Jump Training

For the last couple weeks I haven't been riding Apache due to his hock injury. Instead, I was riding Regent whose trooper was out of town. Regent is like an older, more mature version of Apache. He is very spirited by a little easier to control than Apache. Okay, a lot easier.

Today, I rode Apache for the first time since he was injured. We set up a fairly complex jump course in the arena and started out with Level 3 riders. Apache was horrible. He'd go over most of the jumps but he'd leap straight up into the air so that when we landed I was nearly bounced out of the saddle. He had a particular problem with jumping over some blue plastic barrels. It was brutal work and I was soon exhausted from trying to keep Apache under control. I decided to take a break while a couple of the other troopers worked their horses.

One of the obstacles we were working on was a bounce combination. It is a tricky jump as the poles are only 10 feet apart and the horse has to make the second jump without taking a stride. One of our troopers was working Cochise over this obstacle when disaster struck.

I was about to mount up Apache again to try and work him over the bounce myself but before I got mounted, Cochise had a bad wreck. He had hit the first pole in the combination and got his legs tangled up in it and then hit the second pole as well. He fell head first into the dirt, sending his trooper over his head. The trooper was unhurt and quickly got to his feet. Cochise got up too but he was shaky and clearly hurt. I feared he had broken a leg.

When I got to him, I could see that he had scrapes on his face and knees and was showing signs of lameness in his front left. I feared a knee injury but did not know how bad. I hitched a ride back to the stables and called the military vet and took the horse trailer back to the arena to load up Cochise. By the time I got back to the arena, Cochise was doing much better. He was walking without lameness but was still clearly in pain but I didn't know where.

The vet tech met us at the clinic and began taking Cochise's vitals. I had brought Apache along as a battle buddy for Cochise. While watching Cochise as we waited for the vet, we began to suspect a neck injury. Cochise would not lower his head to eat the abundant grass in the paddock we were in. He also wouldn't shake his head to shoo the flies off his face which he particularly hates. Since he couldn't lower his head to drink, I scooped water in my hands and held it to his muzzle so he could take a few sips. The vet tech gave him banamine to take some of the pain away.

Eventually, the vet arrived and took some x-rays. The quality of the images were not good enough to show any trauma but by then Cochise was starting to lower his head a little. The vet gave me some ointment for his scrapes and told me to give him bute twice a day for three days. By the time we left, Cochise was already starting to lower his head to eat grass. He is doing much better as I write this and already getting bored with pen rest. Cochise has had a tough year so far but he is a tough little horse. Hopefully, he will make a complete recovery.