The vet is supposed to be out on Saturday, 3-29, to check Khaleel's leg and let me know if I can start riding him again.

On an interesting note, our trainer said that he may not take to getting saddled after three months of inaction. Well, last night I saddled him and he was just fine with it! So if on Saturday the vet says I can start riding him we'll be out walking within the hour.

The swelling on his tendon is nearly gone, so I expect a good report on Saturday. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

Sounds like this story will have a happy ending. I hate to see animals suffer.

 

neigh thats a shame

 

The vet was scheduled to arrive at noon today; he was, in fact, ten minutes early. At 12:10 I was saddling Khaleel for his my first ride on him in three months.

The vet said that he couldn't possibly be healing any better than he is. The swelling's nearly gone, and he has no pain at all.

For the next month I'm to ride him at a walk on smooth, level ground: 20 minutes a day the first week, 35 minutes a day the second week, then 50 then 65. After that, he'll have thirty days of walk/trot, and walk/trot/canter on level ground, and then he should be up to snuff, ready for trail riding again.

However, he won't get turned out alone in the arena till the end of Summer. He runs like mad, and sliding stops could reinjure his leg in an instant.

I'm so happy he's doing so well. We had the first many great rides this afternoon. Thanks for all your good wishes.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by magician
[B]The vet was scheduled to arrive at noon today; he was, in fact, ten minutes early.

 

Good to hear that he's doing well. It's still going to be a long summer. Do I remember Khaleel being an Arabian? If so not running like mad has got to be driving him crazy.

 

i wasnt here to read the story when he did injure it, but im sure glad i didnt miss this!

 

Yes, he's an Arabian; hence the name--Khaleel--Arabic for "friend". He's been remarkably good during his recovery, but the last several weeks he's been trying to trot, canter, and prance when I've been hand-walking him. I hate forcing him to walk, but I can't risk having him reinjure the leg.

I was quite surprised that he was very well-behaved during Saturday's ride; he tried to trot only a couple of times.

 

Last Wednesday, June 11, our trainer said that she thought that Khaleel is well enough to start cantering a bit. She suggested that we work on transitions--walk/canter and trot/canter--because he hasn't been allowed to run for almost 6 months, so it should be ask for a canter, canter for 3 or 4 strides, then back to a walk/trot. The first few times I asked him to canter he was all over the place, but after about a dozen times he was starting to smooth out.

By Friday he'd figured out that he was only going to get to go a few strides, so when I did anything close to asking for a canter he would explode into it, getting in as much running as he could before I asked him to slow to a trot.

By Monday he'd figured out that I lean back a little before asking him to canter, so he started taking my leaning as a cue.

I figure that in a week or so he'll have settled down and things will be much smoother, but smooth or not it's sure nice to have him running again. I figure another couple of months and he'll be galloping: back to his old self.

 

I joined long after this thread started and I'm very glad to see a happy ending.

Hope he continues to do well--your patience has been repaid in spades!

Pls keep updating.