What's up, pussycat?

I'm still riding Lance, lightly and not every day, trying to keep him in some condition and assess what is going on.

Rick watched Lance walk and remarked that Lance's cat-like front foot placement that concerned Suzan is the way he has walked the entire time Rick has known him. My wonderful farrier, whom I called right after my lesson/session with Suzan, came over the following Monday night and trimmed up Lance's front feet. There really wasn't much to trim, except to pare out some of his thick sole and trim his frogs. Lance had signs of bruising at the base of his right frog, but neither it nor any parts of either hoof was sensitive to the hoof testers – and Troy really torqued on them.

Suzan took my Black Country saddle with her last week in case it works for any of her clients. This week I shipped my Marvel saddle back to its maker, Mike Corcoran, who thinks he can sell it for me. He has a used Marvel in a wide tree that might work for Lance; if so, we can do a full or partial trade. In the meantime, I'm using the old Wintec with a Cashel lift back pad to keep the narrow part of that saddle up off Lance's back.

Because of weather and a houseguest Lance has been cooped up a few days, so this afternoon I turned him out in the arena to play. I had to shush him to get him to move around, though; the "green stuff" was just too tempting.

Tomorrow I think I'm getting my wish for Mother's Day – a family ride on the beach. Cross your fingers for me and look for photos on Monday!