A Long, Long Winter!

 So whats been happening since the Top Barn Challenge finished???  Well not a lot.  The brief warm days (2 of them to be precise) went as quickly as they came.....and it snowed again!  Not laying this time, but when you have snow showers instead of April Showers, you know its cold.  Having girded our loins for the last 3 months to work the horses in all weathers, we have had Winter Shutdown now.  April has been cold!!  And dry!!  The winds have blown from the North East relentlessly, and the grass is not growing. 

Having moved the Biggies back to The Bowling Green, we were able to not feed them hay for a least 3 days!!  Then they started breaking the fence down to get back to the bare field they moved from!! After Charlie had stretched the springs in 2 gate handles, and Lu had broken down the whole fence, we gave in and moved them to The Hill Field.  Despite a minuscule amount of new grass, they have been happy for a week now!! The Minis were moved to The Bowling Green.....where they seem to have found enough grass to satisfy them.

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There has been No rain, and No warmth!! We are in what is known as a Blackthorn Winter!  Folklore says while the Blackthorn blossom is in full bloom, it will remain cold!  The Blackthorn Blossom is still in full bloom! Jo has tried wearing flip flops, and i have shed a layer (and braved bare feet in crocs), but it hasn't worked. We have gone back to Winter boots (and even hats on some days).  Still, Summer has to arrive soon, doesn't it? Then I can moan about how hot it is, and the flies!!!!

On a good note......We have sharers for both Lily and Daisy.  No names mentioned yet (so as not to jinx it, and also because I haven't asked them if they mind me rambling about them). Jo and I are super excited to have these two mares getting some extra love and attention.  They are both cracking mares but we don't have enough time to lavish on them (as they are so easy compared to The Patchy Twat and The Blonde Diva).

And so the only thing that I have done with Charlie this month is enter him into a showing class in The Top Barn Hub.  Its been too cold (did I mention that?) to bath him, so Class 1-The Smartest Pair was out.  Hes neither a baby, or a Veteran, so another 2 Classes out. Best Ridden????? Really. Only if it means shortest duration before getting off, or being ejected. Best Trot? Charlie has a cracking trot, but with my dodgy lungs and dicky ticker? Not a Chance....!! So Judges Favorite it was.Criteria...Show off Horses Character.  I think we pulled that one off!!

Tune in next month to see if Summer has arrived!!  This has been The Weather Channel!

Top Barn Challenge - Weeks 6 - 10. Snow and Stuff!!!!

 Oh wow its been soooo long since I had time to sit down and write it all down.  Blame Top Barn (haha).  So where were we???? Oh Yeah Week 5. With 2.5 hours done, THE WEATHER GOT ME!!!! Despite only half an hour to go, the final day brought SNOW......Lots of SNOW!!!! Sideways Blizzard in High Winds Kind of Snow. Just seeing to the Ponies was enough!!  So I used my Rollover Week, with 2hr 45mins in the Bank I only have 15mins to make up (which I still haven't done).

So week 6 started with SNOW!!!! So much SNOW.  So much SNOW if fact that the little town I live in was cut off from the World.  Even the Snow Plough got stuck!!! I tried for 2.5hours to get to the Yard.  Every which way was cut off by enormous SNOW Drifts.  Luckily Jo got through and the horses were watered and fed.  If I hadn't got Dodgy Lungs and a Dicky Ticker, I would have walked the 5 miles.....but Mark The Mechanic and Part Time Horse Whisperer banned me from even trying. I discovered my Land-rover has had the Prop-shaft removed, thereby turning it into a 2wd. I discovered this while going down the road sideways, while all the engine lights came on, telling me that Traction Control, ABS etc was off. I had already figured we shouldn't be half-passing down the road!!  Although if it had been a horse, the movement would have been impressive.  

The rest of Week 6 did not improve!!!!  The snow kept coming, the East Wind kept blowing. The drifts were so big, we struggled with just hay and water.  It was so bad we even rugged the Big Herd, as they had no shelter from the direction of the Weather. I declared Week 6 my Holiday Week.  Jo took it as her Rollover Week.

