So my vet got back to me shortly after my last post. She was very pleased with the video and said she never thought we’d get to this point. I have the okay to give him a bit of lunging now.
The Wednesday after I decided to try a little bit. I’m only doing about 30 seconds 2x per week right now. Yes that is probably overly cautious but I have zero goals other than getting him stronger and moving more. So we will be cautious. Plus on the day after we first trotted, he was stiff for the first part of the walk. He warmed up out of it but that was unusual for him. Therefore, I will be super freaking cautious with all of this.
We’ve done three total small trot sessions. Sun-wed-sun. He’s moving okay. His right hock travels oddly. He hitches it up and definitely limps a bit overall on that leg. But he isn’t interfering and he isn’t tripping. That’s a huge improvement and I will take it.
Saturday I go ride Uno at his new barn. This Saturday was fine. He wanted to look at all the people walking back and forth from the soccer fields near the barn. I did not want him to do that. I have a difficult time getting him in the bridle at all and every time he looked, he popped right out. So we did a lot of circles until he would at least slightly touch the bridle again and then continue on.
Since that’s what the environment had me focused on, that’s pretty much all I focused on this ride. I only ride him once a week and I have discovered that Holly and I have very different riding styles. So there’s only so much I can do with one day a week. Mostly the riding is for me to at least get some saddle time. I do like to have something to focus on so I try to choose one thing to get Uno to do.
I am very appreciative of the riding time. Uno isn’t my type of ride but we’ve figured it out together over the last year. But I will be very glad when the opportunity to have my own horse to ride again. Hopefully it won’t be long.