After the Show

Well the bad news - Cupid seems to have an abscess brewing.  But he's walking ok, and at least we made it through the show first!

We took the day after the show off, just lots of hand grazing and telling Cupid how proud I was of him.

Eating grass

And moss, weirdo

On Monday we had a very nice ground driving session, complete with a few perfect left lead canter departs!  This continued in our lesson on Tuesday.  Since Cupid was so good about doing what I wanted on Saturday, I thought we should do something he enjoys which is jump.  It's probably been about a month since we jumped, so we kept it easy.  We started going through a set of trot poles a few times each direction.  Then we trotted through the poles, turned right and picked up a canter, and went over a cavaletti.  We continued with a change of direction on the diagonal, with a good trot change and circled around to a second cavaletti.  We kept it to just the trot poles and two cavaletti (ending on the highest setting), and Cupid got each left lead through a trot change.  I guess I don't overthink it as much when I'm jumping a course!  My position felt more secure and Cupid more rateable from all the flatwork we've been doing.

Wednesday I was planning a light walk/trot ride.  Cupid was a little fresh in the outdoor, and I could feel the beginning of an abscess brewing.  Not lame yet so we still did a bit of trotting until Cupid settled down and focused a bit.  Around that time the tractor came to drag the ring so we had to leave anyways, and ended the ride with a walk around the property.  I packed Cupid's feet.

Thursday I could feel a little heat in his right front foot.  He was not lame though, so I packed his feet and he got turned out.

Heading to turnout (Cupid on the left)

Friday his hoof still felt a little warm.  We had a lesson scheduled, so I told my trainer to take it easy.  We did a lot of walk work and ended up with a bit of trotting.  We focused on forward and straightness.  It's raining again and my weak right hand was hurting a bit so it was harder than usual keeping my fingers closed.  Afterwards I gave Cupid an epsom soak, and wrapped his leg with an animalintex poultice.  Due to the weather the horses aren't getting turned out anyways.  Hopefully this foot thing clears quickly!

Oh here's a video from the show of our second test: https://youtu.be/WaLPYlYeXYU