Start of chicken counting delayed.

Tetley isn't sound today. He is in fact well off beam. It probably took two days for the effects of Tuesday's exertion to make itself felt with the inflammation that causes the lameness. On the other hand I have reduced his Devil's Claw dose, and yesterday morning I probably mixed up his food with hers and she got his glucosamine and he got her MSM. It was one of those mornings! But I expect it was the work. The Devil's Claw might have that quick an effect but the glucosamine is supposed to take months to kick in, so why would one day missed cause that much trouble?

I'm OK with him being unsound today, because we had to know - there's no point in having him sound for nearly two weeks and just doing what you know keeps him sound for ever more. We had to try, and now we know that in spite of the fact that we both had a whale of a time, it's slightly too much work for him right now. I'm disappointed but not desperately. He's happy in himself and still wanted to trot up the hills even though I could feel he wasn't right. (I didn't let him - I sometimes think he'd keep going if his leg was broken :-) )

Tia is a puzzle, but I think she's better this morning. She came in last night with a raised vein in the fetlock joint, so I poulticed her foot overnight with a wet nappy soaked in hot magnesium sulphate solution in an oversized Old Mac boot. There was nothing to show for it this morning (except a beautifully clean foot! :-) but she is sounder on it. She has also stopped pointing the foot, which she has been doing quite badly. I'm still hopeful that all she has done is got a spot of concussion bruising in the foot, but we aren't going to know for a while.

What I can tell you is that there couldn't be a bigger contrast between her and Tetley :-) ! He wouldn't even have noticed the tiny, tiny infection she had in the back leg (now stone cold for several days), while she was lame with it and then hopping lame with a bandage on. He carried on with full heel abscesses in three feet in February last year. She, poor little flower, is quite obviously lame with something much less severe. Still, we're always going to know when there is something wrong with her, aren't we?

While we are talking about her, I have been musing on why I am not more impatient that she is not sound. A friend has commented on it, trying to get a rise out of me because I have taken her shoes off. It is true that I did buy her solely to train to compete. And that I said that I would shoe her if she wasn't ready to compete without shoes. And that I bought her as a "stop-gap" because she was in the right place at the right time, with no intention of keeping her for too long.

That fact is - I like her! She is sweet and kind and a really likeable mare. She likes a cuddle, she's pretty and she's elegant and she's talented. I still don't know that she will stay beyond next year, but I really like her right now.

C.