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HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL & I HOPE 2026 IS A GOOD ONE 🙂

New Years Eve we had a smattering of snow overnight and some very very rare local fireworks going off (hate, hate, hate noisy fireworks! 🙁 ) SO Mark and I popped out just before midnight to keep an eye on S&B, make sure they weren’t frightened or running around (luckily the fireworks were about 2 miles away BUT very very noisy 🙁 ). S&B did very well, just stood and watched in the direction all the noise and lights were coming from. I went over to them after the 9 minutes they were on for and gave them some very nice treats for being so good when that was going on 🙂

We rugged S&B tonight as there was snow due and it was around -8* overnight,

Thu 1st Jan

Not much going on at the moment with S&B, the ground is really hard and we had a bit more snow today.  They kept their rugs on today as it was still around -7* all day.

Fri 2nd Jan

Still cold but the sun is shining this morning SO rugs off so S&B can get some Vit D and warm up a bit. We gave them a nice brush and got the rugs into the house to dry/warm up a bit in case we need to pop them back on tonight.

Mon 5th + Tue 6th

All blue rugged up for the cold, even wee Bodie Beau

We call S&B over as we have a weather warning for snow today….to change their rugs

They now have slightly bigger red rugs on with necks so the snow doesn’t melt down their necks and onto their shoulders 😉

Both now snug and cosy ready for snowfall.

AND this afternoon at feeding time (around 3.30pm) it was still snowing…..

Mon 12th

Well, we had a lot of snow with quite a lot of flurries over the last week so it was about 6″ deep.

With the damp and the freezing temps we put their rugs on which kept them cosy.

From around 4pm yesterday until this morning we’ve had rain, quite a lot of heavy rain and then lots of drizzle SO….a lot of water everywhere and a lot of the snow gone which is fab. SO…RUGS OFF this morning…yeehaa. And S&B thoroughly enjoyed their brushes which helps to relieve any itching, get some rug scurf off and gets their hair folicules up and working again to keep them warm 😉 🙂 🙂

Happy S&B, Happy owners too 🙂

Tues 20th

Unbelievably S&B have been in the house paddocks since xmas eve, almost a month, and this is the first time really that I’ve been able to walk them out.

The trimmer is coming on Thurs so I wanted to re-connect to them before that and also make sure that when they come out of the paddock gate they don’t automatically think they’re going back to their big field (not able to stand still or pay attention) so a walk out was a good move.

They did really well, walked over a field and a bit in front of the house, waited patiently then walked back with plenty of halts and backups along the way 😉

Sun 25th Jan

OMG, we’ve had 5 days of heavy rain and wind, this luckily took all the snow/ice away from the tracks BUT has now caused lots of flooding around the countryside 🙁

We’ve not been flooded ourselves but the horses have had to be rugged with necks on as no shelter really up here. They’ve been staying close to the feed station behind our house and garage and staying warm and dry under their rugs (thank goodness) and it looks like we’ve got 2 more days of it here before we can even think about taking them back down to their field (if it’s not flooded) AND then we have about 5 more days of light rain/drizzle coming. It’s been awful.

Our coats/leggings are constantly wet, we also changed rugs on S&B so the other ones are trying to dry in our spare room and all the coats, hats etc drying in our lounge 🙁 What a mess and I’ll be SO glad to get into a dry, mild Spring (if we’re getting that) 🙂

Tues 27

We have now had a week of constant heavy rain and back to the gusts of high winds today too ;( 🙁 🙁

We checked the big field yesterday to make sure everything was still good for S&B going back to it soon and apart from a couple of electric fences broken, which were easily fixed, and some large bird poo splats in the shelter all was not bad at all…in fact there were some Barn Owl pellets (poops) in the shelter too so we’re happy the birds took shelter in our shelter but hope they find other places to sleep when S&B return 😉 lol

We were planning on taking S&B back tomorrow, supposedly a day of dry calmness BUT our farrier has rescheduled his visit for Friday (probably more drizzly rain so may not happen!!) SO we’re going to keep them up at the house until then and if he can’t make it then I’m taking them down to the big field and his next visit will have to be re-organised.

