There was a sharp frost last night so whilst we were waiting for the ground to thaw a bit Leon and Laverty (the grey) did some flat work in the menage.

Leon is getting so much better over the poles, where to begin with he used to almost fall over, and Laverty was a complete natural.

Esme, who is just with us during half term, rode him as she only weighs six stone so there was very little weight on his back. The saddle, which was lent to us by one of his owners, Stephen, who is also a saddler, fitted him really well, which is great as we thought we may not be able to ride him with the bump on his back. he also went for a trotting hack with Leon, Aitch, Dove, Doris and Red, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Charlie Poste and Olly Murphy came to give Harry and Frog a proper piece of work up the gallop - we had already booked them for a racehorse gallop at Towcester but we didn't get in as they are reducing the numbers of horses allowed to gallop there after racing, so we thought we would use them anyway. Both went really well, but particularly Frog who is somewhat less portly than Harry at the moment and seems the fitter of the two. Charlie thought that she is about two weeks away from running, so we will look for a race for her then.