salee's waffle er... i mean blog?

hi
last wed we (son & i) took gwen out for what we thought would be a gentle traffic free walkies......wed afternoon about 3pm when everyone is in work & there are few cars......
i led him till we got to where we went down a dead end lane leading to just 1 farm, ideal for the 1st solo no-lead ride out you would think 'eh?....

'till a tanker, 2 tractors & some farm whatsit with more bits sticking out than a starwars monster! all came rolling past all at once,

the track has the high normandy banks both sides so no where to get out of the way except to squash up, honestly the tanker creeping past cleared gwens bum by about a foot at most, i had to lean in to her neck to get out of its way, the drivers were nice though they could see she was only a pony ridden by a kid so they were very carefull but oh boy it was not the nicest experience i have had i can tell you, but at least we know she is very ok in traffic!
today (monday) went well, gwen & cilla got their tootsies trimmed,
cilla was actually better than gwen,
cilla was happy to be caught, led & stood really well, she relaxed & started slow blinking, nodding down into her headcollar to lean on my hand and even licking & chewing at 1 point.
we have continued to always start things on her off side, i have found over the years the abused horse is expecting trouble on their nearside more than the offside as 99% of us start any type of anything on the near side, by starting on the offside it somehow seems less of a memory jerker?

soooon???? maybe cilla will be able to be tried out to ride lets hope it is not.. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] or ...[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] or...[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


so 2 sets of tootsies trimmed just fine...but not uni, she still has too many problems, i don't think it hurts her to stand on her odd legs, but i think she expects it to, she can walk & turn so she can take weight on all her legs, but although she will pick up her feet when asked - eventually- she wants to put 'em down as fast as poss making trimming not an easy operation.

she is making progress i will get the osteopath in early march again, he said a month or 2 of natural exercise before his next visit, but with the ice & snow she did not do as much wombling about as we hoped she would so i have added on a couple of weeks to the return visit, to encourage her to walk about more i have the water at 1 end of the paddock & the hay piles at the other.
she is most certainly getting stronger on her legs & in her back, she can roll over & back several times when she wants too & i can see she lies down now (sh*t marks on her sides!), she has been lying down both in the field & the stable, in the field gwen usually either lies down with her or stands guard over her..sweet! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

when uni lies down at night now she is ok as she is always up in the morning when it is time to go outside for hay brekkies.

Gerry is facinated with the girls, uni chases both him & chance, but despite cilla being a snotty little madam with the others she seems to get on ok with Gerry, chance is not bothered either way, gwen or cilla can pull faces as much as they like he just does not care, but he is enough of a gentleman to not threaten them back.
so far all get on ok, thank goodness, now that cilla is cooling off & calming down the 'herd' is starting to pull into a natural harmony, at least this way maybe if i take chance out to train him gerry won't be so stressed? well i hope so.

i was bidding on ebay for a saddle for gwen, i didn't win it but the welsh person who was the seller sent me a few names in welsh with their meanings after i said i was thinking of getting the awfull names they got landed with changed on their papers, now we got to decide what we want their official names to be. bye! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Goodness you've been busy salee, keep up the good work.

pen

Don't you just love it when the planned quite walk goes pear shaped, I did one of those the other week too

a friend put me on to a french farrier who deals mostly with heavies, he came out and did a trim on UNI,
it took 3 of us to prop her up while he got in quick & did a bit then let her stand and had another go, fortunantly for her he is a big bloke used to being leaned on so he could take it, but even so she pitched forward at 1 point and knocked all of us over,
the big problem was the foot diagonally opposing her injured one, it looks like it has not been even picked out since her accident - i couldn't get her to lift it, & it was very very long & begining to get an uneven fracture line developing part way round it so she needed it taking back urgently because if the hoof had broken on that line it could have gone vertical too & then oh deep joy!
the other feet were not so bad,

1 down 2 to go....

