Wow Its nearly October!! How did that happen???? So much happened in September my head is spinning!!!!! So first we will start with the weather like a good Brit should. It rained. Off course it did! I mean its Britain. It always rains, except for June, July and August. But finally it happened....and has been happening. The temperatures have dropped severely and having got used to the high 20s / 30s we are now freezing at 13c today. But the grass greened very quickly and although its growing again, we are still feeding hay.
The other major happening was Amanda Cowsill came to visit. She brought the rain from oop North. Literally in a glass jar, which we are keeping for the next drought. But she also dragged the clouds with her. And brought a massive insight about Charlie. On day one of her visit, she and her daughter Debbie came together. Debbie and I bombed around on Lu and Daisy, while Amanda got to know Charlie. They got on really well and he connected with her immediately, which is a really big deal, as for many years he wouldn't go near anyone else!!!! Whats more Amanda addressed the problem I was having getting Charlie to sidepass. All while Debbie and I were riding around at random on Lu and Daisy in a homemade 'school' measuring 15 x30. Ish. Next I got on Charlie and we tried to move off. At this point Amanda had an Eureka moment. She sussed out why Charlie is OK with me mounting, but not OK with walking. She noticed he has non existent chest muscles and concluded with the extra weight on, he was frightened of falling over!! Oh how did I not see this?? Its been apparent for a while that me sitting on him was cool, but moving off caused a problem. I put it down to him being unsure as I wasn't in front of him. What with his poor eyesight and all. I never noticed his weak chest. He has great Topline and a big arse and muscled quarters, but thats no excuse to not notice that you could barely get a fag paper between his front legs!!!! I feel terrible. Especially as I have been here before with Harry, my ex stunt horse.
When i bought Harry he was only 5 years old, but had been a stunt horse. He had a reputation for being mean and dangerous. I was sure it was a problem I could fix. But Harry did not have a bad bone in his body. He was so sweet and affectionate. I would go into his stable while he was laying down and sit in the straw with him, and he'd lay his head on my lap. But he could buck for England, big huge 'Get Off' bucks. Or throw himself on the floor when he couldn't dislodge me ( I could ride in those days!!!!). It got worse as he got older and I began to realise it was pain, not a mean temperament. So the investigations began as he deteriorated to the point where he was lame and would pin me to the wall if i tried to rug him. We discovered he had a broken vertebra that was sticking up, and so at 7 years old I had him PTS as there was nothing that could be done and he was in pain.
So imagine how guilty I feel for not seeing that Charlie has a physical problem. Again I thought it was a mental problem. I should have asked myself Why? But there we go. No point beating myself up even more. Amanda has shown me some exercises to build up his chest muscles. We have changed Farrier (not going into that, but they all needed a lot of work) and I have the fantastic Jade Monahan coming on Friday to do the Masterson Technique.
And so back to Amanda's visit. On the Saturday, with Debbie working all weekend I went to Norwich and kidnapped Amanda. Having put her to work poo-picking, I then took her to The Suffolk Punch Trust. Amanda loves Suffolks, and being in Suffolk, we unsurprisingly have the biggest stud just down the road. We watched a demo in the indoor school. Then the heavens opened. It poured. Tropically. No-one could leave the school for at least half an hour! Including the demo horse and groom. Who were at our mercy as we asked a million questions. Did you know its about double cost to shoe a Suffolk!
When we were able to leave I took Amanda to Shingle Street, the weirdest beach ever, because it changes weekly due to the North Shore Drift. Now I knew Amanda doesn't like the sea, whereas I love it and have a hobby/business beachcombing. But she was keen. Yup too keen. We scooped up a few hagstones, some seaglass (not usually found here, but just as I said that, Amanda pointed a piece out - which she possibly planted -) and made our way back to the car, where she tipped her 'finds' into my hands. This included a 'Gold' chocolate coin!!!! Obvs this made me laugh. Even more when I told Mark the Mechanic and Part Time Horse Whisperer that we had found gold on the beach and for half a split second he believed us!!
Amanda's visit went downhill from that moment! We cannot have anyone stay at the house because our crazy Belgian Malinois likes to kill and eat visitors. But we have a camper van. The plan was to stay in the van somewhere nice. But Mark was in the middle of welding it. So lovely Leiston was the destination. Leiston is not that bad, but I warned Amanda if anyone knocked on the door in the night to say she wasn't buying or selling. We went into town and had fish n chips and by about 9pm I was knackered from having dodgy lungs and a dicky ticker and left Amanda to it.
On Sunday things went downhill even further!!!! Yeah so we had breakfast at the Beach and the sun was shining. Great for a beach bum like me, but we already know beaches are not Amandas thing!! Then it was off to work, picking up poo etc. We had a short session with Charlie and then set off to a local nature reserve to check out the wild herd of Konig Ponies. During the Summer they graze Aldeburgh Marshes and are easy to find. But in Winter they are driven further up the coast to Minsmere Bird Reserve. Which is massive!!!!
We walked into the Visitor Centre to be greeted by several long lens cameras!! Yes I thought as we shimmied down the steps. Either they know we are here.....or they are excited over a rare feathered bird instead of The Lesser Spotted Great Northern Explorer !!! They were looking at Finches or something equally common. I inquired as to where the ponies were and we were pointed in a vague direction. We walked about 5 miles (well it felt like that) checking out some bird hides along the way. They were inhabited mostly by Great Bearded Tits getting excited over Ducks!!!! While looking for the ponies we saw an Egret (although I have no idea if its rare here) and a Heron took off over our heads (definitely not rare here). When we reached the gate to the Konigs ten square mile 'paddock', I looked through my phone camera at 30x. I thought I saw something moving in the distance. I also thought I saw a mountain lion (or maybe a Lemur). So we walked alongside their perimeter another mile or so.....and found hay bales. At this point I had walked way too far, and the walk back was slow to crawling. We considered stealing someones off road mobility scooter, but they were still using it. Another thought was Amanda dragging a bench with me laying on it. But in true Brit Grit fashion I put one foot in front of the other and we made it back. I bet Amanda was glad to get back to Norwich!!
So gluttons for punishment, Debbie and Amanda came back on Tuesday. We were after visiting a Tack Shop. But first we went for lunch at a local Riding Centre, which has a great cafe, and you can eat lunch while watching their Camel grazing with the ponies. So we rocked up in the Cafe. We ordered food. "So wheres the Camel?" I asked. "He died" whispered the waitress. Oh No!!!! 2nd Fail!!! Still we found a tack shop via Debbie's highly intelligent talking car. And hopefully we had a laugh.....even if a few things didn't go to plan!!!
So since Amanda has left I have been working on Charlies's chest with excercises and lateral work. Co-incidentally the LHS task on Top Barn Level 3 was turn on the Haunches and Turn On the Forehand. We had a go. Charlie has never been good at Turn on The Haunches and left a leg behind, as well as doing more of a 'Turn on The Belly', but its been a good excercise. In better news we did real good in The International Horse Agility August competitions, getting a First in the On-Line First Level, a 2nd in Liberty and a 2nd and a 4th in The Summer Of Sports competitions. We have been working on the September Competitions.....and Daisy is sound so we have been on a short hack!
October promises to be an exciting month, so tune in next month!
