Four down five to go

Four loads of gravel in, the first delivered while I was still in bed! I had to leap out of bed and throw on a minimum of respectable clothing and rush outside still half asleep. The squealing of his brakes as he came down the hill woke me up!! Only five still to come, with every chance of it all being here by the weekend. All I have to do then is find a tame man with a tractor and bucket to spread it and I'll be riding on it. Excited is not the word, I feel like a five year old at Christmas.

Tetley was great today. He started a little bit stiff but freed up completely and was very happy to trot up a load of hills in an hour on the road. Tia is definitely improving in her balance. We did some more schooling on rough ground. I expect by the time I get her onto the surface she will be brilliant! I certainly expect her dressage scores to improve when we can actually practice the tests.

Caddy is getting some character - he's becoming a little bit more cheeky, which I love. I have managed to reduce the size of the lump, but not as far as I had hoped to. It will come down more yet of course, but I'm keen now to make sure that I haven't made a big mistake by buying him. I have sent for a gel-eze to replace the gelpad. They have a hole in them right where his lump is. When it arrives, I will saddle him and ride him just to prove to myself that he isn't going to go crazy with a saddle on his back. Once I have proved to myself that I haven't been a complete idiot, he can have the summer off work to grow up, unless something goes wrong with either of the other two.

Foot fetish warning.
Tetley had an astonishing amount of flare today. Nic Barker pointed it out to me yesterday when she came to visit. I took it off only two weeks ago but his feet must be growing like topsy. Today I got half an inch of pure cream white line in each heel in each front foot- the first tight white line he has ever had in his fronts. Trumpet fanfare!! I am expecting it to spread forward from his heels around his foot eventually. But meanwhile I am just cock-a-hoop that he has any at all.

C.