Aero & Molly Update

This blogging is hard work!  I've been busy with the garden, horses, dogs and doing physio for my wrist & aching butt (yup, still sore!) and it's been hard to find time to finish off my "Dogs" page, let alone write a new post.  I've been looking for a few photos, finally found the one I want of Cinnamon as a puppy - check out My Dogs page for an AWWWWW moment!  I also put in some better photos of Aero competing with the YD, just to glitz his page up a bit.

Aero continues to be a conundrum.  After the first day, when he willingly opened his mouth for the bit, the "You're-Going-to-have-to-Prise-my-Mouth-Open-if-you-want-to-get-that-Bit-in-it" Horse made a reappearance.
I concluded that his withers might have been hurting him more than I realised.  He had been twitching it a lot anytime my hands or the reins came near it while I was riding, and I reckoned that this was his way of telling me it was sore.  I decided not to ride again until it was healed, and I've been walking him out in hand instead, trying to give his hooves the workout they need.
Today, Day 5, he opened his mouth after only a moment's hesitation - Progress!
For the first few days, he has been alert and a shade spooky, but today, Lazy Aero was in evidence, both going out and coming home.
I know Lazy Aero exists, but I'm beginning to doubt myself and the work I'm doing with him.  What if I've been overdoing the roadwork and he's a bit footsore?  His hooves are starting to chip at the edges, and after 20 minutes on the road today, the inside of the hoof-wall had an interesting ragged, worn appearance.
Tomorrow, I will play with him in the arena.  I am very reluctant to do arena work with him at all, but my gut feeling is that his feet (and possibly his brain) need a break from roadwork.

Molly is holding her own.  We're keeping her away from Cookie - she really doesn't deserve to have a little whipper-snapper going for her out of the blue.  We've also put a heater in her section of the room, and it seemed to make a difference straight away, she was voluntarily trotting beside me from time to time when out for her little walks.  She's just started on her anti-inflammatories, and I'm hoping that they will improve her comfort level another bit.  The special low-fat diet (Royal Canin) is also doing the trick - no more tummy trouble!

I'm fighting my way through the weeds and have now moved on to the Veggie garden beside the arena.  The good news is that our nettle problem seems to be gone.  The bad news is that groundsel and goosegrass have taken over instead.

Groundsel - you can just see the tops of the onions at the back

The other bad news on the Home Producing Front is that one of the hens died.  There have been only two eggs a day for a good while now, so I guess the oldest one has been failing.  There's no point in replacing her, so we'll just stick with the two left behind.

I'm hoping to get some pics of Aero's hooves up tomorrow, I've assembled the hoof stand which should leave me with two hands free for taking photos.  Hope it works!