Sound!

So I had a pretty good birthday present the other day (I'm 28 now- running out of time in my GP by 30 goal) because when I lunged Connie and Butch and their movement looked fantastic. Connie bopped around on the circle and had many many bounces and bucks so clearly she feels fantastic and so she should, the little fat bum. She can come into work soon for a slower build up than Butch will need. Connie throughs hard to the andalusian and doesn't maintain her fitness at all, while Butch being  TB living on a hill will come it so much fitter. He has got the hang of his feet on the side of the hill too, he hasn't just slid straight past me for ages.

The arena is currently going in at work and we really need it because the ground is getting seriously wet. Its a miserable drizzly June, still more babies to break in and I really feel like my riding is getting bollocks. I don't know it's hard being under the bosses eye I'm starting to get so insecure. I need to sell my saddle as well. Someone convinced me I needed an 18inch and I swim in it, it doesn't really support me and I think that would make me happier. Though perhaps it's because I have been riding in the bosses and it's nicer!

Motivation LOW

Just for fun a picture of My little sister and the horse she borrowed after Bob died. This horse was called Cow for obvious reasons. This picture makes me laugh everytime.

Winter! Every year it does this to me. I just can not be assed. Though to be fair having both of my own horses injured doesn't help. And normally there are a couple of horses at work that are my projects but I don't have any one at the moment. I don't think I'm not sure. I have been mostly fencing because the whole operation has been moved and then my boss got really sick so I have just sort of been riding everything.

Which is good but though the arena (omg omg!!) should go in next week, at the moment we are very much at the whim of the weather conditions. I can't even remember the last time I jumped a jump it's been so long! I can't wait to get jumping again. I am so tempted to drag Connie off of the hill having had 5 months off and now being a mane flicking snorting wild horses, but with only about a month until we start conditioning for the next season she may as well stay on the hill until then.

Went hacking yesterday on two different rides and managed to time it perfectly to get caught in both showers of rain. And I had a guy come out because he had a hideous black and white stallion behind a terrible fence on the roadside so he supervised him as I rode past. Best part was how he was like yea he has jumped out before. Awesome. Slow clap for you my friend. Pretty sure by law you need to have two fence lines between the boundary/road and a stallion but what do I know.

In other much happier news I have finally got motivated about something and i'm getting my lard ass in shape. After being so unhappy in the old job and stuffing my face with anything with sugar on it to make myself feel better, I had gotten to whale like proportions. I was even using another show coat because mine looked truly awful. I'm making a little progress which is amazing but there is still so far to go. It's so easy to get fat and so impossible to lose it again. that hardly seems fair. Still it must be only 3 months until the seasons starts up again. Yay!! Oh I am going to jump some sweet ass jumps this year. 1.30m or bust!

Vale Truckie

So it is with a heavy heart that I tell you all that my beloved Truckie is sold. I can't afford it and the parental units need some capital, so the old girl is out. We have had Truckie for around about 9 years and getting a horse truck was pretty much a life highlight. No longer stuck with a horse float with no room, sleeping in tents and scattering my gear for miles as I looked for the thing that was inevitably in the bottom of the boot of the car. Trucks have room for gear, and feed and hay, and a living area and I could take 4 horses. The luxury!!

Still all good things must come to an end, though I'm not sure how I will cope without it. So many miles I have traveled in the little truck. It was very noisy and a little smokey and and so slow. Every hill was climbed in third gear while cyclists and camper vans flew past. I overtook something once I think though I may have made that up to feel good lol.

Still the horses traveled well in her and I had many good nights sleep. On to the next i guess. Bye Truckie be good to your new owners.

Vet Visit

I will never ever hesitate to recommend South Rangitikei Vet Services. It's such a good clinic and I have complete faith in them. It's certainly worth the 3 hour drive. Ok so the story with Butch is this. Super lame for four weeks with nil improvement. Sudden onset like overnight. No swelling or heat. Now I thought it was in the foot, and was mostly waiting for an abscess to rear its ugly head. But he never got a hot pulsing foot or had any sort of an abscess track. Having lived in the wettest place ever I can track an abscess like nobodies business. So yea I was pretty concerned going over there as to what we would find, and how much it was going to cost, but also relieved to finally know what was going on.

So we turned up there, the vet had me trot him on the tarmac and then lunge (briefly) on a small circle. So he was a 3/5 lame on the straightway and 4/5 on the circle. Normally I go there and they are like yea I can see the lameness but it's subtle, this time She was just like yea thats lame! She couldn't see anything either that jumped out, and he has no history. I knew it was unlikely to be an arthritis or a ligament/tendon issue because that tends to be an off on subtle sort of an issue or there is swelling and heat. Apparently he has lovely clean knees *preen*.

