Feeling A Little Blindsided!!!

So i was right about Charlie's eyesight.....And how I wish I wasn't!
For a while i have suspected his eyesight was not all it it should be. For those who have been following this blog, we have had a few problems with the backing process.  I hoped I had just lost my touch, that he was a young lad.
Turns out there's nothing wrong with my instinct (sadly).

The vet came out Monday to give little Dora a tetanus, so I got her to check Charlies eyes. She started with the nearside. When I lead him from the nearside he crowds me. When I try and lunge him anti clockwise, he resists. I don't believe in 'problem' ponies.  Not when they are bright and affectionate. If they obviously love and trust you, but still object to something (obvs not windsurfing or walking through a pit filled with lions), then it is nearly always a physical problem. 

A few years ago I had an ex stunt horse. He bucked for England. He would bite me when I tacked him up.  I had been told by several people he was nuts, dangerous, blah blah. Once he learnt to trust me, I would go in his stable when he was laying down. He never got up. I would sit down and he would put his head on my lap for a cuddle and stroke. I decided there was no way a dangerous horse would behave like this.....so I spent a lot of time and money getting to the bottom of his problem.  Turned out he had broken vertebrae in his back.  Eventually as he grew, he couldn't even bear a rug on, and was very lame. So I had him put down. I was gutted.....But even more gutted it had taken me two years to find the problem.  

So back to Charlie. He is so bright and sweet and funny. And willing to please. I knew deep in my guts it was physical. The near side eye was fine. I started to think I had got it wrong.  BUT.......The vet found a cataract on the offside, right in the centre of the retina. This means he can only see light and dark and shadows on that side.  She thinks he was born with it.

I was slightly puzzled, as I thought it the other eye. But the Vet worked it out. When I lead on the nearside, he can see me but not the world, so he huddles in for protection.  When I lead on the off side, he gives me space, because he knows its me and can see everything else. Same with lunging.  He's happy to have his bad eye towards me, as he knows I have his back. 

We can continue as normal, now I am armed with this knowledge. He must trust me, so we can build on that and hopefully we will get to the point where he is less spooky and trusts me when I am on him, not just in front or beside him.

I am sad that this brave and beautiful pony has this problem at such a young age.....but we can do this together.  I can be his right eye and he can be my lungs.

A New Unicorn, Facebook Friends and Clicker Training

First up a warm welcome to Dora (The Explorer), the newest member of Jo's Unicorn team.  What a sweetie....Dora is about 11.2hh Welsh Sec A with a nice Welsh pedigree and an unpronounceable name! We picked her up Sunday, and she has settled into the small herd nicely. Polly was a bit grumpy, but SweetPea soon made friends.  The big herd were transfixed and managed to look like 3 old witches peering through net curtains!!

I now must give a shout out to a (mostly American) Facebook page.  Not one for joining Facebook groups, however I love this one. Its called "Aging Horsewomen" which suits me nicely.  Some of the riders are truly inspiring. There is heaps of advice and its such a friendly group. With 2000 plus members and an average age of 50 plus, there's not much this group as a whole doesn't know.  It's been a fun learning curve on the language front... I wasn't quite so aware of the language difference before.....and we have been having a laugh about "Fanny Packs" and "Riding on the Buckle"......not to mention "thongs"!!

Speaking of language.....Charlie and I have started a new one. Clicker training. As regular readers of this blog know, as much as I love the little fella, he has been a huge challenge to break.  A lot of the problem is my dodgy lungs and dicky ticker.  Back in the day, I would have hung on for grim death and not cared about flying lessons!!  But this is now, so its a careful slow process is needed.  I am having his eyes checked on Monday....just to make sure.  But in the meantime we are trying Clicker Training.  So far so good.  Immediately he figured that a click means a treat.  Today we moved onto a target......a bit of pillow stuffed on the end of a whip!!!  No problem at all. With his curious nature he couldn't wait to examine it.  In no time, the word "Nose" resulted in him touching the target.  So far so good ! :-)

Dora

Nosy neighbours!!

Click!

Fireworks, Farriers, English Rain and Eye Problems?

BLOODY FIREWORKS!!!!!!  Not only have I spent 3 nights cuddling my terrified Jack Russell, but we had idiots firing rockets over the horses field on Saturday night. New people have moved into a Barn about half a mile away. There never bothered to inform us they were having a firework party. Neither did they think to let them off over the 30 acres or so of sugar beet crops behind their house! No they let them off towards the ponies. We know this because, a) a neighbour phoned to tell us, b) the field was completely cut up with galloping hooves and Sweet Pea is lame, and c) the wrappers off the rockets were all over the field...they can only have landed there when the rocket exploded. Bloody Morons!!!!

And having got a thorough soaking of good English rain on Saturday morning I had hoped it would be too wet for rockets!

Any we had the farrier on Wednesday.  Charlie seemed to remember he had to hold his foot up without pawing so that was all good.  However the day before, the lunging was not so good. He is fine going clockwise, but gets really uptight going the other way. I stopped at a good point and took him for a walk in hand down the lane. I have noticed that he leads better from the off-side, on the near side he crowds me.  I am starting to wonder if he has dodgy sight in his near-side eye. Maybe that would explain the refusal to stand at the mounting block and the flying lessons he has given me when I get on?

Any thoughts would be very very gratefully received. 

Charlies Day 3, CHAOS, and A Royal Visit

Charlies Day Three (Again) ..... Good and Bad.  The Bad first....well it happened first.  I was merely picking his feet out (or trying to!!).  When he wants to he will violently paw his foot out of the way (always the front).  This is sooo not acceptable to the Farrier....Or me as it happens.  A growl from me.  Try again, more pawing, I get louder, while trying to hang on. He rears. His eyes are rolling with amusement.  He gets the look of the devil sometimes.  Luckily Jo was at hand to hold his head, so I could get on with it. What I wouldn't give to be able to cross tie him at times.  Or even a solid tie-up rail would do.  As it is we have to make do with a dodgy gate. 

Anyway the work bit was good.  I used a roller, with side reins attached to the head-collar.  Yes we have been here before....more than once. More lunging...He's getting the hang of it now.  Trot round steadily, come in when asked, change direction. All good. This time I will keep doing this until its all perfect. That was yesterday.

Today there was Chaos with a big fat capital C. We were just taking the rugs off Polly and Daisy when Lulu broke down the connecting fence. So for 5 seconds all six ponies were in the same field. I quickly removed Polly as she is too old to be chased by a randy Charlie. Having given Charlie a good kicking, the Shetlands quickly exited under the tattered fencing.  All 3 smaller ponies converged near the tack room. Having blocked off any exits with our cars we went back up to sort out the tangled wire. By now Daisy had swapped fields, and was waiting for us to rescue her. Somehow we got them to rearrange themselves into the right fields.  Funny how easy it is for them to jump broken fencing when THEY want to, but its soo scary when we ask them to jump back. 

About an hour later, we had finally untangled all the self tangling electric wire and had standing fences and clean fields. Time to retrieve the runaways. Someone (Mini is the prime suspect) had been in the tack room. Scattered feed buckets, upturned chairs, and a overturned tub of Chastebury gave it away. Still at least they all had a bit of exercise.

At the RDA we are going to be a bit busy this month.  Not only are we moving to a new yard, we have Royalty coming to the Grand Opening. We will be putting on a display......which can only mean a lot of hard work.  Watch this space for more details.

Escapologists cause chaos

Quick, this way.