An update on Vallu

On Monday the vet was here for another reason, but whilst she was here I thought she might as well scan Vallu's leg even though it's a month earlier than what we had planned! I was at university so unfortunately didn't get the chance to talk to the vet myself, but luckily my mother was willing to hold Vallu and let me know what the vet said. I can't even begin to tell how nervous I was during my lecture, for the half hour I knew they were looking at his leg I didn't hear a single word that the lecturer was saying!!

I've seen the swelling going down, but it was nice to have confirmation that the vet agrees with me and can see that the amount of swelling has gone down when comparing it to the earlier scans! I'm so pleased that my rehab plan has been working well 💞 Obviously he was off work for a month (so turn out and lots of hand walking) and then I've increased his trot/canter work 5 mins per week. This week has been 15 minutes of work a day, which I've split into 5 minutes of trot and 10 minutes of canter because he's so much easier to ride in the canter - when he is not exploding! Tomorrow we are on 20 minutes of work which already feels like a lot.

 Although I've only being riding just straight around on the track, doing big circles and changes of direction, the vet thinks that now is the time to also start doing some lateral work and slightly smaller circles. I'm hoping that doing something else rather than just circles will help calm Vallu down slightly! The vet also said that the 5 minutes more each week could be increased to 10 as long I kept an eye on his leg but I don't want to risk it... I'd rather keep going slowly and have him back 100% instead of bringing him back to work too quickly and risking actual damage to the ligament rather than what I've been dealing with now where the swelling being between the ligament and the skin. If everything goes according to plan then in a months time we should be at 40 minutes of work and then I can think about having a half hour lesson, which would be amazing! 🙏🏻