We Ride!

Kwik got the remainder of Monday and all of Tuesday off to get used to life without staples, and we went back to work on Wednesday. I don't really want to do a lot of lunge work in the next couple of weeks- no sense in putting added stress on his already stiff joints, but I figured it would be in my best interest to do a little round pen work before getting on a horse that hasn't been worked in three weeks. We did a little walk/trot free lunging, and he looked good for the most part. Its not like he had developed a ton of muscle before his accident, but he has definitely lost whatever he did have. He did, however, look very happy to be back to work. I got on for some stretchy walk work, and he definitely felt stiff. We did serpentines, changes across the diagonal, and some leg yields to try and loosen everything up, and he may have felt a little better towards the end.

We got a ton of rain the remainder of the week, and the ground was really sloppy this weekend. I was hoping it would be dry enough to do a little bit of lunging, but the footing was way too deep to ride, let alone lunge. P was teaching a lesson in the little grass dressage arena and offered to share with us. Kwik was nowhere near as stiff as he was on Wednesday, and he felt great after about ten minutes of walking. I did a tiny bit of trot work as well, and he felt good!

My plan for the week is as follows:

Tuesday: Continue stretchy walk work in the arena, ~20 minutes. 5 minutes of trot work. End with short paddock loop trail.

Wednesday: Arena warm-up: walking, 6 minutes trot work. End with 10 minutes walking hills outside of the arena.

Thursday: Arena warm-up: walking, 7 minutes trot work. Walking hills 10 minutes. End with short trail.

Saturday/Sunday: Off! Happy Easter!

I'll increase the trot work little by little over this week and next until we are back to our regularly scheduled program. Hopefully the hill walking will help build back the muscle that was lost and increase his fitness at the same time. I'll start bringing back our lunging with side reins in the third week. I'm hoping to schedule a trail riding session with Ann for sometime during the first week of April. If all goes well, maybe we can incorporate some more trail riding in our routine as well.