Hacking out

[LittleD]

Hi Everyone, my horse is coming back into work after some months box rest - she has been out in the field for a month since being given the ok to get her back into her old routine and vet suggested walking on such as tarmac to strengthen her legs, she has always had shoes on as she get foot sore and is due to be shod on Wednesday, do you think it would be ok to hack her out on a hard surface after shoeing, I was planning to cover about a mile to mile and half out and then same distance back, it should take around half an hour as I used to run this route in less than 10mins there and 10 mins back. Thank you.

 

[AmyMay]

You should look to building the work up slowly - so probably no more than 20 minutes walking exercise in the first instance building up to 40 mins after 7 days - and so on.

 

[silvershadow81]

I think you should wait until after she has been shod before you can make that decision, as all horses are different.

If, after she has her shoes put back on she seems OK, then it is not going to harm to go for a little walk, if you start to have any doubts, hop off and walk back?

I do not trot on roads anymore and it has done my girl so much good, we just walk on roads and it keeps her ticking over nicely.

Good luck xx

 

[LittleD]

thanks for the replies, we have been building our exercise up, starting with 10mins walk and building up to around 20-30 mins over a month and lately throwing a little trot in down the long side of the school but this is our first hack out because we've only recently had some decent weather and lighter evenings, my concern is the farrier visit, I had planned to hack out with friends, then the farrier phoned to say he could make Wednesday and I didn't like to ask him to change the day in case it meant leaving the shoeing any longer that I like. Do you think as we have been building up our exercise that a half hour hack straight after shoeing would be ok

 

[Chunkie]

It depends on your horse - did you used to ride her after shoeing before her injury?

I brought my horse back into work two weeks ago after 5 months off from riding and 3 months off any work at all. I take her on a route which includes 7 minutes each way (14 minutes in total of an hours ride) on the road, and have done that from the third day of riding her.

She is fine with that - we are only walking - but I don't ride her on the day she is shod and never have done as she is always a little short for a few hours. However, I have had horses that I have jumped on and ridden straight away, so it just depends on how your horse is normally after shoeing.