Foto Friday!

Keeping control

Tonight's purchase. Since Rio bit Franks on the bum, and went back into his own field, he has ballooned over the last two days. We are going to try putting them in together during the day, and in their own fields overnight, but for now that means that he needs some restriction other than the fencing that I put up to make his field a bit smaller. I don't want him to be restricted to a tiny paddock, but he definitely needs to get rid of the grass belly. I'm disappointed really, he'd just started looking so good. 

I helped my cousin take Oakey out on long reins this evening around the big field, and for his first time out, he was a little superstar, very trunky and looking at everything but that's exactly what you expect from a four year old! He had a couple of little side steps but took it like a pro. 

I left the yard feeling a little deflated this evening, I didn't ride or anything as felt absolutely shattered. I was downhearted when comments were made about Rio's belly. I'm not kidding myself - I know he's ballooned the last couple of days, I'm not denying it or saying he looks good. I don't want him to be this round. We are working more often than before though, so I'm hoping it shouldn't last too long and the plan is that the boys will do a couple of days in Franks' field, and then one in Rio's. If all goes to plan, I'm hoping that they will eat the grass down in the next couple of weeks, and he won't have to use the grazing muzzle for long... He won't need to wear it in Franks' field, only overnight in his own, and he can have it off during the day that they spend in his field. 

Ride / play safe x

Bella's Breakthrough

It's been a bit of a mixed bag this week. A bit of good, a bit of bad, and a bit of exhaustion. Since Monday night, I've been down every evening and brought Rio up to the barn (except Friday - had a MacMillan Night In and raised a ton of cash with a lot of lovely ladies!) This has been with varying results. 

I have felt like screaming at times, and have instead found myself talking out loud asking questions I know I am never going to get the answer to but it helps me to calm down again. Frustratingly, the more we do this, the further away he seems to be getting from the second gate when he plants himself. We have now tried walking through when the power is completely off across the yard (big storm caused big powercut!) and still with the same results. 

Don't get me wrong, once I have committed to bringing him out of the field, that's it, and however long it may take, it will happen. I was sort of hoping for some change by now though, and that he might have realised that we ARE coming out of the field when I'm suggesting it! A friend is coming up this morning to try the same exercise for me, so I can establish if it's behavioural in general, or just with me. I will be a little sad if he walks straight on out, but we will see. 

All of this boils down to insignificance in the field. I love just being in there with him. We are working on personal space (trying to!) as he's very good at standing with his nose on your shoulder whilst you poo pick. He's actually had the barrow over a couple of times this week too. So now I'm wondering if I have done right by him putting him in his own paddock. Should he be in a herd situation? Would that be better with one other pony or maybe two? Who could I put him in with? Is he bored? Maybe he doesn't want to come up to the yard because I've been keeping it so simple for myself that he feels it's not worth the effort of leaving his field? (Do horses even have a trail of thought that long?) 

So last night whilst Hubster caught up on the football final, I decided to head back down to the yard. My friend picked up a new neddie yesterday, a very green, malnourished TB mare of 9 years. She's very sweet, and appears not to be a nervous type, although she did ask some questions when we took her off the lovely long grass to put her back in her stall! Got to love a bit of sass! Anyway, she gave me a brainwave, as she didn't want to load but was happy to walk straight up the ramp without hesitation with a feed bucket in the equation. Same goes for persuading her that the barn was the place to be. 

Rio loves feed. He no longer has breakfast, as to be honest, even with the grass munched down, the new shoots are very rich, he certainly needs no extra energy from his sugarbeet, and it seemed a bit of a waste. Sweep the cobwebs off the feed bins, Laura. Handful of chaff, a dozen pony nuts, and a sprinkling of garlic, and let's do this. 

He sees me walking down, and clearly clocks his favourite blue feed bucket. I'm not going to make this game too easy for him, so the feed bucket is left within a couple of feet of "scary gate". I walk down to him, get his headcollar on, and he stands there. I walk across in front of him to start the wiggly worm game, and he follows after one go. Phew. We get half way across his second paddock when he starts to slow. We're not stopping tonight Rio! I walk across in front of him again out into the field, before doing a shallow loop back to the fence line. I think he's spotted the bucket again. I'm focussed on the bucket, and walking with intent, we make it! In one sweeping motion, I grab the bucket and keep walking. It's amazing how insignificant a gate is when there's feed involved. Rio doesn't care about the gate any more, and we're off through the main metal gate, he's having a little prance, trying to get the better of me and my bucket. I push him back half a dozen times, and what do you know? He walks up just behind me, doesn't spook, scare or question at "scary spot #2", and has a beautiful forward walk coming up. We reach the barn, where he gets a big scratch on his neck, and to enjoy the little feed. Well done Rio. There's a light at the end of this tunnel - I just need to find out how far away that is!

Honestly - I know that this is not a permanent fix. If I can make it into a bit of a game for him in the meantime though, I'm hoping if he's bored it will get him interested, and if it's something else, well I'll just have to re-assess. On Wednesday I plan to pop him in with a friend's horse for an hour or so - a pony play date! If I can get him out of his own field of course! 

It's not even like he has no friends around him - he has one on two of the four sides of his field, and can see at least 4 others further over. I'm quite sure that he plays with his TB neighbour over the fence and that they groom as this is all that's left of this bit of his mane! Or perhaps, he's just happy playing in his field like I am - and maybe that's my fault. It's the only place we play at Liberty, and perhaps I'm wrong to do that as it's his place of rest? So many questions... 

Ride/play safe x

And my education begins

I'm going to give Parelli a go. It makes sense to continue to work on our relationship on the ground whilst I'm nervous of hopping into the saddle, so I'm going to take it as a positive thing, and hopefully work on improving our trust in each other. From now on I will try to focus on the positives, and we can work on the rest, so here goes.

Achievements of today:

• Walking out of the second electric gate without much fuss (we won't mention the first for now!)
• Facing down a stray green balloon
• Not completely trampling me at the sight of the two terrifying geese, although it was a bit hairy for a second!
• Walking past said geese when they had flown off and regrouped further up without any fuss at all
• Walking in and out of the arena gate three times with only one hesitation
• Standing quietly by the mounting ramp, even with me above him, and leaning on him for a moment

Ride / play safe x

Spring in our step

Looking good! Rio has been enjoying the spring grass in his new field. It doesn't help that I've still not been riding, as I've been waiting for the infection in my foot to go down. The good news is that it's looking much better so I'm hoping to get riding again next week! The bad news, is that he's only been worked twice in the last couple of weeks by my friend, and although he looks rather lush in the picture above, this is the reality!

Belly's gonna get ya! He's a round mucky little chubster! I remembered to grab some dettol when we went shopping this evening so I can at least give him a hot wash this weekend. We're off to a parelli play day on Sunday to see if we can't teach him something new and stimulate him a bit after a quiet couple of weeks. I'm a little nervous and a little excited, and a little dubious of being in my boots for several hours and on my feet, but I'm quite sure it will be worth it. We're taking Archie the goat again, and I'm hoping to get lots of photos too.

I've also had a bit of a play with a couple of the photos from our shoot last week, have a peek!

Ride safe x