Lately I have realized that I’ve been posting my progress (or lack thereof) to my social media and neglecting to put it here, on my blog! DOH!
So anyway, I have got to the point where my arthritis is bad enough to make it very difficult to get on to Chips. Once I’m on, I’m OK, but it’s that first step that’s a doozy!
I am lucky enough to be boarding at a therapeutic facility (more on this soon) where they have several types of assistance for mounting.
I regularly mount from both sides, and I’d been using the regular mounting block, but my knees were really starting to bother me. So I started to look at the wheelchair ramp as an alternative since it’s quite a bit higher.
The drawback was figuring out how to get up onto the ramp without having someone hold Chips for me while I did so. He’s great at standing still while doing ground work, and also with a rider up, but he had some trouble understanding that he had to stand still while wearing his “working clothes” and riderless.
It took a few weeks, but finally, he got it – I could see his “AHA!” moment – and now he’s the poster boy for being ground tied! Check him out!