Its safe to say since Charlie turned 5 he has turned into a bit of a rebellious teenage boy! He seems to have realised his strength now and has the odd teenage tantrum, throwing his toys out of the pram and stomping off! He was really arsy about having sunblock on his nose (again).....I mean really? Would he rather have a crispy sore nose? I think not. Unfortunately my horse communication stops rather short of trying to explain that to him.
So yesterday when I went to catch him he legged it. Something he hasn't done since last summer!! Although he gave in quickly, it possibly didn't bode well. Now we have a bungee cord on the gate to tie him to. This has stemmed from him pulling back and breaking hundreds of bits of baler twine. DELIBERATELY I may add. Just because he realised if he leaned back the string would break and it was a bit of a joke to him. So secured to said Bungee, I started to plait his forelock...nothing fancy, just so he could see. He pulled back very hard, the bungee stretched to maximum, and the gate popped open....smacking me from behind with all the force of a freight train, sending me flying! The worst pain was from my calf/shin. It happened to be the one that was smashed up in a previous life and is a little fragile. So for a few minutes I just knelt there, whilst finishing the plait and rubbing my calf, wondering weather it was safe to put any weight on it. Charlie being very concerned and kept nuzzling and nudging me. When that didn't get me up he pawed at me!! I couldn't be cross, but my boy is not too subtle!
We had a rather wild session. He pulled too hard on the lunge, in my hobbling state, so I let him free-school over the jumps, which meant we had another hose down fight as he got hot. Meanwhile in the next field Jo was lunging Daisy, who has just been shod after another bout of Seedy Toe. Feeling rather well in herself she hurtled around with Jo water-skiing behind her.....Setting a fine example from a mature mare to a young lad!
With the Suffolk Show tomorrow Jo got Lu in for another bath, while I had a much calmer session with Charlie. But not before Jo stabbed herself in the leg very deeply with the secateurs! As neither of us are capable of running tomorrow Shona is very kindly stepping into the ring for that part. When she rang to see if we needed help, we told her to stay in bed all day so to avoid injury!!!! But her boys wanted to see the dogs, so we made sure she was very safely away from attacking gates and marauding ponies.
Thankfully Charlie was very chilled today and we had a very reasonable long reining session followed by him standing quietly at the mounting block as I hung over him. He then stood very quietly watching Lu being rinsed with the hose, and enjoying the fuss of some real teenage boys.
So with the lorry packed and ready, I may well be off to bed very soon as we have a 6am start!!!! YAWN.
Full of power!!
Much Calmer
At last summer is here.....Its been Scorchio. So much activity on our behalves.
Baths for one.. Not sure Charlie has ever had a bath, but I was determined to get him clean, and cure the hose pipe fear. So as Jo bathed Lulu with the hose, Charlie had a bucket bath.....No problem (even tipping buckets over him). He was still wary of the hose though. Why???? Who knows. He has been seen to drink from a tub while it is being filled up with the hose. So once he had been bathed i took a small piece of cut off hose and ran it all over him. No reaction. Next step, Get a small trickle coming out of main hose and run it over his already wet body. A small reaction, a rear, a double strike out with front legs, then actually finding it nice.
The following day I worked him loose over some small jumps. He loved it. He even went off when I had walked away and popped them again. As it was Scorchio he was very sweaty so I got the hose running again slightly faster this time. And low and behold much snorting, growling, sighing and rearing. Now I have been taking things very slowly with this boy. I understand his fear, the facts he is a long way behind 4 year olds that have been bathed, trimmed, long-reined and shown since they are 5 months old. But he does push his boundaries sometimes. I know him very well and can tell fear from coltish tantrums. I heard the growly grunty sigh and saw the look in his eye. This was just a tantrum. So this time I held the lead rope close and carried on hosing him regardless. For just a second he stood and admitted it was quite nice on a hot day!
As we are off to the Suffolk Show next week with Lulu, we thought she better have a trip out in the Lorry. Jo had to pick up a parcel from Leiston, so we combined the two. No-where to park a lorry in the high street so we parked in the Co-op car park. Jo went off to the Post Office, and as Lu neighed I went and checked....happily eating hay. Windows in truck open, Dogs hanging out of windows, me in passenger seat. And so a lady came along and said, "Are they ok?" "The dogs?" I said, "yes they are fine". "No", said the lady, "The Horses" "Er yes she is fine", I said. "Well its awfully hot" said the lady huffily, and stalked off. It then occurred to me she must have thought we were doing our weekly shop or something!!
After we had put Lu back after her shopping trip, we left the Lorry open. Walking past it with Charlie on my way to the tack room I let him sniff the ramp while I stood on it. Two seconds later he loaded himself, turned his quarters in and started pulling on the Hay net. On the way back out to the field, he again loaded himself, this time in front of me. I slung the lead rope over his next and said, "whoa boy, we're going this way", whereupon he calmly backed down. What a Star. On the way out we had a few selfies.
Have you ever tried to put a muzzle on a Shetland Pony? Easy right? Well Sweet Pea is something else. Yesterday Jo managed it in about 20 minutes with no lasting injuries. I had put a controller head collar on Sweet Pea...which didn't work anyway. Despite being smaller than a large dog, she is a champion rearer. Up she went. Down went Jo. I just went with the pony in a very helpless manner. After much wrestling Jo got the muzzle on. It was then I realised the headcollar wouldn't come off. Off came the muzzle. Off went Sweet Pea. Oddly I caught her with a lunge-line. More Wrestling. She rears so high she goes over backwards....and doesn't care! Lucky she's not 16.2hh really. Eventually Jo wrangled the muzzle back on. Sadly there are no pictures as it takes 2 pairs of hands to get the job done.
This week I have been working on trust with Charlie. We went out for a "hack" at the weekend, with Meg and her daughter riding, and Jo and the dogs on foot. I spent most of the time leaning on Charlie and steering from a normal riding position. Arm-ache!!
Great news for the Papermill Lane Ponies this week. The council are at last fencing the footpaths, which effectively encloses the ponies so they can come off tether. Its been a long hard fight, and now I need to lay in a dark room for a month!!
