Tim Ritchey Jogging Quotations

When we started jogging him, he was ready to turn around then, so we had to go real easy with him. He didn't want to come off the racetrack a few times. He had been walking for two and half to three hours a day, and then we started to jog him, but I'll know more as to how much fitness he's maintained once he starts galloping on his own, and once we get a breeze underneath him. But he looks really good.

I spoke to Dr. Hogan and Dr. Bramlage yesterday, and they said the X-rays were really good, ... Dr. Bramlage gave us the OK to start galloping him. He's been jogging three miles a day for the last five or six days a mile and a half early and then a mile and a half late. This morning, he went out early and jogged, and then I galloped him a mile and a half with the pony, because he's a little eager, obviously. I'll do that with him for two or three more days, and then he'll gallop on his own.

After about two weeks, we'll take X-rays again, and he should get the OK to start to gallop. It's not totally healed, but Dr. Bramlage was very pleased with the amount of healing that's taken place the last two weeks. I'd say it's probably 99% healed, and with the little bit of added jogging to his regimen of rehab, that will stimulate the remaining amount of healing. It's a fine line; you don't want to gallop, because that would retard the healing. But the jogging will stimulate that bone a little more, and that should heal it up the remainder of the way.