Ben is doing SO much better. His 2nd body work session was last night, and prior to that, I thought it would be good to get him out and loosened up. The sun was shining, a rarity in Seattle in October, so a sunset ride was in order. It was so beautiful out there. I wish I had had my phone on me to snap a picture, oh well.
Our ride was all about just loosening and warming up...but then I decided to see if i could maybe execute a training level test. And much to my surprise, it didn't feel half bad! To cool out, I untacked Ben and was walking him around and then decided on a whim to hop on bareback. It is something I've always wanted to do with him (I even put it on my 2013 goals), but never really get around to, or make time for. So up I went, and we puttered around bareback for 10 minutes or so, watching the sun go down. It was such a quiet, beautiful evening.
His check up and 2nd massage went well. The exercises and stretches have been paying off- it is very clear that his range of motion has increased quite a bit. Ben still does have issues, however, all across his topline- and will likely take a bit longer to fully resolve - no one thought it would happen in 1 session. So, armed with some new exercises along with the old, and keeping up with the weekly appt's, we're going to try our darnedest to get him feeling top-notch.
I need to get on the bareback thing, too! We'll start with walk since we can't even sit a trot or canter comfortably in a saddle! Glad he's coming around and that you've got your saddle!
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