An Indian Summer, Ponying, The !00 Mile Challenge Update, and Top Barn Handy Pony Comp

 Yup its The Weather Channel here. We were promised storms!  They didn't get any nearer than 20 miles away.  Still we were promised a day of rain. We got a little light rain.  Just enough to lay the dust for an hour. Jo and I had already moved the Minis into the Hill Field, but were waiting for the rain before we fenced it into 2 paddocks. As it never came, we bit the bullet and spent 4 hours (YES 4 HOURS) hammering the fence posts into a concrete ground. But now the Herd is reunited in the same field, making life easier for us.  We can enjoy the Indian Summer.  Its back to shorts! 

I was able to film Charlies Liberty Class in the abandoned 4 Acre Field with no problem. Mostly dust now, there wasn't much point in him trying to find a blade of grass to munch on. He was a very good boy apart from the Lunging/Circling. He just does not like to be that far away from me!

And so onto those 100 miles!!!!!! 😁.   MMMMmmm. We have been plodding on. Last week I tried ponying Charlie off Daisy. Considering I haven't ridden since the end of April (due to the Dodgy Lungs and Dicky Ticker, and the subsequent fitting of Paddy Pump, who delivers IV drugs straight into my heart), coupled with Daisy not having been ridden for about 6 weeks, it might have been a bit risky.  But it all turned out ok.  I covered Paddy Pump in a childs water arm-band thingy (Megs Brainwave) and went for it. We went out with Jo on Lu, and Meg with Nancy on Mini.  Daisy spent 5 minutes jogging and humping her back, kicking out at Charlie, then settled down to merely biting him, when we stopped to wait for Mini. All in all No Drama, and best of all I felt completely at home.....I did wonder if Paddy Pump would cause some apprehension, but i forgot about him! This week Charlie and I have been limping around (Well I have been limping, not Charlie).  We went for a wander down the lane with Jo and Joey on Lu and Daisy, in Long Reins and he was brilliant.  I dragged a stick home with us, making as much noise as possible. Apart from an initial mini freak out he settled to the noise.  Then we made THAT video.  We did an appeal for donation of miles!!!! OOps my twisted sense of humour!  The Top Barn Hub responded with offers of donated miles and even an offer of a rosette.  I am truly humbled at the response!!! I love you all.  But it was a joke.  I would never take anything I hadn't earned, but what an amazing group of people. I have a habit of ripping the piss out of everything, mostly myself!!! I will continue to clock up the miles and hope to finish by Xmas....like those people that finish the London Marathon days after everyone else.  The further I walk with Charlie the more trusting he has become, and we have ventured out of his comfort zone alone twice this week. Only another 80ish miles to go!!!   By the way (quick plug here), back in the day, my friend Tess and I took my two ponies down to Wiltshire and rode the Ridgeway. Dressed in Balldresses. To raise money for the RDA.. We did 120miles in 6 days. There is a book available on Amazon Kindle called .....'The Ridgeway Romp' Plug Plug Plug....Shameless Plugging!!!!😊.

And now my mind is on the latest Top Barn Comp. The Handy Pony Competition. Yay!  Despite being, er, er, 55, I am still that Gymkhana Kid at heart, so have entered already.  My mind is on creating another obstacle course. My tool belt is out, and tonight I painted a jump filler as a wall. I'm so excited. Stay tuned x

Top Barn Challenge - Week 2 and 3

 Well our Top Barn Challenge is going great guns (touch wood), (Well touch anything wood like, Formica, plastic that looks like wood, chipboard, that horrible wood chip wall paper!!).

After having 2 weeks of Fence related incidents, we though 'What the Hell, lets start Week 3 with a little bit of Fencing'. We wanted to move the ponies over to the other side of the 4 Acre.  Apart from Lu getting impatient with the slowness of the move, and going under and through the fence midway through the moving, there was no drama.  Does that count as going under something??

In week Two while I was busy getting Charlie to drag a branch whilst in harness (which he had only worn once before), Lu ejected Jo with some force, while freaking out over a swinging Barn Door. Jo hung on to Lu, and cut her finger quite badly in the process. I don't do human blood, but managed to hand her a plaster. Nurse Ratchet at your service!!!!  Not to be put off by such things, Jo was up on Lu the next day.  This is the power of THE CHALLENGE!

Charlie and I practiced Long Reining in tack, Clicker Training with the Clippers and a solo walk out in hand down the lane.  We met a dog . In a Fluorescent Jacket. With a very nice owner. Despite being VERY used to dogs, this one was obviously different. A DIFFERENT dog in a DIFFERENT place. Out of Comfort Zone. Charlie became 15hh and managed Airs Above The Ground. 

