A Guest Blog from Hilary Moses
This month allowed Max and I to get back into the school and to
hopefully start some real work. The hacking time was building up
and we were doing longer distances with all the trotting. My vet
had told me to avoid hills and muddy paths and that’s quite
difficult in my area, and I don’t like pounding Max’s legs too much
on the road in trot. So finding suitable places to hack was quite
tricky. The weather wasn’t really playing ball either, so although
the plan was to ride every other day, that often didn’t happen.
Max was keen and enthusiastic on our hacks but as soon as his
hooves hit the school surface, the enthusiasm died. I was so
disappointed. I can always tell when he’s worried because he
chomps on his bit, and there was a lot of chomping going on. I just
let him relax and walk round but every time I picked up the reins
a little he would get worried and do a very odd hopping kind of
step as though he was trying to trot. He was also coming back at
me at the same time and I was banging my hands on his neck. I
had to keep reassuring him that all I wanted was a good walk, I
wasn’t asking for trot. As the sessions went on I introduced trot
and Max struggled on the corners and with his confidence to begin
with. After my initial disappointment I’m now a lot happier, as
there has been progress. Max isn’t so worried about the trot
transitions and is trotting for longer periods in the school. There
isn’t really much of a contact but we’re taking baby steps.
© Sue Palmer, The Horse Physio, 2021
Treating your horse with care, connection, curiosity and compassion