Vet, Teeth and a Crazy Canter

I had a day off work today for the vet to visit.  My work involves me taking minutes of a meeting all day on a Wednesday and I then have the option of working at home on a Thursday to type up my minutes if I wish.  This is really convenient because our vet's free call out day is a Thursday.  This sort of happy coincidence doesn't normally happen to me so I make the most of it!   I gaily booked the vet for Santana's flu jab and while he was there, to look at Sonny's teeth because we concluded she had a wolf tooth coming.

Typically, my meeting was cancelled on Wednesday (doh!) so I had to take a day out of my leave.  As it happened it was a lovely day and I spent most of it at the farm and getting other odd jobs done.

Santana was duly jabbed in his backside, much to his dismay, but he quickly got over it after he'd turned his nose up at the vet's peace offering in the form of a polo mint.

Sonny's turn next and she had a jab in the neck to sedate her so the vet could rummage around in her mouth in relative safety.  He found the offending wolf tooth and made short work of whipping it out.  You wouldn't think such a tiny little thing could cause so many problems.  We will see in a week's time whether it has done the trick.

While Sonny dozed off her sedative in her stable I went for a ride round the farm with a couple of yard mates who happened to be there.  Most of the ride was nice and calm and relaxed, until Friend no.1 suggested we have a canter up sandy hill.  Friend no.2 is a slightly less experienced rider and happened to be in front at the time.  She turned the corner to sandy hill and shot off into the distance in a flash before we'd even got round the corner.  Santana was popping on all fours with his neck arched in an impressive imitation of a prancing arab stallion.  Friend no.1 said she'd be ok if I went so, I slightly eased Santana's reins.  He needed no further encouragement and shot off up the hill after Friend no.2.  Speed I can cope with, it was the fear of him bucking which I didn't like.  Luckily for me it didn't occur to him to buck and started to run out of steam halfway up the hill.  Ah ha! I thought, you're not stopping now just cos you feel like it! and I pushed him on up to the top of the hill.  How exhilarating!