Remi's Rehabilitation journey: May 2013

Friday 31 May 2013

Ponies in the field

Different rugs and weather through out the week (no rainy day pictures)

sharing one bucket :-)

mutal grooming

Hello, bay boys :-)

Remi taken from above (makes him almost look fat)

ponies eating their minerals (Remi looks slimmer in this shot)

Remi coming to say hello

Wednesday 29 May 2013

Enjoying a good mutual scratching session

We have done over 100 miles of barefoot hacking. On the downside he is fairly footy at the moment on stones, and we have lots of stones. This all relates to moving the paddock onto a fresh area (of winter grazing field). Ponies have started tucking back into the adlib haylage with a vengeance in the last few days, and eating their feeds again, so fingers crossed the paddock is mostly eaten down. I would expect him to be less footy by next weekend.

On Saturday I was panicking, as a large piece of flare / deviation had split and fallen off left fore. Took a fair bit of hoof wall with it. However we tidied the rough edges off it, and he didn’t seem any more footy on it. Spoke to local trimmer, who said if no sharp edges, and sole okay, should be fine to work as normal. I would like the majorly flared / deviated foot to also think about splitting and breaking off (carefully so as not to split foot higher up) however it looks pretty strong and robust and not like splitting. Maybe it is continuing to serve a purpose. I hacked him and he was slow and footy on stones, but good on soft / tarmac.

We had a lovely hack on Monday, we went round the Heath the soft sandy way and did lots of short bouncy canters. Remi was very cheerful on the soft bits.

Hacked again in the rain tuesday morning, with both horses and some more short canters.Kind friend hacked Remi at 6.30am in the rain!! Whilst I hacked Mac. Still quite footy on stones / gravel. Hopefully now eating mostly haylage again will improve.

Tuesday 28 May 2013

First lesson report

Remi and I had our first lesson on Sunday. Just 30 minutes. Equissaged first. Warmed up on lunge then lesson. He looked good on the lunge.

Lesson was fab, he exceeded all my expectations. Walk, trot, canter. Canter nowhere near as bad as I expected. Needs lots of straightening and suppling work. But was a good start. Starting to feel like a normal horse in school. Loads to work on but a big step forwards today. Main points to work on were riding definite shapes e.g. clear 20 metre circles, spiralling in and out, not letting him displace my seat off to the right. Not tipping forwards. Getting him to bend through neck to the right. Keeping constant rhythm. Not letting him lean on me. Exercise canter 20 metre circle. On open side back to trot, leg yielding out of circle. Walk when hit track and ten metre circle.

If he tries to rush off in a big trot, said it is him blocking through neck so I cannot ask him to use his hindquarters more.

It felt very strange to be “riding him properly”. And actually the more I asked of him the better he went, so is a good sign. I must actually ask him some questions, and ride him with more clarity and focus. I worry about being too bossy / asking too much. Will need to find the balance.

I didn’t take a lot of the lesson in, as I was so happy to be actually riding him, and that he was happy and not feeling too bad. :-)

Instructor encouraging and v helpful. And Remi happy, which is great. Remi was very pleased with himself. And rather sleepy in sun afterwards. I think we might aim for an unaffiliated prelim outing when we are ready. Strangely Remi likes dressage outings.

Bodywork next Saturday. Second lesson the Wednesday after. Lots of hacking to fit in too.

Keeping all crossed for on going progress.

Monday 27 May 2013

Horse agility photos

Remi at horse agility a few weeks ago. Pictures only capture a few of the obstacles. Rachel kindly took Remi, and I took Mac. Both ponies were fabulous. Very proud of them.

Saturday 25 May 2013

Remi update

I have done two short school sessions over the weekend (both Liz and Elaine said I should to do more in the school) - mostly did large shapes in trot.

Have booked a 30 minute lesson next weekend. And think Elaine is going to have a look at our ridden schooling work when she comes back at start June.

I lunged him in a Pessoa Monday night set as long as it goes, and he worked very nicely in this and continued to stretch down over his back when I took it off. So might lunge in this a few times a week too. Seems to be encouraging him to work with a lower neck and it helps him move better.

I think he is starting to build up muscle behind.

He had tuesday off.

I lunged him wednesday and thought he was a bit stiff all over. Short striding. Query footy. Wondering if is a delayed impact of being on a new paddock area and having more grass. Are still eating more grass than haylage. Or from doing light schooling saturday and sunday and light pessoa work monday? Think more likely to be footy.

He did warm up and loosen up on the lunge. But took a while.

He has high amount salt, MgO and some bicarbonate. Am thinking must have nearly eaten paddock down soon and start eating more haylage. Fingers crossed.

Friday much the same. Started stiff and short striding. Loosened up on lunge. Rode for ten minutes. Trotting large shapes. Still a bit footy outside school.