Horses For Courses

It's all go here, as usual. Missis had her lesson with Nicky on Saturday morning. Hugo is a very spooky horse and the far side of the arena has trees along the length of it, which he doesn't like. But on the other side we have black wrapped haylage, which the cats sit on, which he also doesn't like. Add the duck pond at the short end, and you can see Missis is having fun and games with her new boy. She lunged him for quite a while before the lesson, and I got my camera so I could film her. You can tell Missis is nervous because she told Seven to go away and Pongo to take his hi-viz jacket off! Even Nicky said she wouldn't be able to do that on the day, but it is a sign of nerves. (I used to be like that with my old mare Penny, which is why I moved to my old yard, as they had an indoor school, so I could work her without distractions).
All was going swimmingly, when, like lightening Hugo shot backwards and Missis was thrown right over the top of him and landed with a crash on the floor. I think her leg may have hit the fence as she was so close to it. She stood up and was clearly in a lot of pain. I don't know why he did it, there was nothing there to spook at. I am not impressed. She did get back on and he tried a stunt in the corner and she told him off. I think if she hadn't have done, he would have got the better of her there and then.
When she went to try him out, the woman who owned him had had a lesson on him that morning. I would have said, "I'll come another day then, when he hasn't done any work," but Missis agreed to go. The only reason I can think of for doing that would be to take the edge of his energy (and therefore stupidity) before a buyer comes to see him.
The other thing that I think is utterly extraordinary is the way the vetting was conducted. Missis paid for a five-stage vetting. This means that as an extra, the horse is ridden to check his heart recovery rate, and a sample of blood is taken and stored in case any issues arise later (up to six months). The vet refused to take a blood sample, saying, "It would cost you six hundred pounds to run the blood tests and three thousand to sue me if anything came of it. I know this yard, and you'll be fine." I'd have got another vet. Surely that's breach of practise or something? Very, very strange. Having just sold Max recently, I would have found it very odd if my vet had done that.
So, as you can imagine, Missis was very apprehensive on Sunday, when she'd decided to hack him out. Pongo and I were going, too, but when Pongo got Lindy in, he immediately noticed one of Lindy's front shoes was missing, so that was that.
So Missis and I set off and Hugo was absolutely fine. He was good on Wednesday as well. Loads of cars went past and a motorbike, and he didn't flinch. So it's only work he doesn't like then. Hmmm. I was utterly thrilled with Barnaby, though, as I'd done exactly the same ride the day before and we'd gone like the clappers. On Sunday we did it nearly all in walk and he wasn't strong or tanky or anything. Thankyou my boy.

We went to the cinema on Saturday night, just Missis and moi, to see 'Knight and Day', the new film with Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise. I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it had exactly what I was hoping for, action, comedy, romance, everything. Cruise and Diaz interact very well together. I would go again and will buy it when it comes out on DVD. I wasn't keen on Tom Cruise in his Top Gun/Days of Thunder era, but he is maturing very well indeed (why do men do that, and women just get old? It's not fair, is it?) Since I've seen Minority Report and The Last Samurai, a truly stupendous film, dear old Tom has gone up in my estimation a great deal. What say you?
I did feel sorry for Missis as she delicately lowered herself into the cinema seat, only to have the cinema rapidly fill up so she had to get up again to let some people come past us. Then, having sat there for an hour and a half, she had to gently prize herself up again so we could leave. I have done that so many times, crawling up the stairs at work to sink gratefully into my chair, knowing that if I needed the loo or a drink, the only place was all the way back down the stairs again.
And so to crafting. I am having a wonderful time, as usual. I have decided to tidy everything up this week, though. I have put lots of my papers into see-through pockets in a clip file so I can flip through without having to rummage. I've put all my stamps, templates and toppers into the same pockets, so I don't lose all the little tiny stamps that are in some of the sets. I've even used my cross stitch storage box to separate my ribbons out individually. It's so much easier to see everything I've got.
I went to the library on Monday and got some more brilliant books out. I'll list them on my sidebar. I am so inspired by them, but I've decided I need a sketch book, as I keep laying awake at night with ideas flowing through my head. If I wasn't married I'd probably come downstairs and start making them, but that wouldn't be fair on Mr O, so I've decided to buy a sketch book (or make one!) so I can draw out my ideas and then actually get some sleep.
I will show you some cards tomorrow, but think this post is quite long enough for today. If you want to share some ideas on how you store your stuff, it would be very interesting.
Enjoy the last rays of summer sunshine everyone.
Mrs O.