*crackle* *crackle* Is this thing on? *crackle*

I was a bit over-optimistic about my recovery, it actually took a MONTH for me to feel normal again!  Anyway, 10 days ago I took Finn out for a hack, he did his usual trick of walking off while I was mounting, this time before I'd even swung my leg over.  He then got a bit un-nerved by the human wobbling along beside him trying to get her foot back out of the stirrup (the dangers of riding in hiking boots...) and started to trot - fortunately "WOOOOOAHHHHHHH!" worked, otherwise I'd have face-planted into the tarmac.  Attempt number two was successful and we had a nice hack to the end of the village and back.  I'd planned to go further and was all high-viz'd up, but I'd forgotten that the Scottish schools went back that day and after the circus of getting on from the normal picnic table, I didn't fancy trying to remount after the gate with a bus shelter full of kids and parents watching me!

So this morning I decided it was time for Mr Finn to learn that I wasn't like his previous owner (18, weighs about as much as a twig, very athletic, able to jump on a moving horse with absolutely no problems) and took him into my neighbour's school armed with a pocketful of carrot sticks.  As it turned out, being fed carrot sticks in return for standing still while I leaned on stirrups, bounced up and down beside him with one foot in them and then being rewarded from the saddle when I was finally up is just about Finn's ideal schooling exercise and after 10 minutes he was standing like a rock in the middle of the school on a completely loose rein :o)  He's obviously been taught it before, it's just not been enforced for a while.  The next step will be to see if I can replicate the lesson outside the manege, but as long as I have suitably orange bribes on me, I think all will be well!

We only had a short schooling session after that, we'd done what I wanted to achieve, so we walked a few shapes, I practiced a bit of trot (my balance is slowly coming back) and then we called it a day.

I was thinking about bonding the other day.  Merlin seems to have appointed himself my bodyguard when I'm in the field now; he'll walk next to me or just behind me as I push the wheelbarrow around (unless I've just moved the electric fence!).  I'm not sure if he's really bonded that closely or whether he's just protecting his food source from Finn though ;o)  However, he'll really try his hardest to do anything I ask him to these days, which is a real change from when he first arrived.  It gives me hope that one day I might be able to hack him out once I have my confidence back properly.  Finn hasn't bonded enough to want to try for me yet, but it's still very early days - he's only been here two and a half months and it took Merlin two years. 

Robbie the farrier came out to do their feet the week before last.  Merlin was, as usual, good as gold, but Finn was a slightly different matter and played up, not wanting to stand, snatching his feet away and generally being a bugger.  Robbie has been his farrier for a couple of years, so knew that Finn could be problematical but was definitely trying it on as he didn't usually act up quite that much.  Every time Finn snatched a foot back and walked off, I made him trot a circuit of the field - if he chose to move, he was going to be made to move more than he wanted to - and eventually we got the job done without too much grief, but this is something I need to work on.  Robbie has shown me the trick to getting reluctant cobs to lift their feet and Finn will now give me a front foot loose in the field (previously I could only get him to lift the backs).  At the moment I'm either lifting it, holding it for a moment and then putting it down or lifting, tapping with a hoof pick and putting down and I'm sure we'll get there eventually - Merlin was a sod with the farrier when he first arrived.

What else?  Finn has two new rugs courtesy of eBay, a fleece cooler to dry him out and a shower sheet to go over it.  Both almost new, the most expensive was £14.50 including postage :o)  But he's been moulting like mad over the past fortnight and the bristly clipped coat he arrived with is now mostly gone, replaced by a lovely soft, thicker coat which is far more waterproof and windproof.  As long as we have a dry, cold winter, he probably won't need rugging, but at least I now have some options on hand if he does.  Both of them have lost a little bit of weight this week, Merlin's down to 467kg and Finn to 402kg, but they're both looking good.  If there's another loss next week I may start them on a handful of breakfast each again.  At the moment they're having a handful of Speedibeet, half a handful of Greengold and two heaped spoonfuls of the homemade yeast/linseed/magnesium mix in the evenings and that's it. 

Incoming!

I had to measure Merlin twice this week, as when I did it on Sunday it came up in the 460s, but it was windy and I wasn't 100% certain the tape wasn't twisted, so I remeasured on Tuesday when the wind had gone and he's still in the 450s, so all is well.  The grass is growing amazingly fast though, so I've taken him off even the little bit of beet he was still having.  That does mean his yeast, magox and linseed have had to stop as well, so he may need to go back on it if his feet need it.

