Magic is finally back in work after being turned out for just under a week and so far so good. He did 4 days in a row and then I was ill over the weekend so he's just had two days off.
First day I rode him in the school as it was the place with the softest landing, I wasn't sure if I'd be sitting on a rocket. He was perfect though, not a single sign of misbehaving apart from a slight lack of steering and not wanting to canter a whole circle but that's easily fixed. He surprised me and worked really well considering all the time he's had off, didn't take much to get him to work over his back and round.
Second day I took him out for a short hack, he was really well behaved again. Had a short canter because he felt like he wanted to.
Third day I lunged him. Used side reins instead of his pessoa for the first time in almost a year. He seemed to get the idea of what they were for this time rather than ignoring them and did some nice work.
On the 4th day I was going to take him to the station again but he took us in the canter field and walked away from home instead of turning for home which he has been known to do so I knew he wanted to do some fast work. Got to the long side of the field and let him do what he wanted. If he'd just walked that would have been fine with me. He trotted a little then went into canter. We had a nice steady canter along the whole long side of the field with hardly any contact on his mouth so he knew he could do what he wanted. I let him stop when he wanted and didn't push him on at all so we trotted down the short side and cantered back along the other long side. His breathing returned to normal fairly quickly so he hasn't lost too much fitness during his time off. His knee was also normal when we got back to the yard.
I've cold hosed his knee a couple of times after our rides just to be on the safe side but so far he seems pretty normal.
He's also living out 24/7 now and he's loving it. He's started to get a bit snotty in his stable and I was finding lumps of it on the floor so living out is best for him after so much time in.
