I rode him the other day for a while in the arena. He did pretty well and kept his head low and relaxed the entire time we walked and trotted. He is also beginning to respond to my leg cues about 80% of the time. He was doing so well I decided to try bumping him up to a lope again. He loped off fine but kept wanting to pick up the wrong lead. Sill boy. I would turn his nose slightly to the inside and touch him behind the girth with my outside leg and than kiss him up. He finally got it. At first he tossed his head up but after a few moments of asking with my hands and just 'playing' with his mouth he relaxed and began to lower his head in the canter! I was so thrilled. A few laps both ways and we called it a day. Afterwards we went on a short trail ride with my friend and her new TB. I also got a pic of him laying in the hay. The FIRST thing he does when we put out hay is roll in it. He soooo cute!
As for Miss May she is doing pretty good. I pulled her up on Thursday to ride her and noticed she had just a tiiiiny bit of swelling about midway down her back right tendon. It wasn't hot or tender and she certainly wasn't lame. I wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't run my hand down her leg and looked at it at just the right angle. I called the vet and explained it to him and he said not to worry. I'm already VERY careful with my horses legs as far as warming them up and cooling them down well. I always cold water hose after a hard work out and I NEVER run at an arena where the footing isn't good. I don't practice very often on them anyway and always take preventative measures to preserve their joints. I'm especially careful with Riley but Ill explain more on him later. Basically my vet just told me to watch it close and ice it after hard workouts and if it gets any bigger or she gets lame on it at all to call him and he would check it out. She rode fine. Was as hot and hyper as ever. I didn't do any circles or hard work with her. Just exercised her and did lots of slow trotting and long trotting and loping. After I hosed her legs I iced the one. Here is a pic of her looking adorable while her leg is being iced: awwww
Now onto the topic at hand: decisions. Mainly decisions with Riley. Here is where I will do my best to explain my dilema without confusing you terribly. First, as I am sure you can tell, Riley is my entire world and I often over analyze and stress about stuff when it comes to him. I love May and Moose to death but as I have stated before Riley is my deepest heart and has been for a very long time. If you have read some of my first posts it talks a lot about the all the lamenesses Riley has overcome. Everything from minor stuff like abscesses and stone bruises to potential career ending tendon tears and "Navicular". He is sound now and doing well. He seems to feel good and is always eager to work. He gets monthly Adequen injections as well as MSM in his feed. I am also about to start him on Platinum Perfomance. I have never used it before but have heard lots of good stuff about it so Im going to give it a shot and see how he does with it. Ordered it today actually. 
Anyway....lol About 6 months ago the vet did X rays on Riley and flexion tests and found him to be sound and well except for a very SLIGHT 'unsoundess' in his front left when flexxed (rated a 1 out of 5 I think) as well as the start of arthritis in his right hock. He was not lame at all in the hock but just had a little more fluid than normal, but my vet told me the Adequen was probably what was keeping it under control. Before he had done the tests I had thought I was going to have to retire Riley. I was pretty upset at first but it was ok. He was alive and he was well and it wasn't the end of the world. I had known when I started racing Riley that he wasn't bred nor built for the sport. I didn't realize just how much of a problem we would have but I had always known he had small feet and a huge body and he is pretty post legged.
When the vet deemed him ok to continue racing I was thrilled but apprehensive. Ever since than I have often wondered if it would be better just to retire him from racing and do a lighter, easier, sport or just to keep racing him since we both enjoy it so much. Its something to this day that I often think about. What got me back to thinking was the other day Riley ran extremley well at the show. Less than a second off the fastest time and both runs just felt really good. I had been talking that night and the following week about it to my coach. We had discussed what I could do to get Riley to clock just a little faster and get us into the 1D. I realized from looking at videos that I am not getting far enough forward between barrels and coming home. I also saw that Riley was slowing down some about midway to third and running home. Those were our two problem areas. I racked my brain for a few days and figured out probably why he wasnt running as hard in those areas. Riley is as honest as the day is long so if something is going wrong it is 99% of the time MY FAULT. Ever since I had started him years ago I would stop him straight in the chute. I didnt circle or anything and I would usually stop pushing him right after I passed the barrels. I didnt think anything of it but I see now it transferred over to the pattern. Riley doesnt like to have to slam on brakes all the sudden so he starts slowing down soon to make the stop gradually. He's not slowing down too much but just enough to make a difference. In barrel racing a fraction of a second can put you in the money or in the crack. I than got to thinking about what I could do to "re wire" his thinking and show him it was OK to run through there and he would still have plenty of time to slow down softly. This in turn lead to thoughts about Rileys soundness. The ultimate question being : Do I work him to change his thinking and push him to get our times down and risk injury? or do I just retired him and move on to a lighter sport and compete May as my main racer? (I dont worry near as much about May. She is half his age (6) and is sound and built to last. She is a hard runner and has a totally different style than Riley. She has the speed, the turns and the attitude, we just have to get out timing together and with time it will all fall into place.) Of course I know I WANT to continue to race him and hopefully improve but nothing is more important than his soundness and sanity.I would feel terrible if we started running better but than something happened to him. I know thathe could injure himself in the pasture or just on a trail ride but still. I was having a hard time deciding when my coach made a valid point when he said, "But Summer you have to think of quality of life too." He is right. Riley loves to compete. We dont practice or exhibition. We just go and run and have fun. He loves it. He goes into the chute and loads up on his hind end, does a mini rear, and launches like he thinks he's in the Kentucky Derby! I have never had issues with him being gate sour or overly anxious. He knows his job and he loves it. I would never race him just because it is what I wanted to do nor would I risk his soundess or sanity for anything but this is what he loves. He is going to be 13 in January(I still cant believe it) but I know many horses who still race well into their twenties. Whether Riley will be one of them I dont know but for now Im relatively sure on what I want to do.
For now I have decided to ride him and work him a little different. Gearing our workouts more towards getting our times faster. I guess I will just finish out this year (there's two more shows) racing and see how he does. If he finishes strong and clocks faster and shows how much he truly loves it, than we will continue down the racing path. If he starts getting frazzled and not handling the extra push than we will call it quits and do something easier. I will leave it up to him to 'decide' what he wants to do. We know eachother well to say the least and I figure as much as I worry and fret, he will let me know when he is ready to retire or if it becomes too much. 
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