Critique my AQHA Hunt Seat Equitation

[beau159]

Ohhhhhhh, shucks. Bad news folks. I won’t be showing my horse at the show this weekend.

We went to a barrel race over the weekend, our first outing, and I could feel something was wrong with his back end during our run on Saturday, and confirmed it by watching our video. Afterwards, I did a PEMF session on him and contemplating in my head on scratching his Sunday run, since he didn’t feel right. I took him over to the grass to graze for a bit before putting him back in his pen, and there was a ton of blood running out of his right nostril, followed shortly thereafter by his left nostril.

He’s never been a bleeder, he didn’t have any respiratory distress at all (coughing, breathing hard, etc) so I don’t know what’s going on. I communicated with my vet immediately and I picked up antibiotics yesterday for him and I am on her schedule in 10 days. In recent weeks, we have been affected by the wildfire smoke wafting down from Canada so I wonder if that had anything to do with it??

So of course I am so bummed that I can’t ride him in the show this weekend and go for the all-around saddle. Danged horses!!! I have been looking forward to this show for 6 months! Boo.

[jvanrens]

So sorry that happened! It’s not that common for bleeders to actually bleed our of their nostrils IME at the track even. I hope you can get him treated and healthy soon.

[Paint_Party]

Oh, I’m so sorry. Know you were planning on aiming for that saddle.

Hope he does well on the antibiotics. Glad you have a vet appointment to follow up. Sending Good Vibes Jingles!

[beau159]

@Paint_Party

Hope he does well on the antibiotics. Glad you have a vet appointment to follow up.

I am hoping it was literally a random nosebleed of unknown cause, and that we can just carry on after a few weeks of no riding (or whatever the vet determines). He seems 100% fine!!!

Thankfully he is such a good boy about taking his medicine twice a day.

[Paint_Party]

Are there any competitions that seem alluring later on in the year? Hopefully you can set another goal.

[beau159]

@Paint_Party

Are there any competitions that seem alluring later on in the year? Hopefully you can set another goal.

This was really the only AQHA I had planned on attending this year. We do have one in conjunction with our state fair in July. Honestly, my horse did REALLY well last year [won quite a few of the classes] so I kind of feel like “Okay, he accomplished that so I’m good with that.” I hadn’t planned on going to that one this year. They don’t really have much for prizes at that show anyway. It’s more just to show.

The only other AQHA show that might be worthwhile is in September but I have never gone to it because it is always the same weekend as a big barrel race (and let’s face it, I’ll pick the barrel racing!!).

There is a non-AQHA ranch show that I’ve never gone to in August. We’ll see.

I actually put his saddle up for sale last night, that I use for the ranch horse showing. If I go to the August show, I can just use his barrel saddle. If I end up doing this saddle show next year, maybe I"ll find another saddle. Or have my other horse ready enough to “go for it” and show her instead. We’ll see. That’s a long ways off.

[Paint_Party]

I understand. It’s several months until my next show, because I lacked any enthusiasm to join the barn on its trip to Tulsa for Pinto World, and then to Idaho. So it looks like I’ll be hauling out and trail riding in the mountains and forest this summer. Which I’m sure my horse will enjoy!

[erinmeri]

@beau159

We went to a barrel race over the weekend, our first outing, and I could feel something was wrong with his back end during our run on Saturday, and confirmed it by watching our video. Afterwards, I did a PEMF session on him and contemplating in my head on scratching his Sunday run, since he didn’t feel right. I took him over to the grass to graze for a bit before putting him back in his pen, and there was a ton of blood running out of his right nostril, followed shortly thereafter by his left nostril.

He’s never been a bleeder, he didn’t have any respiratory distress at all (coughing, breathing hard, etc) so I don’t know what’s going on. I communicated with my vet immediately and I picked up antibiotics yesterday for him and I am on her schedule in 10 days. In recent weeks, we have been affected by the wildfire smoke wafting down from Canada so I wonder if that had anything to do with it??

I would have him scoped. We have one from our farm currently at New Bolton for guttural pouch mycosis. My vet recommends urgent scoping of all bleeds to rule out guttural pouch mycosis. I own a bleeder, she only has had bleeds during exercise… not after, ie not while grazing.

