Assessing the damage

Well this was the impact spot on the field last night! Sarah insisted we hacked back via the scene of the crime despite my attempt to sneakily ride back across the other side of the field. Amusingly Rio spooked at a pile of poo just about where he threw me off yesterday, just another one of the "maybe it was ... **insert random possibility here** ". However, today he opted for a much more manageable side step instead of hopping around like a numpty. 

So as you can see, I got back in the saddle tonight, and went for a ride out with Sarah and Franks. Rio was up front for almost the whole ride (Franks was a very good boy and only tried to sneak ahead a handful of times) I just about managed to swing my leg over and get on! He had a couple of spooks, which just consisted of a quick sidestep but other than that it was pretty good. 

I ordered a new bit for Rio last week - I've got it on a 30 day trial to see how he likes it, which is great. It's essentially the same as the bit he has now, except with the Salox metal which is meant to heat up to the same temperature as the horse's mouth in a fractions of a second. It's also a nickel free alloy, with a bit of a sweet taste, so should encourage acceptance of the contact. He's not too resistant to taking up a contact when asked, but I'm not very good at asking, so I'm hoping this will be a good piece to the jigsaw puzzle for us. It had to be done as the eggbutt link on the left of Rio's current bit keeps seizing. This time I'm going for a keeper instead of a cheaper!

So here's the assessment from head to toe:

• Neck - tender on both sides, probable whiplash effect from head hitting the ground
• Tummy/core muscles very tense today, feel like I've done the plank for an hour!
• Right fore arm - pulled a muscle maybe, trying to hold onto the reins as I went down
• Inside of right hip - sore! Difficult to hold my leg up for a length of time, and driving is a little uncomfortable (also why I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get on tonight!)
• Pelvis/lower back - bruise is starting to come out already, sore but thanks to my anti inflammatories, no swelling as yet and manageable

Think that's about it! We clearly have a lot of work to do on hacking alone, but only time and effort will help us with that. Here's to the learning curve! I'm just glad I was able to get straight back on last night and not let this push me back to where I was a few weeks ago. Onwards and upwards. Oh - and speaking of upwards, I could swear that Rio is a bit bum high again! He's already gone up from 15hh to 15.2h since I got him, and I think he may be growing a little more. Bless him!

Ride/play safe x