Today I rode both Dawn and Pie, and everything was satisfactory, after freaky Friday yesterday. Today I rode Dawn for the first time in 10 days - she's on day 9 of her EPM treatment and seems to be making good progress. I took her up to the big outdoor arena - it's about 100 yards from the barn across from one of the big pastures. I lunged her in there yesterday, and the arena is next to the pasture she's turned out in, so the area isn't completely foreign to her. We hand walked around the arena once in each direction, and I lunged her (really led from behind) around a bit more, then just got on. She did very well. We only walked and trotted, and didn't do any tight turns. The arena is on a bit of a slope and she dealt well with the slight uphill and downhill. Her gaits are much more normal, and there was no toe-dragging or tripping. The only thing I noticed was that she was pretty braced, and leaning on my hands - she wasn't using her hind end as well as she used to - I expect that will come back as her strength rebuilds.
Later in the afternoon, I rode Pie out there as well - no lungeing, just a lead-around, then I got on. He'd been out there a few times for leading around, but it was the first time I'd ridden him out there, and all other horses were distant, but he coped well. He also did very well with his ridden work, with some very nice softening work at the walk and trot, and some good shortening/lengthening work as well. We did some nice gate opening/closing work with me mounted - he's very good at this and came to me that way, trained by his old man. We also walked around in the pasture nearest the outdoor arena, and then did a little work in the indoor as well.
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