The walkies

This is mostly a boring recap. All we really did was walk. All weekend. But, I have great news.

Amber looks great!

Friday I took her out for a short walk, and Choco accompanied us. It was just to get her out with a purposeful walk, let her really stretch her legs and go somewhere after being in her stall after the injection. She looked good, but of course I wouldn’t know until I sat her. Per my questions to the vet, he said 20 minute walks under saddle were just fine, and to start putting her back into light work mid next week.

Saturday my mom rode with me – just a walk for Whisper too but she’s looking better as well! It was a targeted 20 minutes, walking all over the arena playing follow the leader. But when we first walked out there, she was ready to go. Just really swinging in her walk and not stabby as I’ve felt her be plenty of times. My mom watched for a good time, too and promptly told me she looked awesome. I agreed since I couldn’t feel her hip kicking mine forward on the left, and you can never be too sure! After, I watched her walk, and though I’ve never aimed at getting her to do past her ability, her hind feet landed smack in her front hoof prints. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her do that. It was just so nice to see that she was feeling really well!

I really wanted to go out of the arena for our Sunday hack (and I know Amber did too) but we kept to another follow the leader day with Whisper. Amber still felt great. Even though the vet had warned me that the injection might take up to three weeks, I knew this would be a relatively immediate feel-better for Amber, and I was right. She was power walking! Just ready to go places and felt smooth. We walked over a pile of poles every now and then, and it was really good to feel that while before she’d generally chip in a step to get her left front over first, she had no hesitation whatsoever when we kept getting to the poles with right front leading. And she felt so soft going over those poles.

So, I decided to trot just a little. And holy crap it felt like riding air. I don’t remember much about how smooth she was when I was trying to sit her bouncy trot western so long ago, but compared to how she’s been recently, it’s like night and day. Like sleeping on a foam mattress pad after a hard bed. She felt so nice. She wanted to pull her old compensation stuff, but with just a few fixes of “let’s try it this way”, she seemed to really move into it. I quit there – didn’t want to ask for too much – but her right side felt marvelous while her left side felt much better. It’ll probably take her time to realize the trot feels much better and is much easier for her to the left, but I am so okay with being patient.

I am so happy she feels so good. I plan to hop on again today and just do another 20 minute walk day, and maybe by Wednesday or Thursday I can start adding back in some trot work. I definitely want to keep this slow if it’ll help more in the long run! I can’t wait to feel her canter, because after how airy her trot felt I think her canter will be great, but it gives me a lot to look forward to later this week!

Time change isn’t until November 5 this year, so I’m crossing my fingers we’ll have enough daylight for a short walk by the time I get home from work this week!