Friends etc are saying Spring will be here soon but we know we have Feb and March to get through yet so just trying to hang on in there and hope this year isn’t one of extremes 😉

Weds 28th

Well the Met Office was right and today we have a DRY, MILD day 😉 🙂 🙂

Absolute bliss to be able to take S&B’s heavy, very wet rugs off and give them both a super scratchy groom which they thoroughly enjoyed.

So lovely to let them be naked for a while.

Not sure what kind of wet weather is ahead for the next 5 days, Met Office says changeable from light to heavy rain through out SO we’re hoping to allow S&B to be naked for a while (light rain and warmer temps is fine for that) but we have rugs ready with necks if it decides to go to freezing again 🙂

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk

<3 WOW, it’s DECEMBER already….

Not a lot happening at moment here apart from wind and rainy weather (which is putting play or riding on the shelf for now).

S&B will be coming to the house on Weds 11th (farrier coming to trim hooves on Thurs) so hopefully get a chance to ride Stormy up, leading Bella BUT if it’s going to rain then I’ll walk them up….hopefully get a pic or two then 🙂

Weds 10th

Well it seems we’ve been lucky to mostly miss a lot of Storm Bram, yes we had some 50mph wind and quite a bit of rain but really not as much as we thought so that’s good.

We still have the farrier coming up tomorrow, to trim their hooves, so we took a chance on the weather (it’s still on/off rain here) and managed to get S&B back to the house ready for that. I togged up in case of rain, luckily as it did drizzle a bit and S&B walked beautifully for me. I wanted to ride but they were so wet from days and days of rain ;( BUT it was good to walk with them, thank goodness Stormy is a very solid horse as I hung on to him a couple of times as I was walking in deep puddles and squishy mud. lol.

All home and hopefully the rain will eventually stop tonight. Tomorrow is supposed to be dry, the farrier will be pleased to hear that as we have nowhere for him to work under cover (apart from a large umbrella) lol 😉

Fri 12th

Farrier came yesterday and their hooves are looking fab.u.lous 😉 They spent the night at the house and today I rode Bella back to the big field while leading Stormy 😉

Considering I’ve not ridden her for nearly a month she was a total STAR <3 She walked calmly the whole way and did a wee trot just before the end and she was sound (not lame) and happy to trot 😉 They’re very happy to be back in the big field and stretched their legs. The next visit to the house will be before xmas, staying up here over the xmas and new year week (there is a local hotel doing fireworks this year, the first in 15yrs since we’ve been here so am trying to keep the horses as far away as possible for that stupid event!!!).

Anyway, some pics from today…

Lovely to have a dry day, bit chilly but that’s not bad.

Mark came on the quad bike and opened all the gates for us 😉 Water crossing, no problem.

Keeping Stormy from going in front was the main issue, he soon settled further behind once he realised he wasn’t leading 😉

I thought we’d both go through the gateway BUT Stormy always has his own idea’s 🙂 LOL

And a wee trot just before the field…Bella sound and happy to trot thank goodness 😉

Really enjoyed the ride home and it was fab that Mark is ok to drive the quad bike so I didn’t have to walk all the way home again 😉

Wed 24th (Xmas Eve)

S&B happily back to the house for the Xmas week. Hope they enjoy the change, think I will 😉 Then maybe back to the big field around 3rd January after worming 😉

