Bailey does the business

Bailey W's owner, Lainey, came to see him yesterday, and despite the appalling change in the weather - which has gone from dry, cold and sunny to wet and vile - we took him and Angel out for a stomp up some of our steep hills.

One of the things Lainey had been dreading was putting Bailey on a circle because that was always the test she used to work out whether he was still lame after his previous treatments.

I'd introduced some rehab work on the lunge a few weeks ago, and despite his poorly RH, which set him back, he had been making good progress - from (at first) clearly unlevel on the left rein to level but short-striding and, over the last week or so, starting to look once more like the posh horse we know he really is!

Of course, the video isn't perfect - to pick the most obvious glitches:

• there is a severe rainstorm coming in from left to right, which bothers Bailey, Lainey and me(!); 
• the arena had multiple pits in it that afternoon created by either (a) the hound puppies or (b) Angel when he decided to buck and do wall of death earlier in the day, and which Bailey occasionally falls into; and 
• on the right rein I am courting disaster by nearly walking through a loop of the lunge line - blame either the rain or the fact that at this point Lainey distracted me by saying that my camcorder was getting really wet...  :-0

Nevertheless, its a very good effort from a horse who wasn't supposed to work again, especially following a hack out up hill and down dale...  The footage is also up in high res here: http://www.vimeo.com/16087215

For completeness, above is the photo of his worse hoof, left front, on arrival. 

You can see from the photo of his hoof from yesterday what a change in loading and angle is taking place - he still only has half a good foot, but its enough to make a difference!