Recent content by Woolly Hat n Wellies

Thank you both!

I'm looking at a bridle online, colours available are black, ebony or tobacco. I don't want black. Can anyone shed any light on what ebony and tobacco look like please?

Just this weekend I had a group of beaters with loose dogs come into the field where I was riding. My horse isn't worried about the noise of the shooting, but someone sending up pheasants in a bush was quite worrying for him, and I got rather tense when I realised they were beating on one side...

Unfortunately my yearling was kicked in the field a few weeks ago. He's been going through a 'pest' phase and probably just pushed one of the others a bit too far. It came up in a bump on the inside of his front leg, a bit below the knee. It had a cut on it, which scabbed over, but he wasn't...

It's no one else's business when you move up to Prelim. It's your horse and you know what level is right for him. I'm still (frustratedly) doing intro, because canter is taking a long time coming on my project horse. I found we were consistently getting placed at intro at our usual venue, but...

My gelding has been accused of taking the p*ss so many times. I've posted a lot about him before, but recently I feel like we've been making real progress. The difference has been that my instructor has MADE me trust him. A year ago I would have fallen about laughing at the idea that I would...

I have to ride on the roads between my parents' farm and the bridle paths, but I suppose I'm lucky in that there are bridle paths near me so I don't have to go too far on rat run country lanes. I wouldn't go at peak traffic times, but on a weekend or during the day in the week it's generally ok...

It started off as a joke. His foal coat was grey, and as his mum had been sold as 'not in foal this time' our original intention was to send them both back, so we didn't think he'd be called Graham for long. That fell through, my mum and I fell in love with him, and by then the name had stuck...

Thank you both. Wagtail, I've tried the method you suggested this afternoon and it came up at 14hh! Got my fingers very tightly crossed, and Graham has been informed that he has to try really hard to grow from now on.

How accurately can you predict the adult height of an 18 month old? Graham is 18 months, currently standing at about 12.2hh, very bum high, and quite chunky. His measurement from the middle of his knee to his coronet band suggests (after multiple attempts, not helped by Graham also trying to...

To begin with, my instructor told me what to look for and feel for, and to see which parts of his body were improving. In Billy's case it's reducing the massive muscle under his neck, and building muscle all along the top, stopping him leaning on his forehand, so his chest is quite soft, without...

In my experience, cattle are idiots, especially younger ones. The only thing I've found helpful is to talk loudly, so they know you're coming, and stay in a lazy walk as far as possible. When crossing a field of young cattle, I'd even stop and let them catch up, rather than have them get up...

My gelding is 16 now, and was sold about 3 years ago as a happy hack with the words 'he doesn't really DO schooling'. With the help of an instructor he's now not only schooling, but enjoying it, and it's so rewarding to see and feel him getting better, more supple, and stronger. At his age he...

Not a horse, but we lost a heifer in a ring feeder the same way as your youngster, OP. It was the first time my dad had seen an accident like that in 60-odd years of keeping cattle. Although, of course cattle tend to crush and push each other at the feeder and we think she'd got stuck and then...

What a horrible thing to happen! Kids in groups quite often seem to share the same brain cell for the day, and leave the rest at home! Even quite ordinary, reasonably sensible children can turn monumentally stupid in groups. I passed some similar ones on a hack a few months ago. I could see...