We're getting there. As Shakespeare wrote, 'the rain it raineth every day' here, so today was the first chance I had to get on Finn again. He was an utter git about being led down to the field shelter to be tacked up (I think Merlin may have taught him that Mum in jods means work - must get some of those denim ones!) and planted himself every couple of steps - I ended up whirling him around and then taking him on a brisk lap of the field in trot, after which he gave in. Then he was a git about lining up with the mounting block (though to be fair I was faffing because I was nervous about him bucking again) and in the end I had an 'oh soddit' moment and hopped on from the ground.
No bucks and after the first few seconds I was fine. At the moment I need far more work on me than he does on him, so we spent most of the time in walk, concentrating on relaxing my seat to let him step out and getting him to do walk-halt transitions with just a seat aid, which he was doing beautifully by the time we finished. I tried a bit of trot and he went much better for me in sitting trot than rising, which is definitely down to my fitness and lack of recent practice at rising, and then got really brave and asked for canter in the bottom corner and we did one side of the school to finish.
Merlin is on good form, he's got more friendly with Finn again and when I caught M this afternoon to brush him off and Finn wandered off, I had to let him go again as he was really stressing about not being able to see him. I'll try taking Merlin out for a walk round the village this week and see what happens - he's not been out of the fields since Finn arrived.
Weigh in this week, Merlin 458kg and Finn 408kg. Finn's lost quite a bit, but I think that's down to slightly less food and less bloating as he's cribbing a bit less. I can feel ribs anyway, though he still has that apple bum, but the saddle fitter told me that was more down to his type and how he was muscled than excess blubber. I'm slowly getting through that thick mane, the tack shop in Wick advised Canter Mane and Tail, which is miraculous stuff! There's lots of loose hair in it though, the two thirds I've worked through is noticeably thinner than the untouched third. His nappy rash came back a couple of days ago, on the other side this time. It's clearing up again with the gel and I'm spreading it much more thinly this time to try and avoid the gungy tail problem. I think it's going to be an industrial-sized pack of wet wipes and a twice daily inspection job in the long term though. He's due his boosters at the end of next month/beginning of September so I'll ask the vet's opinion when s/he is out.
Sunday, 1 July 2012
Sunday, 24 June 2012
Black and blue
The saddle fitter arrived on Friday evening, about half an hour after I'd got back from Inverness, so I was still running round the field with a wheelbarrow trying to clean up a day's poo. My lovely neighbours still let me use their school whenever I want (I'm selfishly pleased that their proposed house move to Aberdeenshire this summer fell through!), so I caught Finn, grabbed his tack and went through.
Clare, the saddle fitter, has an injury to her back which means she uses crutches and Finn really wasn't sure about them - he kept side stepping away from her while she was trying to take tracings and kept one ear firmly locked onto them at all times. She asked me to tack him up without his numnah and ride him so she could see how the saddle was in use - the moment I put my weight in the stirrup to get on he took off bronc-ing around the school. I ended up face-planted in the sand with bruises to the underneath of my arms and my dignity! I put his numnah back on to see if it was the different feel of the saddle which had triggered it and called Mick over to drag the mounting block in for me while I went to borrow my neighbour's lunging equipment as Clare suggested a few spins on the lunge before trying again! While we were digging through the tack room for a lunge line, Finn had pulled away from Clare and bronc'd round the school again - I think it must have been the crutches spooking him, because he lunged fine and when I got on from the block and trotted him round for five minutes he was absolutely perfect. I would have suspected a back problem, but I've ridden him four times in 10 days, including mounting from the ground, and there hasn't been a single issue.
The upshot is that the saddle fits fine, the bit I was worried about with the nails doesn't touch him, so I just need to pick up some wool from the field and glue it into place. The saddle is a good one, a working hunter Farrington, one of the original ones made before Derby House took over. It does need reflocking, but not urgently and she's recommended that I just get out and ride this summer and then let her have the saddle for a week at some point over the winter when the weather isn't so kind.