Luckily Week 7 brought a thaw.  We rejoiced as the temperature climbed to a whopping 4c.  We only had a few days left to film the Mid Challenge Competition, so we practiced. I had several attempts at filming , but the Pivo couldn't seem to follow us for a whole take!  On the Thursday, with 3 days to spare, Mark the Mechanic and Part-time Horse Whisper said he had 10 minutes to spare to film me. It was getting dark!!! I rushed over to meet him, pulled Charlie off the Hay and offered a practice run. We didn't have time!!! So we did it in the first take with the sun rapidly setting.  Charlie was a star. We did the whole course at liberty without even a headcollar.  We went under an arch with streamers, over a wooden pallet, touched and rung a bell, round a jump wing covered in streamers, jumped through the hoop, waved a flag, smiled and bowed. We didn't get placed (ahhhh boo), but i was very proud of my clever, complicated cob!   Jo left it even later, being buggered by strong winds, but did a brilliant course on the Final Day, which included Lu following her while blind-folded.  We had to do a very swift video conversion from my phone to a memory stick. 

Thank you Top Barn for giving us something very concrete to work on, and Well Done everyone who took part.  The creativity that went into some of the performances was astonishing!

Week 8...Time to stop messing about and get on Charlie. I have been trying for 4 years to ride him!  Slowly I go....Doing the Groundwork. Gently presenting the saddle, and the Rider (me).  Sometimes it has been OK. Most times not. I have ended up on the floor more than I haven't!! He basically goes into full panic mode when he can't see me.  Being partially blind in the Offside eye hasn't helped. Catching sight of a movement coupled with Mum not at his head, has sent him from OK to Terrified in 0.2 seconds.  Once terrified, he has lost the plot, setting us back to me not even being able to show him the saddle without a violent reaction.

So after all these years, doing tricks, walk outs blah blah blah, it finally feels like he is ready. He trusts me, he is fully grown, and has a new grown up outlook. So week 8 was mostly spent Tacking up, getting on, getting off, getting on, getting off....you get it. We even tried a few steps forward being led by Jo. All good!!!

Week 9 has been the high-point so far.....With a beautiful calm sunny day on Tuesday, I got on Charlie and rode him round the "School", following Jo and Lu in hand. Naturally the Pivo chose this moment to not record !!!  Then the wind got up, so we worked on Chill Mode, Lateral Work and Balloons (obviously).

Week 10 has brought us 50mph wind most of the week, along with hail, sun, rain, freezing fingers!!! Oh yes.....The weather for this Challenge has certainly been challenging!!  I have stuck to groundwork this week.....and balloon popping! 

So 2 more weeks to go!!!! It would be nice if we had some calm spring sunshine to finish off with. But that doesn't look like that's going to happen. So lets all gird our loins for a big finish!!!

Molly Goes Home, Snow! And The Meaning Of Lowering Your Energy

So as you all know, Molly was an odd rescue case!! Loaned to the Rda from a friend of mine (the lovely Rachel), Molly had become very grumpy and unhappy. So Jo and I took her in for a while to 'fix' her, before she went home. 

She settled in well with the herd, but objected to being tacked up. Initially she wolfed her food, but then refused it.  She refused to wear a rug, and although ok with me, laid her ears back every time Jo touched her.  Oh yes a challenge. She was a bit lean, tucked up from stress and full of thread worms.  So we wormed her, and let her be.  Jo made a point of spending time with her.  

After a few weeks, I took her out for a ride with the other big mares (see previous blog).  Still not a happy girl.  As she was trying to kick me while I slowly girthed her up, we decided she looked like a girl with ulcers. This was NOT the Molly I knew.

So we put her on a daily feed of warm bran mash, with Ulcer Guard, Liquorice and Camomile....which she lapped up.  Jo brought her out for her feed every day, so she could bond with her.  Within a week the change was astounding. At last we had a happy horse! Unless we took Lily out of the field.  Despite the others being there, and hay on offer, Molly still cleared the 5ft fencing to try and find Lil.

We have always said, nothing over 14.2hh as we are set up for ponies. We put up a double fence 'Molly Baffler'. Landlord NOT happy!!  The time was right for Molly to go home.  Looking at the pictures when she arrived, compared to recent pics, the change was amazing. I always felt Molly was missing Rachel.  Even when she seemed happy, there was sometimes a wistful look about her, like she wished she could go home.

So Rachel came to collect her.  She has settled in at home, like she had never been away, and has a new friend to hack her out, so its all turned out well.  I miss her, peering over the fence, waiting for breakfast, but am happy to have returned a physically fixed horse to her owner.

Molly the day after she arrived.

Molly 3 months later.













And so it snowed. Thankfully a tiny amount compared to last year!!  We have been soo lucky. Kent (just across the Thames Estuary), Wales and the West Country seem to have suffered big time. We have been really lucky!

