THE MONTHLY MUSTER
December Newsletter

Hello, and welcome back to the blog for the December Monthly Muster; the last muster of 2023! It’s been some year for me, ups, downs, twists, turns and personally I am hoping for a calmer, more balanced 2024.

Personal Updates

My husband and I have had a lovely holiday season despite the fact we couldn’t head back to Scotland like we had originally planned. We did manage a two night break to a place called Moreton Island. It was a good break, though the weather was unfortunately not in our favour and we didn’t get as much beach time as we hoped but it was a nice change of scenery.

For Christmas, my husband bought me my own merch to wear/ use which is so exciting!

Training updates

Harry went into the vet for a check up on the 18th December and it went well. The cancer removal site is 100% healed and the fungal infection was 65% better than it had been 3 weeks prior. The vet said he has still to get 3 treatments a day which was disappointing, because it’s really difficult to do every single day. However, I am thankful it’s moving in the right direction. He goes back in for another check up at the end of January so I’m hoping it is completely healed by then.

The vet did say Harry could be ridden again though so we have started a slow training plan to get back into shape. I was pretty nervous about getting back on after he’d had two months off and so one day when I was feeling a bit brave I tacked him up and took him in the round pen, knowing the lady who runs the yard was around incase I came off (I’m not sure what I thought he was going to do). Anyway, I got on and walked him around the round pen, almost in tears that I had actually got on again. Then, I took him out and rode around the arena a couple of times and that was our first ride back. I was grinning from ear to ear.

From then, we are still only walking, partially to take things slow for me, but also to take things really steady for Harry because he lacks a lot of muscle and fitness at the moment. We are now walking over ground and raised poles and riding around the outside of the field. We even went through some water (we’ve had a lot of rain). Harry doesn’t really like walking in water so objected very mildly and took a little encouragement but then walked through three times, I was so pleased with him.

Goals for January

With Harry being allowed to come back into work, I have been able to make some plans to get his fitness up to scratch which I am excited about. We’ve only been walking up until this point and he is turned out 24/7 so he does have some low level of fitness. Here’s my thinking for January:

Week 1 (1st to 7th):
Introduce some short trots (a lap or two of the arena) but mostly walk based in 20-25 minute sessions.

Week 2 (8th- 14th):
Longer trots (2 minutes at a time) but with walk breaks in a 25 minute session.

Week 3 (15th- 21st):
Walking and trotting with ease throughout a 30 minute session, introduce short canters towards the end of the session.

Week 4 (22nd -28th):
Increase canter work to a couple of laps each rein within a 30-40 minute session.

By the end of the month I’d like to be up to canter work again and I’d also like to try riding 3 times a week consistently. I’m going to try out having set days as ‘riding appointments’. I’m thinking it might help so that I don’t get wrapped up in all the other things I need to do and still take this important time for both me and Harry.

Recommendations

The Horses of Winter
– Genevieve Mckay

Throughout December, Genevieve Mckay was offering free access to some of her books and this was one of them. It’s a short story but it had me hooked. I must say, I wish it would have went on longer but it was a relaxing read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m currently reading another of her books and enjoying that also. If you like horse stories that are not ‘childish’ then you will love Genevive Mckay’s books; I believe all ages can enjoy them and there is quite the variety to choose from!