We're Doing Something

 I am back at attempt #2455 at getting my baby horse broke.

Stitch had his osteopath appointment a couple of weeks ago. She didn't see any concerns in his sacrum this time, but found he was stiff in his left hock and stifle and something higher up on the right. She said the stifle can be typical in growing young horses, so I'm not going into a death spiral about that. 

The right hind is where I have been seeing more of the nqr-ness. There's a muscle or something that feels tight that goes from left to right across his back, possibly the biceps femoris. I've been massaging it regularly and Stitch often leans into it, so I'm wondering if that is causing the issues. As he's been feeling better, it has been feeling better, so it seems to be related.

Since I want to take my time getting him going again, I decided to start him back using interval training. Not gonna lie - I figured this was the easiest way to also get my body used to riding again. My knee has been pretty good and it feels strong in the saddle again, but the adductor that I pulled about 5 years ago has been a bit pissy lately. I'm trying to get back into a routine to do some strengthening exercises, but it's not quite a set routine yet.

Last week I started with 6 x 30 second trot with 1 minutes of walking in between. It wasn't enough time to really settle in the trot, or do anything other than trot around on the track. But it was a start. 

Stitch was feeling good under me - I didn't feel a difference if I changed my posting diagonal, and most of the time I had to ask him to slow down. Because he wasn't doing enough trot to get settled, he was totally throwing me around in the saddle. I felt like I was riding on a trampoline that somebody else was bouncing for me. It felt horrible and made me super sore after my rides.

This week, we moved up to 1 minute trots. I'm not sure who was more surprised by how long that first minute felt, me or Stitch. I was quite sure that I hadn't set my watch properly, but no, it was right!

The two rides that I've had with this timing has felt much better. Stitch has settled into the trot, and a minute gives us a chance to do a bit of steering off the track. He was huffing and puffing after the last set on yesterday's ride, but was ready to do more. Part of that may have been because the heat was on in the arena for the first time this season, which will mean that it will be time for his first clip pretty soon. 

We're not doing anything exciting at the moment, but we are finally doing something!