New shoes

Here are photos of the new shoes I had put on yesterday.

Now all I have to do is learn to walk in them!

How many farriers does it take to change a set of shoes?

In my case, the answer is three plus one to operate the computer.

She tells me that my legs are not properly straight and that this is why I have sprouted a curb on one hind leg and a windgall on the other.  Her idea of a cure is to assemble a posse of farriers and an analyst guy with a super slow motion camera and a computer.  They all wore 'Team GBR' jackets with 'World Class' written on the back; She was so impressed She brought out the expensive biscuits.

I had to go up and down the yard while my legs were photographed, then they all went into a huddle. 

Russell of Centaur Biomechanics at his computer

Then they fixed on some radical shoes and I had to go up and down the yard again.  Then they were all congratulating themselves and She seemed very pleased with it all.  

Music practice

As threatened, She did make me trot round to the tractor song, then She thought it would be fun to have me going round to 'I'm so heavy'.  After that I had to canter round to the autobiographical 'I need a dollar'.  The session finished with a nice relaxing trot round to the strains of Melody Gardot, but She said that is too girlie for me.



She still dreams that we will prance round to music one day and that everyone will watch and applaud.  I think it is improbable and am fervently hoping that Posy will be doing it instead.

I've got rhythm!

She is trying to start Posy off on the Scales of Training and thought it would be fun to use music to help establish Rhythm.  Her video was cut short when, unbeknown to Her, the camera fell off its perch.  When She realised, She made me go round instead.  You will see how carefully I concentrate and show my more advanced training by moving exactly in time.



She has discovered that Posy's musical tastes are very catholic, with a liking for old time music and ballads.  Posy shied and ran away when She played Tinie Tempah. 
Impressed by my own performance, She is now planning a routine for me with music for driving tractors to by Wretch 32.  It's very noisy and would certainly drown out the sound of any engine.

Combined Training again

I had to trek to Duchy College again to take part in the babies' combined training competition.  This time, when I went into the arena, I recognised the jumps immediately!  I knew what I had to do and cantered off confidently and jumped all of them, bar one.  I got a bit distracted at fence 3 and forgot to take off and went more through it than over it.  She was jolly pleased with me.

Hanuman update and dressage

She has heard from the Anglo European Studbook who say that Hanuman's DNA test was in order. What exactly happened to the dressage genes is unclear since the little fellow is clearly determined to be an eventer. Tilly denies any responsibility.

Tilly denies any wrongdoing in respect of jumping genes

 Meanwhile, I went to another dressage competition and jolly hard work it was too since I had to walk all the way there.  It was all very worrying, with horses neighing and running around.  The rider of one hyper-anxious horse was only willing to get on once it was safely coralled in the warm up arena with a large man hanging on to it.
I didn't feel able to go forward again but didn't misbehave.  She said it wasn't great but at least She didn't feel suicidal like last time we went.