"Dillon with the wedges" and more from H&H

A quick update on last week's H&H post - Nadia sent me a link to the H&H online gallery, and there I found the photos that didn't make it into the magazine ;-)

Charlie quite focussed - hounds were hunting a trail just in front of us!

This is the photo I think they should have used - wild riders in the snow!

More importantly, I know many of you fondly remember "Dillon with the wedges", who made a minor blog sensation when he arrived here last summer in these... 

Well, the time has flown since he went home - and an email from Nicky over the weekend confirms its now more than 6 months since he came out of his wedges:

"I have realised its been over 3 months since Dillon came home and it would be a good time to give you an update. This is also coupled with the fact that today I had the best ride since I brought him home and I am grinning from ear to ear!
 
There continued to be a few up and down moments in November/early Dec...realistically I think I was stuggling to do enough work with winter and lack of daylight hours...but I hope to be able to do a bit more work, especially when the clocks go back (yes I am counting down the weeks). He still has a small amount of flare but not so much now as his old hoof is almost grown out.
 
I was quite conservative on what we did and as I was limited to how often I rode kept mainly to roadwork as I thought this would be best for self trimming. In hindsight I was over cautious and around Christmas time I decided he was doing well and used the opportunity of a bit of time off to start doing a bit more. Consequently he found it all very exciting, especially out on our boxing day yard ride with the 4 others from the yard which stopped off at a pub - lets just say he was keen to get there! (although the drink for me was helpful dutch courage for the ride home!) Just after that on a ride round some fields my nerves took a bit of a knock as he was leaping about and ready to take off at the slightest hint of a bird flying out of a bush and on the way home we cavorted down the road in canter. 
 
I think he was telling me something - that he wanted to do more and was bored.  So between me, the YM and another friend we have continued the increased workload over the last few weeks and he has been hacked 5 times a week rather than 3 sometimes 4. So far he has remained sound with the increase in workload and it has improved his behaviour and overall demenour, very small things but I notice them - he is standing much quieter when tied up, less fidgeting while waiting for others to tack up/get on etc.  So the reason I am so happy today is because I was brave and we went on our longest ride since we came home and over some quite stoney tracks (for Kent anyway, we generally only have roads or fields/grass tracks!) - he coped fantastically and I was really pleased, whats more we had several canters at my request and without prancing for the rest of the ride, whats even better was he also felt great! 
 I feel like today we turned another corner, in me realising he really can do it and our time at Rockley really was only the beginning and it will last. (I hope that makes sense - I do fundamentally understand barefoot is a long term solution to the underlying problem so it should last but I was convinced it would all go wrong when I got home as I'm not knowledgable enough or with the set up to maintain it) Here's hoping that we are onto the next stage of our journey now. "

All I can say is very well done Nicky - fantastic news :-)