chance was frankly a bratt, he is not scared he just tried it on, but this guy has percherons so he gave no quarter & chance soon packed it in, but Gerry, well a new farrier = stranger = panic so after a few min it was decided to leave him, partly 'cos the farrier was knackered from the 1st 2 & running late now & partly because Gerry was spooked, maybe give him some calmavet sedative for next time?

later i took Gwen out on a mini hack, i needed to know how she would be ridden out before i let my son loose on her.....

lets just say she is a 'challenging' ride!

i.e spooks at everything, slams on the anchors & runs backwards at everything spooky, on average every 50m or so for the 1st 1/4 mile? not the most comfortable of sessions in saddle i can tell you, [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] ouch,

but time will help that if my butt can take the strain, she stood she looked, she worried, she had a think, & then we carry on, no rants, no shouts, just me talking rubbish to her & telling her how brave she is when she goes forward,

add in tractors & big stuff of all types (again!) race bikes, cows & this time even a bloomin microlight (megga wasp? panic!! ) & you get the idea.
twice she backed up into a ditch, finding a distinct lack of ground underfoot shook her and she started forward again, i had to hide out in a few farm gateways to let stuff past, i must say the local farmers are very nice about it, so progress is being made slowly,
but then she decided to play scared and back up quite fast -this time it was only a volvo car-, ears back and putting it on in shovels she backed very determined up.....a slap with the reins almost changed her mind, i don't carry a whip.....
but when another humongus monster tractor loomed up behind her...she decided a volvo was not that scary afterall....[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] both us & the volvo had to shove into gateways it was that big a monster tractor!!

plus she is fizzy, walk is a march or a jiggle not a toddle and relax the rein a miniscule and she breaks into trot, let her and she glides into rapid trot & since i don't want to do more than walk, i insisted she return to walk, iv'e got blisters from hanging on to her.
maybe i might try a stronger bit than a simple snaffle, or a drop noseband? i don't think a kiddie could hold her which explains why her carrear in a school ended in a meat yard?
i did once wish she was a bit bigger, but now....well if she was bigger, say 14.2hh? & carried on like this? to be honest she would be a bit too much for me now-a-days! a hot bath & i could almost walk without wincing.

but she's fine, shot off in the field bucking & farting to rejoin the herd as soon as i let her go. they make 'em tough in wales you know.
bye [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Oh, dear, no progress with Gerry and his feet then, they must be getting quite long by now. As you know my farrier couldnt do him. It wasnt for the want of trying. After the 3rd time of Gerry rearing he said it was too dangerous to continue, he is such a big horse.

Yes think sedation must be the way forward.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] I agree, these big horses are dangerous when they decide enough is enough.... and brute force doesn't work, no way, no how and if your farrier suggests the cage it may work once! Take this from one who knows salee, you are looking at hours and hours of handling and de-sensitization... every day and it's a two man operation really, just to get to the stage of being able to pick out their feet.... and as for Gwen please be careful, who would take care of them all if you got hurt.

pen

maybe the pony has never been ridden out on her own, if she was mine i would lunge her well, then ride her around the field, then go out somewhere not too scary with one of your kids on a bike as reassurance and to help if you come unstuck, it worked wonders with one i had who went everywhere no problem with the bike, or try with another horse for company, and in between doing that lead her around inhand a bit and let her see the world like that, good luck! it is'nt easy

Perhaps Gwen is uncomfortable in some way, maybe her back is sore, or she has overgrown teeth, which is common here with french horses. So might be a plan to get her checked over before you ride her again

As another one who had to teach a Breton to pick his feet, Good Luck

It took me a long time, he never reared up more glued it to the floor and kicked out with the backs, I started by picking (or trying) when he had his tea, even if he only picked up for a few seconds, I made a huge fuss of him and then went on to the next.
I would deffantly get Gwen's back, teeth, saddled checked etc

perhaps sernin could have a look at gwen when he comes for uni this month, eric is here in april for teeth. Does gwen long rein? may be better for her than lungeing, just incase she has a problem in her back

pen

the osteopath came on wed to see uni,

he is pleased with her progress so thats nice, he can flex her bad leg right up high now and said where she was 'like wood' before is now flexible & where she was 'weak & soft' before has strengthened up, he said keep doing as i am & he is coming back at the end of summer.

