Kudos to Dexter :-)

Yesterday was a day of reckoning for us and Dexter, as his vet came up to check him over, and brought Dex's farriers with him as well.

I was so impressed that they made the effort, as it is a good 3 hour round trip from the practice up to the wilds of Exmoor, they are obviously busy people, and its not something that you can just squeeze into a spare 5 minutes.

Dexter was an angel and seemed to enjoy being the centre of attention (although Felix and Ghost both made a praiseworthy attmpt to muscle in on the action).

He was lunged on a fairly tight circle in the gravel yard, to replicate as closely as possible the last time they saw him back in December, and it was great to hear them confirm that he is hugely improved. Of course, his hooves are still a work in progress - he still has about an inch of old hoof capsule to grow out, and more importantly his digital cushion and lateral cartilages are still not as good as they will be eventually, but he was moving well and only showing up a slight shortness on his left front going down the slope on the circle, which we were all pleased with.

Kelly and Dex went off for a ride while we were doing what hoof anoraks do (ie talking feet for 3 hours!) and it was another gold star to Dex, whose behaviour was perfect even when Kelly had to keep leaping on and off to do gates. Not bad for a horse who used to be so fidgety that she was saying it used to take her up to 20 minutes to get on him, and once on there was no way she could get off.

Dex was clearly a favourite with the visiting team, and we all agreed what a fantastic little horse he is. So all in all...

- kudos to Jeremy, Gary and Tim for trekking all the way up here to find out more about the lunatic fringe :-)

- kudos to Kelly and Yvonne, for having the guts to try this crazy barefoot thing, and for being so enthusiastic about it, and biggest of all...

- kudos to Dex for growing his fab new hooves and being such a lovely boy :-)