Yes we have had Summer. After the freezing and long Winter, it suddenly got up to 25c. We vowed not to say "Its Too Hot", and merrily got sunburn as we revealed white/blue legs and shoulders. Sadly we scared the sun away and its back to 5c and raining for England! Not to mention those north easterly winds we had missed (NOT) so much. Oh hum....we gave in today and put the horses back in macs. I am actually wearing my winter coat again as well, AND moaning about how cold it is!!
BUT there are still shows to prepare for, and ponies to work. So despite the cold we have been working the ponies. Daisy, who was tripping over her feet, has had her toes shortened, and is slightly lame, so has had (more) time off. Charlie and Dora are being Worked mostly. I,m having doubts about the clicker training. Although I used it to great success in the heat, managing to get Charlie to accept a hose pipe with running water, over his chest and back, he has taken to nudging me in the belly for treats, even (or especially) when we are not clicker training. The boy is sharp....and has the attention span of a gnat.
He has also moved into the mouthing stage, wanting to hold everything in his mouth. He has realised his strength and is trying to use it. So clicker training is going on hold, while we go back to old fashioned discipline. There are so many horse trainers out there at the moment, with different methods its too easy to get caught up in something and get confused. If I am confused the horse is going to be even more confused, so at the moment I am closing my ears to 100 different methods, and going with my instinct and experience.
Dora the Explorer.....What a sweetie. Thinking she had retired, she has had a shock in the last month. I have been lunging her and taking her out in hand...I am just too heavy to ride her...although its tempting!! She is fine with small children on the lead rein....Ellie had a few kids on her yesterday and she was as good as gold. Luckily we have Ellies daughter Georgie, who is a very accomplished rider, to sort her out as she is a bit different when being ridden properly. A bit of a madam! Thats the pony, not the rider! The feisty temperament comes out when asked to actually do some actual work!! (Hands up....Who put too much Arab into Welsh ponies??) Still she has met her match in Georgie!
I'll just hold the hoof pick for you.
Or Pollys leadrope.
Why isn't this rearing thing working??
Yep I am defeated by Winter! My New Year goals swept away by COLD, RAIN, WIND......Cold windy rain in fact. This has got to be one of the most dismal Januarys for several years! Its normally cold and bright.....or wet and windy. But this year has been grey, cold, wet and windy! High winds, with rain bordering on sleet. I hate to admit it but the cold wind affects my dodgy lungs and dicky ticker and by the time we have finished the chores, I am ready to go home to huddle under a duvet and sleep. I can only be grateful for the fact we are on sandy soil which means we are light on mud.
Despite that Lulu has lost a shoe.....probably during Storm David, which brought down our power, our outside fences, a few more tiles off the Barn and a large pine branch which took out our top fencing. We have hunted high and low. I mean how hard can it be to find a shoe in a field with practically no grass and no mud? Impossible it seems. Farrier due tomorrow. No doubt the shoe will turn up just after he has left!
Today was the first dry, sunny, calm day this month. I planned to take Daisy out. Rugs off all for a while, spring in the air......SweetPea horribly lame on her near hind. Jo called the vet, and we set about making a small turn-out pen for her and Mini between Barn and tack-room. Vet thinks she has probably pulled ligaments of stifle and gave her a shot of Matacam (Yes Dog painkiller) ....eventually.....after we twitched her. Yes this is SweetPea...Not a lover of injections! Dora had her Tetanus top up while he was there and by this time I had used up all my energy, so riding postponed till next month!!
What with more rain forecast, and a four day stay in Hotel Papworth looming, I officially give up till February!
This is what Dora thinks of Winter.
Wow, after that amazing royal visit, life is back to normal....whatever that means!! Basically it means its been cold, windy and hard work. Roll on summer!!
I have outlined some New Year Goals...which includes riding Charlie, riding at least 4 hours a weeks (pathetic considering I used to ride 4 hours a day!), and err getting the ponies driving!!! Its a bit of a dream to drive the Shetlands....
So far I am failing.....Its been too bloody cold to ride! At my age! By the time we have hayed, watered and poo-picked, we are frozen. But we are trying to work Dora regularly. She needs to lose several pounds....and learn some manners. So far in the pen she has behaved impeccably. And she has a jump on her!