So we blocked the back of his foot and he was marginally better. So we let that sink in more and he was definitely better, and then we blocked the whole foot and voila it was gone. So then of course we are looking possibly at a fracture or something horrible :( Off for x-rays and he was of course being by His Royal Highness a bit of a tool despite the sedative. He was most offended when they twitched him to get the last shot! Poor Brother Butch! I can sort of read x-rays a little having been to hospital so many times, and of the base of his foot shot even I could see the big black spot, but no lines that indicated a fracture.

I thought possibly the black spot was an abscess that was trapped deep in his foot, which would have been a nightmare to fix, and so painful for him but it's good news really. The vets are very confident there is no fracture of his pedal or navicular bones, but that the pedal bone is badly bruised and he has a massive haematoma in it. He must have stood on a stone on a hard surface, or a spike sticking up out of a stump. Anything sharp and unforgiving where his whole weight has come down on the point with no give and none of his hoofwall touching the ground to protect him. Poor pony! He may even grow a new sole and shed this one over the next few shoeings. Basically, he is going to be very sore for the next couple of months until the haematoma and bruising resolve and there is very little I can do for him. It's just a freak sort of an accident.

So he is out on the hill at my parents place with Snail, my bosses broodmare, and Connie who is also on R and R, surrounded by sheep and grass. I have been a little worried because I don't think he has ever really been out on a hill that steep before and I hadn't seen him all morning. I was going to go check he hadn't fallen over at the bottom like the complete wuss he is but he has just popped up on the skyline and everyone looks happy and content. Though in saying that I had hoped Connie would be moving better by now, but she still looks a bit off. Still she needs her feet done and she has three months before she will be doing anything. It maybe too that my eye is out on her oddball washing machine movement after not seeing it for so long. If she isn't right I will put her in foal next spring and we can go from there.

Lame!

Old photo from when I was riding Butch as a 7yo- look how little the jumps are!

Cursed cursed bad luck! Butch is still lame, I still have no idea why. The farrier went over his princess foot with a fine tooth comb and couldn't find anything. It's a mystery lameness and those are the worst kind because they are expensive. But he is way lame, like my boss said even a moron could tell he is lame.

The thing is he has a strong pulse running down to his foot which indicates a foot issue, but he doesn't respond to the testers at all, anywhere. He has no heat, no swelling and it doesn't behave like a soft tissue injury. So he jumped the weekend at Manfield. The next day he was a little lame and his shoe had twisted on his bad foot a little bit. That was the foot that had been poorly shod making him not want to jump and leading to his arrival back here and into my ownership. He is a little thin soled on his front feet and there is some bruising, but he doesn't have a reaction to the testers on his bruises at all. Apparently his foot landing is fine too. So I whipped the shoe off and he improved though after his shoes were reset he was still a little off but improving. Had a short schooling ride and he was a little sore so mostly did walk work and stretches.

He continued to improve, took him for a walk hack around the roads about 800m mostly on the verges and the next day he was very lame and has stayed that way/worsened ever since. I just don't know whats going on with him and it sucks not having one of my own horses going. I will need to sell some old gear to pay for the vet. :( Nevermind. Horses man, such bringer downers. The really good master farrier is going to have a look on Friday and then I imagine he will be mystified and I'll take him over to the good vets. Boo.

Chief Shit Mover

I'm lucky in my job here that I get to do a lot of riding. Lots of jumping, lots of hacking and with less enthusiasm I seem to have inherited on of the breakers because he likes me better. But lets be honest if you are a working pupil your main job is moving around poo. I don't mind moving poo though, I have always been a fan of manual labour. What has sucked at the moment has been the rain, the cold and creeping arrival of Winter. Which sucks because Winter and horses have long been a terrible combination. Here we have currently only got 8 and half (one satanic weanling) on about 3 acres of grazing so the horse density is high and to preserve pasture the horses come in when it's wet. Its dragged on for about a week now. They had been going out for the days but now it's two wet for that, so I have seven bored bored bored horses in boxes.

When it's been pouring like yesterday I turn them out two at a time in a big paddock so they don't do too much damage while I do those two stablesand then bring them in and so on and so forth. Today I had had a gutsful of them. Butch has pulled up lame and the weather is miserable and they all had ants in their pants so I turned everything out for two hours and they grazed and played and only got rained on really hard once. Still by the time I had mucked out and fed and watered they were all at the gate mugging to be brought back in.

It's interesting two how the girls are so much neater than the boys. And Erl is disgusting. Just gross. I found out early on when I was washing him he has a leaky bum which is why he is impossible to keep clean (of course he is grey) but today when I was pushing to clean the boxes up I realised with horror that has was just pee and poo and sawdust soup so I have had to strip his stable and resawdust it, though tomorrow I'm sure it will be soup again just not as bad. He is just gross. I feel like he is my karmic punishment for being bad at some stage in my life. Needless to say that ended up being a lot of work in the rain. Really makes you appreciate the tractor you used to have when you are back to doing everything with a wheelbarrow.

