Two interesting twitches, in birdwatching lingo, today. First, the double gear combo on Felidea of a Norton bit and cross-over noseband. Straps all over the place. It looks pretty severe and indicates a pretty strong pulling horse. The sort of horse that I dismiss straightaway. But it obviously did the job as the horse flew home to win by a whisker.
And I always thought the verb “to hog” meant to avail oneself greedily of all the party pies on offer to the detriment of all other party goers. But it also means to cut a horse’s mane short. There was a nice hogged mane on show today by Fiddle Dee Duddle, which reminded me of images of the Trojan war horse. The horse is a recent arrival in the Hayes stable from Perth, and apparently it is a more common practice over there. Maybe it’s something to do with the heat. The streamlined look didn’t help the horse in the run home and it finished tailed off last. Maybe it had a cold neck.