Bad Day

So we had a bad day.

To be fair, I had a bad day at work first. And she did work very, very hard on Monday. I knew something was up when I took her out of her stall. She was just edgy and cranky. She didn't want to be curried, which for her is just bizarre. Even when she's a little sore, she leans into it. I went to curry her like usual and she shifted away. I put on her saddle and she was biting the air. I figured it was because the grain cart was going by, which certain didn't help. She was pretty darn ticked by the time we got in the ring. Had to wait on her dinner, her back was tight, it was cold, and she had to wait for ten minutes to go in the ring. The princess was not happy, and when the princess isn't happy . . .

She kicked out at another horse. No warning, didn't even pin her ears, just whipped out with a hind leg with some real intent. I asked for a lead change and got a spin and a good look at the dirt instead. She was grinding her teeth and just not happy. From the way she was moving and acting, we think her topline is sore from her dressage work out. She wasn't lame, but tight muscles in both hips and over the top of her neck. She was swapping leads behind, which usually isn't a problem for her.

We quit early and I wrapped her up in her cooler. It was a bad day, there was no point in pushing it. She was sore and cranky, better to just save it for another day. It just caught me off guard so badly that I didn't know how to react. I wanted to cry when I was putting her to bed. My mare is a cuddle bug and tries her heart out, she doesn't spin and kick out. She's not one of those mares. But it's harder to think that when she has a day where she does everything people warned me about. Someone in my lesson heard me explaining the symptoms to my trainer, who was checking my mare over. We were both concerned, since that is so out of character. The other rider said, "Aren't all mares like that?" I had to bite back a sharp answer. The rest, maybe, but not my girl. Not Fiona.

Tomorrow will just be a lot of slow stretching. Hopefully I'll get my mare back when she's not sore.