So I usually don’t ride on Sundays but today was an exception because A) It was beautiful outside and B) because we started him back yesterday, so I figured another day off wouldn’t be the best plan for his rehab. Tore myself away from my Lifetime movies to give him a nice long grooming (he is shedding like crazy!) and then tacked him up, got on and headed to the ring. Almost immediately he decided to take off and I had to make a sharp circle to slow him down (which I’m sure was really good for his stifle) and then I thought “What the heck” and just skipped the walk and picked up a trot. Speedy Gonzales is whipping around a 20 meter circle and my hands are jiggling all over the place. My hardest vice to break on this particular horse is my hands…his trot is SO bouncy and thrusty (which isn’t a word) and my arms bounce with him…it’s heinous and ineffective and I need to find a solution, but that is the topic for another blog! Anyways, we did about 10 minutes of trotting, changing directions and doing 20 meter circles around the jumps. He had a few more bolting incidents but nothing too bad, thank goodness. We practiced putting his right hind underneath him…he likes to put it to the inside tracking right and to the outside tracking left, so we do a bit of counterbend tracking left to straighten him out. You can tell it’s a strain on his stifle because his trot ALWAYS slows when I ask for counterbend and he tries to stall out on me. That immediately makes me worry that I’m hurting him and then I feel like a bad Mom..but then I remember that it’s never going to get stronger if he doesn’t work on it. So we kept working, and then after 10 minutes we were both sweating and I called it a day. He got a Bigeoil bath which burned my eyes and made him frisky, then let him graze for a while to dry which resulted in him trying to mount his friend over a paddock fence and striking at me. Crazy man. Tomorrow he begins his first round of Adequan. Fingers crossed that it will maintain him….and also that we can get him reshod in the next day or two because his toes are getting quite long (my fault) and I definitely don’t want that to get out of hand right when we’ve gotten them under control!
This weather is beautiful and amazing and a blessing and I’m excited to see what the week holds….God Bless!
-Ry