Show jumping tomorrow, maybe

Yesterday morning Vin got shod.

This evening I fetched him in.

Sadly he had only three shoes on and was hopping lame on the hoof with the missing footwear.

Sue rang the farrier who, bless, said he was at home just about to hop in the bath but he’d be around in a couple of minutes.

Thirty, to be precise and that’s no complaint – more a statement of grateful wonder.

In the half-hour between phone call and farrier’s arrival I’d scoured the field and found the missing shoe (thank heavens for the lighter evenings!).

It was completely mangled so God knows what the hell he’d been doing – but he’d obviously heard that we were going show jumping tomorrow and was doing his best to be ‘off games’.

The farrier straightened the unwanted curves out of the shoe and reattached it to Vin’s hoof.

Tomorrow we’ll find out if he’s sound or if he’s damaged himself in the process of removing it (but the farrier didn’t think so).

So no riding tonight after all; I was going to take him for a gallop around some of the fields.

Instead, he’s indoors eating his head off and I’m sitting on one of the new stools, wondering what to cook for a late tea and hoping he’ll be right tomorrow.

B.