Foot not Knee

It seems I (finally) made the right choice by getting Olive into the loosebox. Yesterday she wouldn't let me touch her knee but today, after standing still for 16 hours, the swelling in the knee has gone down appreciably. Vet Andrew (great guy) from Rangiora Vets came and Olive had a bad abscess in her hoof and had damaged the knee by walking oddly on her heel to relieve any pressure on the toe of the hoof, where thew abscess is. It has been cleaned and drained. Now we have to soak her regularly in warm water and epsom-salts. Learning, learning every step for us.

Starting the weaning process?

We have our first foal of the current crop in the loose box with her Mum - Wee "Cleo" (also known as Cap) and Olive. Olive has a big knee which she has been favouring notably and the vet is coming to check her out tomorrow morning. As Cleo is the youngest of the foals, we probably won't actually wean her at this point but over the next two months we will start with the eldest and work through the three of them. They are now all progressing well and we aim to send Olive back to Julius Caesar this coming season. We are wondering about Honey (Now Another Look out of Whizzy) and whether we can enter her at Riccarton in a hurdles race. When we separated her from Cleo today (they seem to have mated up well) she just jumped the bloody gate as if it was a natural thing to do (proper Hurricane style farm gate). The fun goes on.

We spent a lot of the middle part of the day today with our three young nephews who were riding Eddie after staying the night. I spent about 1 1/2 hours working with Sooty after my first official riding lesson Friday a week ago. All I can say is that Sooty, despite his foibles is easier to manage than two 11 year olds and and a seven year old - Neph - Phews!! :) 55 must be too old to be a parent of youngans I think.

The ever curious but ever adorable Sooty.

A photo daughter Stacey took when here the other week. Sooty taking front stage again - what's new?