Barokko's in his 5th out of the 8 weeks until the next vet check. He's been ridden 4 times a week, gradually increasing the amount of trotting. He's up to about 30 mins of trotting in total, but he's not doing it willingly, they have to keep at him almost constantly to complete the intervals. If he's very fresh (for ex if it's windy) or if they have another horse in front to pull him along then they can get him to trot and canter more willingly, but if he's calm and relaxed it's very hard.

It's been 3 weeks since I last saw him under saddle, so I had M ride him in the arena on Saturday. He's lways calm and unexitble in the arena so it's a good way to check how he's really feeling. In the woods he'll always feel like he's doing better because he's distracted by his surroundigs.

It wasn't good news. Absolutely no improvement, he almost seemed worse than he did 3 weeks ago. We had planned on her doing the first 2 trot intervals in the arena and then going out on trails, but he didn't even make it through the first interval. He had to be literally kicked forward to even get him trotting, he resisted every step of the way, and after about 90 seconds he just stopped, refused to trot any more :(

I can accept having to push him a bit beyond what he wants to do, but having to FORCE him to just trot around the arena, and to have him say NO after just 90 seconds... It's not fair to him, and I just won't do it anymore. I've told my riders to forget about set intervals, take him out into the woods, get as much trot and canter out of him as they can, but no more force.