Spring training

"Oh, they're wild and woolly and full of fleas, And never been curried below the knees "

N.b.: Clover doesn't have fleas.

Scene from last night: wet mud up to the knees stifles. The one good thing I can say about spring thus far is that the bugs haven't made an appearance (consistently) yet. I think there's been one day that Jen had to put the fly gear and bug spray on Clover.

I've been slowly, slowly getting more walk work in with a tiny bit of trot. I've just been asking her to accept contact with the bit and stretch over her top line once we've had a 10 minute walk on a free, then long rein. Asking for changes of bend, activating the hind legs to step under more. Transitions from walk to halt; transitions through working to free walk back to working walk again. Changes of rein across the diagonal, bending lines on the long sides of the ring. A circle here and there. More half halts. We're up to 35-40 minutes at a time, and hacking out at a forward, marching- along walk whenever possible.

We're working on addressing a slight issue with evenness in movement possibly related to arthritic changes, which is common in older horses. We (or rather, the farrier) put hind shoes back on Clover and she's moving out better behind. We're going to start her on a course of Adequan, which is a corticosteroid injected intramuscularly that stimulates cartilage repair and joint lubrication. It's been clinically tested and FDA approved (for what that's worth), and anecdotally, I've know of several people who had good results using it for their horses.

The bottom line is Clover's comfort. If we can't comfortably get back to the more vigorous training for lower-level eventing and hunter paces, then we dial it down and hack out at an easy pace and do gentle flatwork to keep her moving. "Motion is lotion" applies to human and horse alike. Gradually getting Clover fitter and stronger without overdoing it will help even out her stride and benefit her wellness overall. Now, to solidify my own fitness routine...