Ben goes home :-( and Max appears! (Oh, and Lola's STILL off work...)

Today was the sad day that Ben had to return home :-( All is sorted for his owners now so they came to collect him today. He will be missed-he's such a character and i've really enjoyed having him back, albeit briefly but i knew he wasn't here to stay so never mind. As per usual he was a beggar to load (i think it was his way of saying he wanted to stay! :-D ) but he went in the end.

On a more positive note, i've been asked by one of the other horse owners at the yard if i'll ride her youngster for her. He goes by the name of Max and is a 14.3hh, rising 5 year old tri-coloured cob. He did a bit of everything last year after he was backed but has had the winter off so needs bringing back into work and schooling. His owner only brought him a couple of months ago and he's her first horse in many years so she's asked me if i'll ride/school him a bit for her. He's a little bit shy and gets bullied by everyone in the field but he's such a poppet. He's a big, unbalanced lad so finds it hard to work in our indoor at the moment, but the huuuuge outdoor is very nearly finished so can't wait to ride him in there! He hacks out nicely though so we've been exploring the roads for the last week or so, and he loves to jump so we've done a bit of that too. Given some time to get fitter and to lay some scholing foundations down and i think he'll be lovely. I'm desperately hoping his owner will let me do a few little jumping classes or ODE's with him but shhhhhh because i haven't asked her yet! Hehehe

And now for photos....

Lola Update-

Well, she's been back out in the field almost 2 weeks now. Vet came out to re-check last wednesday and thought it needed re-scanning, so came back on thursday. Sadly, these scans show that there has been damage to the bone, and she's developed a sequestrum. Basically, there are little pieces of dead bone that have become infected. These need to be removed or are likely to cause some problem at some time during the future. She's still perfectly sound on it now but it's best they are removed and all the infected rubbish thats left in there is removed too. She's booked in for the op next wednesday and will be back on box rest for another 3 weeks following that. Fingers crossed all goes to plan (we know what Lola's like by now!!)