It All Went Pete Tong and A Tidy Charlie

So the rain has continued......and continued.......and the high winds have continued......and continued.
Last Tuesday it all went Pete Tong!!!  Poor Jo phoned to say her mother had been taken to hospital.  It was my day of mother visiting too, so we decided I would poo pick and Jo would put the hay out when she was finished at the Hospital.  I battled rather quickly through the poo, getting the tractor stuck a few times in the mud.  The look of outrage on the horses faces when I left was priceless.

Anyway......Jo was stuck at the hospital all day.  Not mentioning any names, but this particular hospital is....errrrr.....crap!  So I stopped on the way home to do the hay........in the dark, in the wind, and in the rain.. Fun Fun Fun!!
The tractor doesn't have lights and I didn't have a torch.  So by the light of my phone I loaded up wheelbarrows full of hay.  I got truely mugged by the bigger ponies....Daisy in particular tried to sit on the wheelbarrow, though to be fair, i think she was pushed by the others.  The air was blue!  As well as cold and wet.
I didn't fancy another mugging, so the minis had their hay lobbed over the fence in piles!

Next day they were not happy......As I got Polly out to feed her, the others made there escape and had a fun filled hour running about in 4 acres of grass. We left them to it as we moved their fences back.  Safe to say the following day they had left some hay and were still looking rather stuffed.

Friday.....We got the biggies in for a feed and general tidy up.  Charlie wouldn't eat his, until Lu tried to share it, but as the little bugger weighs 420kgs, I'm not overly concerned.......There's obviously something in it he doesn't like.  He was a bit of an idiot coming in,  pulling and spooking, but redeemed himself by allowing me to trim his very thick feathers and chin.  Hopefully it will actually stop raining and blowing soon so I can bit him.   

Batten down the hatches

Holy hell.  Saturday was one of those days when I wondered whatever had possessed me to take up horses again.
40mph winds accompanied by rain.  Oh, did I mention the temperature, at its best, was about 3 degrees c.

Poo picking was actual torture in those conditions, and putting out hay nearly impossible.  I managed to swallow everything that didn't go in my eyes! Luckily we have feeders in the fields, so once we had wrestled it in, it did at least stay put.  
Then it was upgrading rugs, and fighting the tornado to secure neck covers on the actual ponies necks.  Charlie is still only in a lightweight rug, as he has never worn them before, and has a very thick coat of his own.  Besides which, his flight mode was fully on alert, and there was a lot of snorting and spooking from him. If I had attempted a rug change, I suspect there would have been a naked black and white pony seen charging around all over the County.

We then spent way too long uncoupling all the water pipes and packing the taps with straw. I was almost grateful when it actually snowed at 10pm that night.
Of course they all survived and its warming up again (well up to 6c)

much more peaceful today

The Nuts And Bolts

No I'm not building a carriage.....But the last two weeks have been real "nuts and bolts" of keeping horses.  Rain, followed by more rain (and high winds), have meant its been all work and no play. I for one, am too old now to go out for a fun ride in sideways rain, after 3 hours of poo picking, ragwort clearing and fencing!!
And that is the nuts and bolts of horse owning.....90% care, 10% fun.  Although ours live out, it doesn't mean they don't need looking after.  There is an awful lot of poo to pick up every day. 7 ponies, 10 poos a day each...yup thats 70 piles a day I reckon.  I really must get out more.
Rain aside, it has been mild, so we are taking full advantage of using the grass diet while its still growing a little.  This means moving the fences back a little each day.  Jo usually does the moving while myself and the dogs guard the gap from marauding shetlands.  They are the worst, circling us like sharks!
And with the grass growing the ragwort springs up seemingly overnight. Although the horses eat round it, it really cannot be left.....we do not want yellow fields next summer.
Charlie has been very affectionate, and I am still taking him around the farm for 10 minutes a day.  He has been very good, and we have had no more tantrums. He has also got used to me taking his rug off in field for a little airing, only to replace it 10 minutes later when the next squall heads in.
And on Monday he made my day....A super large red crop sprayer came up the track and startled him.  He made straight for me, which means he sees me as his source of protection and comfort. Smiley face.

Is this my rug mum?

Pony Girl 1 - Charlie 0 A Lesson Learned

So, on Monday Charlie and I had a fight.  I could see it coming.  So far he has accepted rugs, detangler, mane trimming and having his tail dunked in a bucket of water and severely agitated.  But he has been pushing the boundaries a little. 
 This is all to be expected.  First he was taken off his mother too young and was bottle fed. Next he ran partially wild in a small herd of colts and was only gelded this year.  He is very clever and cheeky though, which will make teaching him fun. I certainly do not want to spoil that cheeky, curious nature.  But I need him to see me as his herd leader. Even above Lulu who is the alpha mare.  (I swear she has balls hidden somewhere||).  Check out the video to see how he and the 14 year old Daisy over reacted when Lu was taken out of the field the other day.

Anyway so in the interests of bonding, I have been taking Charlie out of the field and just getting him to follow me and stop when I say etc.  All rewarded with a treat or a face rub when he gets it right.  I am using a Parelli halter, as he is strong and the last thing I want is to let go at the moment.
Its been going ok ish, but he is frightened of the gateway (must have had a shock as its all electric fencing), and has been trying to leg it the moment we get back in the field.
It all came to a head Monday, when he stood right up and pulled back.  I have a long rope so I pushed him out to the end of it and sent him in circles.  For a moment it must have looked like a classic cowboy scenario.  Handler planted while horse paddles in the air, leaning back on the rope. I tried again to have him stand while i removed the halter, but up he went again (no patience!!).  So I drove him out and kept him moving round in circles until he began to show signs of submission.  Lunging should be a doddle now.
Finally he stood still to be let loose. 1 - 0 to me.
Tuesday I let him be as Lulu escaped whilst with were moving the fence back and then looked a little collicky, so Jo took her in for a bit.....hence the vid of him and Daisy having a meltdown.  Its the most Daisy has moved this month!!
Yesterday I had a hospital appointment, 90 miles away, yes the joys of the dodgy lungs and dicky ticker!
So today was test day.  Had Charlie remembered his lesson?  Hell yeah!  He greeted me with a little whicker.....i think he must have read the book that tells horses how to communicate with humans.  It says a whicker is worth a month of bad behaviour!  But he was as good as.  Nice walk round the next field, through the gate with only a whisker of hesitation, and stood like a rock for me to remove his halter.  

