Fit Dogs, Horses and Humans! Oh my!

This blog is, and will continue to be about dog fitness, training and all that other good stuff. However, there are two other members of Maizy's family who also need to get fit - well, in Maizy's case, she just needs to maintain her level of perfection, but I digress.

If only we could all be as fit and skinny as Maizy! #SuperModel

First up to the plate is... drum roll please... me! Surprise, surprise, I do not get enough exercise. A desk job combined with a chronic disease does not bode well for my fitness levels. I am certainly not fat (though I could stand to lose 5 or 10 pounds) but my overall fitness isn't great. Creating an exercise plan is quite difficult. People say to start with "light" exercise, but what they don't realise is that there is not such thing as light exercise for me - heck, some days I can barely walk. Thankfully, those days are getting less frequent and I'm able to do more, more often.

I also hate exercising. I don't get the whole gym thing, and you won't find me out for a run. However, I am VERY good at playing with animals. Maizy is the perfect for forcing me to get my butt into gear. Some days all I can manage is a 5 minute walk, and other days a 3 hour hike. Most days about 30 minutes to 1 hour of walking with the dog is reasonable.

Maizy and I took an hour long stroll around
the Hamilton bayfront this weekend.

My goal is to increase me overall fitness and well being. Pretty vague right? I'm not going to diet like crazy, I'm not going to hit the gym, I'm just going to go outside and play with my critters and we'll see where that gets me. While it may not seem like much, compared to how I used to live when my fibro was not managed this is a HUGE step.

Next up is Horse #1, Lilly. I will be taking her back from a lease as of June 1st, and then it will be time to get her butt back into shape. Lilly has always been a very fit horse and she is currently in excellent weight. However, last summer Lilly developed an abscess in her hoof that came and went, came and went and then turned into a full blown bone infection in November. The bone infection required her to stand in a stall for over 3 months, so you can imagine what that did to her muscles. Lilly is back in light work now and should be ready to start serious conditioning in June! Woohoo! Very excited as we weren't sure if she would even live, let alone be able to be ridden again.

Lilly, back when she was super fit. Look at those butt muscles.