One up one down

Tia is fine today but she won't eat. She hasn't wanted to be caught the last 3 days either. Tetley used to be the same when he competed - if he heard the lorry or saw you messing with it, he would turn tail and walk off. But when you caught him and led him to it he would rip your arm off rushing to get in and go somewhere. I never did work out whether he didn't want to go, did want to go, or what was going on in his little brain :-)

I took Tia out for a walk down the road and back. I am concerned about her back feet, one in particular. Neither of them have good depth of heel and I am watching them carefully to make sure that I don't cause them to wear unnecessarily. But we had a nice walk, though she does try to jog every 3 to 4 strides she also stops when you tell her to.

Tetley was not sound today :-( . I trotted him up in the barn loose and he was giving his characteristic "hop" on his white leg, which normally means his hock is hurting. At the same time, he has been resting his other leg much more than normal when standing in the field or stable. And there is very little heat at all in the "bad" one. On top of that, two days ago I forgot to give him his Devil's Claw, and to confuse matters even more, he has still got a soft spot in a hole in his bar in the "bad" leg's foot from that abscess weeks ago. Until that has hardened off we can't guarantee that it isn't what's causing him a problem.

Still, he was happy enough to do some slow work and he looks very well and is going very orange this year - a really pretty colour. We are still doing more than we should have been able to expect to, so I'm happy enough about it.

I've been researching the Doncaster Catalogue for next week. I'm going on the Thursday and Friday I think, to try to find a cheap third horse for the summer. Then next autumn someone will probably have to be sold. It won't be Tetley! I figure on buying something 3 or 4 years old. 4 would be nice so that it's 5 next year and can compete affiliated, but 3 will do if it's a really, really nice big horse at the right price. I would go on Monday and Tuesday, which are exclusively 3 and 4 year old store horses, but the ones which have never raced go for so much more money than the ones which have raced and failed to make the grade. I mean thousands of pounds - I have bought several 3 or 4 year old failures that had previously sold unraced for up to £40,000!!

The rest of my day has been spent loading a trailer with limestone chippings and towing it out onto an area of my field that I had flattened 4 years ago. It just so happens that it's 20x40 - now isn't that a coincidence?!?! The chippings are to bring some areas up to level, and then 160 tons of brown grit (4mm pea gravel) is going on the top, and I shall have a full siaze schooling area for the first time. I'm really excited about it now, I've been planning it for so long. Anyone care to join the surface spreading party? Bring your own rake, loads of beverages supplied :-) ....

C