Re: Should I ride my horse

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

A. Perez AmandaPerez@ureach.com
  I think riding is OK, but if he has not been ridden regularly,
it is critical to build up slowly.  You don't say how recently
he had been ridden before your five-hour ride, but if he has not
been ridden that long recently, I'd say that would be a bit much
to start with.  I recently helped a friend bring back a horse that
had not been ridden for over a year due to EPM.  We started
off riding 20 minutes at a walk for 20 minutes, and built it up
by 10 minutes a day.  When we were up to an hour, we started
adding 10 minutes of a trot.  Now, 6 months later, we can
do four hours with as much trot as we like.
  Riding with someone else with a quiet horse who is willing
to take it slow will help keep your horse calm and quiet.
If you don't have any one else to ride with, try getting off
and hand-walkign whenever he gets hot, or even stopping to let
him graze in a quiet location.  You might also want to
try riding every other day to give any strains a chance to
heal.

Good luck.