Better than could have been expected

Tetley is so sound today that I think even a vet would have trouble saying there was anything wrong with him unless I pointed out the veeeeeeeeeerrrryyy slightly asymmetric movement of his hips. Four days after doing the most strenuous and hock-stressing stuff he could possibly have done, he is almost back to 100% soundness. I'm so pleased that I can't find any space to even be the tiniest bit sorry that he won't be affiliated this year. Six months ago he could have been a write-off, and now I have my best boy back :-)

I have discovered another joy of having an arena - I was able to stand still and do nothing while my horse exercised himself. I lunged Tetley and really enjoyed it. One of the things which has always been so sweet about Tetley is that he will try to guess what you want and offer you that. So having taught him to halt to a voice command, he then kept offering me halt all over the place when I hadn't asked for it. It could make you cross if you didn't realise that all he's trying to do is please you :-)

I am quite pleased with myself today as well. After her break I made a resolution to go easier on Tia. I think she is also trying to do what's right, only she has a different way of coping when it goes wrong, which just seems like outright resistance. I rode her differently today, taking great care to explain things over and over, in different ways, if she resisted - basically assuming not that she didn't want to do it, but that she didn't understand what I wanted. We got some lovely walk with the least struggle for quite a while. Then some really nice trot transitions and trot/walk transitions.

I am keeping her schooling sessions shorter. One because it's too hot. Two because I don't want to bore her. Three, and mostly, because I wore her feet too much by doing too much too soon on the grit surface when it was first put down. She began to feel stones more than she had been. If I ration the exposure to the school surface I am hoping that she will regain her ability to walk across crushed stone that she had a month or so back.

We had some holes dug in the field last week to see how far down the rock is (Superhubby has a big project underway to heat the house using the field, it's called geothermal heating). As I looked out of my bedroom window one morning I thought "jeepers creepers look what a MESS the badgers have been making". It looked for all the world like badger damage - uprooted grass loosely strewn around on a patch of exposed earth. I had to laugh when I realised that the "badger" had been a JCB.

Anyway, the point of this ramble is that Tetley was standing on the patch eating soil. He used to do this before I started feeding him cow minerals, then he stopped. I have recently stopped the minerals because Tia doesn't like them. Instead I put out a cow mineral lick with the same stuff in and thought that they could choose for themselves if they want it. Although they do eat it, it seems like Tetley is not getting enough, so I'm now feeding the minerals again.

Caddy's cut is closed and dry and scab free. I think we are going to get an almost scar free result if it carries on like this.

Mole count is seven balls now. Surely it will give up soon!

C