uni's problem now is she is used to being lame and favouring her other legs, she has 'forgotten' how to be sound in fact! & she still expects pain even though it has gone , so now i need to lift her legs more often & gradually higher to give her the confidence to do it herself,
oh!! & i can let her put on more weight now, just as well since spring is about to be sprung and the grass will soon be up, i was not looking forward to trying to keep her weight down while at the same time encouraging her to walk about, but now i can let Dr green do it's stuff.

she needs the dentist now as she has a few long teeth money! money!

the long awaited **wormers arrive next week so they can all get done again, i had in enough for the little ones but not to do the big un's & since i figured uni probably had good prior worming & i know C&G have they could hang on just a little longer, but i thought the welshies worm history might be patchy so i gave them priority.
no nasty little anythings seen so far, later i will send off for worm counts.

** i ordered some wormers which a nice lady was bring over along with the shared order of bute, but they arrived too late so i have had to wait for her next trip out next week.

by the way....the osteopath had a look at gwen & said she is fine, he also said she is up for my weight 'no problem' as he said they are exceptionally strong ponies & he is quite happy she can carry me on normal rides out. i also asked the opinion of someone who bred & showed welsh at a very high level, she said the same, she showed at major shows under saddle & working hunter too on welsh A & she is 5 ft 6" riding weight 9 st, so i feel a lot happier about riding gwen, mind you little miss fizz bomb herself seemed happy about it & she needs the experience!

to celebrate i bought gwen a new bridle, only a cheapie from agrial but better than the home brew adapted headcollar i was using, when i get the dentist in for UNI i will ask them to do a check/work as needed on gwen & cilla too.

next question.....anyone know a good horse dentist in my area?
st hilaire du harcouet. bye




i am still working on Gerry, some days he is cool -ish & some days a right royal mavis/premadonna! fortunantly his feet are not long, a bit ragged but not long, like many horses who live out on a mixture of ground inc stoney bits they wear them down, the future prob with Gerry is ...when (note the confident not use of IF ) he ever starts work his feet may take a while to catch up growing speed to cope, so i may need to look out for foot sore, but we will deal with that if we ever get that far!

Thats excellent news

I'm sure eric will come to you, he's over in a couple of weeks time, I think even if their feet don't need anything doing it's as well to spend time each day picking them up (or trying to) these "biggies" soon go off the boil so to speak, if you don't keep at it. It's great to hear that you're doing so much now........... who'd have thought I'm coming over your way in April, I'll pop in and see the "gang" if the offers still open.

pen [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

not rode last week, had a sudden attack of the rust & creaks when it went damp & cold, then had to catch up on stuff i was too creaky to do the days after when the weather picked up.

Uni skinned her shin, from the hole in the shelter wall it looks like she put her foot through and caught the shin skin on the way back, nothing too serius but with her luck i expect it to scar white, the shelter walls are only OSB boarding mainly to stop the wind so not tough enough to belt with a hoof, she may have been kicking out at 1 of the goats on the otherside or just wriggling to get up?

i almost left them out on sunday night as the forcast was so good, glad i didn't though as it was cold fog on monday morning, Uni was quite stiff first thing, i think when i get sorted to build real stables i will have to plan hers as extra big as i think she will need to be in at night more than usual.

yesterday was a perfect photo shot..if only i had the camera with me.

the dogs were having a mad minute with carol the goatkid on my west field, & all 5 of the horses were awstruck watching them over the fence from the east field, all 5 stood rock still, 4 feet planted, ears up, tails up, fully to attention, not even chewing, much better than any show line up i have ever seen.

carol our goat kid decided to be a horse yesterday afternoon instead of a goat and spent the day pinching hay from the horses in turn, when the horses had a mad min she joined in too, at least she gets some exercise between the horses & the dogs.

