Something Happy + Ride 1.3

So I've been trying to post every day, and I worked really hard on getting ahead on writing blog posts for when school starts so that I wouldn't fall behind. And then school started and  suddenly I realized that it wasn't writing the blog posts, it was finding a wifi connection to post them with (I don't have an internet connection at my house). So Thursday and Friday were empty because of that. Whoops. I'll use the posts I wrote for them as filler later, I suppose. Things should go smoother from here on out.

What was something that made you happy this past weekend? Besides it just being the weekend. Probably my favorite part of the weekend was driving up to a small town yesterday to meet a friend!  She moved to a city about 2.5 hours north of me to attend college and we're both in fine arts (I'm music, she's musical theatre). We spent no less than five hours telling each other about our schools and our projects for the semester and what we wanted to do with our lives, and all the exciting things we should do in the area. It's awesome to have a friend nearby that I can go make plans with again!  I was so very tired last night, but I had way too much fun, so it was all worth it!

Last Thursday I had my second riding lesson on Missy. I had to really hustle to get down to the barn on time since one of my classes gets out at 1:20 and my lesson was supposed to start at 2. Cutting it a bit close, definitely.  Anyways, Missy was super chill. She came out of her turnout and practically slept in the cross ties while I groomed and tacked her up. Honestly, fine by me. I was coming off of my first round of classes for the semester and was already getting tired.

Because she was so calm and relaxed, of course I had to really push her for a proper walk once we were in the arena. Especially once Lindsey had me pick up two point. It is much more difficult to stay balanced in two point when your horse is plodding along with very little rhythm. Anyways, we did that, and then picked up rising trot for a lap or two. I'm working super hard on getting the correct diagonal and I think I finally got it in this lesson!  Of course, I still have to check it and fix it when I pick up the trot, but it finally clicked in my brain what was the right footfall to sit on! Very happy with myself for that. Now to put in some practice and really drive it home!  Rising trot for a while, with me trying really hard to weight my stirrups evenly, and then two point. Of course. Two point is a necessity, apparently. I can go a lot longer now without killing my legs, and I'm also getting better at not touching Missy's neck. She was still being very slow, so I had to sit every once in a while and push her forward a bit, but it was all good. I think I eventually managed to get three quarters of the way around the arena with my hands up. Big improvement! And we did at least four laps of trotting two point before my leg started burning - yes, only my right leg starts burning. Struggles of being so uneven.

We did the sit two, stand two rhythm at the trot as well and for whatever reason, I've managed to figure this one out and it doesn't throw me off as often as it was doing the first time. I felt super accomplished about this and then when your teacher compliments it, even better!

Cross tie pictures are all I have right now, sorry :(

This lesson we actually picked up the canter - apparently she was waiting for my two point to improve? Anyways. I have a hard time getting my aids correct for the canter, probably because its seat, legs, and hands all at the same time and coordination does not like me, but Missy is fantastic and picks up the right lead almost every time with no issues. I really focused on not leaning back - dressage habit maybe? - and that improved, but I was still losing my left stirrup. Lindsey's solution helped me out a ton - she had me really stretch my calf muscle, pushing my heel down and opening up the knee angle, and then not putting weight in my knees, but in my feet. Basically, heels down and keep the lower leg on the horse. Charming miracle!  I think we cantered a lap and a half where I felt like my left leg was actually approaching solid! 

Anyways, much improved, both from what Lindsey said and also I could feel it. I'm impatient to keep working on these things so that we can get even better. I know most of it is all simple stuff, but since I haven't taken very many lessons in my life, I need help with getting some of the basics really really solid.

I Went Riding!!!

I will have to write about my sporadic-ness of late at some point... but since I actually went riding this week, there is something to talk about! Well... if you enjoy reading about normal flat rides.

The last few times I've ridden its been in the arena (which is doubling as the girls' pasture right now) with The Pony tagging along. Tuesday however, I decided to get her out of there and do a little bit of exploring.

Fuzzy pony is rarin' to go. Can't you tell?

She was a good girl about tacking up, even though I didn't do such a great job with the girth. I'm still getting used to the fancy new Total Saddle Fit one that I have.
Anyways, I hopped on and for once she had a lovely walk right from the start. Usually we have a plodding walk and I have to try really hard not to nag. But she was great today and I decided to pick up the trot pretty quickly just  because it gets her energy up. Which it did.
We walked and trotted alternately up and down the driveway a few times and then ventured off down the road a little ways in both directions. My brain really wanted to go on a trail ride, but I ignored it! We only did a little bit before coming back. We'll get to trail riding eventually, but right now keeping her mentally happy and calm is what I want.

