And the Academy Award™ ...

...for best Horse in A Dramatic role goes to...

/fanfare

...MONSTER.

"Who, little old me? Gosh! I never expected this! Oh! You shouldn't have", and gush to fade.

A little midweek hunting for us both to make the most of the remaining season has somewhat backfired. Basically, MONSTER is broke. She lost a shoe, which wasn't noticed until an hour after the fact when the retrieved item was found not to fit the supposed victim, but Cinderella like was a perfect fit for her coloured cobby toes. Bless her she put in some good jumps after it had gone - in fact I'd had to hold her back, but once back home it became clear all was not well.

Turns out that as well as some slight bruising on the affected foot by over- compensating for it she has strained the tendons in the other leg.

Cue much batting of eyelashes at me and a series of 'dog with sore paw' impressions.

For all my joking about her acting the poor mare is genuinely sore and on enforced box rest. We remain to see how she is on Saturday morning when she should be being bathed and plaited up and realises that she is staying at home.

The good news is she'll be right before the end of season and only misses one of the meets we had planned.

In the meantime, I'll just let her continue her acceptance speech...

Stone Walled

"What are you doing down there, again" are never words one want to hear whilst out hunting. That such words should spring forth out of the mouths of innocents - nine year olds mounted on little grey ponies that wouldn't look out of place in a Thelwell cartoon - is even more humiliating. Yet such the latter half of the season has progressed.

After a crashing fall through a stone wall at the weekend - which we are both fortunately escaped from with nothing more than bruising (me) and slight grazing (her) I think that we have reached our limits. During a week of heavy going she consistently stopped at everything first time, needing much encouragement to get on.

With no hunting to be had at the weekends since Xmas, and then little jumping when we were out I was particularly nervous that our first real foray of the year was to be in HEDGE COUNTRY. I needn't have worried. With firmer ground underfoot, and more experienced horses to follow MONSTER had a crack at everything, pulling like the proverbial steam engine as we went for every fence. She's a tidy little jumper, properly snapping her front legs up so much that she would need a stud guard if we wore them. Even so she just clipped two of the more imposing obstacles. You can see the capstones flying from the drystone wall below.




Then, just before second horses it all went A over T. I had already had a closer look at the turf when she clipped the top rail of a fence from a difficult approach when we returned to the above wall. Perfect striding wasn't enough to get us over a second time and in a shower of stones we went through rather than over. Foot followers, at least one of whom would love to get their hands on MONSTER, rushed to the scene to make sure that horse and rider were alright, and to repair the wall.

Still, it's nice to know that her jumping limits match my bravery limits. I may jest about getting a more capable schoolmaster as a second string, but MONSTER and I (grammer) have learned this lark together and I know in my heart of hearts that nothing could replace my affection for the big coloured goon, never mind replace her in the field.