Ten minute ride

And its weeks since i did ride due to my various injuries - but i was pleased, as it was ten minutes of a relatively forward walk, on both reins, with several changes of rein - and no stops, not even when he would have preferred to speak to one of the mares.

busy day! with some success....

firstly, the plumber to mend my upstairs loo (thank goodness we have two!)

then, back to the yard to wait for bedding delivery - that was an interesting job, it was palletised, should have been easy, but there was a slight fault with the wagon's tailgate upon which the pallet is put to be lifted up and down, and ALSO he said no can't put it in the allocated space indoors due to unlevel surface - but anyway, had to handball half the bags off before he could get the pallet off his tailgate, otherwise it would have all tipped over...

than after lunch, got M in early, got the mud off and into the arena to see how far we could get towards lunging..... as it goes, he was happy to walk on out away from me on both reins, but occasionally allowed himself to be distracted by the mares....

a great improvement on previously so i think on balance we are starting to get there, and he's certainly thinking about what I'm asking more than he used to .....

muddy horse...

I've given up on the rugging for now.... last night, sweating again. it's no good, i'd rather have a muddy horse than a horse wet with sweat, he clearly has a thick coat and that will have to do him for now.

and who said TB's were wimps?

so he went out rugless this morning, and was nicely warm this evening.

I don't want to clip at all if i can help it, but rather think I'll have to indulge in a belly/neck clip - from the girth area forward and up the neck

in the meantime, the shoulders seem to be improving apace (touching wood and crossing everything) so all being well I'm going to your Horse Live either Saturday or Sunday, haven't decided yet.. whilst partner's away, a good place to go even though I'll have to go down on my own....

heather moffett's bringing out a new saddle, with a leather tree, that i want to investigate, and i'm told it's very good for shopping, and there's demo's by various people (whether i want to see them is another matter...) and i know that people i know will be going...

rugging is an art

which i haven't yet cracked for monfils...

for the last week it's been unseasonably warm and i bought the thinnest rain sheet i could find (very thin) which he had on on Sunday; nonetheless, came in sweaty having been running about as a result of a hot air balloon....

this morning, below freezing - the thin rug from yesterday was still drying out from the sweat getting in to the very thin lining, so he had the slightly heavier thin green one ... and i'm not totally sure he won't be overheating overnight....

anyway, rattly bottles.... last lesson, RI used an empty small plastic drinks bottle with some gravel in it to rattle and thus send him away

good idea, worked.

doesn't work now - because he's been de spooked to it, i reckon! so that's what that was about, Trudi!

despooked....

to the rattly bottle, i think that what's happened...

high energy, yes, but it didn't work....

he knows, you know.....

I did get some walk at first, even managed to get him going again after he was distracted by the mares coming over to see what was happening, but eventually, nothing was working again...

tchah.

and my shoulders? the painkillers are helping a lot, and I can move them pretty well now, just need to be a shade careful....and at least can start self physio'ing with the exercises the physio gave me... (the relevant movement is, in essence, the same as groom horse/tack up horse, so don't need to build extra time into the day to do this, LOL)

both shoulders seized up

by wednesday evening hence lack of posting....

gah.

easing up now, with loads of paracetamol and added codeine, which means i can then start physio exercises again...

lord knows what this is about ,but my money is on something ergonomic, it's just a case of working out what...

on his own...

for about 5 minutes, apparently was NOT happy.... when paul took his two out of the field, monf, apparently, didn't lift his head from teh grass - paul then heard him kick off .... had i had his mobile number, i would have texted him to wait until i got there... but i didn't... hey ho. unlikely to happen again! one of those things... and now we know.

so 1 1/2 hours later i could give him his tea, he'd got a bit hot!

i wasn't going to clip, but i might just do from the girth forward and up the neck ....

in the meantime, I've now fried my left neck/shoulder, was waiting outside the GP's surgery for it to open this morning, and got appointment for 09.35, that was good. Paracetamol 2, 4 times a day, hopefully it'll kick in soon..

oddly, it's better moving than not, so sitting in the office is bad, mucking out was ok. Weird, or what?