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.
- 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