When the Herd Leader Leaves The Herd

Run in the Sun

Todays Ponies

So, history lesson over, and on to the ponies in my life today.
The Shetlands:

This is Sweet Pea, who Jo found at Watton Horse sales.  She was starving and covered in lice.  She also had pneumonia, and it was touch and go.....But here she is, as cute as a button.  Unless you want to bath or muzzle her.  Then she becomes the ginger bitch from hell. I've never seen something so small rear so high as this one.

And this is Jasmin.  She has had a much better life, spending most of it with Jo.  She is the most loving pony ever, and daily comes over for a chin scratch and a kiss. 

This beautiful creature is Lulu, a 9 year old Halfinger of very good breeding. And doesn't she know it!  She is very much aware that she is the Queen Bee, the number one. She has been with Jo since she was a yearling, and is the most well mannered, yet playful pony ever.  Her intelligence is quite scary!

Daisy-May.  I adore Daisy. She is sweet and gentle, and so laid back she is almost horizontal.  Except for bath time, or fly spray time, or chin trimming time.  Then she simply uses her size and leaves the vicinity at high speed.
Jo got her a year ago, mostly because she couldn,t bear to leave her in a home where she lived alone, with a terrified owner.
And god only knows what happened to her before that. We know she has had several foals, and has several fears.

This is Bee, a welsh sec A, (and judging by those knees and her high actioned fast trot, maybe part Hackney!!).
Bee has only been with us about 3 weeks and is owned by Roz.  Poor Roz bought her as a non-rideable companion for her Icelandic Pony, but sadly lost him.  We are not sure why she is un-ridable.  Any brave children out there???? Or extremely small adults?

This is Polly....Princess Polly.  She was simply abandoned on the yard, when she became lame.  Jo took her on, and nursed her better.  She went out on loan and was returned when she became lame again.  After months of care, and money and walking around on memory foam pads in her boots, she is sound again and enjoying life.

And finally Charlie....my new boy.  He is 3 years old, and was bottle fed as a baby, then turned away in a herd of other colts, to be, well, horses.
He is very funny, very clever and very cheeky.  He is also quite coltish still and is pushing the boundaries a little when it comes to being handled.
The mares are fairly sorting him out, the poor little sod is always is trouble with one or the other.

The History of Ponygirl

Ok, hello guys.  I am hoping this blog may be of some use to somebody.  It may just be a journal for me to look back on when I,m older and greyer!
Anyway to give you some background information about myself, a life filled with horses compressed into a few words.
I started riding at the age of 3, and until i reached 44, i owned numerous ponies, worked all my best years with horses, in riding centres, driving yards and spent 12 years managing an RDA centre.  
I spent a good deal of time riding for other people, schooling, sorting out problems and competing in showing, dressage, show-jumping, x country, and endurance.
And lets not forget a short dabble with Horseball.

This is Skittles.  I owned her for 10 years.  She taught me so much about competing. She had been there,done that.
We show-jumped, showed and did dressage.  She could be very hormonal but we had a very understanding relationship as long as I did what I was told!
Sadly she was put to sleep after a bout of colic which would just not stop, at the age of 24

This is Harry.  Harry came from a stunt yard.  He was only 5 when I got him, but had already had a chequered career, and several owners. Apparently he was dangerous, but as you can see here, he was actually a real sweetheart and I loved him to bits. 
Eventually I got to the bottom of his bad behaviour, a broken vertebrae in his spine, right under where the saddle (or rider) would sit.  No wonder he bucked for England!! After 2 years, he had deteriorated to the point where i felt it was kinder to have him put to sleep at the tender age of 7.

And this is Paddy, the love of my life. I first got him as 4 year old.  A wild little thing.  A real character!!  Full of intelligence and cheekiness.  We shared 12 years together.  In that time, we attempted showing (but his sense of humour mostly got the better of him). We did better at x-country, show-jumping and endurance though.
Our greatest adventure was driving down to Wiltshire, and riding 120 miles back up the Ridgeway, With my friend Tess and my arab Ryscheyed.  Tess and I wore silly ball dresses....just in case people didn't notice us, and raised £2000 for the Rda. But that's another blog. Seriously check out http://ridgewayromp.blogspot.co.uk/

Then I got ill and struggled to look after Paddy. So he went out on loan to a lovely family in Norfolk, and had 2 fantastic years, before he got a twisted gut. The only time in his life he was ever ill!!!   And how!  He was put to sleep at the age of 18.

Anyway to touch on that illness, without dwelling on it, I have something called Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.  As I put it .....dodgy lungs and a dicky ticker.  At first I was really ill, and thought my life with horses was over.  I felt like my right arm was missing.  The condition isn't curable, but i am better than I was on a cocktail of drugs.
And then......
I met a lady called Jo who has a glut of rescued ponies, and started helping her. And then.......
4 weeks ago I got Charlie from a rescue centre. Very sensibly I have got a 3 year old !!!  As you do at the age of 49 with dodgy lungs and a dicky ticker.
So this blog is about my life with horses Part Two.
Happy reading.....