Monday 27 August 2012

Life with Jay ...

... is pretty cool!
Well hello there!
I thought it was about time I did a Jay update - in fact I can't believe the last entry about Jay was way back in April when he was still on box rest!  I can only put the lack of reporting down to the fact that I also blog on Haynet about all things horse related, so have forgotten to also blog on here!  Anyway, here's an update.

We have been blessed with a relatively smooth 6 months of healing and slowly bringing Jay back into work.  I think the time of year really helped us out too as being late Winter early Spring he wasn't alone in being kept inside due to the weather and by the time he was ready to move back outside the Spring had really sprung and his mates were able to join him outside too.  His 4 week trot up for the vet in April showed that his lameness had more-or-less gone (as far as I can remember), and a schedule of in-hand walking building up to the inevitable back in the saddle went well.  From time to time we ventured out around the surrounding farmland for some of the in-hand walking to keep things interesting and found he wasn't as hyper as he lead us to believe when hacking out at our previous livery yard!  In fact Katie now hacks Jay out quite regularly - he's pretty chilled about it all.

When the big day came to get back into the saddle we were both, naturally, a little nervous.  The yard owner, a fabulous and very confident lady (just what we needed), helped us out in case things got a little exciting!  Luckily Jay was as good as gold and we haven't looked back since. 
Katie and Jay
His 3 month check over had him signed off and a new riding schedule given to build up the strength in the ligament.  The aim was to get him jumping (tiny jumps) by September.  We've reached that goal now which is brilliant.
August 2012
It's been nearly a year since we bought Jay and we can't believe how he's changed in that time.  He's a "lovely man" as our yard owner says - such a personality too - and he seems to enjoy his varied riding schedule.  One thing we very quickly worked out is that he certainly tells us when something's not right.  We listen to him now, rather than assume he's being silly!

Katie's next step is to take him to a show - probably a very simple dressage to start with, moving on to jumping when he's done a little more at home.
August 2012

2 comments:

Debbie said...

Jay is a beautiful horse, it's lovely that he's making such a good recovery, you must be very proud of him!

Elaine, Ellies Treasures said...

Thank you Debbie, we are!