Still Walking

Eli had a vet visit yesterday. We do not get to trot yet, but we can keep walking under saddle and he can keep going out for turn out if he can stay relatively quiet (again, ha). While the injury area showed some inflammation, the tissue was not damaged beyond that. The vet recommended another shockwave treatment and a few days of just hand walking, and continue icing the RH daily.

Eli had also developed some swelling on his left hind, but I thought it was probably just one of his regular dings, and the vet did not seem concerned about it. I’ll probably just ice both of Eli’s hind legs daily until the end of time.

The vet also remarked that Eli seemed very chill. His appointment was in the middle of the day, which is Eli’s nap time after lunch, so I just offered that as explanation. He’s just a sleepy horse in the afternoon. I also think at this point, since Eli is seeing his vet pretty much two times a month, maybe he’s finally calling truce? Like hey maybe this vet guy isn’t so bad? Maybe we don’t have to pin ears and grind teeth so much? Détente, can we?

The turnout time, limited as it is, still makes a huge difference for Eli’s mental state.

While we can’t add any new work to our current routine, I am pleased that all the walking and turnout did not affect the injury too terribly. This feels like a delicate balance between healing and keep the pony sane. Hopefully the shockwave will help it along a bit more! I still have no long term timetable for when Eli can go back into full work, but the initial expectation was that Eli would be out for the summer at least. We still have a lot of summer left here, so I don’t think we’re too far off the recovery pace.

But dude. Walking for 30 minutes is boring. I break it up with some walking in the arena and some walking in the fields but we can’t really do much else beyond that. It’s a little more interesting when other people are riding, so Eli gets exposure to a little more activity and remembers he doesn’t care when a horse canters up from behind to pass him and things like that. The benefit of the heat is that Eli is MUCH more relaxed!

Speaking of heat, my summer riding wardrobe has expanded recently, since Botori came out with a few new colors. The Kate pants in pewter basically are the color of show tan breeches and I may or may not be tempted to show in them one day. They are also slightly less stretchy than the black Botoris, so no need to size down in these.