ETA: with my EIPH horse, all except one bleed was also accompanied by deep coughing, as per my recollection. We did scope her to be safe, and did a BAL, which diagnosed the EIPH. (ETA2: GPM can cause coughing, apparently as well…)

[beau159]

Well, we didn’t scope him. We have bigger fish to fry. He was so sore in his hind end (probably stifles like I suspected, left hind much worse) and he was actually sore on his front feet again (left front worse), that he practically didn’t know what leg to limp on when the vet was doing flexions.

Fortunately vet didn’t find a tear or fluid or anything dumb like that via ultrasound, and all xrays looked as they should for him (no, not clean, but he is 17 and he has been dealing with issues for years, so findings were not unexpected). Vet and I decided to inject his stifles (2 on each one) and let that ride first and see how he does. I already injected his front feet in March so I wouldn’t redo that anyway. Plus, I kind of wonder if that’s secondary for his hind end soreness all of a sudden.

So even IF I can take him back to the pattern pen this year, well, we’ll worry about that later. Vet thought I could run him on Lasix yet there’s just the strange possiblity that maybe his nosebleed was just a freak thing. I could also be a side effect of the pentosan that I’ve given him for years.

I haven’t ridden him yet. I wanted to give the injections time to reduce the inflammation that’s there, and then start riding again next week and see how he does.

So… I took my other horse to a local horse show instead last weekend, and she got entered in everything. I’ve never done that with her yet. I’ve entered a class here and there, but never everything (hunter under saddle, hunt seat equitation, hunter hack, showmanship, western pleasure, horsemanship, trail, reining, barrels, poles, keyhole, and spur). I really was pleased with her in all the showing classes. Far from perfect, but I literally threw her to the wolves. I haven’t even put my English tack on her in about 8 months and we just threw it on and went. She’s a good girl.

I’m getting some videos uploaded of her. What the heck, I’ll post them. She’s a beautiful mover if I do say so myself. So fun to ride. She’s more on the anxious side of things, which was evident in some of the classes, but it’s okay - she’ll figure it out.

Unfortunately she’s also the horse I am struggling with some respiratory issues (I have another thread on her) so I scratched the last two speed events. She wasn’t recovering her breathing correctly after the barrels and poles. I’ve done her prescribed medications all week per the vet with the nebulizer, and we’re going to a barrel race tomorrow so we’ll see how she does.

I probably think I should make more of an effort to do more English stuff with her. I think it suits her!

[beau159]

Videos of my other horse:

One portion of her Hunter Under Saddle and another. (excuse my mother’s and children’s commentary, LOL) Far from perfect and she wasn’t real keen on her bridle, but I’m not mad at all. Because I honestly have not had my English tack on her for 8+ months. I seriously just threw it on that morning and off we went, so I was cool with whatever happened! We were pretty much there to “not run barrels”.

Our Hunt Seat Equitation. I deleted the picture of the pattern; otherwise I would post that too. But my videographer (my mom) missed the first part of the pattern anyway, so it’s okay. She is not one to spook but they literally were moving the poles onto the fence as I was going and they caught her eye and she put on the brakes at the lope. Can’t blame her for that. Even the judge made a comment to me later in the day but it is what it is!

And our Hunter Hack. Certainly not pretty at all (I cringe at her mouth) and she was still eyeballing those poles on the rail pretty strongly as we came around, but I was still super happy that she went over the jumps without hesitation because she’s never done a jumping class before, so I was very pleased overall. I again can’t blame her when I threw a snaffle in her mouth and we never ever ride in a snaffle.

[Paint_Party]

She is very pretty and seemed like she really tried to do her job. Is that tail all hers? It’s so long and thick!

That’s a really nice community arena. We had a few like that back in SoCal, with big shade trees and nice local shows. Nothing like that up here in my part of Arizona, which makes me sad.

I hope your boy feels better soon. It sounds like you’ve got some good input from your vet.

[beau159]

@Paint_Party

She is very pretty and seemed like she really tried to do her job. Is that tail all hers? It’s so long and thick!

Yes, it is all natural. She has amazing hair!! Good genetics I guess.

@Paint_Party

I hope your boy feels better soon. It sounds like you’ve got some good input from your vet.

I rode him last night for the first time since Memorial Day weekend. He feels a little bit better, but he’s still dragging that left hind. He didn’t want to hold his right lead either. Ugg, I don’t know what to do with him…

The chiropractor did help somewhat last time too, so I might see when he’s making his rounds again.