Heading home. Taking pictures while trotting is difficult.

We then headed into the side pasture and had a discussion about whether or not she could eat grass.  (hint: no)
I went straight for the canter once we had finished our discussion and while the canter itself wasn't all that wonderful, the transition into it was fairly good and the transition back down was lovely. Still working on transitioning down into a trot instead of a halt though. Either way, it was much softer and calmer.

We had another discussion about what speed she was going to trot at. She wanted to go super fast after I had let her canter, but since I want the canter to be something that goes well right now, I really focused on making her trot rhythmic. Oh, and posting at different speeds while she figured it out. That was interesting!

We had several very good points where she really softened and listened to me, so I changed it up a little and worked on a little bit of contact in both the walk and the trot. We had not done this in the trot, so it was new, but she did lovely and I was pretty happy with my hands if I do say so myself. ;)

I took her back down to where we cantered earlier and had another canter, which was a little bit better. The transition back down wasn't as smooth, but since she didn't hit the brakes, I called it good. We walked back down the stretch we had just cantered so she didn't get the wrong idea and then this happened.....

My legs hurt just thinking about it.

I'm a wimp when it comes to No-Stirrup November, so I only dropped them for the walk back to the barn. Even so... I think I prefer 2-point!

Overall, she was a lovely girl and I was really pleased. So often I get frustrated because it feels like I'm training a 16-year-old green horse, but quite honestly, I am. Most of the things we're working on she didn't learn as a young horse. She was a rodeo horse, so cantering/running fast and coming to a hard stop are natural to her. We've done more canter work in the last six months than I think I did in all the other years we've been together. We've made terrific progress. Yes, I get frustrated, but deep down I'm really proud.  :)

Not planning or anything, but Lady has been feeling pretty great lately, and I have my fingers crossed that she will be up for a small jump school next week. I would be so thrilled!!!!

Blog Hop + Riding Out

Today, from the awesome Viva Carlos, we have this thought-provoking blog hop...

Other than money, what would make your horse life simpler?

This is actually a difficult question for me... I don't have money, but I do have my two horses in my back yard. I have a lovely fenced in area to work in, a pretty good set of tack, etc. Everything should be set up for success and be as simple as ever. Right? Not so much...
Probably, right now, my horse life would be simpler if my health were better. Not that it is so bad right now, but I have some leftover mental attitudes from the past 2 years of being sick on and off so many times I'll skip working with the horses because I just "don't feel too great."
So... yeah. Being not sick would make everything a lot simpler.  :)

In other news, on Saturday, Lady and I rode off the property. If you've been reading along for any length of time, you probably know that we have major issues with this. Lady is quite barn-sweet, and The Pony goes a little berserk when her companion goes out of sight. We've never really had issues that I couldn't ride through, but it has been a little uncontrollable at times.
I'm still hesitant to say too much, in case it was a fluke and we have a major meltdown the next time, but overall, the entire ride felt like a huge success.
We went up and down the driveway and then went a very good ways past on one side down the road. There was a lot of tall grass, which she doesn't like due to the insane amount of grasshoppers we have living here. Because of that, we had a little argument about whether we were walking in the grass or on the highway. Obviously, I pressed home the fact that we were NOT walking on the highway. I was just so glad that she was not spinning around and trying to go home.
Beside our property is a huge grassy field across from which is a smaller road that I would love to ride on regularly. This time, unlike any time in the past several years, we marched off into the great unknown. She even sped up and we trotted a short distance. Away. From. Home. I was a little shocked, and very pleased.

I did think ahead a little bit and managed to find a pretty good place where we were both quiet and fairly relaxed to stop. She was still looking forward and probably would have gone further if I had asked, but I decided to turn around instead and make the entire ride a success instead of pushing the limit. She was really good on the way back too and only got a little headstrong once we were actually within sight of The Pony again and all that.

*fingers crossed* hopefully it was actually a result of training and confidence! :)

Notes of Seeming Importance

I must start writing more often...  <knocks head on wall>  After all, I'll be doing Camp Nano again next month and writing every day is mandatory. I wonder if I can add blog posts to my word count?

