Remus and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day…

So we headed off to the show on Friday afternoon and Remus loaded fine, seemed fine, etc. Got to the showgrounds after a LONG tiring rough drive (roads in Arkansas SUCK), and unloaded and Remus promptly tried to lay down. At first I thought he was just itchy but he was really not himself. I kind of ignored it for a hot second and tried to get him to eat grass. And he was like nope. And I went oh shit.

This horse has never presented to me as colicky or just not right. Meanwhile I was in Arkansas with barely anyone I knew. My friends Jessica and Cassidy were there and they were so wonderful thank goodness and also luckily the barn owner there, happened by and asked what was up.

I was frantically texting Poppy (And Poppy was trying to keep me calm as I know she knew I was freaking the F out) before Sarah showed up. She was like a living angel. She took stock of the situation, listened to his gut sounds, took his heartrate and pulse and then went and got Banamine and gave him a shot.

I then went out to walk and let Remus graze a bit. He was definitely stiff from the trailer ride as well. But about 15-20 minutes he started nibbling some grass (NOT GRAIN LOL). Then I handed him to Cassidy so I could walk (run) the cross country course before it got dark.

I got Remus in his stall and he still wasn’t interested in food but he stopped trying to lie down and roll. I finally left to go check in my hotel and fretted about him the whole time. Cass and Jess were staying at the farm in their LQ so I texted them nonstop and they finally told me about 10 pm he was eating hay and had pooped and peed. Then I could sleep at least. I was up at 6 am and heading back to check on him even though I didn’t ride till 11 something.

He had cleaned his whole hay net up overnight so that was good. He was starving too but he would not eat his grain. I ran to get more hay out of my truck (which was literally in the next county so far away). He nibbled at hay and I should have gotten him out then to walk around. Because it was not raining then. Wait for it. UGH.

I walked the course again as a couple things I wasn’t sure I had in my head (NOTE I walked the course twice for a cross country round I didn’t even do, SIGH). Then I came back and right after I sat outside Remus’s stall it started pouring. Wait pouring? No drizzling. Pouring came later.

We were ahead in dressage so I had to tack up earlier than expected. Also the indoor where the dressage was was hella far away. I ended up just putting my jump saddle (the Antares) on since I didn’t want my Stubben to get rained on. My horse was vibrating by then. He was cranky but it was cold and he was tense and I was like shit this is not going to end well. But hey he felt better than he did. I barely got on him with Jessica’s help (my last thoughts when I swung over was is this when I die but he held it together). I got in the warm up area (the only good thing was it was under a roof otherwise it was a free for all as all warm up rings are) and I attempted to fit a round hole with a square peg. Remus was TENSE. His trot was up and down, his canter was non existent. His back was so tight I spent a lot of time just letting him relax and walk. I realized this was not going to be a success so told the gate person that let’s get this shit over with. By this time it was raining so hard I knew I wasn’t going to hear the bell, walked by the judge and said that and she was like you ready and I said might as well. And off we went.

It wasn’t the worst test we have done. It sure wasn’t the best. We got like a 38 on it which is probably fair but some people got really low scores and were not any better than Remus. So whatever. He broke in the canter on the first circle but otherwise held his marbles together. We came in on the center line off center a bit and she dinged us there (rightfully). But overall it was not bad. I felt it was better than it scored but what can you do? I then walked him around some more to stretch him a bit. And I realized I was talking myself into scratching. This horse owed me nothing. There was already rumors they were moving cross country till later due to rain. I was like I only want to run cc not stadium. The stadium course was going to be tight and the footing was not that great even indoors.

I hopped off, took him to his stall and untacked him and he dug into his hay with gusto. YES REMUS. and I was like f*ck it. Let’s go home. I love this horse with every fiber of my being and I could tell he was not himself. Better of course but not himself. I went and scratched and was like yep see ya!! It was torrential rain by then. The parking area was a mud slide. I even pulled my trailer out on the road before loading (not before helping someone load a horse and getting even MORE soaked in the process). Loaded Remus up and headed home. It is a 2.5 hour drive. It took almost 4 hours because the rain was so horrible. I think that storm sat over me the whole way. Tractor trailers, campers, all of us had our flashers on. It was not fun.

Pulled up to Trinity and opened the trailer door and let Remus out. He let out this low whinny as YES WE ARE HOME. He was so happy to be home. (OH BTW they ended up running cross country. I am sure that if I had stayed they would not have) SOOOOO That ended a very bad trip for us. I had Poppy check on Remus that night but the minute he got in his stall he peed and started eating hay and grain. He was fine. We did have chiropractor check him out and you guessed it his SI was out (Again). That was not the whole issue but was definitely the sour, ouchy, tense-backed horse I had on Saturday. Hopefully he feels better when I throw a leg over him this weekend.