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