Phase Two

Well wouldn't you know it would threaten to rain and be gross on the day I FINALLY get to trot Forrest! But being as determined as I was it was gonna happen rain or shine. I had already pre-planned to get his rain sheet, cover the tack and ride over it. But luckily for both Forrest and I the rain held off a couple more hours.

I have been looking forward to this day for a quite some time. Hitting this point means that Forrest has passed on of the harder parts of rehab, building and strengthen the fibers in his leg. We had slowly worked our way up to walking under saddle for 30 minutes and incorporate half passes and turn on the haunches to really strengthen the ligaments and tendons.

I must admit I was a little apprehensive about trotting yesterday. Now that we have hit this phase it means Forrest is truly “back in work” and I was wondering what he would think of it. The game plan from this point on is to walk 10 minutes and really make sure he is focused. Then we trot 30 seconds one way and 30 seconds back and add 30 seconds each way until we hit 10 minutes. For now we are stuck in the “walking” ring, but my trainer placed some flags and markers up so I would know what path we should take. Once we hit 5 minutes we will move to the front field by the road where there is a 5 minute stretch that he can trot without having to constantly turn around every 30 seconds.

So yesterday Forrest and I walked our 10 minutes, which after spending the last couple weeks at 10+ minute breezed by, and then it was finally time to trot. I almost didn’t want to. Why you must ask? Well our walking area isn’t the flattest place which is great for what we are doing to build strength, but part of the “course” that was marked had a short steep hill and not knowing how far 30 seconds would take on my course made me nervous about trotting down that hill with his leg. So instead of starting at the top of the course, I started below where it was flatter and hoping the chance I make it to the hill, more near the top of the course, would be before I hit 30 seconds.

 Well wouldn’t you know that just after the hill marked 30 seconds! So we trotted up the little hill and since I was very apprehensive of trotting down I made him walk down the hill pick up the trot and trot a little longer on the bottom of the course past the flags to make up the time. I think we’ll save the hill for another day, you know like 5-10 minutes! But of course I am sure you are wondering what Forrest thought of his trotting abilities now? Well he lets just say he was SUPER happy! He stayed on the frame, but definitely leaned on me and wanted to just GO, but I just held on and let him go. As long as we were doing a slow sitting trot I didn’t want to fuss at him to much since he has a short temperament for some things and last think I needed was to fight my horse on the first day of trotting. His forwardness was a combination of excitement to do something other than walking and not having done it in several months with a rider. But he was a superb boy and I am excited to keep trucking along as we move through our rehab.

At this point in the stage, while we are watching his leg every day we are more working on fitness level with him bringing it back to normal without over stressing him or the leg. The leg looks amazing and practically normal. There is a small amount of fluid left in the leg but I am confident that within a week or two it should be gone. I am just so thrilled the drastic difference his leg has taken in a couple of days and luckily for us after Wednesday it will be low 20s and high 40s that will really enable us to attack the rest of the fluid and get rid of it!

                                                                          December 16, 2012

                                 

 

                                                                               December 12, 2012

                                 

 

So on to another stage in rehab: Trotting! J