I have continued to work Charlie for the Top Barn 12 Week Challenge. We have had some fun...and some progress. I have discovered I have a Comedy Pony, who is very popular on the Top Barn site.  Check out my You Tube Channel (as I am incapable of posting the vids on here!!).  

Anyway today showed the meaning of the Handler Lowering their energy.  You may have heard this saying, and not understood it.  Todays video (if you can find it) shows what it means..  Charlie got out of the wrong side of bed this morning.  Maybe I did too.  Anyway he started being pushy...which pushes my buttons...I start becoming less patient (my energy levels rise), he feels it as a challenge....and we have conflict.  Some trainers relish conflict as a chance to exert their dominance. However I would rather have a partnership.....with mutual trust. I do not want to dominate my pony.  I want us to work as a team.

So time to walk away, take deep breaths, have a break.  I chose to change what we were doing.  As a friend had arrived, I was chatting away, as I tacked Charlie up. No pressure, my energy levels dropped.....and so Charlie relaxed and stood, loose, while I saddled and bridled him.  And thats what trainers mean when they say Drop your Energy Level.

The Beast From The East....Winter has Arrived In Spades

Ok Still not a weather channel.....But we have some weather at last!! The so called Beast From the East has hit us with the first real snow of the Winter. Ironic that its nearly March. 
Having been prepared for this, we had rugged the tractor, and stabled the hoses. (Presumably the British Train Network were also forewarned, but it didn't stop them cancelling all trains to London from here in the East. Made me wonder how the Trans-Siberian Trains operate???).

Happily the tractor started.....Being rear wheel drive it struggled on the hills though!! I know its only a lawn mower really, but surely it should be 4WD??
Anyway with a bit of shoving here and there we were able to take a lot of hay out, and poo-pick.  The hoses, despite being stabled, were still frozen in the joins.  Just goes to show...a warm cozy stable really isn't that warm or cozy!

Some hot water, and patience later, we finally managed to top up all the water butts.  The horses also all had a feed. Clots of ice were removed from hooves, and they all felt warm and happy. This is probably the first real snow Charlie has seen in his life, as we haven't had this much for a few years now.

Polly, who eats free-range every day is not dumb.  With no grass to be seen, she made her way into the hay-barn, where I found her happily helping herself to a round bale. 

The dogs had fun....Prudence in particular was happy to run after snowballs. Scrumpy couldn't see the point. I just had to make a snow angel.....despite being 51!!  It just has to be done.   Photos galore of this pretty landscape.

But that will do now. Its amazing how long it takes in snow just to do the basic jobs. And how tiring.  So come on Spring, its time.

Polly caught in the act.

Sharing Feed 

Happy Bulldog

Colic, Cold, Warm, Children and Side Effects

Strange title.....but then its been a strange couple of weeks!!  We have had snow, 40mph winds....and sunshine.  And sometimes all at once!

Anyway as I may have mentioned, I have been on a drug trial for my dodgy lungs and dicky ticker.  Having spent a week in Papworth ( our number one heart and lung hospital in this country) I found out I have been on the Placebo! So Phase Two begins....the real drug. OMG the side effects have knocked me on my ass. Each time they up the dosage the side effects kick my butt. A few days of blinding headaches and sickness. It only lasts our hour or two, after the dose, but that means for 4 hours each day at the moment, I am confined to the bathroom floor!! Taking Co-codemol helps, but it also mongs me out, so I am next to useless at the moment.

This has coincided with the bad weather and an influx of children from a nearby barn conversion to "help". While they are lovely children, its a little like baby sitting and hope that they don't get bowled over by a pony! Still yesterday I brought Dora down for them to groom and plait etc. Slightly worried that she may be over-whelmed by four of them crowding around her, I still left them, desperate to take advantage of the nicer weather and do a little clicker training with Charlie.  Thankfully Dora loved the attention, and Charlie remembered everything he has previously learnt. 

Jo went to take the kids home, and I started filling the water. I noticed Lu scenting. I thought she was smelling the water. But she continued to do it. I then noticed she was standing uncomfortably.  Alarm bells started ringing as the pieces clicked together in my somewhat slow brain. She wasn't eating the hay. She hadn't mugged me when I brought Charlie in. As I watched she pawed the ground. That was enough. My Colic Radar went off loud and clear. 

I had just brought her in when Jo got back, possibly somewhat surprised to find me holding her pony down by the tack-room. Everything screamed colic, except the constant scenting. She refused a bran mash.  I half thought she had something stuck up her nose, so had a good poke around.....the fact that Lu just accepted my rummaging fingers was a bad sign in itself. Jo phoned the vet. Apparently scenting constantly is a sign of colic!!!

