In a quest to get more traffic to my site I am on the prowl for reciprocal links from like websites.

Berkshire County Riding Club have obliged, so I'd like to say a quick thank you to Mike Scholl for putting that in place, and if you are looking for a competition to go to in the berks/wilts/hants area you should check them out they are a cracking little club.

I don't know if this is something that just tb's suffer from but as soon as winter starts to bite Soap's feet fall apart! This year I am trying a multi pronged attack to keep his shoes on and feet growing. On the advice of my farrier I have started using 'Hoof Heal 5-in-1' it's a little tricky to find but Frogpool Manor had some in stock. To fight the foot rot from within I have put him on biotin, and a general vitamin supplement. On top of all this he is dressed up every day in a full set of overreach boots! He does look like some sort of shirex in the field with huge feet at the ends of these sticky legs but (touch wood) this seems to be working :)

tb's more trouble then they are worth?....

After last weekend's success I decided to enter Soap into two more prelims at Sparsholt. Again practising was tricky as the clocks have now changed, and the weather has been horrid. On wednesday night my instructor came and clipped him for me so at least he would be looking good even if we didn't manage to come up with the goods!

Prelim 7 was our first test and he warmed up nicely, stretching through his neck and accross his back. For some reason at home we don't always get a very nice canter but out he always seems to produce a better quality pace. He did a nice, attentive, accurate test so I was pleased, and looking forward to doing Prelim 10 next. Sometimes with Soap it seems that he will give you some lovely work up to a point, then he gets bored, and can't be bothered any more. I tried to push him through this and he did improve but the increased leg made him tense, and as a result our second test I felt wasn't that great.

It seems I am an appauling judge of our performance as we won our first class and came 6th in our 2nd, gaining out best score yet of 67.7% edging ever closer to that elusive 70%!

Needless to say he got lots of carrots an hugs from a very chuffed rider. Our next tests are lined up for the end of the month so in the meantime we have to work on the stretch in our free reign walk, going more forwards in the trot, and establishing our canter further...