HAPPY 2024 EVERYONE

Thurs 4th

Today the weeks forecast looks calm, dry and mild SO…..walking S&B back to their big field 😉

They were both calm but looking around regularly, they saw a herd of fallow deer and then

they saw the view, down the glen, the same view they get from their big field 😉

Checking out everything as they walk…..the long 22′ ropes got a bit tangled as I walked and they changed sides SO I stopped and sorted them out while they checked out the view 😉

Uphill a bit here and they both stayed calm for me on this bit, they like to trot/canter this part when ridden.

I decided not to ride Storm and lead Bella as it was quite slippery with wet mud on the track.

Nearly home……then Stormy has a good look at ‘his’ field from the top of the hill….excited 😉

Free at the top of the field they both trot/canter down the big hill

Both had a nice big roll (Stormy is filthy now) and then got down to grazing 😉

Sun 8th

Today was a sunny cold day but without rain it’s perfect for trimming Bella’s hooves.

She is such a good girl standing still for me while I do the work. I put this ‘knee sock’ over her feathers to keep them out of the way…works really well too 😉

Unfortunately there was a lot of other folk doing stuff nearby today too….a farmer working in the field opposite, his trailer banging and shaking while he went up and down the field. Also opposite us was a digger machine making quite a noise, moving logs and rubbish and putting them on a big fire. The fire was creating quite a lot of smoke and also whatever he was putting on it was making a loud noise…spitting and popping.

Dear Bella was a little perplexed and put out, her head going high up so she could use the lower part of her eye to see in the distance. I couldn’t get her attention to pick her feet up and knew that if I did get her foot up it wouldn’t be safe as she wasn’t paying attention to me SO I took her to play with the agility obstacles. Doing some small ‘brain games’ really helps to get a horses attention, to re-connect to the handler so this is what we did. Just in walk with some sidepass and backups too but it consisted of moving in walk, watching where she was going, stopping and praising regularly to help her realise I was calm and looking after her 😉 It worked really well and soon I took her back to continue trimming her hooves 😉

This is the agility course I set up for S&B. I draw these regularly to give me a clear view of how to set up some obstacles. This course involves 4 trotting poles, 5 cones for a weave and fig 8’s, a hulahoop, a high narrow gap made up of 4 jump wings with poles on the top to make a lane, a jump and a tarp held down with parallel wooden poles.

I put the obstacles close-ish together, it makes it easier for me to work online with S&B and can be enlarged later on when we start out fitness program for the year.

Mon 9th

The last few days have been very very cold and the nights are way below zero. S&B did the first 2 nights on their own okay but yesterday they seemed quite tired. They don’t have to try so hard to stay warm and to make the feed and hay we give them work easier for them we have been rugging them at night (off during the day to enjoy the sunshine). They can survive well but we feel they don’t have to try so hard if we can help them along a bit 😉

Thurs 11th

Sun was out today…yeehaa. But underfoot the ground is rock hard SO took it easy.

First I played with Bella and Stormy (Bella’s video at below) to get their legs moving slowly and their brains connected.

While playing with Stormy Bella wanted to join in too, at liberty 😉 She’s so funny

Storm did fabulously with drive and draw between the narrow gap poles and also putting his feet straight into the hulahoop 🙂

BAREBACK RIDING….well, sitting on and having fun plodding about. We did fig 8 in walk around the big round pens, nothing more, just a lovely connection to his feet while listening to the 1-2-3-4 of his hooves on the ground 😉

Shadow Storm kept us company.

Always brings a big smile to my face….Stormy waiting patiently for his treat after that sort plod

Then exactly the same with Bella….yup BAREBACK too, which we’ve not done a lot of but it felt right and it was lovely to really feel her back swinging with her big walk stride 😉

Both S&B waiting patiently for their treats after my ride on Bella 😉 they’re so adorable, love them to bits <3

Fri 12th

Sunshine today but -8* this morning!!! v.v.cold.

S&B have still been having their big rugs on over night and will continue to do so until it starts to warm up a bit. Before doing their yearly worming syringe for encysted worms we had a short play session. I worked with Bella in her halter but the rope was around her neck, Mark played with Stormy at liberty and then I had another BAREBACK short walk fig 8 ride on Bella around the round pens 😉

Brain work for the horses…..draw towards, backing up, sidepass, weave, fig 8’s and over poles

Bella didn’t bat an eyelid at my ‘unicorn’ hat 😉

Storm looks HUGE in this pic, his head went up when he noticed a LandRover on the track above their field…I didn’t even hear it but the horses notice EVERYTHING 🙂

Lovely to plod around again 😉 Enjoying some bareback work too…once we start working for fitness I’ll have the saddle back on 😉

Mon 15th

Today and the last couple of days have been slightly less cold than last week BUT we’ve had weather warnings for high winds, snow, ice and really low temperatures (-10* +) and the track back to home from the big field is already a bit icy.

We decide it’s better to move S&B to the home paddocks this morning where we can get to them a bit easier and they don’ t have to walk a worsening icy track. Thankfully all the horse agility we’ve been doing really helped as they had ‘slippery footing, boulders to get around, over logs, under branches and along a gap with the deer fencing’

phew

Home at last, a couple of slips of back legs (horses not us) but safe now and waiting patiently for their dinner.

