On the road to recovery

I'm pleased to say, Buttons is doing brilliantly, far better than I expected him to be at this stage.  The farrier came up yesterday and checked and trimmed his feet.  It's been just over 3 weeks since he was last trimmed, but there was a lot of growth.  He brought his feet back and is confident that we caught this early and any damage done will be very minimal.  He wants me now to start walking him out, to get the blood flowing to his feet.  He's walking well, even on harder, stonier parts of ground.  I'm trying to keep him on soft surfaces just now.  He's walking forward and breaking into trot and looks comfortable.  Aside from physical improvements, the biggest change I've seen is in him himself.  Buttons is back.  He has a sweet, feisty, cheeky character and a huge personality and I'm pleased to see it back.   He's back to pawing the ground and tossing his head when I don't do things quite as quickly as he would like, he emptied all the shelves in the tack room yesterday (don't worry there's no food in there!).  He feels better and he wants out.  Today I took him a little walk around the yard and we stopped off to visit some of his friends.  I was leading him around one of the empty fields as the ground was nice and soft, he was getting frustrated at me as he wanted loose.  I was walking along when I just saw a flash of blonde and then Buttons back feet about 2 inches away from my face.  He had done a massive handstand buck, he landed and tossed his head and then turned to look at me a bit sheepishly.  I feel for him, but I'm still proceeding with this cautiously.  I'm not taking any chances.

 

Visiting Big J. and M.

Buttons and two of his 'girls'

 

 

Looking longingly into the field

I managed to ride Wolfie yesterday and today.  That's the first since our eventful first ride just over a week ago.  He was really, really good.  Bouncey, looky and very forward, but none of the dramatic behaviour of our previous ride.  I'm really looking forward to getting him fit.  A couple of the tups followed us around the field today.  They are much braver and nosier than the sheep.  We walked up the track where he came across the scarey horse eating turf.  Turns out it wasn't turf, but a massive pile of dirty snow.  It's now melted and all that's left is a dirty patch on the ground.  He was looking for it as we neared the top.  I don't think he could really understand where this awful thing had gone.  Really pleased with him.  Wolfie always seems really happy after being ridden, I really think he enjoys the mental stimulation and he thoroughly enjoys hacking.