She's in

RIDER is in.

First event of the year now looming close. New shoes for THE FELLA with stud holes in readiness. Plenty of advice from farrier too about keeping threads nice and clean. Much appreciated.

THE FELLA is nice and chilled, a lot more so than last year. Here's hoping he remembers his job and carries on where he left off. To be realistic he's probably going to stress in the wagon, come off like a tit, need lunging, arse about in the dressage warm up, have four down in the show-jumping and narrowly escape with his life as rider demands that I "take him off me before I kill him", then refuse at, oh, fence 2 in the cross country. At which point he will stand like a lamb (for the first time today) while we untack him. He may then choose to be awkward to load.

So, all things considered, anything better is a bonus.