Cooler all round.

That's better. Normal British summer weather rsumed - 20-24 degrees and overcast. It was great.

I was SO tempted to take Tetley to the farm ride, but I decided to hold my horse :-)
I reasoned that he really ought to be sound on the road before jumping and that I had no idea if he was, since he hasn't been out on the road totally, (100% as opposed to 98%) sound for quite a while. Well he was great. Alllllllllllmost totally sound - a bit difficult to tell because there is one piece of road on the ride that I did that he was never prepared to trot properly on even in shoes and before the spavin. I got off just before my gateway so that I could watch his hips, which are a giveaway even if he is "sound". It turns out that he is just very, very slightly dropping his white footed hip. That was his "bad" leg, and when it is bad he raises that hip, he doesn't drop it. So this is more evidence that the two hocks are evening up and are probably both giving just a teeeeeeny bit of trouble, so he appears totally sound to ride. This fits with what I found today - BIG lumps of bone on the inside of both hocks. And evening up of the heels in his hind feet so that they are almost equal instead of being stacked on the inside. I think we are making real progress with this disease now. I still expect setbacks, but I believe we are getting through it.

The other reason why I want to wait to jump him is that he has not had a fixed tree saddle on his back for nearly a year and my jumping saddle is fixed tree. On Monday, Lorna is coming to fit a jumping WOW (same seat, different panel and flaps than the last one, fingers crossed). If it fits me and the horses, then it makes sense to use it when I jump Tetley for the first time. I can be sure that way that any adverse reaction I get is not due to a fixed tree upsetting him. Makes sense dunnit??

Tia - oh dear, why did she have to fight me today? She was absolutely insistent that she could trot left but not right. And that she couldn't strike off for canter at all without plunging about. I didn't get desperately hard on her, but I did make her carry on (and on) until she gave me something decent. The trot cure eventually was to do squares not a circle. Then when I did circle, to take the contact with the outside rein and lift the inside one really high, without bringing my hand back.

Then I tried to run through the test for next week and she was AWFUL, wouldn't even trot up the centre line. I made her carry on even though it was dreadful. Then totally surprisingly, she did the test a second time really well and really trying hard. I halted, saluted, and jumped off and told her she was a good girl. No jumping today, I thought she needed a break from it.

I rode Caddy too for the first time in several days. He appears to learn even when he is not being ridden. He did some bends that were fairly good (for him!). More pleasingly, he is half way to a decent halt with his back up and neck flexed instead of poking his nose. And several times he reached forward in walk with a relaxed neck. And he has stopped the most desperate mouth-opening stuff. He didn't care about two cars that went down the lane. But with one of them, I came around the arena and up the long side and suddenly he caught sight of it stopped in the lane. The passenger had got out to take a photo of the reservoir - and he went APE! Plunging round and round in circles (he'd have bolted otherwise, it was the lesser of two weavils). He's definitely going to have some spark!! And he does seem to have led a sheltered life. I know he was only ever in one stables and from the state of his feet when he arrived I don't think they did any road work. So he's totally unused to strange things happening except on a racecourse. Should be interesting when we start hacking ;-)

I really should go and rake the arena now but frankly I'm too knackered! I think I'll do the SuDoku instead.

C