The end of year vet visit went beautifully. We trotted in a straight line. We trotted in a circle in the arena, with only mild shenanigans. The vet was pleased with her progress, especially after looking at the pre-surgery videos, and after discussion I got her OK to let Polly start moving in limited amounts in turnout, using my best judgment.

Honestly, I’m happier about that than about the clear-to-trot bit, though obviously both are important. Asking her to not spook under saddle while also not giving her any outlet for that energy feels unfair. Polly positively bounced around the (tiny) turnout once she figured out she was allowed to move! I’m holding off putting her back on Large Turnout rotation until we’re further along. It does make for an interesting balance. I want her to move. I don’t think lots of circles are in her best interest. I don’t want her to do any real work on the circle. So: our current compromise is that most days, we’ll head into the round pen (better footing), on a line, and I send her out. Speed is up to her as long as it’s not full zoomy canter for circles on end. I try to have us go both ways. When she’s done bouncing around, we’re done.

This is the point in rehab where the surgery vet said we should be doing 30 minute rides under saddle, including 10 minutes of trotting. Up from zero minutes of trotting. I nodded initially when I read that, and now I laugh. 10 minutes? How about.. 30 seconds? I don’t know how to trot baby pony under saddle! She doesn’t quite know how to carry me under saddle! We’re absolutely not, no way, no how, doing a full ten minutes of trotting under saddle right now.

Instead, our schedule thus far:

12/30: Vet visit! Cleared for trotting! Nothing else of note today, I was emotionally exhausted (the vet visit was fine! but nonetheless) and went home after.
12/31: 20 minutes in Tiny Turnout. One burst of energy. Rode out and back to the lower gate, approx 20 minutes, mostly not on the lead line.
1/1: 15 minutes Tiny Turnout/Round Pen. Polly figured out she was allowed to move, so we went to the round pen for safer footing. Rode out to the right (30min), mostly on the lead line, two short trots that felt very discombobulated.
1/2: 10min round pen on line. Rode out to the right (30min), mostly on the line, three short trots felt much better. We’re talking like.. ten-fifteen steps of trot here. 🙂
1/3 – 1/6: I wasn’t as good at logging these. One day I focused on groundwork at the barn. One day I opted not to ride due to exuberant horse in the big turnout (Polly was fine, I was anxious). I have no idea what happened the third day. Who knows!
1/7: rode out to the right, no ground crew, with friend on her horse. 30min, stayed on the whole way, had steering and brakes and everything!
1/8: Low energy in round pen, great! Rode out to the left, didn’t like the energy I felt even with being on a lead line. Hopped off after the road, hand-walked the rest of it. This is not our comfort zone direction.
1/9: Awfully spooky in round pen, enough that I took her off the line and let her loose to try to work through it. No real luck. rode out to the right, friend on her horse + partner hiking with us, requested lead line help a few times (another horse! eek!) but mostly off line. Despite round pen lack of focus, totally fine on trail.

Trotting is happening, it’s just not necessarily with me on her. The plan for now is to continue along this path, trot on the trail when I have someone hiking with us who can keep us on a line, otherwise walk. I’m not confident enough in our trot to have steering and brakes and balance from both of us. Once we move to the stage where I can steer and go and stop without help, then we can look at small jogs on our non-hiking-friend days.

Fixing WordPress so I can upload photos is still on the list for this month, until then Instagram is best for photo updates when I can get good ones.