Starting trotting after weeks of stretching in walk...

[lucy1984]

My girly had a collateral ligament strain (just a slight strain according to vet, hardly anything at all, thank god) so after....

2 months box rest
4 weeks paddocks rest
5 minutes building up to 30 minutes of walking (5 minutes increased weekly)

...am now ready to start trotting.

The horse in question isnt shod and works unshod on whatever surface without any soreness in the feet.

Should I start trotting her on tarmac or on very soft ground (has a lot of rain lately)?

Which is the best option? I intially thought soft ground but perhaps when i take her out hacking i could introduce the trot then? I wont be hammering her it will only be gentle trotting?? Or will there be too much concussion on the roads for this injury type? I'm up to 30 minutes in walk now so i assume if the worst was going to happen it would have by now??

 

[paulineh]

Twelve months ago one of my Arabs did a very bad (A hole as big as a golf ball) hind suspensory ligament.

After the usual box rest (Although in his case a very small area in front of my stables , he does not do box rest) Shock wave treatment etc and the field rest I was allowed to take him out. We started with 5 minutes in hand twice a day for a week x 1 week then 10 minutes in hand for the second week. I then increased the walk each week by 5 minutes this time we could ride him out.

Once we had got to 30 minutes walking twice a day I started to trot, this was done by starting trotting for one minute several times in an hours work and increasing the trotting by one minute every other day.

Example of the trotting
Day one = 5 sets of 1 minute
Day Three = 5 sets of 2 minutes
Day Five = 5 sets of 3 minutes
Day Seven = 5 sets of 4 minutes
Day Nine = 5 sets of 5 minutes

Once you have done the five minutes then you can decrease the number of times you do the trot and increase the length.

My boy is now back 12 months later competing in endurance including a lot of trotting and cantering.

I train on hard forestry tracks and he is fine, so it really it has not made any difference what surface it has been.



Paulineh