Yesterday we passed another one of my (fairly arbitrary!) milestones. I had set us the informal goal of being able to go on a regular hack out, a proper circuit, for at least an hour. I remember thinking 'when we can hack out for an hour, it will mean we're right on our way to getting back to fitness'. Well, yesterday we all went out as a family, my husband and the children with their bicycles and me with Lutine. I walked perhaps the first couple of kilometres with her as there were some steep hills and valleys, but once on the flatter ground I got on and rode. She was really up for it the whole way and I think, in total, I probably rode her around 5km and walked about 4km. We were out for over an hour and a half and she didn't have any periods of feeling though she had to stop or feeling stiff and sore. We even had a few little trots and I was having to hold her back a bit! She was quite sweaty on her neck and under her saddle so I got off and walked the last couple of kilometres home, having loosened her girth, and then she had her cooler rug on when she got back and her oily feed an hour later once she was cool.
So the litmus test is how stiff she is today. My husband just suggested doing a little bit of in-hand work in the field to ease her off, with maybe some stretching, and I think he's right. I did some photonic therapy on her last night and gave her some homeopathic Arnica too. Perhaps she'll get some more of that today as well.
Oh, and I trimmed her feet on Saturday and guess what I found.... the remnants of a little micro abscess under the bar of the front left hoof. Fits with the gimpy footedness of 6 weeks ago....
No photos though as I was busy with a lively Lutine and hubby was occupied with two children on bicycles.