In Week 3 we had very high winds (45mph). Storm Christophe or something. Jo went off riding Lu.  This is something she would never have done before Top Barn 2020!! The effect has rolled over into 2021!!  With Lu gone, Charlie was being a dick, so we had some fun in the Wind, in our 'so called School'. I kind of love the wind (even though it takes my breath away, which is not helpful with Dodgy Lungs).  The child in me wants to play, run wild.  The Child in Charlie wants the same thing. So we ran (well he did, I puffed like the Flying Scotsman), we (he) pinged over jumps.  I was trying to get a nice liberty jump over cross poles to tick off a Mini Challenge, but the Patchy Twat kept jumping Wing. Note to self....Make X pole higher!!!! Still we danced in the Wind together and had FUN!!

On Friday, both Jo and I opted for some Pamper Time.  Lulu LOVES being pampered. Charlie HATES it. He also HATES being tied and pulls back. He has broken more string than I have had hot dinners. And I'm 54, so I've had quite a few hot dinners! Anyway I cross-tied him.  It almost worked.  He only broke one piece of string. But I managed to comb out his mane, tail and feathers, and apply the dreaded Mite Powder. He almost looks cared for!!!  While we were in the Barn, I backed him into a stable, and got the clippers on his withers while he was eating. A major achievement as he normally leaves the county as soon as the Clippers are turned on!

Saturday.....I just casually tacked him up....yeah....and casually half mounted.

Yesterday (Sunday) was really cold. I went off for a walk with Charlie.  Got as far as The 3 Acre Field, and decided to try and write some rude words using the Equilab App. Small things etc!!!!!  Twat and Tit went wrong ( I must work on my T's), but my greatest achievement of the week was.....POO.

See You all in a couple of weeks, when our Mid Challenge Challenge will be revealed.

Top Barn Challenge - Week One and Coco's Results

 OK so lets start with little Coco. When her bloods came back from her initial Cushings test her ACTH levels were around 135.  I have no expertise in Vet Blood Tests!  But 135 is high.  Normal ponies have ACTH levels of around 13.  Please don't ask what ACTH is!!!!!  Something to do with Cortisol, Insulin levels! What we do know is that Cushings is similar to diabetes in humans and the ability to process sugar levels in the normal way.  So Coco has been on Pracsend (a Cushings Drug) for 5 weeks.  She has also had homeopathic and herbal treatment (but please don't tell the Vet). In that 5 weeks her improvement has been outstanding.  Her ACTH levels have dropped to around 30.  The Vet was gobsmacked!!  Pracsend doesn't normally work miracles that quickly. She is slowly gaining muscle.....and better still for us.....she has become a cheeky madam!!  We let her graze free range for a couple of hours daily. She is now cantering away when we try to catch her to put her back with the others. That might not be a Win for some people. But for us, it shows her personality coming out, and her energy levels and zest for life!!

And so the long awaited Top Barn Challenge is GO GO GO. We all started Day 1 with great enthusiasm, despite the rain.  Jo chose to tidy Lu up, while I did some Treat Manners with Charlie.  Meg went big with Daisy and took her off to what we call "The School".  A roped off area measuring nothing like a school!!!!  Daisy was having a frilly moment.  Meg took Jo off to see what she was doing. After some time had passed I realised I could hear a commotion. Charlie and Lu were upset (in fact Lu was rearing up against the Barn sides).  So I turned them both out to find Daisy had run through the Stock Fence at the bottom of the "School" and had a foot trapped. Not only was her foot through the Stock Fence, but she had somehow got it UNDER her shoe!!!  A tense hour passed, while we tried every cutting device we had, to no avail. By the time Daisy had consumed every apple and carrot we had, not to mention a hastily filled hay-net (Thank you Nancy - aged 7 - for filling it up quick smart), Jo manged to borrow some heavy duty wire cutters, and we finally freed the idiot!!  Luckily the Farrier was due the next day, as Daisy had managed to get some wire between her shoe and hoof!!!!!

With no harm done, we had a good week. By Saturday Jo and I had pretty much achieved our hours and ended Week one on a high.  We all went for walkies together. Jo riding Lu, and Meg and I long reining Daisy and Charlie.  The sun was out, and despite the fact the temperature never climbed above 3c we were all feeling Spring-like.  Meg then realized Covid had got the better of her and had to quit the Challenge. Meg works as an OT and Nancy her daughter is only 7.  With the whole of the UK in Lockdown, Nancy was home-schooling again. Only this time Home-schooling doesn't mean 5 hours of PE and Nature.  This time round poor Nancy has to actually attend online lessons, so Meg has now become teacher and health care worker!  Never mind, there's always next year.

