DAY SEVEN - Of Hot Feet and Haynets

Today was not a good day. The pony had too much grass overnight and her feet were hot this morning. Not severely, flamingly hot, and she wasn't sore at all, but that is not a Good Sign so I taped the grass off again, then following advice from very helpful boardies online (thank you!) I hosed her feet to cool them (which she loathed) and put her into a yard. Which is very small and was also not a popular move of mine. I soaked a haynet for her and gave her that, then rode Roly. He was a good boy, except for stumbling in the canter and just about falling on his face! However his shoes were a bit clinky so when I got back I checked them and his clenches have popped, especially on his front feet. One of the nails is really lose. So there will be no more riding for him until Tuesday when the farrier comes. Dammit! Now I have no horses to ride all weekend and Megan is coming to stay tomorrow night, we had planned a beach ride on Saturday.

However Anna has come through like the champ that she is and has offered to take us to the beach on her horses on Saturday afternoon. So all is well. And I will get to ride Z, who I adore, so that is excellent news. Willow can have a few days of slower work while she gets back into it, Roly can have his shoes fixed up and then we will be away laughing.

I took Willow down to the river twice to stand in it as an "easier" way of cooling her feet. The first time she argued for the full ten minutes, and although I persevered, she was insistent that standing still in cold water for that long was a stupid idea and kept trying to convince me to let her get out. However the second time we went down, she gave up arguing after the first 5 minutes and stood nice and still for the remainder of the time. I have to sit on her to get her in the water, but I just led her down and back, and she is not showing any signs of lameness, which is good. She has very slight heat in her coronet on her off fore and off hind, but her other feet are good now, so she is going to be on a strict diet from now until camp. And I'm just hoping I'll be able to yard her at camp.

In other good news, my finger is almost all better and I can type like a normal person again!