Monday

It was a quiet day at the yard - and lovely weather - everyone else is at Horse of The Year so I made the most of the peace and quiet and headed up there early.

I let Garbo have a graze in the race while I made up his dinner and breakfast for the next day, and then brought him in. The farrier arrived to shoe Deva so we had a brush (untied) while they were trying to control Deva while sticking hot shoes in his feet, while tied.

Once the burning smell started I headed off to play with Garbo - we went and did some great hill therapy and then some sideways and changes of direction.

Once they had finished headed back to saddle up - Garbo was quite hot at this stage so I think he was in a can't be bothered mood. He stood still for mounting and we went straight towards the paddock with the hill, that we had just been in. This means going partially down the drive way and he did his 180 degree turn a few times. I took a page out of Cilla's book and decided to be persistant and kept asking, like tit for tat, until we got there - really only took about 2 minutes - so not that bad.

In the paddock riding we did tit for tat also because he didn't want to go down the bottom of the hill (that would mean getting back up it again - also bottom of the hill is further down the driveway). But after some (lots) of 90 degree turns down the hill each time he veered more than 45 degrees - we got there! And then trotted back up - how I love trotting up hill.

Did that a few more times and then let Garbo decide where would walk to after that. He headed out of the gate and up the race (where all the other horses are) - surprise surprise.

We trotted down the race a few times also.

He spooked at the float park (in between the two races) because I had a towel drying in the sun - hanging off my car side mirror - and just as we were walking past - it fell off! (The towel not the mirror)... anyway - teeny tiny "what was that" jump and that was that.... didn't get unseated.

I consciously decided to laugh with Garbo everytime something interesting happened. :-)
After we unsaddled and washed - I led him back to his paddock at liberty.... well nearly...

Heading back to paddock....


Checking out that scary damn towel.


On the way Garbo decided to look in my car for treats....
Heading back to the paddock - inside the paddock we have a bit of a routine...we run to the feed bowl and I take his halter off, then give him a carrot...