Jo and I started week 2 with a solid 45mins of training. We bounced into Day 2 fully intending to bag another hour as the sun was out and the temperature up to a tropical 5c.  But we were met with the sight of all the small ponies in with Daisy, and Charlie and Lu in the Minis paddock.  After Minor heart attacks, we discovered that there was not a single scrape on any pony. However the Electric Fencing between the paddocks was trashed!! Electric string broken and tangled up like a ball of wool mangled by a kitten, 4 fence posts shattered into pieces and the Paddock cut up like a Full six Chukkas of Polo had been played.  It took us a precious hour to fix it all up!  Turns out Lily has come into season.  Charlie is in lurve.  But so is Lulu. Lily is a hussy. She has been flashing, squirting and flirting over the fence, then when she gets the attention she wants, from either the Alpha Mare, or The Gelding, neither of which are capable of scratching her itch, she strikes out at the fence.  Tune in next week to find out what fence related incident has thwarted our Challenge!!!!!

Independent Ponies and Self Tangling Fence Wire

First Published 15 Oct 2019


Despite 10ft of rain this month (this is ever since I told a friend ooop North that we were the driest County in Britain), we have at last finished the Summer Grazing. Lu and Charlie are particularly precious about curling their lips back too far to graze, so tend to leave lots of perfectly good grass behind. In Lu's case she starts to uproot fence posts.  She just wants to protect her perfectly white teeth, that go with her perfect blonde elite Haflinger model girl image. To compliment her Scarlett O'Hara self image, Charlie has become her Rhett Butler, and refuses to eat anything shorter than his mustache. So bending to their every wish we chucked them into the Hill Field.  Full of brand new green growth.
They immediately became fully independent!!  As long as the maids pick up the poo and refill the water, they have NO interest in human contact....and don't care how the Herd is fairing without them!!

Meanwhile we moved the Little Uns in with Daisy to finish off the leftovers.They were thrilled to have lots of space and grass.

But this was never going to last very long.  Daisy's pen has become flooded so she has spent the last couple of days out full time with the Minis and we have been feeding hay.  Time to set up the Winter Grazing in the 4 Acre. The Landlord said we could use the 'Bowling Green' first. This is one half of the 4 Acre, set aside for a future Campsite.

So yesterday I went out into the Wilderness with the tractor, lots of fence posts and a bundle of Self Tangling Wire.  You know the stuff? Looks like perfectly sane fence wire.  If you leave it on the ground, and carefully wind it up, it may behave.  However, we had hand wound it (despite knowing better).  We had also carefully wound up earlier string onto a Hose-reel. Ha! That would be good to use right?

So I put the posts in, and set off with the Hose-reel. Stop. Start. Tangle. Swear. I was getting there......And then, out of no-where I had 2 loose ends  WTF??
Pick one. It was 2in long.  Picked the other. Also 2in long!  No End in sight!!!
So it seems that the fence wire that will tangle itself into knots on its own, can also undo knots while neatly wound up!

Eventually i ran out of the properly wound up string that had made me slightly insane. So I moved on to using this...

Despite the spaghetti look, with a lot of shaking out, it kind of untangled, and I managed to build a three strand (necessary with a Shetland) fence from one end of the field to the other. Today Jo split the field in two, ready for the Outlaw Duo in the Hill Field to rejoin Civilization.  Meanwhile Daisy (who had figured it out), took her little Herd on a mad gallop about. Nothing lame about that one!

Surprisingly they moved fields without any drama and happily settled into munching.  Hopefully the weather is cool enough now, for Daisy to live full time with the Herd on old stalky grass.

This Week We Have Been Mostly Fencing! And News From West Meadows.

Yes, now we don't have to put hay out, our time is taken with moving fences!! With no rain in sight, we have been moving the ponies along the field, opening up new grazing, and closing off old grazing.  In the hope that it will rain, and the grass will grow back for the Autumn.

Along with the sun, we have had oddly cold nights still (3c) and chilly North Winds.  Yes, us English Are obsessed with the weather!! 

We have been given permission by the landowner to graze the 12 acre field, which has been planted with a thousand trees, but left with 20m clearings, in which one day, in about 10 years,will contain Teepees for camping. We are now able to graze the circles.
So Jo and I set off on the tractor to explore.  Wow....It was like being on Safari....without Lions etc.  We actually got lost! Some of the trees are pretty tall.....some are stunted.  The grass is high everywhere.  Having hunted high and low for the clearings, we found 5.  Unfortunately, they have a lot of ragwort in them.  We had hoped to move the Shetlands straight away, but we have a bit of work to do first. And Jo picked up a tick!!!! And so we continue to move the Shetlands around.  Although Sweet Pea seems to be sound, we don't want to risk her running about with Dora yet.  Its times like these I agree with tethers, which would be handy to graze the little 'uns for a few hours while we are there.