I have seen many colics in my many years. I have a highly sensitive colic radar, but I have NEVER seen a horse scenting when it has colic. So I have learnt something here. Jo too had never seen it like that. Something else to add to the knowledge disc in the brain. 

Luckily there was no impaction, and a shot of Buscopan did the trick. We put it down to the frozen grass, coupled with sunshine.  So, if you see your horse constantly scenting, now you know it IS a sign of colic. A rare one maybe, but added to the other symptoms......Definitely worth knowing.

Poor Lulu

Dora Having a rest after all the attention.

Target.

YES!!! It Snowed!!!

Ok it was for one day only.  And it was only a very light sprinkling. But in this part of the UK we haven't had proper snow for four years (Ok this wasn't proper, but it did lay).  I still have a child-like excitement on seeing a snow covering..... Which lasted about 5 minutes! That was about the time it took to realise the water pipes were frozen solid, as were our fingers after we had loaded the trailer with the first lot of hay!

We were also struggling with heavy wet rugs to be changed, picking out ice balls from the shod ponies feet, while contending with a freezing easterly wind that blew snow horizontally. It wasn't even proper big flakes but that very wet stuff, that can barely be described as snow. More like white rain.

Not to mention frozen droppings!

We moved the fence out to reveal longer grass.  The sensible mares, huddled around the Hay, backs to the wind.  Not Charlie....Being 'well ard', he faced the white-out and ate grass!

Yesterday was better.....Still a pretty covering on the ground, but the wind dropped and the sun came out.  Having 'stabled' the hose-pipes overnight we had water. At only 2c it wasn't tropical but the sun was warming and the photo opportunities were good.

Today.....Temperature rose to 6c overnight.....so we are back to rain and mud!!

There's nothing quite like a bright chestnut, a little snow and sunlight for a photo.

Dora looks like the Virgin Mary in her blue neck cover (HAHA)

Life Without The Tractor and Hay

And now for the weather!!!! Funny how us Brits like to talk about the weather. I guess as we have a temperate climate, we tend to talk about any unusual weather conditions.  Even though its normal to have cold weather in December.....we tend to forget!  Anyway it suddenly got COLD (for us). We even had a few flakes of SNOW!!!!!  On Thursday I had leggings under my jeans and a hat!  We even rugged Charlie, Dora and Lulu. The forecast was 0c, 25mph north winds and rain/snow.  OOOh.  Bit of a shock after a mild November.

Naturally the Tractor broke down!!  Why wouldn't it? BTW its not really a tractor, but a ride on lawn mower....But it does the job of a tractor. Daily it pulls our little muck trailer, and helps us deliver hay. It stopped working on Thursday....My mums 80th Birthday. The day I had to leave on time, as I had booked us Spa treatments and lunch at a posh hotel/golf club. So we used Jos' Subaru....Not a 4WD, but an AWD with a tow-bar. 

Friday came, Tractor still would not start....Weather, Sleet, Cold. I was at RDA. The sun came out so I poo-picked with a wheel-barrow....well 4 wheel-barrows, then set about fixing up a paddock on the Winter grazing (Nearer to tack room and full of grass). Spent at least an hour untangling self tangling fence wire as the sun set and the temperature plummeted. Lost the will to live (and all feeling in my lips and fingers).

Saturday...still no tractor.  Once again I was at the RDA, filling in teaching.  By the time we had finished there I was cold and hungry. Jo had texted me saying horses had Hay and Water, Lu and Charlie had broken into the Minis' field and raped and assaulted Dora. I went straight home thinking 'Tomorrow is another day'.

Sunday saw us full of Scarlett O'Haras' grit and determination.  With Megs help we cleared the backlog of poo with the help of the Subaru. Moved the ponies to the Winter paddock and picked up all the fence posts from the 3-Acre.

Monday....I begged Mark The Mechanic to come and fix the Tractor. Which he did.  Meanwhile we untangled and reeled up all the self-tangling fence wire. Today was all calm.  Tractor working, ponies all on Winter grazing, temperatures back up to 8c, rugs off....Woohoo!!!

