some in hand work..

a lovely weekend, as it goes, once the sun is out and the breeze has dropped and you're not in the shade (when it's still freezing!)

So yesterday we did about 10/15 minutes in hand in the arena, i was quite pleased with him and me...

but I do find that hard on the shoulders so have to be careful not to overdo it for myself, ! never mind for him...

today, we were moving stables - people may remember back in January the barn roof fell down and M was moved away from his stable which is right next to that roof... and we used his stable for storage whilst the roof was being mended...

it has all now been mended, so moved back....G & i did a good afternoon's work getting everything back where it belongs in the proper storage area, and removing everything from the bullpen...and so on...

knackered time i'd done all that so M didn't get worked....

crossing fingers it'll be nice tomorrow, forecast is good..

the sun came out!

it was only 3 degrees in the shade, but that yard is a sun trap at the right angle, and the sun came out just as I got M in

so took his rug right off, thorough groom, then took him into the arena to see whether his lunging has improved any..

he was at least prepared to walk round, rather than stand still!

he needs his muscles all building up again.. but that shouldn't take long if the weather starts being consistently dry and not windy....and not so cold!

mop my fevered brow

for the first time in a very long time, i did NOT have to hose off M's feet and legs, was able to take DRY mud off him, and was able to clean hooves with just hoofpick and a stiff brush!

still freezingly cold

and i just can't bring myself to do more than wrestle with hosing off the cold mud and cleaning out the feet of a nighttime; some people are riding out in the snow, i think they're mad.....(fair weather rider these days, for sure!)

in the meantime

http://imjustbaking.blogspot.co.uk/

looks like it's worth following ... a friend of a work colleague...

fed up

with this winter.

who mentioned spring?  and this time last year we were having a heatwave...

not quiiiiite there yet

walked him round on the lunge yesterday (well, lunge - i couldn't find my lunge line, had to use a very lightweight line i used to use for longlining, far too light for anything and i wonder why i bought it?) anyway .. the foot that was badly afflicted with thrush is ALMOST right, but he's still ever so slightly toe down first rather than heel down first, which means he's not quite right on it yet...

but i've found a better way of cleaning the feet out after i've picked them out = rather than a scrubbing brush, just reduce the water pressure and hose them out... perfect!

a quiet week or so

and i didn't think that endless repatitions of "feet hosed/scrubbed out/cleaned" was particularly interesting.

but it all seems to be improving, he has pretty much stopped keeping the  near hind off the floor now, so he's clearly feeling a lot better on that...

hopefully, try to lunge at the weekend and see how he's moving - he hasn't been lame as such (not if he can hooly when turned out after his time in) but still, will need to do some ground work etc again before getting back on ..

his latest thing this week  is, when he sees me coming to get him in , to roll .. so therefore covered in damp mud and doesn't get groomed (all that would happen would be it would be spread about, not taken off..)

more thrush...

he went out today with the back boots on.

he came in with one boot trashed, and more thrush

:-(

so he'll have to stay in again until at least Thursday when trimmer comes..

out at last

with boots on both back feet, which stayed on.  he was very happy, i gather (i was in Manchester for the day, G did the honours...)

his feet are a lot better but still need keeping clean and unmuddy for a bit longer...

trimmer coming Thursday...