Well that's it. Summer is over. The Indian Summer that is. October has been, well HOT here on the East Coast of England. Way up in the 20's. Which has been great for us Humans, but not so great for our Native ponies who have been sweating in their fluffy Native coats. My Dog hasn't been too happy either. A Belgian Malinois with a thick coat (and black to boot), has been laying outside in the dark to cool off. Today she jumped into a stagnant pond, and at this moment is green and smelly. Actually that might not be anything to do with the heat. It was actually bloody freezing today! In comparison. So on Tuesday I had shorts and t-shirt on. Then it rained, it blew a hoolie for 2 days. Still not cold though, but the weather man said we had all of Octobers rain in 48 hours. I actually had to sit and wait for a bunch of bathing pheasants yesterday, who had mistaken a road for a river. Today dawned sunny and calm......and cold. We only got up to 10c. Bit of a shock from 23c!
So my thoughts have been turning to winter boots. I hate having wet and cold feet. When I worked at Poplar Park many moons ago, my boots leaked like the Titantic and I had chilblains. Someone bought me some Hunter Wellies for a Xmas present and from then on my feet were dry.....but still cold. Even woolie Fishermans socks didn't seem to keep the cold out. Now we have much more technical boots. For the last few years I have gone for long 'country' boots. You know the type. Cheaper Dubarrys. Oh yes they look good. Easy to wear in the Pub as well as the Yard. But do they really do the job? Well they do when they are new. My first pair were Harry Halls. On the cheaper end of the market, they were great and remained waterproof for around 4 years. Then the dog (then a puppy Maligator) ate them. My OH replaced them the following Xmas with a more expensive pair. As comfy as an old pair of slippers, they have sprung a leak after 3 years. Last winter I tried water-proofing them. Didn't last. They leak between the upper and the sole. So I just got a snazzy pair of Joules Goucho boots. Oh they are beautiful. But they leaked in the same place. Basically they are more fashion boots and can now be found for sale on Ebay! I started to think of all the years I worked for the RDA and which were the best Winter Boots. Yup they were neoprene Muck Boots. Not as pretty. But they do keep your feet dry and warm. So a pair have been ordered. What are your best Winter Boots and Why?
As you all know, we have a bunch of Native ponies. They live out naked 24/7 all year round. They are tough, cold blooded and designed for the wet, cold, windy British Isles. We like to keep them as close as nature intended for their mental well being. It is quite a task in England where we are land poor. Oh to have 30 acres of natural land so they can graze, move, browse, live in a big herd as nature intended. That's what makes a happy horse. But we rent around 10 acres. We have the 3 Acre Field, the 4 Acre Field and the Hill Field (approx 3 Acres). These are rotated. The Herd is split into 2. We have 3 bigger ponies, a Highland (Daisy), a Haflinger (Lu) and Charlie (Gypsy Cob), plus 2 small ponies, Mini and Coco who are miniature Shetlands. Charlie is the only boy. It would be nice to have them all as one herd. But Lu seems to hate the Minis and Charlie will always follow her lead. We had an incident a while ago when Coco (who really is tiny) got in with them and they nearly killed her. Lu has been Charlies surrogate mum since I first got him aged 3.5yrs old. He never had a Mum, so she resource guards him. While this isn't ideal, it is what it is. Coco was starved when she was rescued and although has put on weight is still only 120kg, whereas Lu and Charlie are both around 440kg. Its just not worth risking her life. So although they are all in the same field, it is split. Daisy (the Highland) mostly lives with Lu and Charlie, but has EMS and prone to Laminitus, so moved in with the Shetlands in the Spring.
So how to make the best of this small space? We have a track System in place. Long narrow corridors that go round the outside of the fields, and do U turns back up on themselves. The corridors are strip grazed so a small amount is opened up daily. When we reach the end, we close that corridor, and open a new one. This system is not only making the grazing last longer, it is also making the horses walk much further for the water. When they move to the 4 Acre Field for the Winter and finally run out of grass, I plan to have different corridors that lead to hay and licks and anything else I can think of to enrich their lives. Horse Tricks Club on Facebook have a special Section this month on this subject.
This system has been working well, and despite the wet summer and the mad grass growth, all the ponies have remained sound. Well actually its only Mini and Daisy we have to worry about regards Laminitus. But they have been sound for months (frantically touching wood here). No I am not touching wood. I believe in the System. Why didn't anyone think of Track Systems years ago? They make sooo much sense!! Wild horses travel at least 20 miles a day, grazing all sorts of stuff (not just lush grass) and all go off miles for water. Funnily enough they do not get Laminitus, long hooves, colic, stomach ulcers. They do not crib bite or weave. They lose weight in Winter and gain in Summer. They do not have some human come and worm them, so presumably their worm count remains low, due to the constant moving around and not grazing ground full of droppings. It just makes sense to me to try and keep our horses in as natural environment as we possibly can.
So the Hill Field where the ponies currently are had not been grazed for a while. We went in, in the summer and uprooted all the flowering Ragwort we could find. We do have a patch of Bracken, but not much and every year it gets eaten without any problem. Ponies that live on sandy heathland seem to eat it as part of their staple diet. Generally horses know whats good for them and what isn't. They spit out the bad stuff. Problems only occur when they are starving and literally have nothing else to eat. Ours will eat right round any Ragwort rosettes which makes them easier to see, however it is a daily job, spotting any baby plants. But last week, having moved a fence back I saw a bush that I didn't like the look of. Two in fact. They were shrubby plants, with white flowers and green berries. The leaves looked very potato like. As we all know potatoes are part of the Nightshade genre of plants, as are tomatoes and tobacco. We all know tomatoes are fine to eat, and potatoes which are actually the bulb of the plant are fine when cooked. We have also all heard of Deadly Nightshade which is a rather pretty plant, also called Bella Donna. In the old days, ladies would take a little as it made the pupils of their eyes bigger, making them prettier. This shrub reminded me of a Nightshade plant, but not one I recognised. So I uprooted them both. Lu came over to inspect what I was stealing from her grazing, and turned her nose up which made me even more sure they were not good plants. Back in the Tackroom, I photographed them and used the Plant-Net app (its brilliant) to identify them as Black Nightshade. Turns out they are poisonous to all mammals, including humans, dogs and horses. Particularly the berries when they are green.
And so we are heading into yet another Winter. Charlie will continue his ridden work as well as Horse Agility. We are looking forward to the next Top Barn Winter Challenge. And we will continue to work on our trick training. I would love someone (Meg) to take on Daisy who has shown she is not ready to retire, racing about in the field like a youngster. Charlie and i could really do with a Winter of hacking out with Daisy as a nanny..........
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