If only animals could let you know how they feel.

Grotty Groom has always said that she doesn't like riding Joey; not because he's unpleasant to ride - quite the opposite in fact. Indeed, he's so safe and comfortable to ride, that whenever Grotty rides him and then gets back onto her own Boy, she wonders why on earth she rides Wesley! But having ridden an almost hoof-perfect Wesley on Monday, she got a shock when she rode Joey yesterday. Now let's just backtrack a little here - Wesley was an angel on Monday, but still there was that constant element of wondering if he was about to take off! Even when he's relaxed, his body is alert and ready for flight, which is why Clever Bird has every safety device known to horsey-person-kind attached to his saddle, and on Monday at various points during the ten-minute ride, Baggy had firm hold of the sissy strap attached to the front of it! Even when Grotty walks Wesley down to the indoor school, Baggy is virtually jogging to keep up with him. 

On Tuesday, Baggy was virtually dragging Joey down to the school, he was walking so slowly. He stood and waited while Grotty positioned the mounting block next to him, so that Baggy's arthritic knee had a chance of letting her get on him. As Baggy pushed up in the stirrup, she had so little strength in her leg that she ended up lying over Joey's saddle on her stomach - stuck! She gave it another go, and popped her hip out attempting to sling her leg over the high back of Joey's saddle, then slumped quite heavily onto Joey's back. Bless the boy, he didn't move an inch.

As they set off around the school, Grotty began to seriously appreciate Wesley! Joey is hard work! Bless him, Clever Bird knows that he's tired as the boys are living out 24/7, but he really didn't want to walk around the school; he'd much rather have had a snooze. Baggy's legs were positively pinging after twenty minutes of encouraging the big boy to walk and trot, and Grotty decided to hold that thought when she next rides the Boy Wessles.

Clever Bird decided that that wouldn't be today, as Baggy's body needs a rest, and the weather was miserable. So miserable, that when Furry Mama was on the beach this morning, it felt more like autumn than summer. But the Pooch didn't seem to care.

Baggy was rather cold by the time she got back to Billy Bob Jalopy campervan, and decided to have a little sit in him, before she headed home.

But Freda Fretter is still worried about Pepper, as the truth is he doesn't seem to be quite himself. When they got home, Furry Mama decided to phone the vet to see whether there was any news on Pepper's biopsy results. She finally got a call back from the extremely busy consultant, at 8.15pm. Now unfortunately Hormonal Hannah tends to get involved when there are difficult conversations to be had, and her anxiety makes her stop Baggy from taking everything in! However, she thinks the jist of it was that Pepper has an autoimmune disease of some sort, which is probably caused by environmental, as well as food allergies. Stage one is that in order to get on top of the serious swelling in his stomach in particular, he has to be on a low dose of steroids for at least the next two months, which Furry Mama needs to source tomorrow from her local vet. Furry Mama is to phone the consultant back in two weeks time, for a further review - maybe in that chat, she will remember to ask what the biopsy, and other results actually showed...

Baggy's current state!

Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Blue.

Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 4.
Tears: Urmm.
Overall days: Good.

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No Baggy was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!