Friday 27thApril 2007

The lack of updates is mainly due to the fact that not much has been happening up until last night.

After the initial rapid weight gain, and the dentist visiting, all we can do now really is be patient and wait while Snowy's body recovers.
He is noticably weak - in fact, when prancing around the paddock last week, his back end gave way, and he ended up crashing heavily to the ground. On struggling to his feet, we noticed him limping badly, and I have to admit that my heart was in my mouth, but after a few strides, his gait was much improved, and after half an hour, he was walking around normally (for him).
It did serve to remind me though, that the lack of nutrition, and probably the lice, have left him quite weak and run down, and though the improvements are pleasing, we are all too aware that he still has a long way to go....

With that in mind, we decided that he would benefit from some light lunging, two or three times per week, for a few minutes each session, and maybe a light weight (brave!) rider walking him around, to start strengthening his muscles. Hopefully this will improve his fitness and co-ordination, and we can build up from there.

The problem was always going to be finding someone brave enough to climb on board, given that he is full of good feed...
Enter our youngest (and bravest) daughter - Abbi!!
She initially sat on him (on the leadrope), with a view to seeing how he would react. The leadrope of course, was for Abbi's psycholoical benefit. Deep down, we all all know that if a thoroughbred is going to tank off into the distance, one leadrope attached to it, isn't going to make a blind bit of difference! However, we figured that, being young, she would bounce better than an adult, and she's quite keen on hospitals...

Well, to our enormous surprise and delight, Snowy behaved perfectly! And with instructions to just let him loose walk around, she set off on him around the paddock with him. He was calm, unflappable, and quite content to potter around.

He is a long way from being ridden out and worked correctly, but these little achievements, are the ones that make you smile the most.