I'm gonna be completely honest and say that when I first read the title I thought you were super into rock climbing haha.

But seriously, great work with him! It must be so satisfying that he's come such a long way.

Cliffy has a bite on his back and it HURT so it's roundpen work and the pessoa system for a little bit until it heals.

His back is almost better but now his leg is swollen for whatever reason so here's a selfie we took while coldhosing it

Leg took a few days for the swelling to go down. Lots of icing. But it's holding up fine now and we've been doing lots of flatwork this week. Finally got a lesson today and my trainer had him go in the bungee to keep his head steady since he gets anxious and flips it around a lot and it doesn't help his back at all. He was really good once he settled down and had a gorgeous swingy trot and was so rideable at the canter. Briefly debated doing his first jump today but my plan was for it to be next week, so we're sticking with it. I'm super excited though.

Incredibly lazy and unmotivated today, so we didn't get that track up and impulsion, but he did get nice and swingy and loose through the back and neck which was nice ♡

Well today was fun. We used the bungee again and spent a looong time warming up at the walk, and then we went right into canter to help him loosen up his back even more. While we were cantering, he locked onto one of the bigger jumps and tried to drag me over it 🙄 only just barely managed to turn him off it at the last second. He's gonna be so so happy when we finally jump this week.

Afterwards we stepped into the trot and he was beautiful and relaxed and forward and lifting up. We only really cantered/trotted for five minutes, just to get him loose and have a good experience, but he was really good.

Well. No jumping this week. I brought him in and found a massive lump on his flank, right where his last rib would be, so likely he got kicked and either broke or bruised himself. Either way, it hurts like hell so he's getting iced twice a day and bute and hopefully it goes down. If not, another vet bill. 🙃

Edit: have a cool photo i took while sitting on the floor while my horse wears an icepack around his ribcage

Having a nice little roll after wearing the icepack for 40 minutes! The vet is coming out tomorrow. 🤞🤞

One very expensive vet bill later... it's just a hematoma!

Treat with ice and bute, but he should be back to normal in a few weeks!

No updates, the hematoma is almost gone but a few days left of ice pack and steroid cream.

Other than that, the only interesting thing Cliff has done lately is get shocked by the fence two days in a row. Today after it shocked him he got mad at the fence and tried to attack it. I had to stop him. Never a dull moment with this horse.