Woooooo.....I have been moving furniture and cars today (as well as doing the ponies).....and am absolutely knackered. So the words may be few on this post, as my brain is already in bed asleep. Despite this not being a weather channel I must report it has been bitterly cold this week....North Easterly Winds. But on Thursday, the wind dropped and it was lovely and sunny. Time for some fun... Jo and I had a lovely hack down the lane and up around the lovely sandy tracks that border the farm fields. I shut Scrumpy in the car this time, so she didn't follow. Obviously we took Lulu and Daisy, so it was Charlies' first time being left alone.....Although the other ponies are only in the next field the other side of the hedge. Good job I took his rug off.....The hysteria started as soon as we went down the drive. We could hear him neighing most of the hack, bless him.
Now Daisy is an odd girl on a hack.....Bombproof is the word. In the 'school', or pottering round our own fields she is on her toes, but as soon as she's out, she turns into a riding school pony. Lu on the other hand is on her toes. We passed some bins, Lu stopping, then passing sideways....Daisy went straight over to see if they contained food. Even when a pheasant flew up she only jumped as much as I did!
So when we got back, I was relieved to see Charlie still galloping up and down....still in the field and not a broken leg in sight! He had sweated up though, and was foaming well, but it was still warm, so I was able to leave him naked to dry and pop back later.
After being so good for the farrier, Charlie has taken a naughty pill. It was forecast for rain and wind last night, so yesterday we rugged back up. At least Daisy and Lulu were rugged. Charlie wouldn't have any of it. In fact he wouldn't let Jo or I near him. We tried sending him away, but its a bit hard in 2 acres!!!!! A couple of times I got a rope round his neck, but he's a chunky boy, and I just couldn't hang on.
So Jo took the girls away.....much to their delight they were turned loose in the 3 acre field, which has been resting since the summer, and is full of lush grass.
Needless to say, any mothering tendencies went out of the window, and they firmly ignored Charlie's rather hysterical neighs. Someone answered down the road somewhere, but no-one he knew.
I rather thought that without his mummies, he would come to me. Not a chance!! He had gone feral. So I left him to literally sweat it out, while we poo picked the minis.
I don't like using food as bribery, but my main objective at that point was just contact, so I took a bucket of nuts and apples out to him.. At least he came over and ate, and then followed me every time I walked off. As he was, at this point foamed up in a lather, rugging was out of the question anyway. So the mares came back, and we left. I spent the whole night fretting, as it did indeed rain and blow a hoolie. I felt so bad I got him a bag of carrots.
Much to my relief, this morning, the sun was shining, and he was happily having a love in with Daisy, who inexplicably seems to be in season again.
Without much hope, I took his rug and a pocketful of carrots out to the field, to be greeted by happy, curious Charlie, who munched on carrots and calmly stood to be rugged.
Either I have a schizophrenic pony or something had upset him.
The farm had had a large trailer delivered to the next field earlier yesterday morning, and had had a lot of problems which had resulted in the road being closed for quite a while. My only theory is that it reminded him of being removed from his mum with several other colts. Maybe he associates very large trailers with being caught and bad stuff????
I'm just relieved to have the Charlie I know and love back today.