still playing shake hands with gerry, but less shake & more hands most of the time, when i get time i must make him a skinny rope headcollar for in the field, the proper normal web 1 he has on now is only just big enough on the max holes, i need to keep 1 on him for now so i can work with him with no warning, if i take it off & he sees it coming he can be a pratt & the few mins work time is spent instead playing 'chase me' as he knows i can't walk fast so he just goes round the back of chance over and then round the front of chance. but he doesn't bother if he has a headcollar already on.

i won the ebay bid on a saddle for Cilla, but my paypal has gone mental - won't accept the pass word or reset a new one? so i have to send money in the post so longer delays...anyone else found ebay & paypal are being awkward or is it just me?

bye

thursday i got a heck of a shock...as i let uni out of the stable her patella gave an almighty crack & she limped off obviously in discomfort & distress!

a few strides later she was ok.....phew!

but on the plus side it does mean her joints are looser & her muscles must be re-forming in order to be able to pull her bones about like that.

& today.......I Think she jumped the gate !!!!

the story.... i let them all out & there they ALL were munching hay in 1 end of the field, a couple of hours later Uni was drinking water at the other end of the field - which is a sort of L shape, behind the pointy bit of the L hidden behind the shelter is a double gate to separate the 2 halves, this has been open on 1 half for weeks.

i noticed uni all alone was running about in the 'water' end of the field & i was about to go see what was wrong when she ran like hell behind the shelter & reapeared going up to the hay end no problem, so i thought no more of it.

later when i went to call them, no one came? so i went to see why & i saw the open half of the gate had swung shut & was wedged in the mud so it couldn't move (the post has pushed over to 1 side in the soggy weather) so the only way she could have got from 'water' end to 'hay' end....

would have been to have jumped a standard metal farm gate 1.3m high!

not bad going for a 3 & a 1/2 legged horse!

can't wait to see what she can do if she ever goes sound

tommorrow is sort out gate & post as it took all my strength to just haul it open enough to let them through tonight, great fun in driving rain..not!

bye

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Hi salee, it's been very quiet over in this corner how's it going?

hi, no problem just house web gone down again, having to borrow a friends internet, so i will do an update when france tel get the problem sorted, bye

hi back on line for now......

so whats happened??? let me think???

not ridden out, too many bloomin big lorries now as well as the usual tractors, all to do with the power pylons going up, at least the tractors are usually slow & the driver knows the road, but the pylon lorry drivers are neither!

Uni did her 'looks lying dead in a field' trick again sat, gave no sign of life untill i was about 10 ft away - then we thought she just might be stuck as she made no attempt to get up, not wanting to force her in anyway i got a bucket with food and rattled it from the gate, the rest shot over, she decided she could get up afterall & was not far behind them.. ..phew

finally got the wormers from UK so had a multi worm attack day last week, Uni & the welshies take the tablets no problem, chance will in feed, but gerry.....he can tell a medication at 100ft,

i had to bury it in strong 'treat' feed lots of added stuff & ground up the tablets really fine too & tied up chance so he couldn't pinch it but was close enough to make gerry eat it just so chance couldn't.

i did all the goats, dogs & cats too, so far only the new dog has passed any gremlins, so i will re dose him soon, sirius is a giant schnausser of 8 mth we got him only 1 week befor my GSD indi passed on, the kids called him sirius as he looks like the black dog in Harry potter.

the welshies are looking good, gwen is blooming, all shiny and nice condition, i will need to watch her if the grass ever does start for pre lami, cilla is ok, neither fat not thin, just ok, still timid but she is happy to come for feed and take titbits so long as i make no attempt to grab her (which i don't) but she is getting closer & closer & will accept a neck or wither scratch in the open field now so progress is positive.