Just a few pics from the afternoon 😉

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk

Tues 11th November

Just a quick update 😉

Mark has had his knee replacement done on 6th Oct so he’s still in hospital until tomorrow. I’m doing the chores at home (walk Beau twice a day, feed horses twice a day, poo pick field, bring wood in for fire, clean fire and making fire daily etc) and will probably be doing most of this for the rest of the year until Mark is walking better and happy to jump on the quad bike to do horses but he needs time to mend and get back his fitness.  Being that Winter is coming it’s been chilly, rainy, damp and foggy there is little time to think about riding (or even grooming as horses wet) and also dear Bella has been off-ish (a bit lame on her front right foot) so no riding going on at the moment. When it’s nice I may have the chance to ride Stormy but am having to not ride Bella to try to give her time to heal from whatever is making her lame. I cannot find any heat in her legs or anything that suggests ill health so it could be a hoor abscess which hopefully will come out sooner or later…just waiting to see what to do and when to bring a vet in (if no sign of where lameness comes from the vet will just prescribe a pain killer (she could run about and not feel the pain which could make things worse) and box rest (which we can’t do)…so a waste of a vet coming out fee until we can see something that needs mending ;( She could have just sprained a muscle, slipped in the mud while prancing about or got a bruised foot from a stone when walking on the track to the house the other day ;( It’s a waiting game with as much field rest for Ms Bella.

Sat 15th

The rain has stopped and it’s become very cold here BUT today the sun shone for a wee bit SO a great excuse to have a wee sit on Stormy 😉

We’ve not done anything for a couple of weeks now so we just took it slowly and we went straight to P2Ps (Point 2 Points).

This game gives us a great purpose and teaches focus, focus, focus.

We started going to a cone, then the rope post, then a gateway, a mounting block and repeated.

I made sure we changed the stopping point regularly and the only habit was to go straight and stop.

Stormy likes variety so keeping the game the same but changing the destination keeps him happy and gets his brain focussing on the purpose 😉

Sun 16th

Last night was -4* and was bitterly cold, the distant mountains had a bit of snow on the top and that chill factor was being brought down to the fields by the breeze. The horses were okay BUT there was quite a frost SO I took a small bale of hay down with their breakfast this morning (they have speedi-beet and chaff in their meals, this time of year it’s warm too). I gave them half the bale and stored the other half for later on. It was really just to give them something dry in their bellies before going to graze. Once they’d eaten their hay the sun had de-frosted the grass in the field and they happily went to munching as normal.

Eating their breakfast in the morning’s sunrise.

Happily munching hay in their shelter this morning 😉 🙂 : )

Sunday 3pm…

I took Mark, healing from his knee replacement operation, to see the horses at evening feed time (3pm).

He’s missed them a lot and they him too, he wanted to make sure they knew he was still around, just healing 😉

Tues 18th

SNOW….

Tactical rugging: If I rugged them now, they can dry out and then they’ll be ready and dry for tonight’s -7* temp without rugs 😉

Tues 25th

Even though it’s been cold, rainy, drizzly and I don’t have a lot of time to do anything (also Bella is still limping a bit) I try to do something with S&B in the morning or evening at feed time. Just trying to keep our connection and keeping their brains working 😉

They often want to play so this morning we just did some ‘foot/feet’ on something. First it was Storm then Bella with one foot on the medium pedestal (tyre). Then Storm put his foot on the very small tyre (from a wheelbarrow) and then Bella did a great job standing on the big pedestal with all 4 feet 😉

THEN in the afternoon I took Mark down to see S&B again, he wants them to know he’s still about, just healing and they love seeing him and re-connecting with him.

I also took the opportunity of a nice bareback ride on Stormy where we did some brain thinking agility which was great 😉

Sun 30th

Today we have blue skies again (we’ve been having a ton of rain and wind) and got Mark out to see S&B again…he misses them so much, and they him <3

Bella seems sound today too SO took the opportunity to ride Stormy and lead Bella, readying them for coming home for the farrier on the 11th Dec.

1. Leading Bella from Stormy…

2. A FIRST for me and Stormy….Cantering the weave. Stormy sometimes gets fab idea’s and I know to run with it if I can. He obviously got bored trotting the weave and decided it would be fun to try cantering it 🙂 We’ve taught him to walk/trot close to the cones so cantering with counter-canter was a breeze really, I just had to direct him and sit tight 😉

3. Big trot around the round pens 😉

4. Rope circles 😉

Enjoyed every second of it 😉

• Shelley – HorseSavvy.co.uk