He's been coming in during the day and having some soaked hay and is out at night in a small paddock which has kept his weight down. He is always very keen to go out at the end of the day! He gets like this after a period of box rest, for a good few weeks after he hates being in the stable and even just a few hours in winds him up like he's been in for days!
I rode him for the first time on Saturday afternoon, after he had been in all day, which perhaps wasn't the best plan! He was very on his toes which wasn't helped by the farmer next door trying to round up his sheep while I was tacking up, all the shouting and dog and sheep running about really wound Jack up. I could tell it wasn't a good idea to get on him and try to hack out straight away so I put him on the lunge in the school first and let him get it out of his system a bit. He had a little canter and buck but settled quite quickly. I was pleased to see he looked completely sound and was moving really well! When I got on he put his head down and his back came up ready to bronc but I was ready for him and quickly pulled his head up and walked him on. He felt tense but didn't do anything wrong. Once I felt him relax we headed out for a short hack with another horse who was very safe and sensible. He was quite excited to begin with jogging and skipping about but behaved himself and managed to keep a lid on it even when a big tractor and trailer passed us, a train went under the bridge as we rode over it and a noisy motorbike passed us far to fast and close. We only went round the block about 20mins in walk as advised by the vet but he felt great, no sign of any pain or unlevelness just very keen and forward.
On Sunday I decided riding in the morning when he had been out all night might be a bit easier. We headed out with 3 friends but Jack was still pretty excitable and strong. We did the same route as the previous afternoon and with it being a Sunday morning fairly early it was nice and quite so after a while Jack did settle down and we had a nice ride with friends and a bath when we got home.
I had planned on riding today but I needed to get my little boy to the dr's so I rushed to the farm after work to do Jack's stable and put him out for a bit thinking he could have a hour or 2 in the field to chill out a while then I'd go back and ride after sorting Thomas at the Dr's. Sadly it poured with rain and so I couldn't ride. It was really windy too which isn't the best weather to try to ride in on an already very fresh horse so maybe it was for the best and I will try again tomorrow.
I will be doing a couple of weeks hacking in walk building up the time everyday and hopefully in 2 weeks he will be ready to start doing a small amount of trot and see how he gets on. I'm going to take things slowly and carefully doing all I can to keep him healthy and sound. Fingers crossed rehab goes well and we can begin to enjoy ourselves again with some nice hacks and bit of dressage to begin with. Hoping in the long run we will be able to jump and event again, the vet doesn't see why not but I have to be honest I am a bit worried with the amount of set backs and injuries he has had that he might not be able to. Having said that he doesn't need to be super fit to do BE80 level eventing so maybe we can get there given the time and correct rehab.
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