Swedish Warmblood Inspection

This past Saturday (9/27), I presented Cinzano at the Swedish Warmblood inspection.

We began the inspection with him getting his measurements done to make sure his confirmation was correct. After that we began the free jumping segment. The first round through he wasn't too sure what was going on, but after that he was all for it. The inspectors raised the jumps successfully up to 4'2". On that jump Cinzano had to put in a big effort to get over and kicked backed with his hind legs aggressively to get over (more on that).

After that I trotted him in hand. All of this went really well.

The final component of the inspection was me presenting Cinzano under saddle. We showed in an arena with the two inspectors in the middle and about 20 people watching on the side. This was quite unnerving to the horse as he had not been in that situation at all. I was asked to show him at walk, trot, canter in both directions (plus lengthening of the trot and canter). From the get go, he felt different. On the left rein he was feeling okay but to the right he was all over the place. In the canter Cinzano was swapping leads, throwing his head, and even rearing. I was sitting on top, thinking "What the hell is going on". I tried everything I could by not sitting deeply and trying to keep his neck as long as possible.

After that we had the inspectors give their scores and opinions of the horse. Overall, they like Cinzano a lot and repeated this a couple of more times verbally and in writing. He received 7 and 8's in all of his scores, except for under saddle where he scored a 6. His total point total gave him a Class I status, but to be approved as a stallion all scores need to be above a 7. The inspectors repeated a couple of times to bring back Cinzano next year as he shold be able to pass.

Needless I was disappointed that I could not get Cinzano passed and couldn't figure out what happened under saddle. In prior rides he never rode like that. I thought something felt wrong in his back but couldn't pinpoint it.

The next day, Cinzano received a chiropractic exam. The chiropractor found, and adjusted, a rib that was out of place on the right side. More importantly, Cinzano's pelvis was severely rotated. This is what caused the misbehavior on Saturday. How the pelvis became out of place, came from the free jumping in the inspection. On that 4'2" jump he injured his pelvis. With the adjustment, Cinzano is now fine and ready to come back to work!

It was slightly frustrating to loose a confirmation because of something that was out of my hands. But that's the beauty of horses sometimes :).