This morning Foster had his third IRAP injection, luckily the vet said that because his leg is looking better than ever, we can opt to skip the last IRAP injection and instead save the last few vials for a later time. As much as I love my vet, I think Foster and I both will be glad to miss her for a while- poor homeboy has started getting a bit wide-eyed when she pats his neck, knowing that the pointy objects are coming.

So for now we continue on the arduous process of building back up the work, getting coordination and fitness back slowly until his weak and wobbly body can once again be the powerhouse it was.

Thus, our schedule looks like this:

• 10/29 Walk for 10 minutes, adding 5 minutes each week
• 11/12 Introduce trot, for 15-20 seconds at a time taking 5-10 minute walk breaks, building up slowly
• 11/26 Ideally be able to trot 1 minute with 5 minute walk breaks
• Beginning of December: maybe canter

So you can see, getting back to full work, which I’m defining as our leave-off point of 2nd/3rd level dressage and 3’3″ fences, is a long way away.

A long way away.