I have to thank William and Kate for getting married and giving us all a day off work, this is my second four day weekend in as many weeks and as I have next Friday and Monday off work as well, I'm doing well.
Plans for intensive riding are still on hold until vets visit on Thursday, dribbling is minimal and Max still looks well and happy. Neil did his feet tonight and he was a good boy.
We have been letting the big boys through to the schooling paddock in front of the yard for an hour or so to eat the grass down. We like the grass to be short in there for schooling, plus we sometimes turn the laminitic ponies out in that paddock so it is better for them to have less grass. There is not that much grass in the paddock and it is less than an acre in size but the horses seem to think it is a real treat. The OH tried to persuade Jamie to be caught tonight, not much point trying to out run an ex racehorse I find bringing everything else in first usually works best. We all enjoyed a few minutes watching Neil and Jamie hooning around, Neil didn't look particularly sound but Jamie was moving really well.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Not the best of days .....
I discovered a sting on my leg at lunchtime that was really itchy, popped in to Boots to get some stop itch insect stuff and whacked it on without really looking at it. Turns out it is ammonia based, sting no longer itchy but sat through a meeting with a leg smelling of wee.
On the horse front things have slowed to a standstill, I had two really great rides on Max and had big plans for riding all four days over the Easter break last week. Got him in on Friday evening to discover he was dribbling from his mouth. He is fine in himself but he tongue looked a bit swollen and loads of green drool. Washed his mouth out with some mildly salty water and he ate his tea happily. Had bits of drool over the weekend so didn't really want to put a bit in. Have been keeping an eye on him but in himself he is fine, eating, charging about the field etc. Put a call in to a vet who is also a qualified dentist, he is coming out on the 5th May. In the meantime if things get worse I will call my own vet out.
Bit of a blow but I probably should have got the teeth checked out before I started him back in work anyway. Has been interesting though because I have gone from 'do I have to ride' to 'I wish I could ride' which in a way is quite nice. Also, made me realise that I do feel a lot more for Max than I thought, after the first ride I thought I would be overwhelmed with joy at getting back on board, but actually I wasn't that bothered. Really he is not one of the horses I would really love to be riding again, that is not his fault and not mine either as both of those are sadly deceased. I've had a couple of turns in my relationship with Max which has moved us on a step in the right direction, the last was when I said the words 'you are not going back' to him and things started to improve. Perhaps this blip and my concern over his health will take us another step.
I maybe won't have the relationship with riding him that I have had with some other horses but I am trying to work at it and actually I am enjoying spending time with him on the ground.
On the horse front things have slowed to a standstill, I had two really great rides on Max and had big plans for riding all four days over the Easter break last week. Got him in on Friday evening to discover he was dribbling from his mouth. He is fine in himself but he tongue looked a bit swollen and loads of green drool. Washed his mouth out with some mildly salty water and he ate his tea happily. Had bits of drool over the weekend so didn't really want to put a bit in. Have been keeping an eye on him but in himself he is fine, eating, charging about the field etc. Put a call in to a vet who is also a qualified dentist, he is coming out on the 5th May. In the meantime if things get worse I will call my own vet out.
Bit of a blow but I probably should have got the teeth checked out before I started him back in work anyway. Has been interesting though because I have gone from 'do I have to ride' to 'I wish I could ride' which in a way is quite nice. Also, made me realise that I do feel a lot more for Max than I thought, after the first ride I thought I would be overwhelmed with joy at getting back on board, but actually I wasn't that bothered. Really he is not one of the horses I would really love to be riding again, that is not his fault and not mine either as both of those are sadly deceased. I've had a couple of turns in my relationship with Max which has moved us on a step in the right direction, the last was when I said the words 'you are not going back' to him and things started to improve. Perhaps this blip and my concern over his health will take us another step.
I maybe won't have the relationship with riding him that I have had with some other horses but I am trying to work at it and actually I am enjoying spending time with him on the ground.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
We Have Lift Off
Took advantage of Sunday being a very hot day and all the horses being very snoozy to work Max. Had a plan of action, Max can get anxious if he is tied up for too long and other horses are leaving the yard, I have wondered in the past about ulcers with him because he is definitely happier being worked after eating. Anyway got them all in and got Max tacked up straight away, bought the posh Peter Maddison-Greenwell dressage saddle down rather than use the treeless. Happily the saddle fitted really well, Max has an old injury that effects one front hoof, this causes the muscle on the hoof side at the wither to not be as developed as the other side meaning that I often have to shim that side. With the ground work that we have been doing is seems a lot more even so that is good news.
