So we are slowly moving the fences out.. For the Fat Grass Munchers at least.
Daisy and the little uns have had less grass, but haynets every night to keep their bellies working. Daisy has also been doing 10 minutes in the Round Pen every morning, before having her EMS-busting Breakfast.
Last week the farrier came, sucked his cheeks in and pronounced them all too fat!!! We had actually noted their lardiness. This is nature at work. In the wild, horses lose weight in the Winter, gain in the Spring, lose a bit in Summer when the grass dries, gain in the Autumn Flush....And Yup the cycle continues! However these are not in the wild, despite living as close to nature as possible, we simply haven't got 20 odd miles of land for them to cover daily. Nor have we got the time to ride that far every day.....Anyone wanna come and help exercise??? Also Charlie and Lil are just starting their ridden careers, and are not being hacked out yet. Dora is just a tad too small for me to hack without feeling guilty....And Mini??? Mmmm I could straddle her and my feet would still touch the ground!!
And so I tried out a theory last Saturday with Daisy and Lil.....Double lunging!! Both together in the round pen, me in the middle with the lunge whip. Would they follow each other? Or would it end in chaos? It Worked!! Yup I have invented Lunging For The Lazy (or time pressed owners). There is NO finesse to this....but it works as an exercise for....er exercise!
I also took Charlie out for a walk with Jo on Lu. I planned to ride him back up the drive again. But... All he was interested in was eating. He got cross when I stopped him and he started nudging me. By the time we got to the end of the drive we were both a bit cross. But I got on. He backed up, I squeezed and clicked, he reared, and backed again. He was bubbling up, so I got off. As there was a roar of motorbikes coming along the road, I didn't want to lose him. When Charlie gets cross, he starts to build it up into a tantrum. When we reached the 4-Acre Jo and Lu turned off to school and I continued to the Round Pen. By this time Charlie was in full Teenage Boy mode, prancing, neighing, pulling, trying to push me into the hedge. As I was untacking him, he took off, racing round the Round Pen, with his reins getting ever closer to his ears. I eventually managed to untack him so he could have a full blown temper tantrum! Lu meanwhile, in earshot, was apparently on her toes, but obedient.
These outbursts are rare these days!
So for our next Lazy Trick.....Haynets out to the field. They are heavy. The Hill field is a fair walk......Mmmmm....Would the horses carry them out for us? We knotted 2 nets together, slung em on and set off. Surprisingly Charlie and Lu were more than happy to carry them!
Yesterday we tried the double lunge with Charlie and Lu, who were brilliant, and carrying the Haynets with Daisy. All Good. I might start a Site for Lazy Owners 😂.
And so to ODD Mares!! Lil is a tart! She flirts with Charlie, teasing and squirting!! But also flirts with Lulu! This has happened before, but this week more so! We have to walk past Lil, while bringing Lu and Charlie out. Instead of aiming at Charlie, she is aiming at Lu. And the Ultimate Ice Queen is responding by squirting back. And Charlie is ignoring it. But while in the field together, Lu has NEVER squirt-flirted with Charlie!! Lu is the Alpha Mare. Does this mean she has more testosterone? Can Lil sense that? Can Charlie sense that? Does anyone know the answer? I will be doing some research into Alpha Mares and their testosterone levels. But... Anyone care to chip in?
Let me clarify that title....I DO NOT mean hard feed. In my humble opinion horses only need hard feed if they are being worked hard. Hard meaning hunting, eventing, racing, pulling a coal wagon!! Or if they are elderly and struggle to keep the weight on. Otherwise grass and enough hay works a treat for most leisure horses. We use mineral blocks, which they all have a lick of when they need. Our two EMS girls have a handful of chaff with Turmeric, Oil, Garlic, Chasteberry and a few other goodies, just to treat their condition. I also like to give a small feed after they have been worked, as a reward. Sometimes its just a handful of carrots, or Chaff, Vitamins and Carrots!! Mostly carrots!!