Anyways... so, this week had been planned to spend time with a friend of mine and her horse at my place working on various horsemanship principles. Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances, she had to leave several days early and therefore I did not get as much horse-time in this week as I should have. <sad face>

The best part of this week (besides the short time my friend was here)!

Not so lovely on camera, but oh well....

The arena got mowed and trimmed! My daddy is the best and I am super excited and motivated to make some more progress now that there are not 3 foot tall weeds in all directions.  :-)

Lady has been doing pretty well lately. She listens and tries to understand and do what I want. We're learning together and its slow at times, but we are making progress. She has been a little sore the last week or two, and I'm quite sure that her hocks are hurting her at times. She still offers things like jumping and such, so she will continue to stay in regular work so long as the discomfort is minimal. I am doing extra warm-up and flexibility exercises for her though. Poor girl tries so very hard for me.

While my friend was here, my primary focus was on keeping Lady calm and obedient. She takes the screaming and carrying-on to an excess when it comes to other horses. I was very impressed that she kept most of the shenanigans inside the pasture and behaved very well when I had her on the ground or under saddle. She was capable of standing still and watching them canter across the arena and of moving away when I asked, so I was pleased.  :)
Yesterday, I brought only my bridle out and did some liberty. Lady's confidence is a little shakier than usual with a bit, so we're working on that. She was quite a good girl at liberty and I hopped on for a little bareback/bridleless ride afterwards. Lovely, especially as the sun went down.
Today, I simply pulled out my 45-foot lariat rope and played with that. And my conclusion is that I need a ton more practice. We spent more time standing still whilst I untangled the rope than we did actually moving around! Yeah... I'll be practicing that without her attached.  ;-)

Realizations

I've been trying so hard to make progress every time I play with Lady over the last while instead of just doing stuff for an hour and then being done.

Well, last night it finally hit me that we have made a lot of progress - lots more than I thought!  I don't have pictures to show you exactly what I'm talking about, but I have older pictures and I'll get newer ones as soon as I can. Things just really dawned one me last night while working with her.

August 2012

Lady is definitely a lot more trim now. See those wrinkles in her neck? They're not there anymore, and even though she could stand to lose a few more pounds, she is carrying herself so much better and a lot of that weight is muscle now instead of just fat. She is a big horse by nature though.

Not sure about the date, but at least 3 years back.

Here her trot looks quite rushed and hollow. Her belly is dropped and overall she looks tense. We had trouble with this up until pretty recently. Yesterday is when I really noticed that she is consistently more round now. She tracks up nicely, her neck is rounder and she is much more relaxed and bent properly. Yes, she still has moments where she goes back to old habits, but overall, SO much improved.

These things have also translated to riding. The Lady has become so much calmer and more responsive. She is still herd/home bound, but is starting to listen more instead of always having to go her way. For the longest time, even a simple trot was out of reach because she would tense and hollow and get out of control. Now, we are actually connecting at the trot and thinking about the canter. Success!!

Same session as photo above.

Speaking of the canter, it is also much better. She is finally able to hold it  with a decent form and stay relaxed and it shouldn't be long before we can start doing it under saddle. Really excited for that! :)

Update on the Pony

One of my goals for the month of May was to get The Pony (aka Tempest) more comfortable with  being touched and caught. 

To give a little background, Tempest has had some previous work and came close to being started, but then was put out to pasture again and has reverted back to some wild horse habits, mainly being hard to touch and even harder to catch.

With lots of slow and persistent work, we've progressed to being able to feed treats in the pasture without her running away and now I can most often greet her and give her a scratching whenever I come out to catch Lady. Even more lately, I started getting her to sniff the ropes before I haltered Lady and she has gotten extremely better.

Old picture, but a good one.

Early this morning, she managed to escape from the pasture and usually that means I have to use food or other "undesirable" means to get her back in. Today, I got some hay cubes and a halter and caught her in five minutes. Quite surprising, actually....

I had extra time this evening, so I decided to bring both horses out to graze for a little. Lady got to go loose, but I caught The Pony again and brought her out. She was quite the good girl and even got to get off the lead for a while. She wasn't so thrilled about being caught again to go back in for the night, but when she realized I would leave her out and serve dinner without her, she cooperated again pretty quick. 

