Solo’s knee took quite a few days for the swelling to go down. He is back on turnout again but not yet back to work. He had it iced for 48 hours – 20 minutes icing every few hours. After that it was kept wrapped and some aloe ointment was gently massaged onto the scraped skin He has never been lame on it but there is a stubborn patch of heat at the back of the knee, he won’t go back to work until all the heat is completely gone.
I was looking through my photographs today and found two of Solo free jumping when we went to look at him I thought I had deleted all of these but I must have kept these. He was not terribly good at free jumping but he found the actual leaping in the air very easy. As a result, he would nonchalantly come into the exercise at whatever pace and balance took his fancy, then loft cheerfully into the air no matter how or where he got to the obstacle. In a sense, it would have done him more good to have found himself in trouble, and perhaps learned to pay a bit more attention on the way in. We have not loose jumped Solo since he has been here, he is still growing and maturing and he will be doing plenty jumping over the next few years.
I can’t wait until we get to jump him under saddle If all goes according to plan, he will probably start trotting over poles in January and little x’s in February. All very optimistic considering he is not cantering to the aids yet.
