New Shoes

An interesting day. Dad came down at 8.50 and gave Dibbs and me some haylage. He then tied me up outside my stable and groomed me. A new farrier called Richard came at 9.30 and did my shoes and then Dibby's. He did a very neat job and explained to Dad how my front hooves were of different sizes, why this might have come about and how he adjusted the shoeing to give them a chance to equalize. Much the same story at the back , I'm afraid. Dibb's feet were less complicated. We both had road nails and a stud hole in each shoe.

When Dibby was having his turn Dad tied me up again outside my stable with a net whilst both Dads had coffee and a sit down. They then finished preparing the stables and when Dibby had been done too - and both of us had cotton wool in our stud holes - we were put out to graze. It had been raining quite hard all morning and so they put our light rugs on.

We stayed out until 4.15 and then came in. We were groomed and tacked up in readiness for a group lesson with Liz at 5.30. I wore my pelham.

We warmed up in walk and trot and did leg yield and shoulder fore/- in on both reins. We also contrasted working trot with a medium trot down the long side and across the diagonal, which was fun. We worked in a 20' x 40' space for the most part and there were 5 horses -Me, Dibbs, Ev on Leo, Kate on Todd and Louise on Tesco. Towards the end we cantered as a ride on both reins and gave the rein one at a time. It was tiring but good fun with all the other horses.

When we went in we were hosed down and dried and put in our cooler rugs - me in blue and Dibby in red. We had mints and an apple and after 35 minutes or so were given out tea. That was a busy and varied day - just how a cob likes it.