Baby Steps

We were supposed to have a vet and physio visit last night, but the vet has hurt his back quite badly. Between the three of us we decided that since the physio is the key to Quadi's recovery, and since he's showing almost not signs of lameness, that we could postpone the vet.

But physio came out see how he is looking after his travels to the North East, and to make sure he didn't have any knots or bumps after settling in.

Walk and trot up showed no unlevelness, he has great range of movement in all limbs. There are no knots or lumps in his back and just a bit of stiffness/reaction along the muscle (can't remember which one!) very close to his spine on his near side. This improved but did not disappear with exercise. It's very superficial so we are just keeping an eye. It could easily be soreness from hooning and rearing and generally being silly. He had a good roll prior to the physio and didn't look to be in any discomfort :)

I am very nervous about this Pessoa business, so what was key for me last night was to make sure I was doing exactly what was required to help Quadi.

I also had a chat with one of the nurses down south, and she told me exactly what they were doing. He was moving up to the more intermediate settings of the Pessoa, but wasn't quite ready for it in this manner for a full lunge session.

Because he is still settling in and we are finding out feet with each other again, we are going back to baby settings so that I know any adverse reactions are genuine and not through worry about unfamiliar noises/being away from friends/muddled communication from me/etc.

He is a lazy fellow, so I do have to lunge him by getting closer to him and, when he falls in through his belly, using the end of the whip to ask him to engage his abs and bend the correct way. Basically a very gentle prod in the ribs, using the whip as an extension to my hand, or indeed my leg if he were being ridden.

I also have to really chivvy him along with a cheery voice, but he does respond to it well, and I'm so pleased that our old in-hand commands are remembered. He might be a lackadaisical little lad but he is so sensible, I'd rather his sedentary pace than a Wall-Of-Death approach!

I think he's also bored of solely lunging, so we are going to do some long-reining and polework, and I might look into some TTouch work. I had thought of giravolta but I think that will be too much at the moment. Some in-hand shoulder-in might be fun though :)

His back is looking rather dippier than I remember, I think this will be our constant challenge. I will have to try and post a recent picture of his dam. Although she has been a broodmare for a long time, even still her back is very dipped :(

The general concensus is that he should get a lot stronger with a rider up top, so I won't put that off as long as I thought I would, but he will need to be a little stronger first. It should be less boring for him to be ridden, his ridden physio involves hills.

He also had his first Cartrophen injection courtesy of Kate, because the needle was huge and I flaked. But with me at the bow shoving in carrots, once the needle was in he was great about it. And the physio said it was nice to be working with a horse who wasn't trying to kick or bite, or combine the two!

He and Fin are sorting themselves out, I think once Quadi relinquishes any harboured fantasy that he is as special as the younger model, they will be just fine.

The cycling was MUCH easier last night in the sun, can't believe the difference. I had a bottle of Powerade with me too, that also helped. I managed the 8.1 miles home in 50 minutes. I was a little delirious from the cold but apart from that, great! Still don't have total feeling in my butt today though...