Quiet Week

So after Mr Fitzroy ran last week we took some blood from him and it showed that a couple of his readings weren't quite right, then a couple of the others cantered a bit thick in their wind so I decided to take a pull for a few weeks and let whatever is going through them to run its course.

It would be very easy to keep going, running the horses and then being disappointed if they ran flat, it can also ruin a horse's wind if they work hard with a low grade infection. If you saw the way they were behaving you would be hard pressed to realise that anything was wrong, however I haven't been in 3 sick yards and had the mother of all viruses in the past to not learn about illness!! I won't bother spending the owner's money on lots of blood tests and scoping, it will only tell us what we already know, hence all we are doing until Christmas is cantering and hacking around, keeping them moving and their lungs open, keeping them fit without galloping them. Hopefully when I reblood a couple just before Christmas I will know where we are at, then we can start the new year off with fresh happy horses.

So whilst we are still riding out, we have a small bit more time on our hands so I have decided to get one of the ponies ready for my daughter to ride off the lead rein, however he is only 5 himself so Hannah has been riding him out, getting him used to scary things like the bins, people walking dogs, lorries, flappy things round his head and also being led from antoher horse. Surfice to say that we do get some funny looks...