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Not-So-Speedy Dressage

From Endurance to Dressage

Some Speedy Moments

1/11/2016

 
With the much needed rain, things have been a bit quiet, but there were a few little things that happened over the week.

Speedy Moment #1
Speedy has always been really good at knowing when I am due at the barn. Even at the last barn we were at, the barn manager would tell me he knew when I was coming because Speedy would start looking for me. My current barn owner says the same thing. She says that she always knows when I am just about to pull in, especially if I am driving my truck, because Speedy starts looking down the road.

The day after I bought my new car, I pulled into the barn only to be met by a disinterested butt. Speedy didn't even glance my way. When I opened the door and called his name, his head snapped around and he looked at me in surprise. That happened for a few days. A week later, he has started to recognize that I am driving something different.
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I park really close to the barn, so he sees me as I pull in and get out.
Speedy Moment #2
I am giving Speedy the official title of World's Cleanest Gray Horse. This is what his paddock looks like right now ...
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It's clean and dry inside though.
This is what he looked like when I pulled him out of his stall for a hand graze. I didn't touch him with a brush or even swipe his back with my hand. Check out his feet and legs. They aren't even muddy and he is pooping and peeing OUTSIDE! How is this possible?
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The other side is exactly the same!
Speedy Moment #3
This one is not so good, but it's not the end of the world either. I didn't go to the barn on Tuesday because it was pouring rain. When I got there on Wednesday, I immediately saw that Speedy was quite lame at the walk. My heart sank, and all I could think was again?!?!? We've been down this road the past two winters.

Each time, it has started out exactly the same: we have a great ride, I don't come out the next day, and then he's grade three lame at the walk. The first year it showed up, we went to Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center, a premier sport horse hospital on the central coast. Without an MRI, and based only on x-rays, Dr. Carter Judy had to make a best guess diagnosis which was either a deep abscess, a bruise, or problems with the collateral ligament. I went the safe route and treated Speedy for the ligament (hand walking and stall rest). Within days of coming home with the diagnosis, Speedy was sound for more than a year.

The next spring, the lameness reappeared in exactly the same way. For that occurrence, I took him to my own vet who questioned the collateral ligament diagnosis. He felt the lameness was indeed bruising caused by the way Speedy was shod. It took a few months to figure it out, but my new farrier eventually found extensive bruising around Speedy's hoof wall and recommended that he go barefoot. Speedy was whacking his front feet with his hinds, and after pulling his shoes, he immediately went sound and has been since last June.
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Bad ponies get tied up.
So when I showed up this week to see the exact same lameness, I was definitely disappointed, but at least I know what is probably going on. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been turning Izzy out every other day over at Laurel's. Speedy HATES this. He screams and races around his small paddock whacking the wall that you see in the photo above.

He doesn't get to do this for very long as I ride him while Izzy is turned out, but it was apparently enough to make him sore. Since Tuesday, he's been on 2 grams of Bute, and I tie him up like you see in the photo while I turn Izzy out.

The very next day, he was markedly improved, and by Friday he was at least 95% sound at the walk and eager to trot out. If this round of lameness is anything like the past two, he should be sound enough to ride in a week or two.

There is never a dull moment with Speedy!
lytha
1/11/2016 06:31:53 am

Naturally clean is perfect for you, cuz you don't love grooming, I think you mentioned.

I saw TWO of your cars now! One in cream, and one in black with red trim. Sassy!

I feel terrible but I have to tie up my donkey when I leave her to go riding, because she paces/stall walks. Left outside, she paces until she damages the geotiles. Locked in a stall, she poops, pees, and stall walks until the gooey green mess is dripping from all 4 walls. Tied up with hay, she paws, but doesn't damage anything. I feel so bad, but I always tell her, "The horse had to work. You just had to stand tied."

Bakersfield Dressage link
1/11/2016 12:23:50 pm

I don't mind quick and easy grooming, but I hate scraping off crusted mud. Speedy is a saint for staying so clean.

Now that you've seen two Jukes - you'll see them everywhere I imagine!

I don't feel bad about tying Speedy up - it's for his own good. He's actually a lot happier and more relaxed to be tied. Go figure. :0)

jenj
1/11/2016 06:49:09 am

#1. HOW DARE you change cars on him? Poor Speedy.
#2. I hate your clean horse a little. Both Paddy and Taran are Not Rideable Colors pretty much all the time.
#3. Damaging yourself is strictly not allowed, Speedy. No more of that!

Bakersfield Dressage link
1/11/2016 12:24:30 pm

Can you come and tell him that please?

Megan link
1/11/2016 10:57:50 am

I used Carter Judy when I took Rico down to Alamo Pintado for the MRI of his DDFT! He's awesome.

Hopefully Speedy recovers quickly from whatever is going on!

Bakersfield Dressage link
1/11/2016 12:25:36 pm

I really like Dr. Judy and have used him several times. As you well know, lameness is soooo frustrating, but the best healer seems to be time. Good thing it's free. :0)

emma link
1/11/2016 11:41:35 am

he and my little arab mare are definitely cut from similar cloth - she knows what it means when my truck and trailer pull out of their parking spot, and she's typically spotless when all other horses have to be chiseled out of their mud crusts lol. bummer about the lameness tho, hopefully he'll be back to 100% asap!

Bakersfield Dressage link
1/11/2016 12:26:11 pm

Go Arabs! :0)

Olivia link
1/11/2016 01:00:31 pm

If Speedy could come and teach my 2 palominos how to be so clean that'd be awesome. I spend so much time trying to brush mud off of them.


Comments are closed.

    About the Writer and Rider

    ​I am a lifelong rider. 
    I began endurance riding in 1996 where I ultimately completed five, one-day 100 mile races, the 200-mile Death Valley Encounter, and numerous other 50, 65, and 75 mile races. I began showing dressage in 2010.
    ​Welcome to my dressage journey.
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    Photo by Lori Ovanessian

    About Speedy G

    ​Speedy went from endurance horse to dressage horse. After helping me earn a USDF Bronze medal in the summer of 2020, he is now semi-retired. Speedy is a 2004, 15'1 hand, purebred Arabian gelding. His Arabian Horse Registry name is G Ima Starr FA.
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    July 2020 (PC AJSK Photography)

    About Izzy

    Izzy was started as a four-year old and then spent the next 18 months in pasture growing up. I bought him as a six-year old, and together, we are showing at the lower levels. He is a 2008, 16'3 hand warmblood gelding. His Rheinland Pfalz-saar International (RPSI) name is Imperioso.
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    March 2021 (PC Tess Michelle Photography)

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    National Rider Awards

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    USDF Bronze Medal - 2020
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    Speedy G - 3rd Level Horse Performance Award - 2020
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  • Home
  • About
  • My Horses
    • Horses
    • Imperioso
    • G Ima Starr FA
    • Sunshine
    • Nakota and Gideon
    • Corky
    • Sassy
    • Montoya DSA
    • Mickey Dee
    • Sydney
  • Show Results
    • 2022
    • 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017
    • 2016
    • 2015
    • 2014
    • 2013
    • 2012
    • 2011
    • 2010
  • Dressage Organizations
    • Dressage Organizations
    • Memberships
    • 2019 Dressage Tests
  • Local
    • Shopping List