Wednesday I rode again before work. Unfortunately they were dragging the arena when I got there so I had to walk him around the track in our field instead of in the arena. Still very well behaved but much more looky and power-walking than on Tuesday. Nothing out of the ordinary and still much better behavior than I would have expected from Gatsby, even if he wasn't coming back from 5 weeks off.
My plan for the week was to also ride him Thursday after work and today before work. Unfortunately neither of those days worked out. Thursday I had to work late and today I really felt very sick to my stomach. I am going out of town tonight and won't be back until Monday. In a case of terrible timing, the only other people who can ride him are also out of town this weekend. I have already scheduled for him to be hand-walked on Monday in place of one of our rides next week.
My question to you, lovely readers, is what would you do about his schedule for the rest of the week and next week? Basically, because he only ended up getting 2 rides in this week, I don't know if I should do another week of 10 minute rides or if he is ok to bump up to 15 minute rides? My instinct is to go with 15 because it is such a small increase and because he is out 24/7 walking around anyway. Any ideas guys??
Thanks!!!
xoxo, Elena
Go with your gut, you know whats right for your horse :)
ReplyDeleteHaha, I am someone who likes to be given a schedule and lots of advice!
DeleteI'd meet in the middle. Do one ride with 12 minutes and one ride with 14, and then start with 15 minutes the next week :)
ReplyDeleteCould you ask your vet? I always take those guidelines as a week of x is 7 days or rides worth not literally just when a week is up regardless of how much you ride you continue on but maybe I'm weird with that thought. I'd ask my vet probably :)
ReplyDeleteI have no idea! It couldn't hurt to call the vet and ask. I usually err on the side of overly cautious, so I would probably go more by rides than by weeks. If you're supposed to do 5 rides for the first week at ten minutes, then just do five rides at ten minutes even if it's over two weeks. Does that make any sense at all? So if you can only ride two days a week, do that for two week, then do one more ten minute ride, then move up from there. So it's the same amount of rides but spread over more time. I have no idea if that is beneficial it's just probably what I would do. Asking the vet is probably the best advice though lol.
ReplyDeleteOr you could ride as much as possible during the two busy weeks and start from scratch (5x wk 10 min ea) after that pretending like those first two weeks didn't even exist lol.
ReplyDeleteI really like Lauren's advice of meeting in the middle!
ReplyDelete