weeks and are fit and ready to do a pleasure ride. We had targeted the wonderful Lanhydrock Christmas Ride for them to have a fun outing and with this in mind, they were duly cleaned and decorated with tinsel and it was all systems go right up until the time to load them into the trailer. Our iniquitous Equi-Trek had other ideas and refused to open its ramp so no outing for the boys and hospital for the trailer.
Reflection time and I have reviewed Fantom’s successes and failures this year: a mild tie-up at Euston Park earlier this year then incredible success in the National Championships and, on balance, I have decided to have another year competing with him at the top level (he will be 18 next year). With this in mind I have a strategy. His propensity to tie up is obviously the issue. I believe this may be caused by one, two or all of the following: feed, travelling and excitement.
The feed one is relatively straight forward. I received advice from Feedmark’s Nutritionists and changed his diet gradually to a more fibre and oil-based one. However, I have found that this is OK up to a certain level when increased energy is required. I now keep to the regime up to the ride, especially immediately before and as soon as we get to the first vetgate (after the danger zone) Fantom is offered whatever he likes to eat and invariably chooses competition nuts although later in the race he moves back to fibre in the form of alfalfa and haylage.
The next thing is the travelling. Because we live in Cornwall, we typically have 7 or 8 hours of travelling to get to major competitions. This is not great for any horse as it is energy-consuming and potentially dehydrating as it is often hard to get a horse to drink whilst on a lorry or trailer. The ideal would be to allow 3 to 4 days’ recovery on arrival. This factor will probably be the hardest to take into account as it is often logistically impractical to arrive several days before a major competition.
Finally, I believe the adrenaline rush Fantom experiences at the start is a contributory factor to him tying up. Fortunately we have a plan for the future to combat this.
With action taken to hopefully remedy problems experienced this year and a plan to build on the good things, we are in a good position to go forward in 2019. Happy Christmas everyone!
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