The End of The Year Blog ( Track Systems, Sandy Soil and 2024)

Well its nearly the end of 2023 (How did that happen?)  Charlie and I have had a great 2023.  He has done really well in Horse Agility, we have progressed to about 8 steps ridden before the panic starts, and I can nearly get the clippers on his legs!! 

What always amazes me (still) is the fact he comes running when I call him, or if he has spotted me in the Playpen (new name for the 'school' as it really isn't), he is waiting at the Gate. It shows how far we have come from the pony that once took 2 weeks to catch!!!!  This is all down to Clicker Training and Trick Training.  This year I joined Connection Training and I have learnt sooooo much about how the horses mind works.  Our relationship has blossomed and its a real 2 way communication now.  Between Horse Tricks 101 Club, The International Horse Agility Club and Connection Training we now have a proper solid relationship and the ability to have actual conversations. I am now exploring the concept of his consent, and giving him a voice that I listen to. More on that next year.

As well as the Horse Agility and slowly slowly ridden work, during the Year, Charlie and I took part in 2 Top Barn Treasure Hunts.  I love a good Treasure Hunt. Its a brilliant concept ......To get out and seek 'treasures' such as Churches, Pubs, Water, Cows.....you get it. Not only was it great fun, we ventured out of our comfort zones in the pursuit of 'treasures' and spent a lot of time hanging out waiting for them to pass by. 

We have just finished our last Agility Competition of the Year. Having won the WO Liberty Silver in November with Charlie, I was raring to start on the final competition of the year.  However Covid struck!  I went to London (yes a Yokel like me, in the Big Smoke).  I went to see the Lionesses play The Netherlands at Wembley.  One sardines in a tin packed Tube Train later and I was struck down. I felt wretched for nearly 10 days. My Horse Landlord is vulnerable so I kept away, only visiting Charlie when the coast was clear. Poor Jo had to shoulder all the work, while I lay in bed watching crap daytime TV.  So I have only had 12 days to pull off a Competition entry, while the weather has raged with rain and wind. We also managed to film a few Xmas Shorts for our You Tube Channel.  Check them out https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLYQBYhWqo_WPVdz9MFkCtA/about.  If that doesn't work just type Charlie The Trick Pony into the search.  I'm crap with links etc.

Meanwhile Daisy, who retired aged 23 last spring, has been hooning around like a spring chicken.  She has EMS, but living on a track system has given her a new lease of life.  She is a great nanny pony, being fairly bombproof, so Jo and I decided she may as well do something. Like helping Charlie get out hacking.  Having done nothing for most of the Year, and never having done any Agility, I brought her in and took her round the OLHA WO Starter Course in November.  I had filmed it, and it looked Ok.  So I registered her with the International Horse Agility Club, and entered.  To my utter surprise, she came 1st. So Daisy has a new career!!  I have since had front shoes put on, ready for the New Year Challenge.

And that Challenge is of course, The Top Barn 2024 Winter Challenge.  I have entered both ponies.  Charlie at Bronze Premium Level and Daisy at Copper Level which is new for this year. My aim is to get them both fit and ready to try Equigility (Ridden Horse Agility).  I also want to Clicker train Daisy, and will be doing a series of videos on YouTube of our progress. 

And so onto that miracle Track System.  Our Winter Field for the larger ponies is 2 acres. We have always strip grazed it, but having used the Track System in the Summer with success, I thought it was worth trying it on the Winter Grazing. Using electric fence posts we have gradually increased the Track around the outside of the paddock, so now it runs all the way round. Then small strips are made into the middle. They are having very small amounts of hay to supplement the grass, and here we are, nearly at the end of the year, with a load of grass left.  They are using the whole track.  I would like to attach some sort of tracker to Charlie, to see how far they are actually moving. 

Now we are lucky to be on sandy soil.  With all the rain we have had so far this Winter, I know a lot of people are having problems with their tracks becoming bogs.  Ours is standing up well.  No one can chose their soil, but here in The Suffolk Sandlings, I have always had my horses on sandy soil. Yes it brings its own problems.  When the grass is cropped the horses pull it up from the roots which can cause sand colic.  We feed pysillium regularly to combat this.  In a dry hot Summer (Oh I wish) the grass turns to dust and we have to feed hay. Ragwort loves sandy soil, so its a constant battle to pull it up. But on the whole I would much rather have sand than mud. 

So it just remains to Wish You All a Happy Xmas.  See you all in2024.  x

Has Anyone seen an Orange Police Car/ Butterfly/ Eddie Stobart Lorry?

 So has anyone actually spotted an Eddie Stobart lorry, maybe with the letter R in its reg, driving past a Mountain? Did you then freeze time, get a quick pic with you and your horse in view?  Or maybe you have been chasing butterflies? If you know, you know.  Yep Top Barn Treasure Hunt Mania has taken over.  Oh its such fun.  

I have read posts of people getting up at Stupid O Clock and getting pics of the Sunrise.  I haven't bothered setting my alarm.....Here in 'Sunny Suffolk' its been raining. Or throwing a Storm.....or showering!  Granted it's warmed up. Now we have 15C rain. 

However, despite the Driveway still being up (we have been driving over the bank of the now destroyed Hill Field to get in), Charlie and I have found our 10 required treasures. 

We are now searching for another 10 (some tongue in cheek).......

If nothing else, I am noticing things when I'm not with Charlie......Oh yes there's an orange car!  A Phone-box, next to a post box, near a derelict building!!  Woohoo!  Oh It's too far to walk!!!! Anyone else having these moments of madness??? 

