Last evening was our second ride since the vet released Riva to begin under saddle work again. But first, she had her appt with our farrier. Vet would like to keep for on a 4 week trim/shoes re-set cycle. Farrier will be on vacation next week, so I had her seen at 3 weeks. Our farrier was very pleased with Riva's progress - he had to expand the bar shoe on her club foot, as her foot had spread. Trimmed a bit off the heels on the right foot. Trimmed and re-set the left foot and trimmed the back feet. She will be seen again in 4 weeks and at that time, I will have her back feet re-shod. Forgot the camera...will try and remember tonight to take updated feet photos to post.
I had my husband put Riva on the lunge so our farrier could watch her trot. He rated her as less than a .5/5 to the left and not ratable to the right. He is very happy with her progress in this amount of time. And he thought she over all looks and acts much more comfortable. Riva stood the best she ever has for her farrier work - no naughtyness what so ever - yeah!!
After the farrier left, I groomed and tacked her up. She was a bit jumpy in the cross ties - kept dozing off and then would startle at noises. So I started off riding in the indoor. Riva was not at all happy about this and had to be growled at a bit to keep moving and listening. After she started moving out better and behaving, I rode her to the outdoor dressage arena to continue with our walk. She was a bit looky on the first lap around the ring, but then settled, dropped her head and I was able to ride her on the buckle the entire rest of our ride. I also dropped my stirrups and worked on turns with my legs and body only - no reins. Riva respond very well to this. I am hoping that I will be able to lower my stirrups by the time we are given the ok to start trot work again. My stirrups already felt too short when I put my feet back in to walk back up to the barn.
Hoping to give Riva a much needed bath this evening and get the trailer ready to haul our daughter's horse to Edinburgh for her dressage show on Saturday. We will haul the trailer home for the night and go to get her and her horse on Friday evening. Supposed to be good weather for Friday and Saturday - cool, sunny, sounds good to me! Going to be a long day Sat - her dressage times are 10:51 am and 5:04 pm. Upside is I will have lots of time to watch other riders. Next best thing to getting to take Riva and compete is spending all day learning from others.
1 comment:
Congrats! That's awesome that her heel is expanding back to where it need to be. Why are you shoeing the rear hooves? I thought they were doing well. Just curious.
Good luck to your daughter! I can't wait to see pictures. :)
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