And I have ridden Daisy.......Epic ride. And part two of the Bridleway Fight.. Some of you may recall, Jo and got into trouble a few months back for setting a foot or two on land belonging to a local campsite owner....he chased us over a mile and scared Daisy, after having a shout at us! Jo then contacted the council, as the Bridleway goes through his land, via a gate which is impossible to open on horseback. Apparently the Campsite owner, widened the gap to 2m beside the gate. So I went to check on Daisy at the weekend.
Not having seen my hat for a while now i was bare-headed. Nothing odd there then. Except when I got to the gate. I must point out, at this point its a narrow tree-lined path with lots of over-hanging branches. Daisy stood while I tried and failed to undo the gate. There is not room to turn the horse sideways on, and its not a horse friendly latch. There was no way she would fit through the gate, so I turned back.......reins loose and in one hand as usual.
Daisy took off like a racehorse from the start! Which surprised me.
As the track goes through a very nice mans garden, I frantically gathered my reins as I didn't want to gallop past his cottage flat out! No use pulling so I turned her into the trees, which stopped her. Thoroughly over excited, she reared and plunged several times, while i ducked branches. First time i have ever wished I had my hat on!!!! I managed to calm her enough to walk through the garden, then made her trot home.
So Jo and i went down on the tractor yesterday with a surveyors pole and took lots of pictures of the gap which is less than a metre. Bridleway War? Bring it on!!
Daisy Trotting out.
Jo with Dora ...Who can jump.
That is the question. Its starting to get chilly. Everywhere I drive I see horses rugged up. We are starting to rug ourselves.....socks, boots, maybe a jacket. Its tempting to start rugging our horses. BUT remember we don't have waterproof fur! Horses are actually comfortable at between 7c and 14c. Naked.
At 7c we probably have a thick jacket, so think our horses are cold. But just remember if they are not clipped they have a thick coat which is like us wearing a jacket. Of course if your horse is clipped, it needs a rug. Also elderly horses need help to keep the heat in. We have two ponies with EMS (Equine Metabolic Syndrome), and they are rugged earlier. EMS messes with the metabolism, so they cannot regulate their temperature so well. The others are two Shetlands (who are never rugged), a Haflinger, and a Gypsy Cob. The bigger ponies do have lightweight rugs on wet and windy days, mostly because Jo and I are soft, but also because we are on an exposed hill. Well thats our excuse to ourselves, and we are sticking to it! But they do not need thick rugs....they have their own natural filling...FUR.
We have noticed that snow (When it actually happens) does not melt off the Shetlands backs.....which shows how well insulated they are. Also when it rains, they do not hide under the trees, they carry on eating in the middle of the field. They may look hunched up, but it is the horses way of keeping their vitals warm. Look carefully and you will see the hair standing up on end....this is all part of natures way of keeping them warm. The best way to help your horse keep warm is to feed plenty of hay. Keep the hind gut working and this will keep the horse warm. Think about where your horses breed comes from...
Shetlands? I have been to Shetland....Its a cold, bare, treeless peat covered land. (No offense meant to Shetland). Haflingers? They live in snow covered mountains. Any British Native either comes from moorland or hill country.
If you are worried, feel the base of the horses ears or its chest. This is a good indication of temperature. Of course if the poor thing is huddled up not grazing and shaking like a whippet, then by all means rug it. Just don't overdo it. Remember how uncomfortable it is to be hot and not be able to shed a layer.
And I just have to say.......Stabled horses. Warm and cozy? Ever spent a cold night in a stable? Not at all warm and cozy.... Of course it is better for the horse to be outside, grazing, moving, able to run. But if your horse has to be stabled at night.....Nice thick bed and rugs please. They cannot move around to get warm.
Since the snow that never happened it has been COLD. Yes thats COLD in capitals. The water pipes completely froze, leaving us lugging water containers from the Tack Room. And just when we need the tractor and trailer....the wheel fell off the trailer! One minute I was trundling along....next minute I wasn't.
Course the trailer was full off poo. Try as we might we couldn't lift or remove the trailer so we had to shovel the poo out where it was. Turns out the split pin had jumped off the wheel. Yes, you couldn't make it up. Using the metal detector the next day failed to find it. Scrabbling around in the poo we had dumped (Phnaff Phnaff) did. So no harm done, except we had a pile of poo to shovel up and then off load at the muck heap, making it 4 times we had handled it.
