To Rug Or Not To Rug?

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.

Feed Balls, Join Up and a Sonic Boom!

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.

A Show For SweetPea and Storm Aileen

Yes on Sunday we took the Shetlands to a show at The Suffolk Showground. The jockey was Nancy, Megs little girl.  It was her first show. Megs too. Having studied the schedule, we decided apon Thelwell, Prettiest Mare, and The Pony The Judge would most like to take home.  Our calculations were that these novelty classes wouldn't start before 2pm. How wrong we were!!  It seems the classes in the ring before had very little competitors, and they had finished by the time we got there. 
So a panic ensued as we entered Novice Horse and Rider (not really a lead rein class) and Best Rescue. No time to tell Meg any etiquette!! Still SweetPea behaved impeccably and Nancy was thrilled with a 1st and 3rd rosette. 
Mini who we took for company behaved appallingly.  Standing with Jo by the ringside, she pawed, neighed, stuck her head into the ring! The steward was enchanted, and asked if she could take photos.  At that point we said she could take her home!!  Having given up showing a long time ago, I was thrilled to find a bunch of chatty, helpful horse owners there. May even get back into it myself!

The day before was a challenge!  Meg brought Nancy over to ride SweetPea. Chanice who helps on Saturdays was also there.  I wanted to take Charlie out, so decided we would all go together, with Chanice on Daisy, who hasn't been ridden for a while, and myself on Lu (who hasn't been ridden since May due to her foot problem), ponying Charlie off her. 
SweetPea went in front. Daisy behind, me Lu and Charlie in the middle. Lu and Daisy were both like cats on hot bricks.  Chanice did very well, and Daisy settled once out on the road. Charlie was a star, keeping his head by my knee, ears pricked, enjoying himself. Lu was errrrr, Not so Good. Spooking aside, once she realised I was merely using her as a seat, she decided she would force me to pay her attention, by refusing to be ridden one handed.  She kept veering off onto verges, forcing me to use both hands to steer. Charlie then had to move closer, at which she laid her ears flat back. 
Once back, as Chanice needed help to dismount, I took off Lu and Charlies bridles, leaving them to browse the hedge.  As punishment for my lack of attention, Lu buggered off, still wearing my saddle, and tried several times to fold up to roll, with me sprinting after her yelling NO. Not the best activity with my dicky ticker and dodgy lungs!!

And Storm Aileen?  With threatened winds of 50mph, Jo and I spent yesterday fencing our winter grazing, making large paddocks so the horses could run if frightened.  We turned the Shetlands loose in the 3-Acre (we may never catch them again).  We picked up, and put away anything we thought might blow away......Except the Barn! 
The horses thought they had gone to heaven. What no strip grazing???
Today the wind died down around midday, and we went to check the chaos. Apart from a few branches down, happily all was fine. Time to strip graze tomorrow!

Sadly I have no photos of SweetPeas show, as we were in and out before you could blink, and in the panic to get to the ring I left my phone in the lorry. But here are some happy ponies in their Winter Field!

WARNING - Autumn is Coming!

Yes..... Autumn is coming.  Our field bordering trees are full of Sloes and Blackberries.  Its cool enough at night to tolerate a duvet. For the last few days I have been wearing jeans (one soaking in shorts is enough thank you....took hours to warm up). 
There are Arabs up on the opposite hill. The eldest is wearing a rug. As is Polly, who has dropped some weight, so is having a feed a day. When the Arabs move to their Winter grazing, it will truly be a sign that Autumn is apon us. The swallows will be leaving soon.  Don't get me wrong.... I love Autumn. I love the colours of the leaves, and the cooler dewy mornings. The lack of flies!! It's a great time to ride....Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect. Yes I love Autumn.....I'm just not so keen on Winter!!!

We have been moving fencing around a lot this week....eeking out the last grass on The Hill Field, and leaving some to rest in the hope that a September flush will happen.  The Shetlands...Sorry Unicorn Superstars are grazing the verges like the little lawnmowers they are. Still, our winter grazing is looking good, and the Barn is full of hay.

Now is the time to stock that Hay Barn, and make sure the rugs are cleaned and proofed.  Its also the time to check for bot eggs on the ponies.  They show up as small yellowish flecks on dark coloured legs.  They are also on your greys...you just can't see them. Bot combs are available.....If you have no life, or you can wait till they have been licked off and then worm!

Now a quick mention for Bracken.  If you live on Heath-land/Moors etc you probably have bracken in your field. We normally fence around it, but as it was spreading, we sprayed it in the summer.  Now its a nice brown colour we have been pulling it up. ALERT....It gives nasty paper cuts....Wear Gloves. 
Now having kept horses on Heath-land most of my life without problems I thought, a) some moorland ponies can eat it without a problem, and b) it isn't poisonous when dead!  So I did some research.

Turns out Bracken is poisonous dead or alive.  In fact its more palatable dead. Most horses don't eat it when there is other grazing available (as with ragwort), BUT some horses develop a taste for it. As proved yesterday by Polly! We let her out into the main paddock to eat her breakfast.  Despite lots of grass, once she had finished her meal, she started to eat the dead bracken we had pulled and put into a wheel-barrow!!!

Meanwhile Lu and Charlie have been mugging the trailer for the empty feed bucket......Sadly no feeds for them (due to their rather round bellies).

Maui Waui Festival With Unicorns

We have just spent two very tiring, but enjoyable days at Maui Waui Festival with the Shetlands, sorry I mean Unicorns. I mean, Who takes ponies to a Festival?  Errrr we do!  I have to say, its been amazing being sober for a start!!! (Last year I spent a considerable amount of time drunkenly riding a mechanical Bull!!). Alcohol and Shetlands do not mix so it was squash only this weekend.

