Building Up Work

I thought I would write a bit of an update on how Trooper's tendon is healing. It is going really well. We are gradually building up the amount of work he is doing with the hope that he will be back to normal in 3 months (Trooper's "normal" is just schooling him to keep him supple).

This week I have been mostly riding him for half an hour at a time. This means we can now do one full loop on the roads which is good when it isn't raining. I have also been increasing the amount of time he has been trotting for so he is now trotting for 4 minutes (2 on each rein). In the trot he is going really nicely and just feels normal.

I have been keeping him going large in the arena and have not been doing an circles yet as this will put extra strain on the tendon. In walk I have been starting to do a bit of work going on the inside tract and trying to keep him balanced and walking in a straight line.

I am hoping I will be able to do a bit of canter before I go back to University in mid January as then my mum will be able to carry on doing a bit with him. He has been cantering (and galloping) in the field and still been fine so hopefully this will be OK.

Last week he managed to escape from the field with 2 other horses. We have to entrances to our field and they went out of one, galloped round the farm for a bit them went up to the other gate. And someone opened it and let them back into the field, so that was a little adventure for him!

Not sure how he got the front of his face this muddy!

He doesn't like being out in the field when it is raining and tries to escape so I have to go to the farm early to bring him in. Yesterday as we arrived we could see him following a girl up the field with her horse. I thought I saw him on his knees and the girl said he got down to roll but then saw her walking up and jumped back up again! So to avoid him pestering other people trying to get their horses out the field and prevent him from putting extra strain on his leg he is having to come in quite early.

Trooper waiting at the gate!

Trooper hasn't been clipped this year as he is not doing much work and I really like his winter coat. It isn't too long and he is really black and shiny. We will definitely consider not getting him clipped next year as well. He is wearing a fleece at night in the stable and a lightweight outdoor rug in the field to stop him getting too muddy!

For Christmas he got a new salt lick from a family friend which he has been enjoying, I am just a bit worried about how quickly he is eating it though as all that salt can't be good!

He was standing as far away as possible and stretching out to lick it whilst I was crammed in the corner of the stable trying to take a photo!

I still haven't taken my camera to get any good photos, with the bad weather and all the work I have had I have been unable to. My boyfriend is coming to stay next week so I will try and get him to take some photos or maybe a video of me riding Trooper so you can see how he's doing.

I know this is a horse blog but I thought I would finish off with some photos of my dog on Christmas day! Rio doesn't get up to much as she spends most the day sleeping so it would be hard to have a blog on her! She had a nice Christmas though and unwrapped her own presents!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

Love Laura
xxxx