Normal and boring.
Tetley was well. He has done some great trot and had a valiant try at some flying changes. He still can’t quite get them, but he’s getting closer and closer to it! His back muscles have been beautifully soft and squidgy for the last few days. The pain in his hocks must be reducing, I think.
I took Caddy out for a hack. He wasn’t going forward. Honestly I’ve never known such a lazy thoroughbred. I pushed him forward at one point and clipped him with the whip and he cantered. He has no shoes on, so I let him – after six strides he decided it was too hard work and walked!!! He seems to be very solid on his feet, he just appears to be so laid back that he is almost asleep. Scooby was the same at 3, and at 4 he nearly killed me, so I’m not making any judgements yet!
Talking of his feet, he has a hole in one heel on each of his back feet which are very deep and black. They look like old corns, from where he was shod, which were so ground-in and deep seated that they have only just broken the surface now. And one of his front feet was unattached at the white line around a complete half of his foot. I have cut it back to healthy white line – one to stop it pulling, two to get the air in to kill the bugs that cause the separation and three to stop it breaking off unevenly and taking good stuff with it.
Tetley’s blister of yesterday turns out to be a shedding frog. Half of it is peeling off, and there is a super smooth hard black frog underneath. All four frogs are peeling to some extent.
Tia had the day off but I can hardly keep my eyes off her. She is incredibly shiny dark brown from head to foot. She looks magnificent. Caddy, on the other hand, is looking specatularly moth-eaten! His coat is not growing in evenly, it’s a mix of orange, red and brown and it’s getting fluffy too.
I didn’t get to the farm ride today, painting the dining room took priority!
C
posted by cptrayes @ 10:36 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
If you want, you could take Tetley over a little crossrail and ask for the flying change in the air at the jump. That helps sometimes.
With PJ, I did s very straight, almost no bend half pass to the rail and then asked for the change along the wall in the new direction.
With Toby, we just did it out of a figure 8. (Lockie Richards gave me a lesson and just told me to go for it.) I am thinking Tucker will be fairly easy, but I don't want to try it until I have both a solid counter canter and a simple change. His canter balance is excellent, but he still loses it a bit when I change leads through the trot. I am just not pushing his training the way I did with Tobes and PJ.
Tucker was very lazy when I first rode him. Then, he learned to buck instead of going forward. I would think with Caddy's track training that would not be an issue. I guess he's just enjoying not being asked to run flat out everytime his little hoofies hit the dirt.
Toby, a chestnut, grows a fluffier coat than Tucker who always quite seems to gleam. PJ's coat, when he was younger, was a bit more like Toby's, but my first guy, Russell, grew the sleek shiny winter coat too. It must be something genetic. I jokingly call Tucker "teflon" because the mud just doesn't seem to stick on him the way it does on the other two.
Sorry to hear the picture postcards are not telling the whole story. Wish there were a more universal love of open space and farmland. It breaks my heart to see it disappear under warehouse walls and parking lot pavement.
Yup, Teflon coated - wonderful isn't it, when the mud just slides off? Tetley and Caddy aren't going to be as easy - I use a dog shedding blade on them...
C
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