It gets better ...

The weather was beatiful, cold but still and very bright. We booked the outdoor showjumping arena and off we went with excitement and trepidation.

After only a short time, Superhubby confirmed that he can see the same sea change in Jazz's attitude as I can feel. I was cantering around to warm up and he was trying to take me to fences. He's not completely cured of his nappiness and stopped at a couple of spreads and the first attempt at a double. But his whole attitude felt different, including allowing me to push him to do fences he was a little unsure of. We stopped before he could get tired and start refusing in the anticipation that being tired would give him muscle pains. And all three of us had grins on our faces. After only a twenty minutes, with plenty of breaks to make sure he stayed fresh, he had jumped everything that we asked him to. His confidence was superb - he was even attempting to really take some of them on, and needed to be settled back a bit. I had no spurs on either. The difference is quite remarkable.

I also had the impression recently that his paces in general had become even more springy than they were before. Without me saying a word, SH mentioned that he could see an increase in activity in his paces, so I was right :-) Also, in some paradoxical way, he seems both calmer and more full of energy. He wants to canter all the time and I have to restrain him to keep him in walk, but he feels calmer and more settled. He is also putting on weight and has had to have his food cut back. I have heard that weight loss is a side effect of laryngeal paralysis but did not believe it was true of him. Now I do think that the lack of breath was causing him stress which in turn was causing him to need more food than he does now to maintain his weight. It was difficult to spot because he's a good doer and what he was on before was far from excessive. Now it's just 2 kilos of nuts and 500ml of vegetable oil, plus ad lib haylage. For a horse of his size and work level I would expect to feed a very minimum of 3 kilos + oil.


I think the operation to increase his breath has coincided with a mental growing-up phase which we had some evidence of in the month before the op. The two together are now producing a profound change in his willingness to use his innate physical ability. If I liked him before, I am completely besotted now. What a fantastic horse he is, to ride and to own.

C