Quite proud of the little pony.  :)

Thunder and Rain

It has been raining again, which is wonderful!  I really like the shorter, more regular rains that we have been getting lately.  :)

Anyways, besides that, Lady did not get much time over the weekend... seems to be a trend!  o.O

Monday:  I cleaned out her feet and got a knife in there to look at how everything is. I need to rasp the walls down yet this week (last week, actually)....

Today, I didn't do nearly as much as I had planned, but I might be glad of it since I turned the horses out and got my tack inside before the rain started again.

Since we skipped the jumping on Friday, I introduced her to that a little on the ground. She was less than thrilled with my trot planks and hay-bale-jumps and felt a lot like she might bolt. I chocked it down to her being nervous with the dark clouds and impending doom of rain and let it go after she went mostly straight down the center of both trot planks and actually jumped the hay bales, and didn't run me over or explode around me.

Tacked up, and thoroughly reconsidered my decision to ride. Her head was high and while she was sort of doing everything I asked, it wasn't really with much mental attention or any sort of suppleness. I decided to hand walk her up to the arena and see how she did. It was okay, so I finished tightening the girth and moved her away from the shed, which she found particularly terrifying.... due to the odd wind and weird storm pressure in the air.

Since I have been wanting to get better at calming and controlling her from the saddle instead of bailing every time something goes wrong, I went ahead and mounted. After a lengthy check of her obedience to bending her head and listening to the reins. Of course.

I also shortened my stirrups one hole as an experiment. Based on a little research and studying pictures from my ride last week, I determined that I could go a little shorter without losing communication. In fact, the only thing that was lost was some of the ease of mounting. Maybe I don't want a bigger horse!  O.o

Anyways, we walked off and did a big loop of the arena. On the way, we encountered the resident killdeer mother who has been rather upset lately about our presence.

The loop went well... she was fairly responsive and we even had decent corners!  From there we maneuvered through some cones and other bendy lines and she was still good, so I decided to go ahead and do the trot. I'm still trying to stay on the rail with the trot so that I can work on my balance without having to worry too much about her. She was quite lovely, and I even managed to post for about 10-12 strides without bumping her. Success!!
She kept on with her wonderful-ness, and my posting just got worse. Sigh. But I could not have been more pleased with her behavior.  :)

Since I really have been wanting to gallop her again, and we need to start on it anyways, I decided to go out on a limb (figuratively!) and ask for a canter. The result was good and bad.
Bad: canter did not happen. Instead, we trotted super super fast, and I bounced along for the ride.
Good: no bolting, bucking, craziness, nothing from her! She listened to my confused rein aids and came back down to a nice walk as soon as I asked.

I'll stop now, since I've rambled on long enough, but suffice it to say that I was super impressed and pleased with both her and me. More her than me. :)  And since I didn't get pictures, you have to tell me what your favorite color is.

Mwahaha.

Shoulders Back!

Yesterday (Wednesday) was our first real fitness session so far this year. I meant to start sooner, but time just kept slipping away from me. That being said, doing it yesterday in the heat of the afternoon was not the smartest idea I ever had. I did not ride, since I'm not confident or fit enough to ride at more than a walk for very long yet. So we did everything in hand, moving around the property to keep her interested. 

10 minutes of walk to warm up - a little sluggish in the heat.

Four 5-minute trot sets, separated by 2-minute walking periods for rest.

2 minutes of canter.

And 10 more minutes of walking to cool down.

I was pretty impressed with how she did. Me? I got overheated and nearly collapsed, but she was quite good! She was pretty sweaty and breathing hard, but still had her head up and could likely have gone on a little longer, if I had asked her to.

We won't do "fitness" until next week (Tuesday and Friday are scheduled) but I'm very happy with where we are at. Well... mostly. Her fitness level still surpasses mine, which is why my personal exercise schedule is as difficult as it is. Yup. :)

Today. It was dressage day and the focus in my head was on bending and transitions. I set up some cones in a bendy shape and used that for part of it. Lady was distracted and not totally present for most of the time, but overall she was obedient and willing. I'm not sure yet what to do to keep her from drifting so much or respond when I ask her to bend away the object of interest. She will bend her head/neck usually (although I have to hold it there fairly strongly) but will not yield her shoulder away from home, person, whatever.

Anyways, she was pretty good overall and I finally got pictures so I can look at how my position is. 

Yay! Sort of...

