Well that didn't work!

A couple of people suggested trying to free Tia up by starting a schooling session with some canter. Well, 20 minutes canter and then trot later and she was dripping in sweat because of the humidity this morning. But was she freer in the shoulder? Nope! I had to do the same walk/trot transitions as always to get her to free up. Anyway, we got some good work and then practised the test for Wednesday. It's one she did the time before last, and it was pretty obvious that she remembered it, so I don't need to do it again and I can concentrate on showjumping tomorrow. Her back was "ok" and I hibiscrubbed it before and after riding to make sure there were no bugs to get into the pores.

Tetley was unsound downhill in trot. Good and proper wonky. Fine everywhere else, including a spanking extended trot all the way up half a mile of hill towards home. But definitely not right on a slightly downhill piece of road. I think it's possible that he is having another slight "episode" as he has every two to three months so far, but that he has got so much better overall that it is much more difficult to spot. It would account for his reluctance to extend yesterday. This gradual fading-out of the disease is in some ways more difficult to cope with, more frustrating, than outright lameness. The constant worry is that this is the best it will get, now that the improvement is so much slower. And I won't have an answer to that until next spring :-0! Who was it that said patience was a virtue?

Caddy had a foot trim this morning. His front feet had grown too long and I thought that I could bring the heels back a fair way if I took them down. It seemed to work. He has complete separation of inner and outer hoof wall around the front of both toes. Remember that huge event line in his feet, with the bump above it, from when I bought him? The split between the inner and outer hoof wall is inside that bump. The new thicker/bigger foot is completely different. The lamellar wedge on the front has disappeared from the top of his foot. And the horn growing is like a piece of polished coal, smooth, hard and black. They may always be small but they are going to be like bits of rock on the end of his legs :-) I don't see him ever having a problem going without shoes, except perhaps for the fact that his white line is "live", showing pink with blood near the surface, very far down his foot. I can't touch the white line to bevel his toe without seeing pink. The other two, I can rasp white line off to bring the breakover point back, but not him.

C.