So many firsts I'm losing count

First time I  have jumped onto Ace with no preamble at all. Not even a walk around the yard.

First time he has been ridden up a steep hill.

And first time he has been ridden down one.

First time I have trotted in earnest.

First time I have sent him on strongly with my leg to tell him to get a move on.

His back feels like a jelly under a layer of skin. It's even more squidgy than Radar's.  What a result we have got so far!!!

Talking of Radar, do you remember he came in very lame the other day and it wore off while he stood in the stable for half an hour? Well yesterday he was lame again in the same foot, and today when I picked it out my hoofpick hit a bit of bumpy sole. He has a punctured sole. He must have just done it when he was first lame, with something very sharp and too small for me to see the  hole. Then over the next few days it went septic and that has opened a bigger hole in his foot, which I have now opened a bit more and I am filling it with peroxide squirted in  under pressure.

He's already less lame than yesterday and the hole is nowhere near where it could have damaged a bone, unless it went in at an impossible angle.  He may be sound on a hard surface by tomorrow and if so we'll go for a hack because he won't thank me for a lack of work :-)

C