My shoulders need to come back. I've gotten better lately about keeping my lower back aligned correctly, but I need to build more strength in my shoulders and upper/middle back.

Don't really like this picture, although Lady's face is cute :)  Anyways, good example of how my right hip tends to drop and I go crooked. So does my saddle. And my shoulders.

Not a bad workout by any means. Mostly my takeaways are that I need to get my shoulders back and relaxed. And I need to remember not to lock out my elbows. I think I also need to bring my legs back, but not sure on that one.

What do you think?  :)

Keeping It Simple

Lady got the weekend off because me was rather sick, starting on Saturday.  :(  

I finally felt good enough to get out and play with her today and we had a light groundwork session. She didn't want to approach me when I went to catch her, so I sat down a little ways away and practiced my singing. I tried a few different songs, but it took a "heart-felt" rendition of Reflection from Disney's Mulan and then both of them were nosing me all over. Tehe.

Dad had pulled out a chest freezer from the shop to clean and Lady was quite curious about it so we went over to check it out and she decided it wasn't as interesting close up as it had been far away. Silly horsie.

We started off doing some circles at the walk. I've been really focusing on getting her to change direction smoothly at the trot lately. At the walk, she was very good today and I made sure she would turn towards me and not stop, but keep moving. When she was feeling pretty solid in that, I moved it up to a gentle, slow trot and insisted only that she not stop when I asked for the direction change. She still broke down to a walk, but kept moving, which is an improvement. Pretty happy about that! :)

I had some work planned on simulating leg pressure when in the saddle while on the ground (not sure if that made sense). I did this by using a hand and/or stick in the area where my leg would be and played with both moving sideways and doing hindquarter/forequarter yields with just small amounts of pressure. I really want her to respond to my legs without constant reminding from the reins and I figured this would be an ideal way to kickstart those responses. :)  She did quite well and I am pleased with her.

Lady felt a little tense, so I rubbed on her neck a little. On a whim, I decided to pull off the halter completely and have a little fun at liberty. We did some draw and then went on to circles, which she was absolutely perfect about!! Circles at the walk and trot, transitions between those gaits, lovely walk change of directions, relaxed head and neck, swinging stride, and some nice tracking up, all there! And completely loose in the field and she never once thought about leaving. SO proud of her! :)

Love this face <3

In other news, I've been really trying to set up a good schedule/routine thing so that she can settle into regular work/schooling/stuff and we can really start learning things and improving consistently. Therefore, here is my plan for the rest of May, starting tomorrow. I'm not fancy enough to put a calender together or anything for the blog, so you've got a list :)

Wednesday:  Fitness, aka trot sets. Possibly a bath. Maybe :)

Thursday:  Arena time. Focus on bending around things and doing transitions. Hack out afterwards.

Friday:  Jumping, possibly free jumping. Mostly poles and some low crossrails.

Saturday:  Planning to take off. Might do something fun, just because. :)

Sunday:  Either a rest day or a fun day, depending on Saturday.

Monday:  Dressage work. Practice Movement 1 from USDF Intro Test A. Also work on going through corners properly and focus on practicing my posting trot along the rail of the arena.

Tuesday:  Fitness Day. 10-15 minutes on the hills and possibly trot sets. Considering trying a gallop too, just because I want to! Tehe.

Wednesday:  Dressage work. Work with transitions, Figure8 and Serpentines. Focus on the trot-walk downward transition.

Thursday:  Jump Day! School on the ground over crossrails and ride some poles. Also focus on completing goals for May.

Friday:  Fitness - Trot Sets, possibly at liberty. Also 10 minutes of hills, first ridden fitness segment. Hack out again.

Some people don't like to plan sessions out with much detail, but I've found that if I don't have a plan in mind, I try to make everything perfect and that never turns out well. Not to say that I won't change my plan if its not working, but helps me mentally, and we usually get more accomplished this way.  We'll see how this one turns out!

The Week's Schooling Log

This post is more for me than anyone else, but maybe you want to read it anyways.  :-)

Sunday:  Work in-hand at the walk and trot. Walked on gravel for several short periods of time and Lady was much, much better already - just a little tender and much less resistant than two days ago. We worked on leading from her off side, because I am stiff through my left shoulder and have trouble with blocking her with my body (transfers to riding too). We also practiced some HQ/FQ yields, focusing on moving the correct feet and keeping the weight balanced properly. Approximately 30 minutes.

