Recent content by Nancykitt

The power lines are on the lane, so there's another croft between us and the power lines. But it was a heck of a bang - I could hear it in the shower and I'm about 100m away from the pole with the breakers on it. Ozzy has been upset all day, poor thing. We went out this afternoon and when we...

Before we went outside this morning there was a power outage. I was in the shower and heard a loud pop/bang, which I thought first came from somewhere in the house. Looked out and noticed that the horses weren't in their usual place but on the fence, staring over towards the lane. Ozzy was...

Same thing happened to one of ours when we were on a livery yard. He added insult to injury be flinging the haynets across the yard. Had eaten a ridiculous amount of feed. After turnout, he stood on the spot in a bare field for hours and seemed absolutely fine. We didn't ride him for a few days...

24 January Ozzy update: EP visit I explained what had happened to the EP and she was pretty horrified, partly because she didn't see him as particularly aggressive. So we were all on alert! OH did all the handling, took the rug off, etc, no problem. Anyway, Ozzy was very well behaved for...

I've just seen a video on FB of a very small child (young toddler), strapped into a basket saddle, being led by a rider on another pony. The child is not wearing a hat, apparently because if a hat is put on his head he screams and throws it off. OP states that it's all fine because the child's...

This is absolutely tragic. I can't imagine the pain being suffered by the poor family. Awful.

Absolutely! Young horses need boundaries. I got AJ as a 4 year old and it was obvious from day 1 that he'd been brought up 'firm and fair'. Always had excellent manners, he understands that humans are not to be treated like other horses. (Quite honestly, the way he 'plays' with the others at...

I've given this a lot of thought over the past few days! I've scoured the net and found out some bits and pieces on Ozzy's past. He was an 'unexpected arrival.' A cute, 'pink pony foal' that may well have been spoilt and was not sufficiently aware of boundaries. He stayed in the same home from...

Some very good points here. It's difficult to understand the set up we have without actually seeing it, so people are giving advice, in good faith, based on partial knowledge. We've tried to work with Ozzy without using physical punishment and overall it's been OK. We don't like whipping...

It's a private road, there's no access to members of the public. Since Monday night, he has gone back to how he was before the incident. He will stroll up to me calmly when we're poo shifting around the haybell. I wouldn't say I'm thrilled about this at the moment but he is showing zero signs...

@PurBee -apologies, I didn’t explain things very well in my initial post and have clarified this. I have lost confidence but it can be rebuilt (hopefully!). We are extra cautious, but not prepared to give up on Ozzy just yet.

My view is that, in a worse case scenario (ie, a horse is persistently aggressive and dangerous to humans), PTS is better than selling on. There may be exceptions- eg, in Lancs I personally knew people who were skilled in working with problem horses and I would have been happy for them to work...

OH and I have had a long chat about everything this morning. A few interesting points have come up, especially with regard to changes in herd dynamics. In the 23 years we’ve had Snoopy he’s moved from lower order to alpha and then back a little once AJ became more assertive. The situation with...

When we first got Ozzy it was clear that he had developed a serious issue around hay/haynets. He was also underweight. Interestingly he was more protective of a haynet than bucket feed. At that time it was summer so still lots of grass, but as time went on, if we put haynets out he would quickly...

I think Ozzy may have been spoilt in his first home. I’ve tracked down some photos on the net and it looks like he was a bit of a yard pet - the ‘pink pony’ -who might have got away with stuff because of his cuteness. His second owner rode him and the videos seem to show a nice well-mannered...