Of course we still have the 25 miles to clock up.  As I write (Week 2) we have about another....er......20 ish to go!!!!  Hopefully next week we can get out for a few short walks down the lane to find a Pond, a Tunnel (of trees) and a Thatched Roof.

In other news......with all the rain we've had (did I mention it's been raining alot?), the grass is growing like a mushroom on steroids.  So the Laminitics are still in their small-ish bare pen scoffing hay and Simple Systems and are sound and happy.  Coco seems very happy in her own track system.  Lu and Charlie have sussed out their ever growing track system and are getting plenty of exercise charging from new grass, back to their water, hay and mates. I wonder how complicated I can make it?

Charlie won both his classes last month in the International Horse Agility Club competitions, despite my poor attempts at being the new Becks in ball control. So as promised to him, I bought him a new Head collar/Bridle from Horse Leads. Check them out https://www.horseleads.co.uk/unique-designs.

In this months Agility class i needed something for Charlie to put a foot up on.  A long time ago I filled in a Tyre with sand as a Pedestal.  Obvs it's a permanent feature in the 'School' right next to the Scary Corner (basically a dumping ground for bins, wheel barrows, old road signs) which is also permanent (due to the fact that I'm too lazy to move all the flags and other crap).  This month the Pedestal is at the opposite end to the Scary Corner!!  So it was out with the tool belt (well a drill/screwdriver and a saw), to make a Pedestal from an unused jump filler.  I am certainly not a carpenter.....measure nothing, saw and hope for the best! Of course I videoed it!  And put it on YouTube!!! For some reason over 400 people have viewed it!?!?  You too can watch this incredible piece of craftsmanship......https://youtu.be/DGQ2XnwcB4U   PS. Please Subscribe to our channel.....It costs you nothing and you don't even have to watch it...but Charlie would love it if you did https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLYQBYhWqo_WPVdz9MFkCtA/about

Aswell as the Treasure Hunt and The Agility Practice,  Charlie and I have been working our way through Connection Training.  I highly recommend it.  I am learning so much and following the course on Backing to the letter now.  I may have been going too fast as usual!!  So we are working on Short-reining. And I was doing Yoga at 7am this morning! All in the Course!

With all this going on I feel we are neglecting our Trick Training. Which is fun. And the basis of all I do with Charlie.  So I pledge here to dedicate more time to learning a new trick (I have so many in my head).  So next time I promise to have a new trick in the bag.  In the meantime, with the Coronation here in Britain of King Charles 3rd, I had a little fun Coranating (a new word....What actually is the real term?) My Prince Charlie!  https://youtube.com/shorts/ulpAqMkjY8Q?feature=share

See you all chasing Butterflies.......

Top Barn Challenge Is Nearly Done, A False Spring and The Lurgy

 Wow the Top Barn 2023 Winter Challenge is nearly done!!  How many people are still with us?  We are just beginning Week 10. Charlie and I still have our Rollover Week and our Holiday Week in hand.  We have banked 2 hours and 40 minutes. This means we can do a Rollover Week of 2 hours and 20 minutes.  I'm thinking that may be this week.  Then it will leave 5 hours next week, meaning we will finish a week early. We have managed a Rhi's Random each week (including a couple of Ridden, even though Charlie is not Ridden). Unbelievable to think when this ends we will already be 3 months into the 'New Year'. 

The Weather has been pretty kind.  Top Barn Challenges normally herald the beginning of Storms, Torrential Rain, or Beasts From the East bringing 6 foot snow drifts. As it is February has had a False Spring. NO rain (not good for grass growth) and some lovely days of sunshine and double figure temperatures.  I even rode out with no coat and my sleeves rolled up.  Sadly the temperatures have dropped severely and we are expecting snow by the morning.

That ride out........ Meg rode Lulu, I rode Daisy and ponied Charlie off her.  Daisy being the unflappable nanny pony and all. We went down a bridleway that goes through a campsite.  The Campsite is lovely with lots of fishing lakes.  The owner is the opposite to lovely and hates the fact the Bridleway runs through his land. He was soon monitoring us on his Quad Bike. No drama.  We passed through his land and went to look at the Ford which was pretty empty.  From that point its a very long way back via roads, or a turn around.  We turned around.  Nearly back through the campsite when a swan stood up and flapped its wings.  Daisy the Unflappable, had a malfunction and took off, Charlie having no choice but to come along.  Its hard to pull up 2 Cobs at once!  The Swan kept flapping. By now I had Daisy to a steady plunge/buck and Charlie had chilled out.  Lulu in the meantime, slightly ahead hadn't noticed a thing.

For most of the last month I have had some sort of Lurgy. Snotty, coughing, and absolutely exhausted.  Not Covid. I tested twice (due to looking after my elderly Mother).  The cough is still loud and clear, but today for the first time in weeks I have felt energetic.  I even hoovered the gaps between my floorboards.  Heres hoping thats the end of that!!!!

So I couldn't do a Blog without mentioning Horse Agility.  Charlie and I submitted our February classes mid Feb, so had a long wait for the results.  I am pleased to say we scored a 99/100 for WO Silver Liberty earning us a 1st Place, and 96/100 in the WO OLHA Medium Level which got us 2nd place. 

We have also been following Connection Training, which has shown us both how to relax and chill out, instead of rushing from one behaviour to another.  I have jumped up on him a few times, without moving (Obs I had to move, but he didn't) and he has been very calm about it.  Onwards and Upwards to riding!!

See y'all on The Other Side.