glenatron | Thinking about serious work

Today we did quite a bit with Othello, making him stand still for ages while Lou brushed his tail (it is a big tail and she seems to get some kind of My Little Pony moment whenever she sees it) and I picked up his feet, something he has got much better with over the last few weeks. Once he got used to the idea that he wasn't allowed to just wander off around the place he was very calm and well behaved, which was pleasant.

We took him into the school and tried putting his saddle on to see whether it fits correctly- it maybe a sweeping generalisation but I would say that most horses' saddles don't fit. If you see a horse where the back drops away into a little concavity on each side of the withers (the ridge at the base of the mane) behind the shoulder blade it probably has an ill-fitted saddle. If it has little white flecks in the fur around that area it definitely has an ill-fitted saddle or has been subjected to one at some point- the marks are caused by pressure from the saddle killing off the skin cells leaving the fur unpigmented. Putting Othello's saddle on loosely and walking him around allowed us to feel that it matches the line of his back very well, which probably means that the muscle wastage evident on his back is due to that saddle. We could also feel the pressure increase as he stepped forward and his shoulder blade came back, particularly on the outside of a turn, suggesting it will pinch as he goes along. It's a very good piece of equipment, or at least -like most of his equipment- it is a top name brand, but if we want him to be able to put muscle on in that area or to move really freely we're going to have to work him in something else. Something else, in this case almost certainly being a treeless saddle which has no rigid structure to it at all- we work Joe in one of these and he gets on very well with it.

After doing our standard groundwork, which he is mostly learning to do beautifully now, I took him for a little wander out on the lane where he was very well behaved, apart from a brief discussion about whether we were going charging off up the neighbours drive. He seemed to really enjoy exploring a bit and I can tell that riding him out is going to be brilliant fun.

We put Othello back (with his rug on, for the first time this year) and brought Joe in to do some work and to attempt to scrub the worst of the mud off him. Joe has decided that being proportioned like a hippopotamous means he should behave like one and spends much of his time trying to encase himself entirely in clay. He subverted our attempts by seeing someone roll a tractor tyre past and bolting with impressive speed and efficiency back towards his field. We got him back, snorting and flagging his tail, but he didn't end up doing much work as he was a bit jumpy and we were reluctant to push things.

What little afternoon remained was spent tidying the field and enjoying the autumn colours- I don't expect they will last far beyond this week, now the wind is coming up, but in today's watery sunlight they were still gorgeous. I tried to get a picture capturing the colours but some things resist capture and mostly it ended up being a photograph of furball's unfeasibly long nose:

Seriously, that is a heck of a long nose.

As a general question: If you have ordered or received your copy of the Sequoia album, I would appreciate it if you could tell me where you ordered it and how long it took to arrive, if arrive it has. Stick a reply here or email me at any of my numerous addresses and I shall be most grateful.

If you haven't, get on with it! We have a few tracks available to listen to over at MySpace if you're not sure whether you would like it (you may not; some people are mad and others hate pop music or things that are good, those twisted few may find something about it to dislike) and whether, indeed, it would make a good Christmas present for someone you know. Or possibly everyone you know. Just a thought.