Grotty and Wesley may have finished Baggy off today.

Grotty Groom was determined to get Baggy to ride the Boy Wessles today. She hasn't ridden for over a week. She was also keen for Calum to ride Joey, as they've had about three weeks off. Fortunately for Grotty it was a cooler much more overcast day today, so Clever Bird was optimistic that Wesley might not head-shake too much. They headed over at lunchtime, having totally forgotten to eat anything. The Boys were still out, so stage one was to get them in. By the time they were in and groomed and tacked up, the sun had come out, but it was still pleasantly cool. Clever Bird wanted them to stay on the roads, as being on the grass seems to make Wesley's head-shaking worse. They mounted up and Calum headed straight up the hay field. Sigh.

Within ten minutes Baggy's back was burning from Wesley's constant pulling on the reins, as he threw his head about. As Calum turned left onto the lane, that Grotty was expecting him to turn right on, Clever Bird piped up, "Urrrrrm, where are we going?" A long explanation followed, which included going down a very steep hill. A hill much too steep to go down safely on any horse as the tarmac is so slippery, let alone one that's tossing its head about so much, that he'd already tripped over once in the first ten minutes. Calum said, "Actually, maybe we should go up the hill, rather than down it". "Good idea". Phew. They did a 180deg. turn on the single-track lane and headed off again. Baggy was soon in agony. Back burning. Stomach hurting. Neck aching. Fingers dying. Clever Bird was thinking that perhaps Grotty should just head back. But Freda Fretter was worried that this was just an excuse because Baggy was not feeling confident. So when Calum asked whether Baggy wanted to head back, Grotty said "no".

They rode for an hour and a quarter. Wesley got a little agitated when he got hot and whenever they went on any kind of grass he was rather keen to go fast, but fortunately he didn't. They were both very good lads. But by the time they got back Baggy felt quite poorly. Then Calum pointed out that it was nearly 3.30pm and so far today they had had a cup of tea, and nothing else. That would explain why Baggy spent the next ten minutes draped over Wesley's stable door, trying to feel less weird, as Wesley nuzzled her. A cup of tea helped! Horses washed down, then more grooming done, while Grotty waited for Wesley's new neighbour to come in. He's a very large six-year old, who seemed quite keen to say "hi" to Wessles. Cute.

Home now to a healthy salmon supper, but Clever Bird suspects that Baggy will be rather stiff tomorrow, but at least Grotty has done her first long hack out in quite a while........