We are officially at five weeks post-surgery. Sutures were removed 10 days out and looked fabulous, with lots of compliments from local vet. That’s a super boring update, but boring is good.

The plan is to do 6 weeks of 15-minute walks. No turnout, no running, no trotting. In early December we increase to 30 minutes, and in mid-December we start tack-walking.

Polly has been exceptionally good. She’s pretty chill in her stall (occasional fuss at her neighbor – fine, whatever, it’s minimal) and we did our first two weeks with no drugs on board. Things started to get the tiniest bit iffy there, and then she was very briefly turned out by mistake, and the follow-up vet visit I requested to add Ace for our daily walks. Polly tries really, really hard to behave. Most of our walks are out on the trails, most recently with our pony friend and rider coming with too. Really the worst I’m getting is a big burst of energy on occasion, but it’s one stride and she quits quickly, then generally resumes zen pony walk. This could be so much worse. We do a lot of work on halt, yielding space, turns, lateral movement. If we’re going to walk forever we may as well build in good behaviors while we’re at it!

I set a four day/week pony schedule when I started working after college. It was the best way to balance time with my partner and conditioning time. I haven’t been back to seven days/week except for Fetti’s rehab in 2017 (five minutes away at the time, not a big deal) and the fire evacuations last year. Fetti’s rehab was also in the summer with more daylight hours. At this point, I’ve just shifted my schedule at work to do earlier hours and then go do our daily medication/walk at dusk.

Speaking of: medications. I am again that person with a pile of supplements. Hydroxizine for allergies, Platinum for allergies, Vitamin E because I had some left over and she might as well get it, leftover Smartpaks (may as well use ’em – allergy/ulcer), Platinum Gentle to try to mellow her out (I’m not sure there’s a big difference, she’s pretty chill, but it can’t hurt), CBD oil (makes me feel better and supports a local vendor), Alimend for ulcers, and now Ace for more zen pony. I will freely acknowledge that half of this is in the “makes me feel better to throw something at her” category. On the bright side, the general itchiness has largely resolved, and I’m not seeing the ulcer signs that were so prevalent last year despite her nearly 24/7 stall rest.

I don’t do super well in the winters to start with, and especially not-well around the holidays. My coping strategy for the last bunch of years has been to go ride after family events. This is now super broken. I did borrow a friend’s pony and we’ve been doing mellow hacks around, and now my friend is starting to come out and ride during our daily walks, so this year may be “go groom and walk for 15 minutes” as de-stressing time. It’s not the same and it sucks. The grief comes in waves. Some days are OK. Some days really suck. Another older mare at the barn passed recently, and watching her owner go through the several days of treatment and final decision – that was hard. I’m glad I was there to support, and she knew I’d been through similar very recently, but it reopens the emotional wound that’s still pretty raw.

Life is hard. And so, we walk.