At the moment we don't have to give Hay.  Maybe only for this week, as we have lots of old grass and the horses are happy and full. BUT....this will not last. There is no goodness in the grass. Once the temperature drops below 5c it will not grow. Once there has been a frost, the goodness is gone from the grass. We are lucky that our ponies have gone into Winter fat. It won't hurt them to drop a bit of weight.  BUT if the grazing is poor, or the horses are old, or at the right weight, Hay MUST be given.  For a start the horse trickle feeds all the time. They need something decent in their guts at all times.  It keeps them warm, and it keeps the guts moving.  Without Hay a horse will get grumpy, drop weight and possibly get colic. Once an elderly pasture kept horse starts to drop weight in Winter, its a very fast slippery slope. Next thing you know, you will take a rug off and see ribs.  

This time of year it is vital to a) Feed plenty of Hay....There should be some left over, and b) Remove rugs daily for a visual check, and weigh tape once a week.

Happy Winter!! x

Warm ponies with lots of Hay.

The container stops it blowing around in the wind.

A Nice Sunset.

Prepared For Snow and The Plight of the Papermill Ponies

They promised snow.  A whole weekend of snow! It never happened. But at least we were prepared. The bigger ponies were given rugs with fillings. We stuffed all the water pipes with straw and covered them.  We moved the little ponies into a rambling area around the tack room and between the barns so they had loads of shelter, and dragged their hay bin round. It did try and snow. Some of it even layed for about 5 minutes. 

Meanwhile over xmas I joined a facebook group called Save The Papermill Ponies. The group is trying to highlight the plight of the gypsy ponies that are tethered in and around Bramford village near Ipswich, and are attached to the West Meadows Traveller Site. Now I grew up nearby, and all my childhood played with the gypsy children and rode their ponies.  In those days they were well cared for despite being tethered. By the way my biggest gripe about tethering is that it takes away the horses freedom to flee.....as stabling also does. 
Anyway, I thought I would go and check it out for myself. There are about 50 or so ponies on the Water Meadows near the River, but I never got to those.  I started with a field of just 6. They had water, but were just stood on droppings. Two fillies were actually tethered together. One mare had lost an eye. I was slightly shocked when I saw that, as usually the eyelid is stitched over. This was just a gaping socket. One of the double tied fillies had really long feet.  There was one moulding round bale of hay in the field......which none of them could reach.  Having then rashly broadcast a live video stream to Facebook, I dished out some carrots an gave them an armful of hay each.  
I then became very rash, and made my way up the hill towards the Traveller Site. There is a very large enclosure there with maybe 40 ponies in. I wanted to get close enough to get some long lens pictures. Seeing a man in the enclosure I jumped down into a ditch to hide. Imagine my horror apon looking down, to see a hoof sticking out of a pony shaped mound of sand.  Scrabbling about I uncovered a hairy foot. Thankfully I had enough wits about me to take a couple of pictures, before legging it. By this time it was getting dark and I had no desire to come face to face with an irate traveler. I didn't want to lose my camera for a start.
I think I was in shock for about 10 minutes, then I had to stop the car to throw up (Sorry too much info). That knocked my dry January on the head. 

I'm pleased to say I have had about 3000 hits on the video and loads of shares. The dead pony in the ditch has been reported to the authorities. And best of all finally the constant nagging of the Group saw 10 ponies removed on Thursday.
Hopefully now the owners have seen that they WILL lose the ponies and therefore money, they may step up their care of the others a little.  And the girls of the Save The Papermill Ponies group will continue to check on them, as will I.

Polly Ready for The Snow

Yes this was IT

Below is the link to the video i took.  The first few seconds may give you neck ache but it does right itself quickly.
Many thanks for looking and sharing.

https://youtu.be/9GazCOto_b0

Ready For The Arctic Vortex

Yup they (who are these people that spread doom and gloom on social networking sites??) have been banging on about some Arctic Vortex for the last 2 weeks. More snow than we have seen since the last Ice-age.  Minus 14c temps.  Really?  On the Suffolk Coast?  Anyway we are ready.  Every day we get ready to wake up to a white out.  We have plenty of hay. We have new hose pipe to replace the pipe that will freeze solid and crack. The taps are stuffed with straw and covered with bins.  Every day we fill the water, disconnect the hoses and artfully drape them over trees so they point downhill. Polly's stable is clean and ready.  Jo has found some ski trousers and I have acquired a blue fleece hat/scarf thing.  Between us we look like a smurf! 
 The horses are rugged up in slightly heavier rugs with the mega heavy weight ones at the ready. The fact is we have a gypsy cob, a Highland, a Haflinger, a Welsh and 2 Shetlands, all of which are bred to withstand worse weather than we have here.  Only Polly, who is like an aged mini tb really needs 20 duvets!
But we are ready....bring it on.....lets get it over with.  Snow pix to follow....hahahahahha.....