I have just had a lovely hack on Ace in the late evening sunshine. Much nicer than if we had gone out in the heat of the day. He is settling very well into hacking out alone and is almost completely unspooky now. He is, though, a little worried about what those strange small furry white things with the wriggly bit on the end are! And WHY do they have a number written on the side, he says. He did some absolutely superb trot at one point, dancing along the road. It did feel good!
Jazz has had the day off to reward him for being such a good boy yesterday. Tomorrow we will work on those half passes. I have a plan to do lots of travers, because it's the back end that is not moving off my leg and the last time I tried travers I got a huge improvement in half pass.
Both Jazz and Ace are feeling the odd stone on rough ground which they would not have felt last week. I have only just got them off the daytime grass in time, I think. Ace came to me with very suspicious looking hind feet - with a bullnose, a curve on the front which was not put there by a farrier. I've seen horses with this before and they have always been ones that get laminitis easily, so I have been watching him like a hawk. True enough, he is the first one of the four of them, including Buttie, to get digital pulses. I wonder if the reason that he was sold cheaper than he should have been in Germany, and broken so late compared to most continental warmbloods, because he had lamintis last spring when he was four. It would not surprise me, nor would it bother me because I can manage him if he is a susceptible one.
Talking of eating, I'm hungry, seeya!
C
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
ReplyDelete:-)
Doh! slaps forehead!!
ReplyDeleteha ha ha ha ha
The sheep are numbered??? I thought that was only true in the Serta mattress ads here in the US.
ReplyDeleteMeantime, what a nice plus that Ace enjoys going out like that. There is an old saying that the "True test of a dressage horse is in the field." Perhaps it's one of the better places to train them too.
Looking forward to more good news on the medical front with Allan and the responsive doctor...
There is more good news already Jean. We have an appointment with the surgeon on Thursday at 4pm and should get a date for the op either then on very soon after, for him to go in by mid May. They rang us, we have not had to chase a thing.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, the surgeon is one of the best in the world. He does 1 heart valve replacement every two days. His death rate is 0.5% when the average is nearly ten times that. He has also researched death rates and identified danger points. It couldn't be any better.
And yes, they number the sheep so they can track them - how many days old they are, how many they lose. When people out walking ask me why they are numbered I say that it's so their mothers can find which ones are theirs - and some people take an age to realise that I'm having them on!
C
Very funny Jean! Now, is "heat of the day" a term that can ever be used in England? It's just too hard to imagine... Though the hottest days in Cambridgeshire last summer were the ones we showed. 27C outside and oven hot inside the indoor arenas.
ReplyDeleteWhat fun that Ace is turning into such a good hack! It's so good for them and you too.
And fabulous news on the accountability of Allan's surgeon!!! The odds are improving.
That is excellent news about the doctor. Sounds as if all is finally in good hands.
ReplyDeleteAll good!
ReplyDeleteMy horse can't understand sheep. The first time he saw lambs he did a funny little neigh, as if he was saying "Look - how sweet"
He had a very sheltered childhood, being brought up on a stud with only horses for company and although he has cattle at home he doesn't really encounter sheep so he is always puzzled about what they are.
Do you remember Tia, Judith? She was scared witless of cows and reared and turned for home when she saw them in a neighbouring field to the one we were in. Radar is also afraid of cows. I have no idea what Ace will do about cows but he is nervous of lambs running across the field to see what the big brown thing is.
ReplyDeleteML I have Holmes Adie syndrome, which makes me intolerant of heat because I can't regulate it well. "Heat of the day" for me is anything over 20 C !! :-) Incidentally the same genetic defect is responsible for me having one pupil bigger than the other, achilles tendons with no reflex (so they give out and I fall over regularly like a drunkard!) and "locked" ankle joints, which is my excuse for not being able to drop my heels like a "proppa" dressage rider. It's a mostly harmless and very odd genetic mutation!
A is tired with the heat but today managed to joke that I made him spend 15 minutes of what are possibly the last few days of his life queueing for our breakfast in MacDonalds. The black humour is a DEFINITE good sign and we both pee'd ourselves laughing!!!!
C