That said, he's going to be getting some help with the grass :o)  The Welsh D I mentioned in the last post proved to be an absolute star - we've transferred the money for him to his owner this morning and he'll be arriving on Tuesday :o)  He's unshod as well and has been seen by Merlin's farrier who likes him too.  Slightly concerned about introducing the two of them, as Merlin doesn't always take well to strange geldings, but there's a small chance they know each other as they've both been stabled at the same livery yard in the past and there may have been some overlap - I'm trying to find out.  I've got the field split anyway and will re-energise the electric fence, so if M tries to kick out at him he'll get zapped. 

Same old, same old

Nothing much to report here.  Merlin has been on the line between 490 and 498 for the past fortnight, so since the grass is starting to come through (unlike the rest of the UK we're in glorious sunshine and temperatures of 6-8C in the daytime) he's getting 50g less beet in his morning bucket and I'll probably take 50g out of the evening bucket from next weekend. 

The farrier came on Friday.  In the vague hope of being able to present him with a clean horse, I groomed Merlin on Thursday night and got all the mud out.  Went down to feed him on Friday morning and was presented with a swamp donkey.  He'd PLASTERED himself in it and it was still wet.  Never mind, the farrier wasn't due until 2, so plenty of time for him to dry off and I could tie him up by the top gate about 1.30 and keep an eye out for the van.  It was a beautiful plan until the farrier turned up half an hour ahead of schedule! 

Still, he's had his pedicure (very little needed doing, just a little bit of shaping with the rasp), he didn't nibble the farrier's bottom and on the whole he seems pretty happy with life at the moment.

Plodding along

Smack in the middle of the 504kg band when I weighed him this evening, so the weight has restabilised.

Ross Barker (http://www.progressivehorse.co.uk/) came out to have a look at his feet on Sunday morning.  His verdict was that Merlin is about 75% of the way to having perfect barefoot hooves - his soles are thick, his hoof wall is thick and there are no rings in his feet, indicating his digestive system is pretty good as well.  What we need to work on are his frogs and his digital cushions and that will come with regular work on harder surfaces, though in an older horse like Merlin the digital cushion can be very slow to build up.  Ross also suggested getting some hibiscrub to disinfect the central sulcus every week or so because they can be prone to infection in the wetter half of the year. 

The weather stymied us for getting out for our plods last week and next week we may get the snowstorm currently bothering north America, so I'd better get him out and about a bit this week if I can.

New diet

I've decided to try taking sugar and cereals out of his diet, since the skin lumps came back and he got very grouchy immediately after being fed (or possibly skin sensitive - didn't like being touched after he'd eaten, fine the rest of the time).  So with some help from the barefoot community, the Feet First book and the very helpful advisors at Simple System, we've moved over to a non-molassed beet (currently Speedibeet, though I'll be trying to get Purabeet when I can, it's cheaper), Greengold (a non-molassed lucerne) and a supplement called Total Eclipse (linseed, magnesium oxide, brewers' yeast and seaweed). 

We're still in the process of switching, he has a trickle of Leisure Mix still which is being reduced daily and he'll be off it completely by about Wednesday.  A bit too early to report on results, but he does seem less grumpy and he's licking his skip clean every meal which is a relief - a lot of horses refuse to touch non-sugared stuff if they've been used to the sweetness.  I think once the TE has run out I'll buy the ingredients and mix my own - I suspect that with being coastal the iodine content of the grazing will be pretty high and I shouldn't need to supplement seaweed.  Going to get a forage analysis done in the spring.

His weight touched the 510kg band 10 days ago, but he was back in the 504kg band this morning.  With the way the weather's going I suspect he'll start to lose it again now, if it gets too quick then I'll up the quantities of beet and lucerne and possibly add in something like Blue Bag grass nuts, though he's always got hay available.

As far as the exercise plan goes we did really well the first week, but this week has been horrible weather-wise - lots of rain and some strong winds and there's just no point in trying to walk him in hand in that, he spins round to turn his bum to the weather and refuses to move.  I was going to take him out this afternoon, but fell asleep on the sofa - I seem to be constantly knackered at the moment :o( 

There's a  UKNHCP-qualified trimmer coming next Sunday to do his feet instead of the normal farrier.  It'll be interesting to hear what he has to say.  I suspect it'll be toes too long and heels slightly under-run and more roadwork required. 