If that wasn't enough beating up for the weekend, he got me again this morning. His nappy rash has cleared up beautifully with antibacterial gel twice a day, but a lot of the gel has ended up in his tail which has made combing out the occasional small piece of poo that gets stuck in there (it's a proper full bushy native tail!) rather unpleasant, so I marched out to do battle with a bucket of water, a sponge and a bottle of shampoo. Being a typical pony, he stuck his nose in the bucket to see if there was anything edible in it and came up just as I turned round from closing the gate and bent down to pick it up again. Pony forehead met human nose with a loud crunching sound and I think I'm quite lucky not to have broken it! A few minutes of swearing later, bath-time was underway and it's a lot less sticky now, though I think I'm going to have to have another go in the next week as there's still a bit left in there.
Merlin, after initially loving having a friend, has now got a bit arsey about the whole thing and if Finn is on a bit of grass he thinks looks tasty, he'll march up to him and bite him on the bum to get him to move. Finn has now got wise to this and will trot off if he sees Merlin walking over with his ears back. The rest of the time, M is happy enough to graze next to him and yells when I take Finn out to ride even if he can see us in the school, so I think they'll settle down together before too long. Hard to believe Finn has been here less than two weeks. Interestingly, Clare - who is a BHSII instructor as well as a saddle fitter - doesn't think Finn is overweight, the stomach is just down to saggy muscles and the amount of air he's inhaling from cribbing on fence posts. She says get him out and about and working before I put him on a diet, so we'll give it a go :o)
It does show that my confidence is coming on though - a year ago there's no way I would have got on a horse or pony I'd just seen do huge bunny hopping bucks around a school. There's trust building here already.
Clare, the saddle fitter, has an injury to her back which means she uses crutches and Finn really wasn't sure about them - he kept side stepping away from her while she was trying to take tracings and kept one ear firmly locked onto them at all times. She asked me to tack him up without his numnah and ride him so she could see how the saddle was in use - the moment I put my weight in the stirrup to get on he took off bronc-ing around the school. I ended up face-planted in the sand with bruises to the underneath of my arms and my dignity! I put his numnah back on to see if it was the different feel of the saddle which had triggered it and called Mick over to drag the mounting block in for me while I went to borrow my neighbour's lunging equipment as Clare suggested a few spins on the lunge before trying again! While we were digging through the tack room for a lunge line, Finn had pulled away from Clare and bronc'd round the school again - I think it must have been the crutches spooking him, because he lunged fine and when I got on from the block and trotted him round for five minutes he was absolutely perfect. I would have suspected a back problem, but I've ridden him four times in 10 days, including mounting from the ground, and there hasn't been a single issue.
The upshot is that the saddle fits fine, the bit I was worried about with the nails doesn't touch him, so I just need to pick up some wool from the field and glue it into place. The saddle is a good one, a working hunter Farrington, one of the original ones made before Derby House took over. It does need reflocking, but not urgently and she's recommended that I just get out and ride this summer and then let her have the saddle for a week at some point over the winter when the weather isn't so kind.
If that wasn't enough beating up for the weekend, he got me again this morning. His nappy rash has cleared up beautifully with antibacterial gel twice a day, but a lot of the gel has ended up in his tail which has made combing out the occasional small piece of poo that gets stuck in there (it's a proper full bushy native tail!) rather unpleasant, so I marched out to do battle with a bucket of water, a sponge and a bottle of shampoo. Being a typical pony, he stuck his nose in the bucket to see if there was anything edible in it and came up just as I turned round from closing the gate and bent down to pick it up again. Pony forehead met human nose with a loud crunching sound and I think I'm quite lucky not to have broken it! A few minutes of swearing later, bath-time was underway and it's a lot less sticky now, though I think I'm going to have to have another go in the next week as there's still a bit left in there.
Merlin, after initially loving having a friend, has now got a bit arsey about the whole thing and if Finn is on a bit of grass he thinks looks tasty, he'll march up to him and bite him on the bum to get him to move. Finn has now got wise to this and will trot off if he sees Merlin walking over with his ears back. The rest of the time, M is happy enough to graze next to him and yells when I take Finn out to ride even if he can see us in the school, so I think they'll settle down together before too long. Hard to believe Finn has been here less than two weeks. Interestingly, Clare - who is a BHSII instructor as well as a saddle fitter - doesn't think Finn is overweight, the stomach is just down to saggy muscles and the amount of air he's inhaling from cribbing on fence posts. She says get him out and about and working before I put him on a diet, so we'll give it a go :o)
It does show that my confidence is coming on though - a year ago there's no way I would have got on a horse or pony I'd just seen do huge bunny hopping bucks around a school. There's trust building here already.