Having been coveting a western saddle kit for Charlie for months, I finally got it. Very cheap, but it came as, saddle,bridle,cinches, and blanket. Today was the day to try it on him. To be fair he has been very hormonal the last few days, trying to mount Daisy at every opportunity. So he needed a distraction. A bit full on after months chilling in the fields and growing. He took it all in his stride, despite Mummy not knowing how to cinch it up properly, and the rain pouring down. Once in the "Arena", he had forgotten lunging basics, preferring to come in to me. So I let him loose and picked up a whip. Sending him away sent him into a temper tantrum......bucking, squealing, generally being a boy! Eventually he settled and worked a little. Time to start regular work methinks.
So its been pretty cold lately......scooping ice off the water cold. But the sun has been out, somewhat warming us up. Xmas Day we gave everyone a xmas feed. Boxing Day we moved the big ponies into the 4-Acre field....Our Winter grazing. The 3 smaller ponies are grazing off the whole of the Hill Field plus having a lot of Hay.
We wanted to go for a xmas day ride........but Jo and I are The Toxic Twins. Jo has a chest infection and is swigging anti-biotics followed by a Steroid Chaser, and I have my annual Xmas Cold. Full of snot and as weak as a new-born.
So just the basic care is enough at the moment. Normal people would be in bed.
But we are not normal.....we have horses. They need looking after, no matter what. As I always say 'Fresh Air never killed anyone'......except maybe Scott of The Antarctic.....and errr people dying of exposure, hypothermia....Ok pass me a spade!
And so today we had freezing fog. The first time i have felt really cold. Numb fingers an all. Checking the weather app (rather than going by feel), it said -3.
We upgraded Pollys rug, being old and somewhat bad-tempered with the Shetlands. Armed with thicker rugs for the big ponies we found the more sheltered 4-Acre field much warmer. The ponies all felt warm enough in just lightweight macs, so we left them happily munching on the still longish grass and went home to spend the afternoon on our respective sofas, swaddled in blankets and dogs.
Those Bloody Dove Pigeons!!! It didn't take long for them to not be scared of the tin foil. To say I was cross is an understatement!!! Jo heard the roar of anger from the fields....... So I found a roll of orange road workers stuff.....And the netting off the hay bales. More wobbling on a hay feeder, and very determined stretching, yards of baler twine and an hour later.....And the buggers can not get in now. Nor can we without un-tying all the baler twine and tying it back. We had the Farrier the other day, and he laughed his head off....he said it felt like entering a Moroccan Hareem Den ??????????? At least the horses were ok with it.
And so we have had the first frosts. Although the water pipes were frozen, and the Water Butts too, it was nice in a way.. At least the sun was out. Bizarrely its now back to grey cloud and double figures....So its rugs off again. Horses are designed to deal with the cold. Their coat hairs move to deflect the rain/cold and keep them warm. So i would rather they were a little cold, than sweating under rugs. We put the first lot of hay out when it got below zero, but they have so much old grass they are not overly interested.
At the RDA I drove Fern last week......first time driving in 8 years. I had forgotten how to hold the reins! Luckily she looked after me, and was so good we practised lowering the wheelchair ramp for the first time. Hopefully my riders and helpers are having fun lessons. Today we went out searching for hidden letters to Santa....and popped them all in the post box. They are all starting to get used to my over-active imagination!!
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| ice from water |
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| new dove pigeon trap |
Its been a hectic couple of weeks.....Whats new? Well its got as cold as a witches tit. Well the Easterly winds have made it feel that way...Winter is here.
Unbelievably Daisy got a tick. You'd think it was too cold, but no the tick was there as large as life on her chest. In the old days, on a yard I used to work, the owner would burn them with a lit cigarette. We didn't dare, in case we burnt Daisy as well. So we tried to kill it with Witch Hazel, and smother it with Vaseline, having failed to find a tick puller. After a few days we thought it wasn't working.....the lump was quite pussey and hard and the tick was still there. So using animal-lintex and a lot of heavy duty electrical tape, we strapped a poultice to her chest. Amazingly it worked! Tick dead and gone. Woohoo.
In the meantime, I have got fed up with the Dove-Pigeons that live in the barn. In the summer a Buzzard got most of them, but they have gradually drifted back. So we installed a Dove Baffler, made of pie tins and bottles on baler twine hung up on the entrance rafter. This entailed me wobbling about on an upside down hay feeder....But it seems to have worked!
I am thoroughly enjoying my Friday Rda sessions. Its like I have never been away.....and as a bonus I take my last client out on a short hack, either riding Fern (a Dales mare), or Tilly, a little black and white gypsy cob, who I adore.
Dove Baffler
Daisys' Tick
Riding Fern