Jo is going to be doing childrens pony parties in the future. So as we know the Festival organisers, and its only a few miles up the road, at the last minute we thought this would be a great trial. Jo spent last week emptying the supplies of various pony make up suppliers (Yes they exist). It was way too late to get a licence for the ponies to be ridden.  So we had a petting pen. We supplied the children with glitter, brushes, stencils, glitter gel and various spray/chalk in colours and had a sort of Pimp My Pony Party. Children, ponies and glitter!! A perfect mix!

I should explain..... Maui is a very family orientated Festival. We were in the Childrens Area, away from the Bands and any loud Drum n Bass. We set up Sheep Hurdles to make a round pen on a very lovely clover filled area. The ponies being on restricted grazing at home, thought they were in heaven. They love children, and love being groomed, hugged, petted and pimped. 

They wore their Unicorn Horns and were covered in glitter stencils by the children. They were braided, brushed, sprayed, kissed, hugged and generally loved by all the kids.  Jo and I were also liberally covered with glitter. The coloured hairspray was very popular, a fair few children left with their own hair coloured. Not to mention my hair, which was coloured by an enthusiastic child who also put face paint on me.  Luckily we had baby wipes available......Lots of baby wipes!!

The ponies were amazing.  We had to unload them in the farm yard, and I led them past all the campsites each day. They were absolutely unfazed by all the noise and weird sights. It was a fairly slow walk both days, with both children and adults wanting to say hello, take pictures and even sketch them. They didn't bat a single eyelid at drones, tents, impromptu drum bands, archery or someone dressed as a Phoenix!

In fact this morning, Mini loaded herself onto the lorry.....and this evening Sweet Pea refused to be caught.....in the round pen, to go home. They both jogged along the long trek to the pen this morning....in a hurry to get to there.

All in all, a very successful trial.  So, if anyone wants a pony party, (Unicorn party) please message me.  Or go to East Suffolk Ponies on Facebook and book via messaging.  We should have the licence through very soon, so they can be ridden as well.  But PLEASE.....Give us a few days to recover :-) We will be lying in a dark room for a while!!

Dead Tractors, Taps and a Word About Ragwort

Yes the tractor died!  The starter motor gave up.  While the horses are grazing on the steepest hill in Suffolk!!!!  It is next to impossible to push a wheel barrow full of poo up the hill. So for the last 2 days we have been pulling the trailer with Jo's Subaru.  Which has caused a lot of hilarity. You know when you go to a wildlife park and the chimps remove your windscreen wipers?  No need to do that. Drive round our fields and Charlie will do the job of chimps!
Being a big teenage boy, and obsessed with the tractor, when he saw a car in his field, he was in heaven!  He has licked the bonnet, examined the mirrors, rubbed his big cobby bum all over the car, and tried to remove the windscreen wipers. For the last two days "Charlie....No!" has rung out all over the field. 

Also the tap in the tack room has been broken for a while (we have been using a wrench). Having found a man to replace the tap, we asked the landlord where we turn the water off. Outside underground...Of Course. Lift the cover, what do we see......Nothing but sand and ants.  Biting Ants.  Sadly they had to go. And then we started to dig....and dig....and dig....and dig. Eventually after a major excavation we found the tap.  Seriously we were laying on the ground to reach it. It was at the depth of my arm which is about 3 foot long!!

Happily we now have a working tap thanks to Simon, and a working tractor thanks to my other half, Mark the Mechanic and Horse Whisperer.

A quick word about Ragwort. Its everywhere at the moment.  You will see it swaying around by motorways, in a great ugly yellow swathe. It used to be illegal to allow it to grow, but no-one seems to care anymore.  It is poisonous to horses and cows, and will cause liver damage over time. It tastes bitter, so horses will not eat it.....unless they are starving.  But, thats no excuse not to pull it up.  Once it is dying it is more palatable. And once it is flowering, the seeds spread.  It breeds like rabbits. I have also noticed, it grows in family clumps, and in a straight line (sad I know!). It also has to be pulled up from the root, or it will multiply.  There is an easy answer.  Ragforks can be bought in saddlers and online. They are easy to use, and get the root. Don't wait until it flowers. Learn to spot it early, carry the Ragfork, and pick it up daily while poo-picking.  If it becomes part of a daily routine, its easily managed.
Lecture over!

How deep????

Would you like me to remove this Sir?

Bonnet Wash Sir?

Early stage of the evil yellow weed.

A Big Crack in The Hoof, Family Pony and Papermill Lane Update

Lu had the farrier this week.  She was as good as gold.  Stood like a lamb while the farrier split open the crack in her foot. He then used a dremel to grind the rest back!!  We could see where the black in the laminae ended.  She is now shod on the fronts to hold the hoof together, with no sign of lameness. First time in her life she has been shod, and she didn't bat an eyelid.

All the ponies have taken good pills this week.  Chanice (who helps on Saturdays) had an outstanding lesson with Daisy on Saturday. We are getting to the point where Chanice is no longer a passenger and can control Daisy....with no nose band and a light rein.  They were able to go from trot to halt with ease. So pleased!!
Charlie who has not been worked for a while.....except for being brought in with Lu each day (its all progress), had half hour in the "school" on Sunday. I put his harness on....minus the bridle and crupper and we just had a play. First I led him through/over some obstacles, then set him free......He followed me round, weaving through the tyres, through the road closed gates, and finally over the towel where we stood a while. Family Pony??

Last but not least, I had a quick look at the Papermill Lane ponies tonight. I didn't go far, but i could see a lot of happy free grazing mares. Its not perfect, but, its a huge improvement from the poor little tethered souls I saw in the winter.  Heres hoping for even more improvements.

All cut open.

Family Pony??

A better pic of Papermill Lane