Hector's house

The last week has been a very good one for Bill and Hector, who have both made excellent and very encouraging progress.

Bill has, for the first time, been in work every day and its a mark of how much he has improved that he has not only stayed sound but his hooves have actually responded to the additional miles by getting stronger and more capable.

The work of building up his fitness, not just for his hooves but for his whole body, can now begin.

Apparently he had been off work for over a year before he came here, as he was given time off to see whether he would come sound, and in the run up to his time off he was obviously worked only lightly as he was intermittently lame.

He has built better topline since his arrival in April, probably because he was moving more simply with being on the tracks, and as all our terrain is undulating (to say the least!), that in itself has helped him muscle up.

Hector was already fairly fit when he arrived, and of course was able to start work more or less immediately, so we are much further on with him.

In fact he went out for a very short morning's hunting on Wednesday, at 6.30am. He behaved very well, but it was a tricky day to have a young horse out, as it was misty and still, and there was a lot of standing around. After an hour of good behaviour - despite Hector's suspicion that when you hear hounds surely thats the signal that you are about to gallop about :-) - we came home, and will do the same again next week.

In fact, a few quiet, boring days would be ideal, as it looks as if he has hunted before and found it terribly exciting :-0 We need to teach him that sometimes its all very steady ;-)