Thursday, 21 June 2012
And then there were two
Finn arrived last week and settled in so well that he and Merlin were able to go in together within 24 hours. I've ridden him three times and lunged him once and he's been very good, but I'm a little concerned about his saddle - one of the saddle nails can be felt on the underside of it - so the saddle fitter is paying us a visit tomorrow evening to check it over and fix it if required.
He's a podgy little fellow though! I got a weight tape around him on day 2 and at 420kg he's only 30kg lighter than Merlin - and he's 7" smaller!! His thighs are so big that he's been chafing between them and between his butt cheeks, so we currently have antibacterial gel (aka 'green goo') going on twice a day and it's clearing up quickly.
He's a podgy little fellow though! I got a weight tape around him on day 2 and at 420kg he's only 30kg lighter than Merlin - and he's 7" smaller!! His thighs are so big that he's been chafing between them and between his butt cheeks, so we currently have antibacterial gel (aka 'green goo') going on twice a day and it's clearing up quickly.
Thursday, 7 June 2012
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.
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.
Friday, 25 May 2012
Catching up
Oh dear, I've been a lazy blogger the past couple of weeks :o(
Quick catch up: his heel is better (the last bit of scab is just dropping off), no further lameness, his weight is steady in the 450s and I rode him last Monday! Only for 15 minutes, he was good for about 5 and then his attention started to stray and it was all a bit 'Ooh! Sheep! Ooh! Lamb! Ooh! Car!' I've shut off the bottom field now, he's got the field shelter field (grazed almost bare) and a 5 metre strip of the house field, though the four sheep he's living with have the run of the whole thing. It's just coming back after lambing so I thought it would be an idea to get them on it before it's suddenly hock deep and lush. That said, it's rich enough that he completely failed to notice I haven't given him breakfast today!
We actually had a very sweet moment this morning, he was lying down so I went and sat with him and stroked his neck and he rested his nose against my shoulder and dozed for 20 minutes.
The search for a friend for him continues, with a bit more urgency now that the two ponies next door have been moved away. He still has horses in eyesight, but none that he can touch very easily now. Last weekend's prospect turned out to be a no go because she was probably in foal, much to the surprise of her owner (I did feel for the seller, she'd tried to get hold of me the night before to tell me, but I'd gone to bed early because of having to get up early to catch the ferry to Orkney to see her!). Tomorrow I'm off to see a local pony - he's been for sale for a few weeks but I've been resisting going to see him a) because he's a Welsh D gelding and I've been looking at Highland mares and b) because the advert said POA which I generally interpret as out of budget. However, after two people sent me his details I thought there was no harm in asking and it turns out that the price they're looking for is realistic, includes his tack and matches the very top of my budget, so we'll go and see what he's like.
Quick catch up: his heel is better (the last bit of scab is just dropping off), no further lameness, his weight is steady in the 450s and I rode him last Monday! Only for 15 minutes, he was good for about 5 and then his attention started to stray and it was all a bit 'Ooh! Sheep! Ooh! Lamb! Ooh! Car!' I've shut off the bottom field now, he's got the field shelter field (grazed almost bare) and a 5 metre strip of the house field, though the four sheep he's living with have the run of the whole thing. It's just coming back after lambing so I thought it would be an idea to get them on it before it's suddenly hock deep and lush. That said, it's rich enough that he completely failed to notice I haven't given him breakfast today!
We actually had a very sweet moment this morning, he was lying down so I went and sat with him and stroked his neck and he rested his nose against my shoulder and dozed for 20 minutes.
The search for a friend for him continues, with a bit more urgency now that the two ponies next door have been moved away. He still has horses in eyesight, but none that he can touch very easily now. Last weekend's prospect turned out to be a no go because she was probably in foal, much to the surprise of her owner (I did feel for the seller, she'd tried to get hold of me the night before to tell me, but I'd gone to bed early because of having to get up early to catch the ferry to Orkney to see her!). Tomorrow I'm off to see a local pony - he's been for sale for a few weeks but I've been resisting going to see him a) because he's a Welsh D gelding and I've been looking at Highland mares and b) because the advert said POA which I generally interpret as out of budget. However, after two people sent me his details I thought there was no harm in asking and it turns out that the price they're looking for is realistic, includes his tack and matches the very top of my budget, so we'll go and see what he's like.