Still it's satisfying once it is done and I really love the horse. It just blows me away just how much feacal matter they can produce. My boss got kicked the other day too, by the breaker I don't want but likes me because I'm the lunch lady. So it's just been me looking after a lovely team of horse with the exception of the foal (cue music from the omen) and the breaker that kicks. Good times!

Kim Rules

My little sister (left), currently in Australia, must be getting a little annoyed with my lack of posting, so she sent me this message about stories I could tell of my ponies: I will add some reply in bold.

ok ok ok... this could be long. Well there was the time mum jumped on Marcus and galloped away on him.. much to my horror.. but now looking back it must have been fun jumping on a 14hh pony and galloping the shit out of him (He was a little bastard and deserved it, to be fair Mum did this to Bob the first time we rode to pony club because I was scared). The time when you told mum to shoot bob after she reared over on you.. and dumped you 3 times (I still feel this was a fair point even if she did go on to be the best horse ever, I landed on a rock. The horror on the girl who was visiting to see the ponies face though). Off subject kind of.. i had a hilarious dream last night that Sam rode Connie and she bolted on him.. haha we were both yelling don't bail! haha hilarious. Anything happen at Greytown pony club with you and Bob? (We ruled Greytown Pony club! What a horse for a pony club kid to have!) There was the time I jumped the fence without Prue but still firmly had her rains. The time you came off Kopa when you shouldn't have been riding him! bareback i think it was (Sneaky farm gallops on my little sisters pony! Oh yeeaaa!). The time every time when we would try ride past the donkeys.. carnage. I don't remember Duke doing anything wrong? (I used to fall off him all the time because I was so little on him, but he was pretty much the mans. We made it to pony club in eleven minutes flat once. We flew up the verges all the way there. Lost turnout points for the hot puffing mess I pulled up on though.) do you? I found some pictures of me jumping Kopa at Greytown.. i jumped kinda big! I can see why I fell off all the time.. horrible sliding lower leg. Prue fixed that I guess. All the times Connie tries to buck and scare the life out of you as she doesn't like going down hill. Which is awesome since you had so recently snapped your hand in half getting bucked off downhill (Still hate going down hill, I sing now when I'm hunting downhill and think to myself how they don't want to fall either. I will never enjoy galloping down hill ever). You had many fights (I had heaps of fights with Bob, because she was an opinionated mare and I was a know it all kid. Such an amazing horse once I learnt to stay out of her way) I remember with Bob on x country.. like jumping that hay rack thing at solway, and you got eliminated.. then you came out after it was done and she jumped it first time. Bitch. Manny even scaring grant with his bucks. You winding Bob up so bad that I would have to ride her home to try stop her jigging (Kim has a cool seat and I have a hot seat. I make horses hot and she makes them chill. I'm not even sure why it has always been that way). I preferred her over Kruise anyway. He used to dig holes like a charmer. Getting kicked over by Prue, ha the bitch (Kims pony Prue kicked me one night when I was feeding and I had a shoe mark on my hip for a year. The next day I rode her at a sports meeting and was first equal clearing 1.27m, and taking 1.35m despite it being the third time I ever jumped her. An amazing talented scop[ey powerful and intimidating pony). Me bloody endlessly lifting Bills feet up onto the ramp.. christ. Her topline is gone, but she looks good hey. Anyway enough for now.. getting all nostalgic.. i better come back and ride. Il see if I can think of more stuff. Ha there was the time cruise jumped off a track onto a sheep track.. i think mum might of been on him.. horrifying.

I have always been a spoilt spoilt kid. 1. Because my parents gave me ponies- the greatest gift ever, and 2. because I had a little sister who rode too. Kim and I have logged so many hours in the saddle together and even now if we need to talk we go hacking and that gives us the freedom to discuss anything and everything. I miss her so much, because she is like my super coach and my biggest fan.

I used to make her cry constantly too, because I wanted to canter up and down hills and go fast and she wanted to go slow, and her smaller ponies struggled to keep up with mine. And then as we went on and I was on green horses and she was on the trained horse and I'm going 'slow down kim, please slow down,' in a complete turn around! I think Kim probably got nicer ponies than me, or perhaps just easier ones, though Prue wasn't easy just insanely athletic and she did an amazing job on her. She is probably even a better more correct rider than me, unfortunately we both have issues with nerves and courage in front of a fence. I have had more time to learn to cope with it because I forged the path, but Kims time to shine is still to come. We will get her over some really big jumps.

Anyway, here are the crew that got mentioned in the post above

Marcus:

Kopa:

Bob:

Duke:

Prue:

Kruise:

 

I'm not even at all sure what my point is. haha I guess thanks Kim,  hopefully we can be riding together again soon. Miss you babes. x