We also believe 100% in the horses living out in herds 24/7. This is their natural environment. Horses are prey animals, and in the wild they live in large herds for safety, with an Alpha Mare, who makes the decisions and a Stallion for protection. At the first sign of trouble they leg it. In this environment, they are able to act out on their natural instincts, and they are able to form their own hierarchy and feel calm and relaxed. It also helps the oldies if they are able to move around and not get stiff.
And so 3 weeks down the line Molly is a changed horse. She has totally relaxed with her little herd. They have 3 acres to run around in and seem to be finding enough grass to keep them happy. A minor miracle after that Summer, when all the grass burnt off. We thought it would never recover! On top of that we give them more than enough hay. More than enough means there is hay left in the morning. With the knowledge the hay is not going to run out, Molly has totally relaxed and is happy to share the Hay Feeder with the others. We also put out a few nets, low down in the trees and a little on the ground so everyone can find a peaceful space to munch in.
On Sunday Ellie came up with most of her children and some others to boot. Molly was extremely interested in what was going on and un-phased with the twins (who are not quite 2 years old) hugging her legs. Lil was happy to be sat on, while Mini took exception to a twin lying on her back kicking his little wellington booted feet on her backside, and started to buck. Luckily she is well behaved when actually tacked up. Guess she feels apart from that her time is her own. Mini has very strong opinions on what she is expected to do!
Meanwhile over at Holiday Heaven, the other 3 have taken the meaning roughed off to the extreme. Covered in mud they now actually look like pigs in shit! They really wouldn't care if they never saw us again....apart from moving the fence back so they can continue to stuff their faces!
Huge thanks to Clare, Ty, Shaneece, and Meg for helping out xx
Its all been a bit 'basic care' just lately. I am starting a drug trial for the dicky ticker and dodgy lungs so am up and down to Papworth.....the rest just has to be fitted in.
But last weekend, Jo and I managed to get to tack carboot, where Jo bought a couple of feed balls. Great fun. We tried Lu and Charlie first. They picked it up straight away, and it was funny watching their techniques. Charlie took to pawing at the ball, and kicking it.....typical boy. Lu tried to pick it up with her teeth. The Shetlands just got violent.
On Wednesday we had a strange occurrence over Suffolk. Two jet fighters were sent to escort a commercial flight to Stanstead. The sonic boom was heard all over Suffolk. The talk of many small towns! It must have disturbed our sleeping ponies. Lu ripped a shoe off.... It was twisted beyond belief and can only have been pulled off violently by sudden movement and being trod on by another foot. The farrier (Vince Buckman) came out the same day and said it was the 3rd customer that day with the same twisted shoe. I guess we should bill the RAF
Today we had Chanice Who Helps On Saturdays. As it was windy (yet another tail end of an american hurricane) I decided to get Chanice and Daisy to join-up. Now there has been a bit of talk on Face-Ache about Join-Up being out-dated and stressful to the horse. Well its certainly not as stressful as the old methods used to break horses. Back in the day (for centuries) the horse was tied to a stake without water for 24 hours. The next step was to tie up one hind leg to the horses belly and bring it to the ground. With the poor horse tired and frightened it would accept the tack. Someone would then mount, while the horse was roped from all directions, and hang on if it dared buck. If the horse was a wild one, it would be beaten into submission.
Then along came Monty Roberts. He studied Mustangs in the wild and learned the language of the horse. In the wild there is an alpha mare. If a youngster gets out of line she will send it out of the herd with aggressive body language until the youngster submits (lowering of head, licking, chewing). The mare will then turn her back, allowing the youngster back into the safety of the herd, and he will follow her as leader. Horses have a strict herd hierarchy. The Alpha Horse (always a Mare) is the one that moves the other horses feet.
Monty Roberts tried this out in training horses. It worked. It always works. It is the way horses think. The whole premise of riding horses is pressure and release. Simply asking a horse to walk on? You apply pressure with your legs until the horse walks on, then you sit quietly. Monty Roberts has changed the way people 'break, start, gentle' horses. At the end of the day (and the beginning) we need our horses to respect us. For that to happen, they have to accept we are the Alpha. We have the brains, they have the brawn. The horse has to trust us to think things through, and follow without question. After all, their instinct is to flee from danger. We are the ones who can risk assess any danger. They have to accept we know what we are doing. Nuff said.