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Leg update
Picking out feet yesterday morning, I found a huge hole in the back of his left fore, just above the heel bulb.
Now, I'm 99.9% certain it wasn't there 24 hours earlier - I'd spent a day and a half worrying about that leg, sploshing water on it, cold booting it and bandaging it and I'm pretty sure that I'd have spotted a 1cm hole with skin sticking out looking like a tiny, tiny alien had chest-bursted out of it.
It looks for all the world as if an abscess has blown, but he wasn't lame enough and it's a little bit too high to have come out of the coronet band, so I suppose he must have caught it on something somewhere. Anyway, it's being cleaned twice a day and having black powder puffed on it and it seems to be healing up nicely. Definitely no walking out today though.
Now, I'm 99.9% certain it wasn't there 24 hours earlier - I'd spent a day and a half worrying about that leg, sploshing water on it, cold booting it and bandaging it and I'm pretty sure that I'd have spotted a 1cm hole with skin sticking out looking like a tiny, tiny alien had chest-bursted out of it.
It looks for all the world as if an abscess has blown, but he wasn't lame enough and it's a little bit too high to have come out of the coronet band, so I suppose he must have caught it on something somewhere. Anyway, it's being cleaned twice a day and having black powder puffed on it and it seems to be healing up nicely. Definitely no walking out today though.
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Weight target reached
Thanks to bad weather and a day and half on box rest (of which more in a minute), Merlin weighed in at 451kg today and since he's about right on the fat scoring front (I can finally feel his ribs but can't see them and nothing else has gone too skinny) we'll try to maintain from now on. Without going back over all the posts, I think he topped out at 511kg (though he was chunkier than that when he first arrived), so that's 60kg gone since last summer or 9st 6lbs which is only 5lbs short of a whole me!
I came over all May-ish and started a new fitness regime this week. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are Merlin exercise days, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday are running days. I'm taking it very gently, so I'm doing Couch to 5K from the beginning again to break me back in, aiming for the Aviemore half marathon in October, and Merlin is doing 20 minutes' walk in hand around the village.
Or that was the plan. We managed the walk Tuesday and Thursday, then on Friday evening I thought he was moving slightly oddly when he walked up the field for his supper. Sure enough, when I got closer I saw that his left front pastern was so swollen that if you looked at his leg from the front it looked straight between the bottom of his fetlock and the top of his hoof.
Since he seemed reasonably happy walking around on it, there was no cut and it was fluid rather than hard, I sloshed it with cold water and shut him in the field shelter overnight to make sure he rested it. The next morning it had filled up further, but drained almost immediately as soon as I led him out and sloshed it again, leaving a slightly less swollen pastern.
We were heading into Thurso anyway, so I called in at the vet to check if there was anything else I should be doing. As luck would have it, Bridget-the-eventing-vet was on duty. She nixed my idea of giving him a little bit of turnout on the flat area behind his shelter, advising a short walk in hand on Saturday afternoon and then a restricted turnout area on Sunday if it continued to improve. Plus stable bandages overnight to stop his legs filling.
A quick trip to the tack shop later and Merlin met his first cold water boot. What a brilliant idea, especially for those of us who don't have hoses or mains water available at their field shelter/stable! Merlin wasn't entirely convinced by the feel of it going on and the first one went sailing through the air and landed in the mud (now I know why they sell them in pairs...), but once it was on he decided it was A Good Thing and I had very little trouble when I did it again last night and this morning.
The stable bandages were a slightly different matter. I'd only bandaged a horse's leg once; I was about 11 and the leg was plastic. Still, I knew the theory, I'd found some videos on YouTube to refresh my memory - how hard could it be...? As it turned out, the bit that flummoxed me was wrapping the bandage round in the correct orientation to end up with the velcro tabs on the correct side of the bandage, the first one took me three goes to get right! I was concerned that I hadn't got the tension right, so popped down a couple of hours later to check they weren't in a tangle round his ankles. They looked fine, so I fed him an apple and went to bed, relieved I didn't have to worry about him tying all four feet together overnight.