uni is putting on weight, slowly as instructed so not to stress her frame,she could carry a bit more so i am still feeding he up a bit, she has built up a lot of thigh & 2nd thigh muscle but is now having problems with her patella as it 'clicks' a lot,
this was expected as once the big muscles reform they pull on the joints inc the patella differently than before so it will be a while till everything moves as it should, i have restarted the bute type medication even though the weather has mostly warmed up as she was obviously not a happy bunny,
she needs to move about as much as she can so the dope helps her keep active, i have introduced a new feed which has oats in - a friend gave it me because it has oats in & they have a ridden arab! too late once the bags are open,- so if that does not encourage uni to run about a bit what will?

the bretons are as usual fat and easy going, still working on gerry giving up the feet & general leading about. i might be getting some help to continue their training, fingers crossed , watch this space.

sometime in may a friend is organising a spanish style riding demo/clinic, the spanish guy coming has loads of experience and was a dressage judge at only 19y old....
i couldn't have done a decent dressage test at that age never mind judged it!
Pedro favours a much gentler training aproach to the old style spanish training, so far she has several horses lined up for him to ride inc a friend of mine's andalucian who is supposedly trained spanish dressage style but they have never seen him ridden that way so we are all looking forward to seeing what their horse can really do.
i of course won't be taking part in any riding, those days are gone for me, & i rather doubt a welsh A or a breton is exactly the right sort of mount for this but i am looking forward to seeing a real expert do his stuff.

bye

Good to have an update salee, glad you're keeping it up with the "big boys" all yours are so time consumming with their problems, I don't know how you find any time for yourself. I can't believe you haven't got any grass yet we're watching it grow here. Who's pedro??? Did you manage to get out on your ride?

pen

how do i find time?

i hate housework thats how!

in answer to your question azaria :-

pedro is a spanish classical dressage expert who is arranging to come up from spain to do a demo & clinic for 1 or 2 days probably in may (might be pushed back to june but not confirmed)
the event is being kept to a small audience to give those really interested a closer view & more time individually with pedro for questions, if too many want to come to see it this time another might be arranged for later in the year.

** pedro intends using a range of horses to demo different stages of training from youngsters worked from the ground to experienced horses being ridden & a limited number of horses to be ridden by their owners & working with pedro to improve.

as far as i know its ticket in advance only as there is probably a lunch or something inc so advance numbers attending are needed.




bye [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

So how are all your lot then salee?

Hmm how are my lot???

WET with added soggy bits.
i may need to use WD40 on the ducks soon if it does not stop raining.

Uni hates it, she stiffens up, looks fed up and just wants to stand in, not good for her recovery but i can't say i blame her. she is becoming much more affectionant, a proper soppy mummies girl, she can move up behind me so quietly i have sometimes turned around and bumped into her, i am hoping we soon get some warm weather, it's crucial she gets her skeleton & muscles balanced while she is still young before the cartillages turn into bones or she will always be tilted, i had started a programme of physio using a soft rope to lift her bad leg forward and up to flex it, but she is in too much discomfort in this nasty waether so i have stopped for now.

chance & gerry are soggy too, but they still have winter coat hanging on so they are ok, as long as food arrives regularly they don't give a stuff. i have done snot all with either for about 3 weeks, no time, wrong weather and been away a few days too,
note to self - get yer butt moving & work started again!

the welshies :- well it's just like being back home on the hills isn't it boyo?

ditto done nowt with them, unless you count a little more gentle handling of cilla, a little touch & retreat & touch & retreat then leave her alone, a bit of grooming when she feels calmer, some apple feeding over the gate to bribe her to come to me, i wish i had a round pen as i just know she wants to 'talk' but keeps bottling out, its too yukky to even consider trying to long rein or anything,

& the dogs? well they run about outside, puddle sploshing & come in mud covered to spread said mud as far as a dog can over anything or anyone they can.

