Bungee Cords on Gates Plus A Pony With The Mentality Of A Teenage Boy Equals Disaster!

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