He's home!

Last Saturday we collected Buddy from Rockley and, as per my last post, I was so excited but also slightly terrified. Buddy can be tricky to load so I was anxious that we would spend hours trying but the biggest thing I was concerned about was that Buddy is now completely my responsibility... I was panicking that I don't know enough and what I'm going to do if it all goes wrong.

Buddy wasn't as excited about him coming home as I was! He sulked as soon as his travel stuff started coming out and wasn't happy about leaving his best friend, Giant Dave. Loading wasn't a massive issue so we were on the road pretty quickly. 

Looking unimpressed

Luckily the journey was uneventful and we arrived home in about 3 hours and, in typical Buddy style, he came off the lorry to a chorus of neighs from his old friends and wandered into his stable like he'd never left. 

Saying hello to my MiL's horse

The last few days have passed in a bit of a blur. On the Sunday we hacked out for the first time and managed a trot and canter which was fab. He is still not 100% over small stones and so there were moments where he stumbled a bit but Nic has assured me that once he has his complete hoof he will be fine so I just need to monitor him and make sure he doesn't become more ouchy over those surfaces as there may be an underlying reason behind that.

He went out in the field with his friends on Monday and came in absolutely PLASTERED in mud... Proper liquid mud! There was only one thing I could have done so out came the shampoo and buckets  and Buddy had his first bath of 2013. Our YO had decided to shut the fields as the ground was just horrendous so Buddy will have to wait for his next hoorah! We did have a couple of massive positives as we had a visiting farrier who wanted to have a look at his new feet and he showed his apprentices why they were good examples. Then an eventer and dressage diva who rides for my YO came, also full of positive comments, and let slip that her youngster will event barefoot and she had an old horse that went up to Novice barefoot. Excellent news!

Muddy Buddy

So, onto today... The rain over the last few days has washed a lot of teeny stones onto the roads and so Buddy wasn't 100% at first. Wandering down the drive I had a hundred and one reasons why he didn't feel quite right running through my head. Was it the grass from the day before, was it the hay, did he pull something being a loon in the field...? I very nearly called Nic as I was on my hack and nearly turned around but as soon as we got on the road he felt great and was fine on the grass and mud.. Stones are proving to be our nemesis at the moment. I am going to continue to monitor Buddy and if he deteriorates in the next day or so then I will know its the hay and will have to do something about that.

It didn't help that as soon as we got back it was mentioned that he looked funny... I'm feeling so anxious about everything it is the last thing I want to hear as I know everyone is watching our every move and each time I get him out the box I'm scared. I hope this is just coming home anxiousness and it will get better in time...

Bar vs Bare

So, to cheer myself up I took a picture of Buddy's feet with his old bar shoes... As you can see from the picture his feet wouldn't fit this shoe, his heels are far more developed and his whole foot has changed shape. I find this all so interesting but I'm going to find it tough when there is so much negativity.