Monday:  It rained. :(  I mean... yay! sort of...

Tuesday:  Some more basic work in hand, working on her staying in the correct position (nose at my shoulder). We crossed the gravel driveway twice and she did fine, just wanted to slow down quite a lot so I think she is still a little tender. She started getting much better about not pushing ahead of me during leading time. She was sound at the trot, so we did circles on the 12-foot line. 10 laps of the trot in each direction - good start! :D At the end, I hopped on with just the halter and lead for a short bareback ride and it was quite nice. She was mostly well-behaved and cooperated well. Approximately 30 minutes.

Wednesday:  No work. Mostly life and a mental block from me.

Thursday:  Warmed up, tacked up, and mounted up! Went on one big loop of the arena at the walk, avoiding the enormous puddle in one corner of course. Changed directions and trotted most of the way around again. A challenge, but a good one! Got off and had her stay ground-tied while I pulled out a hay bale and a barrel as guidelines for the Figure 8 pattern. Did several rounds of that, then unsaddled and took her for a walk. We hung out in the tall grass for a treat afterwards. She was happy to be back in work.  Approximately 1 hour.


Notes and Thoughts (mostly from Thursday's ride):

• I weight my stirrups unevenly, but I can't figure out which one it is. O.o
• Working out regularly has helped my shoulder! It was much less stiff this week.
• Why do I have trouble with my foot tipping, especially the right one? It ends up falling to the outside of the stirrup and twisting my ankle. It could be my hip - need to work on that.
• Lady really liked me keeping my hands low and wide. Her head stayed lower and she actually accepted a little bit of contact for a while.
• I need to do more big school movements.
• I need to stop making her move perfectly every time. Shorter increments of specific work interspersed with easier things. At least until she can focus without panicking for longer periods of time.
• Keep my spine tall and my seat deep. HUGE difference in her movement and our harmony.
• Keep the legs on, but keep them soft too.
• Try not to stop every time she deserves a reward. Learn to reward and pat and keep riding (i.e. walk on the buckle as a treat?). Teach her that she can keep moving forward too.

At this moment, it is really hard not to go jump back on and try all kinds of new stuff that I've been reading about, but somehow I don't think that is the best strategy. I also have to remember that what movements worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. I did loops and figure 8s on Thursday. Today I need to find something new so that she doesn't get bored or naughty.  :-) 

Here's to hoping Lady stays sound and healthy!

The Next Phase

It is now summer! Finals week is past and I attended graduation this last Friday, where I had to say farewells to several friends. I will be taking one summer course so that I can graduate at the end of the fall semester, but that does not start until the middle of July, which means I have close to two months free of schooling.

Well... I signed up for two low-intensity courses on Coursera.org. One starts next week and another starts the week after. I guess there is no such thing as escaping new things to learn, but I'm not sure I really  mind.

This summer has little on the calender so far. There is the World Expo - American Taekwondo Association that I will be attending in early July for competition. I also have my 20th birthday in July - that sounds scary!  O.o

I am attempting to search for a job that will help me pay for school and prepare for both a planned trip to Europe next spring and the big move to university (with Lady!) next summer. Landing a decent job seems to be rather difficult, however.

LINK

On the equine front, we have had a little good news. Lady is still tender, but not outright sore or anything. I am keeping her on grass for the moment as I simply cannot justify taking her off of it as it does not seem natural to me. So for now, both horses stay on pasture, which is now much shorter and not so rich anyways.

Instead of one bucket a day, I decided to divide her feed into two smaller meals. I only give her soaked timothy/alfalfa cubes mixed with a bit of oats, and only enough to mix her supplements in and make her happy. She is getting her regular supplements in the morning along with epsom salts and aloe vera (this week only). In the evening, she'll get her apple cider vineger, garlic, vitamin C, vitamin E (when I get it), and some extra comfrey, nettle and willow. I also plan to have activated charcoal on hand if she takes a turn for the worst and I'm offering her Himalayan salt and kelp daily.

Since she is doing better again, the best thing I feel I can do for her is keep her in light exercise. Right now, that is going to be at least 20 or 30 minutes of hand walking and trotting. She will also get a small amount of walking on gravel every day, and depending on how she continues to feel, I'll start going back to our regular work.

Hopefully, we can have a ride before this week is over.  *fingers crossed!*