They don’t have a shelter apart from natural tree shelter but they do have a wonderful stream so we don’t have to provide water here which we were doing in the big field as the trough is frozen up and the shelter only has rain water (no rain for ages….all probably going to change in a weeks time though) 😉

Wed 17th

Mark putting Bella’s neck piece on, it attaches to the main rug at the withers and we put them on overnight (needed a lot at the moment) as it was way below zero last night. Bella was worried by the noise of the velcro which is how it’s attached, when we first got her 4 1/2 yrs ago, but consistent, calm familiarisation has worked well and she now tolerates it well. We can do this process with her at liberty too now 😉

This morning it was -10*….brugghh. We’ve left rugs and neck pieces on for now until the sun decides to show it’s face later on. The rugs are warm but they’re also a bit stiff where they have laid down to sleep so we might take them off and put their other medium weight rugs on (blue) so we can thaw out the red ones for another day 😉 Luckily the neck pieces attach to both sets of rugs 🙂

Thurs 18th

Not a lot going on with S&B at the moment but we did manage to get their rugs off today and give them a really thorough groom. They loved it and they have spent the day ‘naked’ with rugs going back on tonight 😉

Wed 24th

Well S&B have been up in the house paddocks for 10 days now. Rugs regularly on then off then on again through 2 storms of high winds and rain and sleet. Today the sun is shining and the temperature is mild SO…..walked them back to their big field. Tomorrow is going to have more rain but less wind and they were SO happy to be back in the big field…able to stretch their legs, kick up their heels and have a good roll out of their rugs 😉

Really lovely to see them stretching their legs, look at how floaty Bella is trotting 😉

Thurs 25th

Walking the dog down the track today I noticed more the horse tracks from when we walked them home to their big field.

I love looking at them (mud or snow is good) as they tell so much about their hooves. THey show a lovely big frog (triangular bit in the middle) which is deep and strong, it helps the blood pump back up the legs when it makes contact with the ground.

It also shows the lovely concavity (shows as convex in prints) which shows the hooves are working well and everything inside (bones etc) is in it’s right place and not flattening out and splaying the hoof 😉

The prints also showed both S&B were ‘tracking up’. This is when the hind hoof goes into, or near, the print from the front foot and shows they’re moving well and using their backs to move.

A horse’s hooves, in walk, move like this: back left, front left, back right, front right…always working from their hind legs first so tracking up tells me their backs and withers are raised so that their back legs can stretch up to the front hoof prints 😉 🙂

Fri 26th

Managed to get out today and set up 2 agility courses. One, where I placed it before xmas, and one in a round pen for some liberty play.

But as it’s been a while since any play and S&B both wanted to play at liberty with the main obstacles so I obliged 😉 Mostly with Bella but then Stormy figured it’s where the treats were being given out. lol

Bella did some liberty weave, front feet in hulahoop, on/off tarp, in and back up through narrow gap and the jump.

I then did a quick walk ride with Stormy around the round pens. There was no real ‘goal’ as such, just me getting into sync with his footfalls and rhythm. It’s the best way to get rid of any sacral illiac stiffness in me and brings back my smile in a second 😉 Great wee play/ride and stopped me getting a bit stir crazy being inside so much 😉

Sat 27th

Calm weather today, not sunny but good for a bit of a play session with S&B and Mark 😉

First I went with Bella online over, through and between the wee agility course I reset up yesterday.

She did very well but had to have a yeehaa to blow off some winter steam in the middle (see above pic of her jumping the invisible jump). This is the reason I play with horses before I even think about riding them….I need to see, feel and believe they are connected to me, willing and able to be calm and listen to directions from subtle cues. If she needs to blow off steam then I she can and I will re-assess how we’re connecting. Today I decided not to ride her, she needed to just play and be a horsey and that’s not a problem 😉

Meanwhile Mark had a liberty play with Stormy. Their first session this year. They went slowly and methodically and Stormy seemed to really enjoy regaining his connection with Mark and the obstacles and did some lovely work 😉

I then took Bella into one of the round pens where I’ve set up some different obstacles and I keep them in here at the moment so that they don’t tread on them, break them and so that I can take things down so the wind doesn’t break them.

I realised last year that Bella has always had the halter off and it’s freedom time (in her previous homes) so doing Liberty play with her halter on gives me the advantage of her being at liberty but her thinking she’s still online 😉 She did amazingly well and even did fig 8’s going under the curtain and onto the archway 😉

And then Mark and Stormy had a liberty session in the round pen too 😉

We all had fun today, tired now though as been a while playing with S&B but hopefully if next few days are calm, dry and mild then I’ll do some more and hopefully get a ride in too 😉

Mon 29th

Grooming brushes at the ready…..Storm loves to get muddy so it’s more for him but a good routine of brushing is essential to keep a horses hair and skin in good order. I don’t like to ‘wash’ horses much as ours are outside 24/7 so need their natural oils to be waterproof but brushing keeps the dust and debris from their skin and makes sure nothing rubs underneath the bridle or saddle when working 😉

Stormy was up first. We worked with a nice purpose in walk with a bit of trot in my ‘arena. I placed tyres near the corners and one in the middle so we could practise some nice straight lines and also some nice turns, curves and later on hopefully circles 😉

Stormy did very well and enjoyed trotting to the centre of the arena once he realised this is the sweet spot to stop at 😉

Bella was next and we worked first one-handed in the ‘agility’ area where I’ve placed a 4 post ‘box’ in the centre and posts near each corner. Again this will help to do straight lines and curves, circles but it also improves picking up feet with the poles.

Bella was very good and it was a nice bit of fun getting into some ‘work’ 😉

* Shelley – HorseSavvy