This morning I went down to find the gate half off its hinges and no horse! He'd lifted it off the top bracket so it swung off the bolt and the bottom bracket, jumped it and taken himself off to graze on a ledge on the near-vertical part of the hill in the bottom field. The stable bandages had stayed put - result! He allowed me to catch him with reasonably good grace and when I unwrapped him, his leg looked completely back to normal :o) I stuck the cold water boot back on for 20 minutes as a precaution while he had his breakfast and I mucked out and wondered, given his overnight antics, whether it was worth restricting his turnout or not, but decided better safe than sorry and gave him an L-shaped area of flat field to potter around.
This evening his leg still looks normal, he's still being ever so slightly careful with it over the rutted areas, but he's definitely nearly mended. If nothing changes overnight he can go back on normal turnout tomorrow and we'll pick up the walking round the village again on Thursday.
I came over all May-ish and started a new fitness regime this week. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday are Merlin exercise days, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday are running days. I'm taking it very gently, so I'm doing Couch to 5K from the beginning again to break me back in, aiming for the Aviemore half marathon in October, and Merlin is doing 20 minutes' walk in hand around the village.
Or that was the plan. We managed the walk Tuesday and Thursday, then on Friday evening I thought he was moving slightly oddly when he walked up the field for his supper. Sure enough, when I got closer I saw that his left front pastern was so swollen that if you looked at his leg from the front it looked straight between the bottom of his fetlock and the top of his hoof.
Since he seemed reasonably happy walking around on it, there was no cut and it was fluid rather than hard, I sloshed it with cold water and shut him in the field shelter overnight to make sure he rested it. The next morning it had filled up further, but drained almost immediately as soon as I led him out and sloshed it again, leaving a slightly less swollen pastern.
We were heading into Thurso anyway, so I called in at the vet to check if there was anything else I should be doing. As luck would have it, Bridget-the-eventing-vet was on duty. She nixed my idea of giving him a little bit of turnout on the flat area behind his shelter, advising a short walk in hand on Saturday afternoon and then a restricted turnout area on Sunday if it continued to improve. Plus stable bandages overnight to stop his legs filling.
A quick trip to the tack shop later and Merlin met his first cold water boot. What a brilliant idea, especially for those of us who don't have hoses or mains water available at their field shelter/stable! Merlin wasn't entirely convinced by the feel of it going on and the first one went sailing through the air and landed in the mud (now I know why they sell them in pairs...), but once it was on he decided it was A Good Thing and I had very little trouble when I did it again last night and this morning.
The stable bandages were a slightly different matter. I'd only bandaged a horse's leg once; I was about 11 and the leg was plastic. Still, I knew the theory, I'd found some videos on YouTube to refresh my memory - how hard could it be...? As it turned out, the bit that flummoxed me was wrapping the bandage round in the correct orientation to end up with the velcro tabs on the correct side of the bandage, the first one took me three goes to get right! I was concerned that I hadn't got the tension right, so popped down a couple of hours later to check they weren't in a tangle round his ankles. They looked fine, so I fed him an apple and went to bed, relieved I didn't have to worry about him tying all four feet together overnight.
This morning I went down to find the gate half off its hinges and no horse! He'd lifted it off the top bracket so it swung off the bolt and the bottom bracket, jumped it and taken himself off to graze on a ledge on the near-vertical part of the hill in the bottom field. The stable bandages had stayed put - result! He allowed me to catch him with reasonably good grace and when I unwrapped him, his leg looked completely back to normal :o) I stuck the cold water boot back on for 20 minutes as a precaution while he had his breakfast and I mucked out and wondered, given his overnight antics, whether it was worth restricting his turnout or not, but decided better safe than sorry and gave him an L-shaped area of flat field to potter around.
This evening his leg still looks normal, he's still being ever so slightly careful with it over the rutted areas, but he's definitely nearly mended. If nothing changes overnight he can go back on normal turnout tomorrow and we'll pick up the walking round the village again on Thursday.
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