(Sort of) Wordless Wednesday

I hadn't weight-taped Daisy in a long time before her colic episode. However, I used to weight-tape her very regularly (weekly) and she generally always hovered around 900 pounds. And she hasn't changed much, so I can safely assume that prior to her colic episode, she was still around 900 lbs.

I weight taped her yesterday, and she was a 800 lbs. :/

I've been lightly (read: very lightly) riding Daisy. These rides include only a bareback pad to stress her as little as possible, and the longest they've been so far is twenty minutes. She's completely well again (in regards to digestion), but with her weight loss, she's much different to ride. 

Generally, Daisy loves to canter, and trot, and she knows where on our rides we do those things. Most of the time, I don't need to cue her for anything. And if I do, it's very slight, especially bareback as I've been going, it would only require me lightly touching her mane. These days, she ignores these cues. Today, at our normal trot spot, she happily continued walking. At our canter spot, I asked her to canter to see her response. I was more forceful in my cue, and she did canter, but slowed down again way before she normally does. She evidently enjoyed the canter, as she snorted over and over afterward, but she's just not her normal self.

The picture is from Monday. It's hard to capture it, but riding her feels like sitting on a skinny thoroughbred. And her hip bones jut out. 

I predict it will take a month to get her weight back to where it was.

In the meantime, I went to Jenny's farm on Sunday and rode her mare, Jolee. Jenny and one of her leasers and I went on a long ride. It felt so good to be in the saddle for longer than 20 minutes again! I'm hoping to go to Jenny's and ride her horses every now and then, to supplement my need for a ride 'fix'.