I've just realised I've only made one post this month. How very lazy. This is mainly because
1. Nothing much has been happening (went to Salsa class for the first time on Tuesday - my hips may never be the same again)
and
2. A good post requires a good photograph and I don't currently have any.
Team chase season starts shortly. Also Smem is in her school show jumping team and will be riding both Zorya and Ruby (!) in the first competition of the season. Should be interesting.
I can see it might be a bit of a struggle to get Ruby back to stud anytime soon!
Friday 29 February 2008
Saturday 9 February 2008
Mucking Out and Mucking About
Last weekend Annie, Smem and Dad went off to Exmoor. Fortunately the weather cleared up for them and a good time was had by all, although the horses Smem and Dad were riding BOTH ended up falling in a bog. I can happily report that everyone got out alive and relatively unscathed, except for the lovely malaca hunting whip that I gave Smem for Christmas 2006.
To tell the truth, I'm suprised she hadn't lost it before now! The shaft broke and it's beyond repair, but I expect we could get a new shaft fitted somewhere at considerable cost.
Anyway, I was tasked, along with the boy Thos, to look after Ruby and Zorya. Well, I fed and mucked out and put them out, then Thos brought them back in, and settled them for the night. Given that he's not very mobile due to an operation to mend his cruciate ligament (it was totally destroyed in a training ground accident in August), he managed quite well, although he did put Ruby's roller on back to front one night. However, his explanation for this was perfectly legitimate. He'd tried to put it on the right way but Ruby kept standing in his light so he turned it round and did it up the other side.
Now I know Rising Rainbow would not approve of this and he should have made her move over, but he doesn't have anything to do with the horses if he can possibly help it and it was all Annie could do to persuade him to fetch them in for her! Given Ruby's record of breaking Annie's ribs and hitting me in the face with a gate............
Anyway, on Sunday I decided that all this work deserved some pleasure so I took Ruby out on a hack. HA!
I should have realised I was in for a bumpy ride when she let me put her saddle on without trying to run away. Then we didn't have the usual 'I'm taller than you' game where she sticks her head up yay high and I tickle her chin until she brings it low enough for me to get her bridle on. And she stood like a little lamb while I clambered onto the mounting block (usually the cue to take one step - just out of reach) and even as I swung my leg and mounted!
She was a bit bouncy riding out of the yard. Well, it was windy and she hadn't been ridden for a week. We opened the gate no probs. She really is the most brilliant horse for opening gates. You have to lean down a long way to open the catch, but as soon as you've done that, she either pushes it open with her chest or nudges it with her nose. Likewise when pushing it to, she holds the gate shut while you put the catch on. This is something Annie has worked very hard on. I remeber when she was a baby, I was trying to open a narrow gate, leaned down to undo the catch and she took a step back. Loose girth. Me on floor!
Then out into the kale field. Well, I didn't know there was someone with a hide set up. O.M.G! I think there must have been a monster in it. Unfortunately I didn't have a whip so had to make do with a very growly voice and a slap from the reins. From then on she was terrified of everything. And I mean everything! And when a 17.2 hulk of horse digs her heels in, there's not a lot you can do. Eventually we managed to negotiate the kale field and got onto the green lane, although she really didn't want to go through the gateway (a gateway, I might add, that she walks through totally untroubled most days). then she settled down a bit.
Of course, once she had tired, she was an angel again. Didn't turn a hair to the cars whizzing past when we got to the main road. And they say animals don't have a sense of humour!
To tell the truth, I'm suprised she hadn't lost it before now! The shaft broke and it's beyond repair, but I expect we could get a new shaft fitted somewhere at considerable cost.
Anyway, I was tasked, along with the boy Thos, to look after Ruby and Zorya. Well, I fed and mucked out and put them out, then Thos brought them back in, and settled them for the night. Given that he's not very mobile due to an operation to mend his cruciate ligament (it was totally destroyed in a training ground accident in August), he managed quite well, although he did put Ruby's roller on back to front one night. However, his explanation for this was perfectly legitimate. He'd tried to put it on the right way but Ruby kept standing in his light so he turned it round and did it up the other side.
Now I know Rising Rainbow would not approve of this and he should have made her move over, but he doesn't have anything to do with the horses if he can possibly help it and it was all Annie could do to persuade him to fetch them in for her! Given Ruby's record of breaking Annie's ribs and hitting me in the face with a gate............
Anyway, on Sunday I decided that all this work deserved some pleasure so I took Ruby out on a hack. HA!
I should have realised I was in for a bumpy ride when she let me put her saddle on without trying to run away. Then we didn't have the usual 'I'm taller than you' game where she sticks her head up yay high and I tickle her chin until she brings it low enough for me to get her bridle on. And she stood like a little lamb while I clambered onto the mounting block (usually the cue to take one step - just out of reach) and even as I swung my leg and mounted!
She was a bit bouncy riding out of the yard. Well, it was windy and she hadn't been ridden for a week. We opened the gate no probs. She really is the most brilliant horse for opening gates. You have to lean down a long way to open the catch, but as soon as you've done that, she either pushes it open with her chest or nudges it with her nose. Likewise when pushing it to, she holds the gate shut while you put the catch on. This is something Annie has worked very hard on. I remeber when she was a baby, I was trying to open a narrow gate, leaned down to undo the catch and she took a step back. Loose girth. Me on floor!
Then out into the kale field. Well, I didn't know there was someone with a hide set up. O.M.G! I think there must have been a monster in it. Unfortunately I didn't have a whip so had to make do with a very growly voice and a slap from the reins. From then on she was terrified of everything. And I mean everything! And when a 17.2 hulk of horse digs her heels in, there's not a lot you can do. Eventually we managed to negotiate the kale field and got onto the green lane, although she really didn't want to go through the gateway (a gateway, I might add, that she walks through totally untroubled most days). then she settled down a bit.
Of course, once she had tired, she was an angel again. Didn't turn a hair to the cars whizzing past when we got to the main road. And they say animals don't have a sense of humour!
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