Scan day

Or not.

Merlin's fetlock was still slightly puffy after a bit of unscheduled bouncing when he was turned out, so the vet started off with a thorough examination of the leg in question and then got me to trot Merlin up.  He plugged in the clippers to shave the back of Merlin's legs (I'd run an extension cable out to the field for the scanner) and Merlin's eyes came out on stalks, he pulled his 'WTF???!' face and started river-dancing.  Obviously they make a different sound to Mick's beard trimmer!  So the vet went back to his car to get a twitch and a sedative and by the time he'd walked the length of the garden and let himself back into the field he'd changed his mind about doing it.

The reasons are as follows: the tendons above the fetlock feel perfectly normal, the portable scanner isn't brilliant for fetlocks and feet and he thinks we're going to need x-rays as well, as the diagnosis is veering back towards arthritis again.  So we've arranged to take Merlin to Thurso on the afternoon of October 11th, which is the first date that both equine specialists and my husband (needed to drive the tow vehicle!) are all available.  He'll be sedated, scanned and x-rayed and hopefully we'll finally get to find out what's going on in there.

The farrier managed to get to us yesterday, which was fantastically quick, so the feet have been sorted out :o)

Knobber horse

'Knobber horse' is an affectionate expression pinched from the Horse and Hound forums for when your horse has done something idiotic. I would call it 'having a donkey moment' except that would be an insult to donkeys...

Anyway, we were due some rough weather last Friday night so I went and caught Merlin to put him in for the night. He was being a git to lead, stopping every few strides to put his head down and graze, and by the time we'd got down into the third field I was thoroughly annoyed by it so I grabbed the leadrope about 18" under his chin, hauled his head up and marched off. He planted his feet and threw his head up - and discovered that the velcro on his field safe headcollar comes undone if he does that. He buggered off to the tasty grass and I was left with a dangling headcollar. Just the day I didn't want him to be trotting as well, because I'd forgotten to turn the fence on earlier, he'd done the splits to get at fresh grass and his right fore had started to fill again.

I stomped up to the house, grabbed some carrots, caught him and put him in, but he'd obviously decided this was a good trick because when I brought him in tonight he tried exactly the same stunt again. What he hadn't realised was that he was in an ordinary headcollar rather than the field-safe job and all he managed to do was stand on his own back feet and rip a bit of hoof wall which is now flapping like a hangnail - there's too much still attached for me to twist off and I haven't got anything tough enough to nip it off.

I'll call the farrier in the morning...

Hooray for farriers!

As per the previous post, I asked the farrier to have a really good look at Merlin's foot yesterday afternoon and after a lot of prodding he found a tiny compression towards the heel. I did ask if this was farrier-speak for "You're not picking his feet out properly" but he told me not to feel too bad about it, it was so small that if he hadn't been looking out for it and using a knife to clean the foot he might well have missed it himself. He cut it out - even cut out the hole is smaller than a 5p - and said that although it wasn't big enough to have caused the initial lameness it certainly would have accounted for his reluctance to put his heel down first.

It's been caught before the hoof started to crack and before any infection got in - he said that untreated it would almost certainly have gone septic - which is good news. Merlin was very careful about walking back down the field after his trim and I saw him standing in that mountain-goat-on-a-rock position when I checked on him last thing, but he walked out more comfortably and this morning he was only slightly unlevel and happily trotted up to the gate when he saw me :o)

So, fingers crossed, we've found the source of the problem and a couple more days of rest and relaxation will see him right. If this fog clears I'm going to give him a bath this afternoon - the newly shorn sheep are sleeping in his field shelter most nights, so when he goes in there and kicks them out he ends up lying in their mess and he has an enormous stable stain which three days of brushing hasn't got out.

His weight is between the 490kg and 498kg marks on the weight tape, so that's 6kg-ish on in 2 weeks. He's on one of my tiny handfuls of beet, soaked, with a scoop of garlic in the morning and nothing else but grass. I think I'm going to have to man up and start riding him in the school again once he's sound, just to help him stay under the 500kg mark.