Clinic Countdown

I've been waiting to write anything about this because I didn't want to jinx it! On Thursday, Tiamo and I are going to Holly Hill in Benton, LA for a four-day Karen and David O'Connor Clinic! Dana and Ava are also going with us, and we're both training with David. We signed up for this clinic in November and have been looking forward to it for a long time! Because of our time off in April, I'm not feeling quite as on top of things as I would have liked, but I'm still feeling pretty comfortable about my riding. Unfortunately, I'm probably a little rusty jumping because I haven't had a jumping lesson since mid-March! I do have a semiprivate dressage lesson and gymnastics/grid day to help me get into the groove and get to know David's teaching. The clinic format is: Day 1- semiprivate dressage, Day 2- gridwork, Day 3- showjumping, and Day 4- Cross Country.

Ti has been doing great! I can't remember if I wrote about his head tossing, but he had been sneezing and tossing his head constantly, especially undersaddle. He did this last fall as well, but it went away after a couple of weeks. He also didn't do it every single day last fall. Dr. Phelps came out and drew blood for an allergy test and ordered some antihistamine to give him for 2 weeks (I think Cyproheptadine). She told me that it might take a few days to work, but it helped after one dose! The allergy test came back and showed the main things he was allergic to are flies, pollen, and a few different types of weeds. He can't show on it, but I'm not going to another event until July so it's fine for now. I decided to have Dr. Phelps order some more so he can stay on it another 2 weeks, and then we'll take him off it and see if the Spring allergies have passed.

I also finally learned how to give IM shots! I've given him his Pentosan shot twice, and he is such a good boy about it!!!!! He doesn't even flinch for shots. I'm kind of bad at it and don't like doing it though. Both times I gave it to him, I accidentally stuck the needle in quite slowly which I know makes it much more painful. I need to learn to do the quick "stab".

He's been feeling great! Today we're doing some gridwork with Dana and Ava which will be fun.