Of course we wouldn't leave them tethered overnight.  I don't agree with that at all.  Equines being prey animals, get stressed if they are unable to run away at the first sign of danger, real or imagined.  Which brings me on to a brief update from West Meadows in Ipswich.  The girls from Voice of The Horse Facebook Page, worked long and hard to get the majority of....dare I say it.... The travellers ponies,off tethers last year.  Despite the Admin of the group getting asbos for harassment, the council did indeed fence the wasteland/water meadows in Papermill Lane, Bramford, so that 80ish mares could run free. However, the owner has 40 or so mares on land close to West Meadows Traveller Site, that he rents off the council, so its been hard to monitor these ponies. All through the Winter there have been reports to the RSPCA and Redwings Horse Sanctuary of distressed ponies.  Unable to go and check we have pursued the council about the amount of plastic hay wrappings strewn over the field. I spent a cold Winters afternoon lurking on the A14 embankment, dodging police cars and taking pics. As the council are keen on Ipswich becoming a centre of excellence for re-cycling plastic, this seemed a good place to start!! Anyway, after a council visit 2 weeks ago, this week reports have come in that two Redwings lorries were parked in the entrance of the Site.  The same night, the shelter that houses the Colts waiting for the Meat Truck, was burnt down.  There only seems to be about 15 ponies left on this site.  This can only be good news!

In other news.... We have lots of children coming to ride at the weekend with Eli teaching them.  Its all good fun and we are planning a 'Pony Day' with lessons, stable management, a picnic, Pony Painting and a Gymkhana.  
Charlie joined in today in-hand.  Fully tacked up i led him round. Then Jo took over the leading while I walked alongside, leaning on the saddle.  He was pretty chilled and quickly got over the fact I wasn't by his head.  This is extremely good progress on his behalf.... We will continue.

Daisy and Dora giving lessons

Charlie with Jo...Learning to go without me.

Polly and Scrumpy in our lovely wild flower meadows

Rain and RDA

Rain.....Yes we have finally had a few hours of rain. With the ground softer, we were at last able to re-fence the fields and finally moved the Shetlands onto grass.  They think they have died and gone to heaven. Sounds easy but it was no 5 minute job.  It took 3 of us including Chanice Who Helps On Saturdays over a hour.  Not to mention detangling the self-tangling electric wire. Oh and the destruction of the hose reel it winds up on.  That was me. It has a bit broken off mysteriously during the Summer and wouldn't turn. A bit of impatient 'repairs' from myself and it is now a manual winding hose reel.

With the extra grass and soft ground the lunging started.  Not sure why I bothered with Charlie as he has been full of Autumn vigor, and has been chasing Prudence the Bull Dog.  On Monday when I got him in to work him, he was already sweated up.  When I put him away and got Daisy in, he galloped around, thus the exercise was slightly unnecessary, although the bonding/work is worth it. I am currently teaching him to lift a hoof to say please for a polo. 
Daisy, feeling so much better with her shoes on and soft ground, got delusions of being a race-horse.  Much water-skiing was done on my part, while Daisy had a good old gallop, and ignored all commands to 'steady', ....or even 'trot'.

The other day I bumped into an old friend from Hollesley RDA, which I ran for many years.  She asked me if I would like to go back to teach.  Hell Yeah. That place was my world and I have missed it every day.  So today I went in to help. Its been 8 years.  Some things have changed...horses, helpers etc, but most of it was sooo familiar.  It felt like going home, and I have had a grin on my face all day.  I have agreed to go back and teach Friday mornings, and am so looking forward to my first session. 

Happy Shetlands

Charlie Lunging Tantrum

Daisy On Form

Self Tangling Fence Wire (Top Tip may be included)

So on Monday it finally stopped raining, and we moved the ponies.  But not after a good hour moving electric fencing and water tubs, while the ponies constantly patrolled up and down the Hill Field trying to see what was going down.  We use rolls of self tangling wire rather than the white tape.  It carries the current better.  Now we very carefully remove the posts, and wind up the wire onto one of those things you roll hosepipe onto. (Top Tip Alert)

So HOW does the wire create such special knots, which are in no knot book i've ever seen, within 5 minutes of it reaching the ground?  So after a long time had passed, and a good practise of old English, we finally had a strip of grass fenced off in the 4 acre. Time to move the ponies.

Charlie in one hand, Daisy in the other.  And yes it was Daisy who barged through the gate and tried to drag us off to pastures new. Her manners are sometimes rather lacking.  Or indeed missing, presumed dead. Anyway, they are now as happy as the proverbial pigs.  And the grass must contain a love potion.  Charlie in particular is overly affectionate right now. Maybe its due to all of them now being in the 4 acre, albeit in different corners.  Poor boy, the only male with 6 mares!!

In the meantime, B is going for the muddiest pony award......