All is calm here.

Introducing him has been a doddle. No-one is remotely concerned. I caught Tetley this morning and all three of them came in - though that was a logic puzzle to work out which one to bring :-) I thought if I brought Caddy, the other two would stay out without him. And if I brought Tia, Tetley might just make friends with Caddy and stay out. So I brought Tetley hoping that Tia would want to stay with him, (since she is guarding him like a bodyguard at the moment :-), and in the certainty that Caddy would choose to come in if the other two were in. It worked like a dream.

I found out his race history, check yesterday's comments if you haven't seen them. He hasn't done as much work too young as I feared he might have. And he was a 15,000 guinea two year old.

He is such a beautiful horse. And he moves brilliantly too. He is dead straight and very elegant. And he seems to have the most perfect temperament. BUT, and for me it's a big but, he is now only just over 16 hands, since his shoes and those dreadful long feet came off. I was so hoping to buy a bigger horse, but I got by far the best value four year old of the day. I am far from complaining, but it does mean that I am a bit up in the air about how much of a long term prospect he may be. I'll give him a while to settle down, and see if he grows on at all, but most raced TB's are full size by the time they are 3 never mind 4. And I'll see how "big" he feels to ride, but he needs at least a month off first.

The lump on his back is getting smaller but has a fairly obvious fibrous core. I tried a saddle on him today and it fits into the gullet with plenty of height clearance. I will continue to massage it in the hope that it reduces a lot more yet. I have fitted a bridle with a happy mouth straight bar bit, which I'll start him in. He is wider than Tia at the wither, and longer in the body so he may well ride bigger than his height.

I'm in a real quandary I have to tell you. I desperately wanted something more "meaty" than him and Tia as a long term prospect to keep for 3 or 4 years at least. But he is gorgeous and there is something about him that really makes you want to give him a fun life for a while. Standing next to Tia, quite honestly, he makes her look PLAIN!! Now THERE'S a trick not every horse could pull off!!!!

Going back to Tia she was a lovely girl today. Her saddle didn't mark at all, thank goodness, so we have cracked that problem. And her work was really good. She argued about staying forward in the trot, but once I insisted for about 10 minutes, she gave in and did great stuff on both reins. And her shoulder in and travers are really decent movements now for several strides at a time. Next to Caddy you can see just how much substance she has put on - her topline is terrific. I must get you a picture of her neck, because I can't quite credit how changed it is.

Tetley is the same as the last couple of days, sound in walk both reins, almost sound trot right rein, not sound left rein. But he has put on a lot of weight and I am concerned about laminitis, so I took him out on the fields for a canter. I did 5 minutes on a very big circle on each rein. I just put him into canter and he kept it and seemed happy to keep it, I wasn't nagging. But when I dropped back to trot he was really, really wonky on the back end. I shall have to stick to walking the roads with plenty of hills to keep his metabolic rate up I think. If there is no further improvement in June then I will take him to the vet clinic when I take Caddy for his jab and have him nerve blocked and x rayed.

I'll get the foot fetishists some pix of Caddy's feet tomorrow - they look smashing already. And he is very happy on them too, by the look of it. He is heel first, or flat, landing when he had been very much toe first. And there is a marked difference between the digital cushions of his front feet. The one I saw him pointing is practically not there, and the left one is about half way to what it should be, but much better than the right one. I can't help concluding that those shoes came off just in time.

C