Catch up

You'll be unsurprised to learn that things at Luso Towers have been very busy. In the last entry I mentioned that we had collected two trailer loads of rubber matting a couple of weeks back, which was followed the next morning by another trailer load delivered courtesy of Pheel's boys. So that's three loads of matting, and in case you wondered how much rubber matting it is possible to fit in to one 12 x 12 stable, the answer is three trailer loads - so long as you don't plan to close the stable door afterwards. That's a lot of rubber.

Over the last couple of days we have hauled, humped and dragged what must be several hundredweight of the stuff into stables and spent equivalent amounts of time power hosing it down, with the result that six of the nine stables are now fitted out. Which is nice. Plus we all now look like Geoff Capes. We can't do the others until the mods are finished, but it looks as though there will be enough left over to do the shelters and the dog run (!).

Our little herd is all back together after their sojourn at the vet clinic and I am trying not to think about whether, after the injection of (a) a bucket load of cash and (b) several doses of frozen semen, the girls are indeed pregnant. Argh. Plenty of distractions, not the least of which was the final push to get all the forms signed off and completed to send off for the younglings' passports. Only time will tell whether Gualter's passport will arrive in time to take him and Alfama to the breed show.

Meanwhile preps are under way to bring T up to fitness for the proposed classes, and he has been going very well indeed. Each ride finds him more relaxed and with progress to report - less tension on the left rein and trot work really going very well. Hitherto I've been pleased to get some softness during the course of the trot but today for the first time we kept it through transitions and changes of rein on both reins, and I really feel we are starting to gel. He is an extraordinary horse to ride and I can't express what joy it is to finally feel I am getting somewhere and that he is really enjoying his work. Knickers is working both boys three times per week, which is a huge help, and she is really enjoying it. Good lads they are.

We're trying to get a rider over from Portugal to present him at the breed show but logistics all need to be worked out, so I've been busy trying to work out what is possible too. And best of all, I now have a week off work to immerse myself in horsey doings, and hopefully get Pheel to start on the outstanding work to finish off the all weather turnout areas, convert one of the stables into a cross tie bay and the other into a larger stable for possible weaning or foaling. Not to mention ideas to try to convert an area into a covering room for a dummy.

In other news Franklin D. Husky has had his plums whipped off and was feeling very sorry for himself, but is bouncing back with the amazing powers of recovery possessed only by the young and vital. He's confined to walks on the lead for a few days but coping pretty well.