Bought the tree'd saddle down because earlier in the day I really fancied hopping on myself, of course once the OH realised I was up for that he insisted on getting on first, rather than encouraging me to just hop on. If I was being charitable I would say it was to make sure Max was ok on his first ride in almost six months but I reckon actually he considers the ride on Max as his so he didn't want me to get on first. I could doing him a great disservice here however it seems a bit weird that I encourage him to ride, get the horse tacked up, help him get on, open gates so he can hack around all the fields etc, generally be very encouraging about him riding, but he never does the same thing to me. He also refused to get the higher steps out for me to get on.
Anyway I refused to get wound up and sent Neil off for a pootle around the edge of the field and that was fine so when he got back I put a crate on top of a couple of pallets and got on myself, wearing tracksuit bottoms and trainers. The stirrups on their shortest hole were still about four holes too long so I could barely touch them with the balls of my feet, which of course put my heels up. OH walked behind me and shouted encouraging words like 'get your heels down, why are your toes sticking out, why are you letting his nose poke out'. The temptation to mow him down was very strong but I resisted. One quick lap of the field and we were back safe and sound with Max seeming not bothered at all about being ridden by me.
Plan is for me to try and finish work early for the next week before all the election work kicks in, and get Neil riding him a bit more, then me hop on again at the weekend.
Feeling very pleased with myself, first time on a horse for a couple of years and although it was only a quick ride my back felt fine. My sports massage person has been telling me my back is now fine to ride for weeks now so it was good to know that she was right.
Bought the tree'd saddle down because earlier in the day I really fancied hopping on myself, of course once the OH realised I was up for that he insisted on getting on first, rather than encouraging me to just hop on. If I was being charitable I would say it was to make sure Max was ok on his first ride in almost six months but I reckon actually he considers the ride on Max as his so he didn't want me to get on first. I could doing him a great disservice here however it seems a bit weird that I encourage him to ride, get the horse tacked up, help him get on, open gates so he can hack around all the fields etc, generally be very encouraging about him riding, but he never does the same thing to me. He also refused to get the higher steps out for me to get on.
Anyway I refused to get wound up and sent Neil off for a pootle around the edge of the field and that was fine so when he got back I put a crate on top of a couple of pallets and got on myself, wearing tracksuit bottoms and trainers. The stirrups on their shortest hole were still about four holes too long so I could barely touch them with the balls of my feet, which of course put my heels up. OH walked behind me and shouted encouraging words like 'get your heels down, why are your toes sticking out, why are you letting his nose poke out'. The temptation to mow him down was very strong but I resisted. One quick lap of the field and we were back safe and sound with Max seeming not bothered at all about being ridden by me.
Plan is for me to try and finish work early for the next week before all the election work kicks in, and get Neil riding him a bit more, then me hop on again at the weekend.
Feeling very pleased with myself, first time on a horse for a couple of years and although it was only a quick ride my back felt fine. My sports massage person has been telling me my back is now fine to ride for weeks now so it was good to know that she was right.
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Don't Let Your Mum Brush Your Hair When She Is In A Bad Mood
Jamie learnt the lesson yesterday that it is not good to be a thin skinned TB second in line to be Furminated after a thick skinned Welsh section C, who has just bitten me on the backside. It took me a little while to work out that he very clearly was saying 'ouch, not so hard mum'. Poor boy, he doesn't have much hair to come out anyway.
Grand National day yesterday and as usual on these big race days I think about Jamies race career and how lucky I was to have found him before he got shipped off to Potters as another racing cast-off. I reckon he was about 4 hours away from ending up there.
Once I had tuned in to what he was telling me about the furminating we had a nice massage session in the sun which we both enjoyed.
Max was a good boy to be worked, probably not a lot more I can do to progress the groundwork now so need to start some inhand work in the bridle and hoping that the OH will pop on this afternoon and take him for a pootle around the fields.
Grand National day yesterday and as usual on these big race days I think about Jamies race career and how lucky I was to have found him before he got shipped off to Potters as another racing cast-off. I reckon he was about 4 hours away from ending up there.
Once I had tuned in to what he was telling me about the furminating we had a nice massage session in the sun which we both enjoyed.
Max was a good boy to be worked, probably not a lot more I can do to progress the groundwork now so need to start some inhand work in the bridle and hoping that the OH will pop on this afternoon and take him for a pootle around the fields.
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