standing still at the block

you will all recall the grief i had with Molly, who NEVER stood at the block and always turned quarters away...

Monfils doesn't do that, which is pretty impressive for an ex racehorse - one hears all these stories about them not standing, and i've known some (belonging to friends) that took ages to train to it...

so this morning there was no one to help, so i thought, right, let's see - 4 tentative attempts by me (i need to KNOW that i can get on , and whilst i do know that i can, i don't QUITE trust myself to be as quick as i can be...) anyway, he stood very nicely and i thought, i need to have confidence in my own body, which is (TBH) more flexible that it was this time last year, and my hips are certainly much better.

so that was good.

there was no one to ride with, so thought i'd try by myself, down the drive and round the block all left turns.

unfortunately, that takes him past his field, and he stopped as he got level with them all standing under their favourite tree .....doh.

one of the ladies on the yard kindly offered to walk down, and with that confidence giver in front of him, he was fine.

he's no bother about traffic, which is good

then when we were done, he didn't want to go out again - can't say i blame him, the flies were awful! so he stood in for an hour whilst I went and got him a new fly mask that fits him - TB heads are very difficult to fit, really, as they are not as big as what manufacturers call "full size" ...and then he went out with that and his fly sheet on...

and whilst I was clearing up, i spotted this little chap, still got his baby fluff





then this afternoon i went swimming, and in between all this i did 4 loads of washing - 3 of which were bone dry before the next lot got put on the line, but the last of which is now wetter than when it came out of the washer!