He's baaaack!

This is the look of a horse that's thrilled to be back in work.  No, really, he's thrilled.

This was after 30 minutes on the lunge, mostly  at the walk with about ten minutes of trot and a bit of canter.  After warming up, I put some side reins on him to keep him from looking like a distracted giraffe as other horses went by.  That's the random strap in front of the saddle in the picture.  I popped the stirrups off of my saddle since I wasn't going to actually get on.  Easier than tying them up.

My poor person's lunging set up will be going away soon.  I've located a lunging caveson that should work well and we'll get some Vienna side reins.  Toss on a surcingle and he'll look like a serious business dressage horse.  I may even use white polos.

As for Abby, I think she's gone.  Today there was no swelling and the split was larger.  I got a bit of ooze before the ride, nothing after.  Hot compress for about 20 minutes, a hot pink wrap with betadine, and he got to go out in the field with all of the other horses for the first time since the 4th of July.

Now that is a happy horse.  This field is called the Ritz and it's amazing.  It keeps going over that rise and there are cross country jumps tucked in around the edge.  All of the horses that can handle grazing get rotated on this field or another one just like it down the road.  There's a reason we have to keep an eye on mi papi's weight.

He made the whole herd go off and gallop around for a bit right after this peaceful picture, of course.  He just feels good and wants to share it with the world.  He's easy to spot in the field right now with that one bright pink foot.

Tomorrow will be on the lunge again.  Not sure about Tuesday, since I wanted to do a no stirrup/no reins lesson with a jumping chute on one of the school ponies.  We might reschedule that until Theo is ready to do it himself or I'll jump someone else before working Theo.  With any luck, I'll be able to ride him on Tuesday.  I'm counting down.  I've got a show on the 16th to get ready for!