& to cap it all the little mare i was riding out while her owner was waiting on an operation......well she's on maternity leave now ( mare not owner!) i had my suspicions a few months ago, but the owners were sure she couldn't be....but last month her weight moved behind & below the mid line, she got really spooky to ride & started letting fly both barrels at anything coming too close behind........
& now the vet has confirmed yep shes a cookin'.....

last week she started to bag up just a little, so we are in the last 2 months or last 2 weeks or last 2?? left, you know how it is with 1st timers they will when they do & thats all you can say for certain.

so i am again mountless for now, except for little gwen,

i found a calculation which said a rider should not be more than 20% of the weight of the horse/pony as the average foal is about that and nature designes the mare to easily carry that 20% 24/7 for several months even at high 'run away for your life' speeds.

sooooooooooo if the average welsh A is 350 - 400 kilo as the wormers & web sites etc say then she can carry 70 kilo! even with tack & a hat & wellies & big coat i am not that heavy so off we go! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] i might even 1 day have a wee sit on cilla too? just to start her off again.

bye [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

finally got unis rugs off her, i was begining to forget what colour she is??

so thinks ok its now weatherwise better so i would start letting the girls in with chance & gerry on their field, i can't when its nasty as neither field has a shelter big enough for 5 and it would be uni who got pushed out in the rain!

tuesday in they went no prob,

wed i was going out, so of course it all went wrong.......

8.30am uni stood up grazing...so far so good.

10 am she's lying down flat out as usual.

10.15am i go to let them change fields & find she is in fact stuck - having slid slightly down a very shallow dip, normal horses would have no prob, but she is not yet anywhere near normal so as she tried to get up she had her bad leg under her & because of this she sort of shoved herself sideways and got to close under the bottom rail with her back right up against the fence post.

Oh joy!!!! horse shifting again. (must ask santa for a forklift truck??? )

we tried putting a lunge line round her neck so she could 'lean' on us..
& we tried pulling her away from the fence..

so in the end we (me & son) had to dismantle 30m of sheep wire fence, 3 strands of electric fence & 2 runs of tripple post n rail inc pulling up the posts to get her out, through all this she was quite calm, occasionally looking over her shoulder to see where we had got up to, not bothered by assorting heaving, hammering and swearing.

then we had to flip her over & do some massage before she could get up, it took her about 7 goes in all,

so now she is standing in the same field as the rest.....so what does she do? walk over to them, flip her lid and take off bucking??

no....she walked back in through the dismantled fence gap & around to the gate & stood there waiting to be let into the field she had just been flipped over into??

in case anyone asks...SHE IS FINE,

but me Oh woe am I, sore, stiff, creaky, wobbly legged, extra pain killers & still Oww Oww Oww i think i know what the rope in a tug of war feels like.

bye

Makes me feel exhausted just reading it! Poor you! You remind me of a jack russell, little and tough as hell!

not been on for a while, a lot has happened some good, some not so good & some bl**dy awful.

the awfull is uni has died, i have posted the hows & whys on rainbow bridge. i don't want to repeat it, i hope you will understand.

the not so good is i had more scans etc & the decision is i won't get any better, this is it....live with it!

the good, i had the vet out to Gwen, she hadn't had any seasons & was putting on weight.. .?.. ..? so the thought was had we got ourselves a BOGOF? (buy one get one free)

but no.... the scan showed no foal just a huge ovarian cyct, which could explain her rather manic temperament & over keen 'i think i am a race horse' nature.
the vet gave he a jab to induce a season which he hoped would rupture the cyct, it seemed to work as she came into full nympho mode, & then in due course came on season again naturally without a jab, if it ever stops raining & i have time (book it in for about next april???) we will tack her up & see if now her hormones are normal she is more like a sensible kiddie pony, if so i may be able to offer her as such to a good home.

2nd good something, Cilla has come round beautifully, she has calmed down a lot, she calls to me & i can go up to her in the open field to catch or just to fuss her, the 2 of them went on a 1 week stay with friends of mine so travelled in a trailer, Cilla went in 1st time both times with no hesitation (gwen was still being a madame!)

i am on the look out for a small cart & harness to see if Cilla takes to driving as she is too small for even a tiny adult to ride & i doubt she will really ever suit a child.

so 2 wins a draw & a lose, thats the score up to date, bye