Trampoline is back.

Tetley was bouncing today. Brilliant trot in the indoor, and boy oh boy was he giving me a back to sit on. He was powering around that tiny space with a totally relaxed back that I could stick to like glue. Priceless. He did me some pretty decent flying changes too. He is obviously feeling well. His white foot is definitely evening up in the balance. The black one is slower but may be heading in the same direction. I think he is fit enough to do some low level dressage competition and I’ll be taking him to my first RC indoor in November I hope. It will give us something that’s worth working for, anyway.

Tia was stiff today but she hasn’t schooled for over two weeks, so there’s a surprise! She warmed up OK after 20 minutes bending and flexing and then did some really nice shoulder in.

Caddy has a suspicious lump on his deep digital tendon on a back leg. It’s in a very odd place, about 2 inches up from the bottom. It’s a specific lump the size of a large pea, with a hot spot and some generalised filling like a windgall. He’s not lame but I am obviously concerned and haven’t worked him. It’s not a normal place for a tendon pull, that usually happens either half way down where the tendon is thinnest and takes most pull, or at the junction of the check ligament which is about 2 inches from the top, not two inches from the bottom. But it is now several days old and although it went away on day 2 it came back again, which does not fit for a knock but works for a strain. But it's one-sided, which is right for a knock but uncommon for a strain. A strain would be much worse, of course, so I am keeping my eye on it and since I am away the latter half of this week I won’t work him until the weekend unless it has gone tomorrow, which may be unlikely.

Any night now they will be in to keep their feet from standing in the wet all night. It's the first year since I've lived here that they haven't been in even one night before the beginning of October. I find it difficult to dislike this global warming stuff, it has radically reduced the amount of wind we get on this hilltop too.

C