Cherry

Cherry – Exercise Prescription 24/1/24 Cherry was seen due to showing discomfort in her ridden work, head tossing. In walk, cherry is straight moving but stiff and stilted with her back legs. In trot this is more noticeable. When Cherry turns both ways her coordination is good, but her neck and back are showing stiffness. Her toes are also squared off so she is not properly lifting her legs – the farrier will be able to answer any questions about her feet. Feed wise she is good on chop and balancer, watch her weight and as she is not in alot of work, do not feed more. Her muscle on her neck (topline) is weak, as is her back and core. This can be improved by the exercises below. The saddle is slipping to the left and the flocking inside is a little hard in places, the width of the saddle looks to be narrow on her spine and so it may be due a check – thin numnah only as thick pads will press on the spine (remember to lift the pads up and the front and back). The stretches will help her back mobility and the exercises will help to keep her strong – aim for 30 mins ridden at a time and first work on a good forward walk rhythm, keeping the 4 beats in a straight line and then also into corners. Then progress to the sweeping turns exercise and add transitions. [] [][] [][] []