Injections

Last Friday, Dr Scott injected Ashke’s left hock in both joints. He was on stall rest til Tuesday night, when he was lunged for fifteen minutes, during which time he acted the fool on the end of the rope. Wednesday night we did our lesson, cramming a lot of work into our forty-five minutes. Then on Thursday, I was lucky enough to have J at the barn loading the camper (she has a bike race this weekend) onto the truck and she came in and filmed the end of our ride. Before the videos below, Ashke and I did trot work in the serpentine and then leg yields and he felt fantastic. Smooth. Flowing.

When we moved to the canter, I was just doing big canter circles around the edges of the arena. It was obvious in our last show that we need more practice in cantering for a longer period of time. So big canter circles. In the past he has gotten ragged and rough after fifteen strides or so. The canter at that point has gotten so much more difficult to ride. This time, he was smooth and flowing and it was easy to ride.

This is the canter I have been working toward for seven years. This is what I have been expecting, not the short, hoppy, rough thing of our past. Not only that, but there were sheath sounds for the first time in any canter. Ever. J also said he wasn’t flipping his tail as much. So all signs point to having figured out where his pain is and fixing it. 

I can’t wait for my pixem to get here. And after our final show next weekend, we start working on our flying changes.