All better!

She's got a dry nose today, and she only blew it once or twice after 5 minutes in a very dry and dusty school. Thank goodness for that!

We had the usual "cart before the horse" shenanigans when I schooled her. Trying to bend all over the place to avoid actually using her back. But she did do some nice work, and was 100% sound. That was a relief because the field that we jumped on was really VERY hard yesterday. And of course there were no prepared take-offs and landings on a showjumping course, so it really was the first time that her feet had faced that kind of challenge.

Interestingly, when she schools, Tia will trot nicely in balance with her shoulders up and carrying me, but appears to find the same self-carriage in walk a HUGE challenge. Any ideas why folks?

I did school Tetley yesterday evening. He started the same as the day before, with a very slightly stiff back on the right. He did behave a bit better than the day before - he did give me a decent trot, but he could not/would not lengthen it. I did get it after half an hour of trying every trick I knew (send on, hold up, shoulder in, tiny circle). I tried a canter change and after a couple of totally duff canters, (where he fell flat on his face if I released the reins!) he suddenly held himself together and threw one lovely flying change. We came straight home as a reward.

I figured that he is not enjoying schooling at the moment, full of spring grass as he is, so I decided that he should enjoy today and took him out for a whizz. I do 1/3 of a mile up a sloping field, walk back down and go up again. The first run was supposed to be a warm up canter. But boy is he difficult to hold when he wants to go :-) !! The second run was flat out, and he can shift - marvellous. We both came home with a BIG grin on our faces.

Interesting things appear to be happening to his back feet. His hocks were again equal in heat as they have been now for several days or more. His feet, you will remember me telling you, had gone flat on the outside to make the shape that a farrier would shoe a spavined horse with. They seem to me to be increasing their concavity on the outside to match the inside again. If that's true, then it can only mean that the arthritis is resolving and he no longer needs his feet stacked to the inside to cope with it. I'll keep you foot fetishists informed!!!

I was going to take Tia cross country schooling one more time before Thursday. But I realised that I'm at a loss to understand what I might expect to achieve that I haven't already from going again. I think she's cooked and that what she needs now is exposure to competition. So I'm going to give her an easy 3 days and then see how we do.

I wouldn't normally expose such a green horse to such a serious level of competition (not the height, the formality of it). But two local cross country courses have shut down completely, one was rained off and the only other available competition was a course that is short and twisty and badly maintained. So our first outing is rather public, but that's the way the cookie crumbles! Just as long as you all don't expect too much from a first outing.

She is such an interesting horse to feed! She has a calorie counter. It's not volume that she has an issue with, it's calories! She was happy to eat 2 kilos of unoiled cubes and no more. I wanted her to eat more calories, so I put oil in it. Over the 5 days that she has had oil in it she has progressively eaten less volume so that she is taking in about the same calories - what a girlie girl, she even watches her waistline :-) Thankfully, she seems to have developed the gut bugs to digest the spring grass, and she looks well, if fit!


C

Tetley
schooled yesterday. Resistant but completely sound.
spin today. Totally sound.
slightly stiff right side back, equal heat both hocks, feet concaving.