We are both fine.

Tia doesn't have a mark on her or a filled leg to be seen in spite of the fall and the terribly hard ground. I am only a tiny bit stiff, no bruises and no serious aches. I enjoyed riding her so much that I am looking forward to the next one. It's over 3 weeks away, so I am going to give her a whole week off. I'm unhappy about how flat her feet are, so although she's sound she can have a week to see if they grow on a bit. It will let me get Caddy into a little work too.

There is still one bit of road that Tetley can't seem to trot level on. It's downhill, it seems only slight but I think it may be worse than it seems because a fast flowing stream runs beside it so there must be a fair drop. And it's on a camber. I think that it may not be his hocks at all, but his old sacroiliac thingy. Because if I hold him in shape and don't let him string himself out, he's sound. And he's sound everywhere else all over the places that I hack. It's just this 200 metres of road. I think I'll just have to ignore it!

In any case, the weather forecast for this week is stinking hot. So there's no way we'll be doing the farm ride yet. He wouldn't enjoy it in this heat, and I'm determined that it should be a real fun thing for him to jump for the first time in nearly a year. If the forecast is wrong we'll be in that lorry quicker than a rat up a drainpipe :-)

I rode Caddy for 10 minutes today. I realised that after Smartie I am now nervous of getting on a horse I don't know well. And that I had left it so long with him that I was nervous of him again, so I made myself. He was super. He has given up the worst of the mouth chomping and I was able to leave the flash off. He was reaching forward for the bit and walking really nicely. He did some respectable halts without a fuss. We spent most of the time in Mandeigh's favourite exercise - serpentines that go back on themselves. It's a great exercise for bending and then getting them straight again before they bend the other way. Much easier than "proper" serpentines.

I'm looking forward to doing a bit more with him this week but I'll keep it low key, I don't want to stunt that growth that's going on. He is insisting on 4 kilos of food a day. That is a devil of a lot of food for a boy his size who isn't working. But if I give him less he keeps snuffling in the bucket looking for more! Where on earth is it going - he eats grass all day and all that food and still his ribs are sticking out!

C