December was another quiet month for Max. A couple of hacks and not too much else. I know some people will be very sceptical about what I did next, but I’ve done it before and been amazed. A friend told me about a lady in our village who is an energy healer/homeopathist who communicates with animals and people to help them with their problems. She uses various types of healing depending on what’s needed. I was interested in her visiting Max and Zen, but Max particularly as the vet has told me that there’s not much else they can do for him and he still seems so depressed and lethargic. It was an interesting session, during which all kinds of things came out, but on the physical side Wendy said that Max aches all over. I guess if you ache all over you don’t feel like running around and being cheerful, so that makes sense with how Max has been. Wendy promised to do some distance healing and I have to say that Max has perked up a bit, although he is still far from his usual self. Zen had a lot to communicate to Wendy! Of course, the most obvious thing I wanted to know was if he’s happy in his new home, and it appears he is, with certain reservations, which I have been able to address.
So now it was time to tackle our first dressage competition. It was very low key which was great for Zen as the warm up wasn’t busy and there was a quiet atmosphere. He went into an unfamiliar indoor school, with some quite spooky things, and pulled off a 70% win! It was only a walk and trot test, but the object of the day was to go to a strange place and act fairly sensibly, which he certainly did.
Zen has a habit of throwing his head around a little bit, so I was glad that we were due a visit from the vet for flu jabs and teeth checks. If Zen was uncomfortable in his mouth it would explain a lot. However it wasn’t too bad at all and since the visit the head tossing has continued so at least I know it’s not mouth related. I’ve been told to ignore the head, which although annoying doesn’t really affect me when I ride him.
We attended another 2 pole/small jump clinics, which went really well and which we both enjoyed. And then Christmas kicked in and I had to shop and do normal non horsey things for a change, so both horses had the end of December off, which I feel is no bad thing for a young horse. Its a fine balance between keeping them working and learning and blowing their brains and their bodies.
But Zen can’t sit on his laurels, the new year will bring plenty of work!
