Solo hacking

Since I last posted things have moved on well.

Mel has been over again to check up on the progress of both our horses. She is a barefoot specialist. I won't call her a barefoot trimmer as she has yet to see the need to touch our horses hooves with anything more aggressive than her hands, We spent a lovely afternoon with Mel, including coffee and cakes . I hadn't realised fully how far she travels to see us. Around 2 1/2 hours each way !! I am very grateful she takes the time to help us out.
Her report on both horses was pretty good. The main problem was with Fillys right front. It's actually the best looking hoof of the lot but the heels are getting a little long and so the frog has lost contact with the ground. We think that is because she favours the front left and so wears the front right less. So some schooling to get her more balanced was prescribed.

That schooling fits in nicely with doing a "prepare to ride" each day. And yes I have been riding her a fair bit. Several times in the school and now out on a hack.

We have been on two hacks. Both short as we are keeping her ridden work short as she builds muscle. The first was with Bonitao and Ritchie. The first part of the hack is along a road planings track. Filly walks and trots on this fine when not ridden, but with my weight onboard she is finding it a little sore again. Not badly so, just the odd missed step as she steps on something sharp. Other than saying "keep going along the track" I don't try to guide her. She has walked this track many many times now and knows where the best footing is so I just let her meander around to where she feels comfortable.

After two hacks with Bontiao I felt it time to go solo. Yesterday was a lovely day so I felt it would be a good time to go out on our own. After a very good prepare to ride with some trotting over poles on a circle I walked down to the carpark and mounted up.

She was a little hesitant leading the yard as there was lots of very big farm machinery around. Just by being calm and focussed we were soon past those and out on the track. She was a little tense and the old limp came back for a while causing me to worry a little. But as soon as she relaxed the limp disappeared much to my relief. I wonder if the limp is now just a learned behaviour brought on with tenseness ?

We continued until we got to a nice patch of grass next to a busy road with a golf course on the other side. She was a little tense about the golfers, as was the golfer in the bunker . But she grazed on the sweet grass. Not in a totally relaxed way, she was chewing too fast, but at least she could keep grazing without startling at anything.

The walk back was better in terms of the limp. She offered trot a couple of times but I politely declined by relaxing and picking one rein straight up. We are still riding in the rope reins and halter.

I need to buy another bosal really but haven't got around to it. In the UK we have to order them from the USA to get a really good one and buying off the internet takes care.

Back on the yard and I had a totally relaxed Filly. As a first solo hack it could not have gone better. We didn't do this prior to her rehab as we were at a yard where hacking out was much harder. Busy roads etc. But at this yard it's a real pleasure with miles of track and lanes to explore as she gets stronger, with enough variety to keep us both interested.

A quick check up

It's been nearly a month now since we removed the shoes from Bonitao so we felt it time for him to have a check up and see how a specialist barefoot trimmer viewed his progress. So we had a visit from Mel yesterday.

As I was on standby for work we looked at Filly first.
Mels' view was that her feet were still progressing pretty well although the heel of the front left had grown a little long so that the frog had lost contact with the ground. However she thought that in general the digital cushion of the hooves had improved since her last visit and I should continue to concentrate on improving her muscle tone, especially on the right side. She did think this had improved but had a way to go to get Filly properly balanced. She also thought that it could be the muscle imbalance that is causing just the front left to grow extended heels. As she would be weighting that side more this would stimulate the hoof to grow more rapidly.
The abscess sites that came out of the coronet band whilst she was at Rockley farm last July have nearly finished growing out now and Mel wants to see Filly again once they have disappeared.
She agrees that the abscesses were almost certainly caused by the shoes originally but it took the mobilisation of the hoof structure that occurred when the shoes came off to allow them to erupt.

As for Bonitao, she thought he was progressing very well indeed. The constricted heels that had been created by years of shoeing was beginning to self correct and the hugely overgrown heel depth was slowly returning to normal. We have noticed that since the shoes have come off he is less prone to tripping. I guess that he must have felt he was wearing high heels all this time and is finally transitioning to more comfortable flat footware :) .

Again Mel saw no need to see him again for a while so long as we keep working him hard and get him out on the roads to abrade the hooves to a better shape.

She did not actually trim or rasp either horse hooves as she felt that doing so would impede rather than help their progress.

So the medium term plan is more walking / riding out for both horses and some gymnastic work for Filly online to improve her muscle tone. Both of these activities are fun so there is good incentive to keep up the progress we are making.

Riding Filly again

At last all the conditions came good.
Filly is walking well with just a little thrush in both hind hoof frogs. This does not seem to be causing any discomfort and is being treated.
The weather was overcast, cool and calm.
There was no one else on the yard to cause distraction for either of us.

It was time to ride Filly !

I did the usual prepare to ride routine I do everytime I ride a horse. This provides structure to the session, gives me confidence and Filly consistency. It allows me to assess whether Filly is "mentally, emotionally and physically" ready to be ridden.

It was interesting that as soon as I got the saddle pad and saddle out Filly's ears pricked up and she followed me with her eyes where ever I went. If I can anthropomorphise for a moment it looked for all the world as though she wanted to be ridden.

The prepare to ride went incredibly well. She stood stock still and relaxed for the saddling. As for the actual prepare to ride section I concentrated on travelling circles (circling game as I walked around the school) and the direct / indirect rein falling leaf pattern. The first was done to make sure she was respecting my personal space and her mind was active and working on how to move to stay in a circle around me as I moved. The falling leaf pattern was done to check that she would yield her hind quarters and follow a feel on the halter.

She was giving me so many "green lights" to get on with it I actually did a pretty short session. Certainly not the sort of session a traditional trainer might to "take the edge" off the horse.

I had debated with myself for a while as to what headgear to put on her. She has made it clear in the past that she prefers to have the minimum on her face so I ruled out the bosal for now. That left the rope halter. But one rein or two reins ?
As she was being so good at follow a feel I decided that one rein was more appropriate so just used the 12 foot lead rope without tying it up to form two reins. I was only going to follow the rail at walk (I want to slowly build her up physically) so just having one rein that I could use to bend her to the fence if we got into trouble would be fine.

Mounting went pretty well. The only snag was when I tried to rock her to get her to brace herself. She's so good at follow a feel now she just followed the pressure I was putting on the saddle. Finally she kind of arranged her feet in a good position and there was another "green light".

So I got on. She did not move a muscle :) . Once on we did the usual neutral lateral flexion which was a little sticky to start with, hind quarter yield where she reminded me to be very light with my legs, and forequarter yield which went well.

With that we were on the rail and walking around happily. I was paying particular attention to her gait. Was she still lame ? This was what I was most nervous about for this ride. The honest truth is that she was the best I have ever felt. Not 110% sound, but much more comfortable than ever before. The only time she felt a little lame was when she got tense approaching the corner of the school where all the scary jump wings are housed. But even that was better than the best we had before.

We followed the rail in both directions for around 10 minutes total and as soon as she was completely relaxed for a whole circuit (those jump wings ;) ) I got off.

After the ride again I am in danger of anthropomorphising but she became very cuddly and seemed very content with life.

All in all it could not have gone better :)

 

Neutral lateral flexion

 A content Tim and Filly at the end of the ride.