Moving Forward
Ro’s recheck went good. We’re going to finish the antibiotics and then monitor and see how things go. It’ll probably be a couple weeks before I take her off the property—she still gets a little snotty after exercise, and I want to make sure she is 100% cleared up and staying cleared up before we go anywhere. She’s not contagious, but I’d be mortified if I took her somewhere and she was snotty there. Some things just should not be done.
Although she’s in good spirits, her endurance in general has been poor. So has her recovery time. I’ve been working our rides around that—trying to plan things to work smarter, not harder, and using the long walk breaks she needs between trot or canter sets to work on other things. I’m actually really pleased, because all things considered, we’ve had a good week.
Her trot is much steadier, and she’s gaining the strength to maintain a longer stride more consistently, instead of falling into the quick pony trot. I’ve incorporated more pole work to help with that. She’s still not sure that a single pole on the ground is worth her time (or attention), but she respects a line of trot poles. The first time I sent her through one, I had it set for a regular horse stride without thinking about it. She made it—with a ton of suspension—but she stopped at the end and stared at me: Srsly?
Erm… yes, we’re probably not ready for that. Duly noticed and adjusted.
Her stretchy trot is really coming along. I think if we ever make it to a schooling show, that is going to be one of our strong points.
At the walk, we’ve played with leg yields. Unsurprisingly, if we are leg yielding away from the scary ditch, she’s fabulous. She thinks that’s an awesome idea. She would like to leg yield away from the ditch all the time, please. If we are leg yielding away from the turnout paddock, she’s not so convinced that’s a good idea. Her friends are over there, you know. She’s happy hanging on that rail, thank you very much.
At the walk, we’ve also been playing around with moving her haunches in or out, staying very straight between the aids (on straight lines and on circles), and turns on the forehand. Her free walk is not as nice as her stretchy circle at the trot; she stretches down if I throw the reins away, but she doesn’t take the contact down and out the way she does at the trot. I have a couple ideas for that, so we’ll see how that goes in the next couple weeks.
We’ve done very little canter work, just due to her general condition. As she keeps feeling better, we’ll build more of that in. What we have done is promising; I think a lot of the improvements I’ve been seeing in the trot will also be in the canter as her condition comes back.
And she’s happy. She’s happy, I’m happy.
Equestrian Horses says 26 February 2011
Sounds like Ro is steadily improving. Good luck with her.