Gia - session 259 - brief walk

 I noticed that Gia had a slightly swollen area on the outside of her hock due to a very tiny scrape she incurred.  Even though it was a tiny scrape, some horses are more sensitive than others and "blow up" with some swelling around the wound.  I decided to do a nice long stretching walk with her, and if she felt off at the trot, we would just do more walk.  When a tiny wound like that is swollen, often, walking is a good way to help bring the swelling down.  

I worked with her on flexing and yielding in both directions, and we ended up getting a really nice stretchy walk!  When I picked up the trot, I did feel a little inconsistency, so we just came back and walked and stretched a little more.  Afterwards, we put an ice wrap on her wound to also help reduce swelling.  Gia stayed nicely relaxed, both during our ride, and also while she stood with her ice wrap on.

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