Sixteen days.

I am taking absolutely no risks for the next two weeks until Ace goes into hospital. I put him under the lights this morning to make sure that he was warmed through. When I did up the girth he flicked his tail so I put him on the lunge. He gave no sign of problems on the lunge. No bucking, no craning his neck to look at his back.

So I put  my air jacket on and took him into the yard to get on. There is method in the madness of mounting him on a tarmac surface. First he has never bucked or reared when mounting  on tarmac. Second, all the pros I know back horses on concrete, they say the horse is much less likely to mess about.

He ignored my toe touching his side; quite an improvement. He also couldn't give a damn about me standing in one stirrup.  So I swung my leg over and sat down. He picked up each hind leg, which is not a good sign but he felt reasonably relaxed. I waited until he was ready to move off, which he did quite quickly. I turned to go down the yard and onto the arena and when his feet hit the looser surface in the gateway he turned away. I took a deep breath and turned him back, and he went, slightly reluctantly onto the arena.

He does now feel to me as if he is primed to react to the slightest irritation, including my own fear. I suppose we can hardly blame him after what he has been through. So we stayed safely in walk, did some serpentine and eights and some leg yield which all went well.

I finished on walk/halt/walk because the most frightening thing is moving off, feeling his back rise under the saddle and not knowing if it is going to translate into forward or upward movement. He did that really well and we went in, satisfied that we had both reduced our fear that being on the arena was going to end in pain or disaster.

The time is rocketing by, we will soon be planning his rehab. I hope to ride him myself but if my nerve fails me I will hesitate only slightly to pay someone younger and bouncier to do it for me.

C