No Frills wrap-up

After Sunny finished a hard 55 miles at No Frills with all A's on his vet card he rested for a few hours before trailering home; a short ride of 30 minutes.  At home he was free to move around in his own field and sleep in his own grassy bed, hopefully resting easier than camping at the trailer. I made sure he looked fine Saturday morning before heading back to ride camp to vet the Saturday ride, and again I checked him on returning home that evening.  However, on Sunday when I saw him in the daylight and carefully palpated everything I noticed a little filling in all 4 legs and a small amount of loin soreness on both sides, possibly slightly worse on the right.

So I let him rest, went to Florida to help my family move, and came home to find the filling significantly improved.  Below are pictures 48 hrs and 2 weeks after No Frills (I really wish I had pictures pre-ride!)

48 hrs Post No Frills

2 weeks Post No Frills

He is now fat and sassy and feeling great, but the mild leg filling tells me that the 55 miles of No Frills pushed him physically.  I also need to learn his 'normal' after rides and will be paying much more attention to legs before and after every ride (including conditioning rides). This seems obvious (duh!) and I always, of course, felt his legs for injury, etc but now I will try to figure out if he gets mild filling after any exercise (as apparently some horses do) or if it purely indicates over-exertion. I also have adjusted his saddle a smidge wider as I believe he is gaining muscle and topline; it is possible his saddle might have been a bit narrow and bridging causing the slight loin soreness or it perhaps it was purely the 13,000' of up and down.  At this point we are headed towards the Old Dominion 50 and, as always, are balancing relationship-play, dressage/strength building, and conditioning.