Unfortunately, Monte was not up to the task of jumping by Saturday; his withers were still painful under saddle, so she decided to not use him for the lesson. Luckily, we board at a barn with many generous owners of many capable horses. E rode a pony (who really is a pony!) named Oscar on Saturday.
E and OscarNow Oscar has a bit of a reputation around the barn. He's not exactly a beginner horse - you could rightfully call him "Oscar the Grouch" - but he does know his stuff. He's very headstrong and takes a strong rider to make him go through his paces, however. After her ride, E compared him to Curly in that it took quite a bit of strength in both her arms and legs to keep Oscar doing what she wanted. Not exactly a willing partner, you see.
To make this all harder for E, she started to get pretty sick in the morning and by the time she rode her lesson she was achy and feverish. But she insisted on going through with the lesson. Oh, and it was cold and rainy. Not exactly ideal conditions.
But they did it. Oscar did not refuse any jumps and did a respectable job on the course. E managed to get through the lesson before collapsing in the truck. And Oscar's owner was quite happy that her pony had behaved well and redeemed himself, even if only a tiny bit, in the eyes of the spectators.
Sunday's lesson was impossible for E (high fever, sore throat, etc.), so we gave it to our barn owner C. Ends up that the lesson was pretty miserable since it was full-on raining and the horses were a little nutty. C's horse Maxwell bolted at one point and dumped her in the corner of the arena - a scary moment to say the least. But all was well in the end and the clinic has been deemed a success.
We will have the chiropractor out again to take a look at Monte. I think it's just lingering muscle pain, but we want to be sure.
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