With the Shetlands

We had visitors in the field today and welcomed the Shetlands who normally live in the starvation paddock next door. My sources haven't said yet whether they were put in here or had made another of their daring escapes - for which they are well-known in Shetland circles.

Our visitors - known to their friends as William and Scooby - seemed intent on the grass and didn't have time to explain their presence. To a cob, this priority seems entirely reasonable

Since the clipper blades had still not materialised, no haircut for me today and we stayed out until after four. By then it was still bright and dry and Dad took me into the school for forty minutes or so.

The surface had just been levelled and we had the top end in front of the mirrors to ourselves whilst Honey schooled in the other half. We practiced the things covered in our lesson on Sunday, including transitions, leg yield and shoulder in/fore. The transition from halt straight to trot is hard. We worked large and on smaller circles and in rising and sitting trot.

We were troubled by the odd fly, but Dad made me work through this - and a degree of irritability about missing my tea. We finished off with stretching work long and low in walk and rising trot

By the end I was reasonably consistently soft and round-ish. After a hose down and some minties, I had tea. I suppose expecting three days off in a row would have been too optimistic. Above most things, cobs are realists.