Elf On A Shelf
...
I realised I hadn't done one of these for a long while so what a better day to do it than a Saturday whilst watching some top not National Hunt racing!
I had an easy start to my day with a few to clip so I started with a lovely young Malinas 3yo gelding who has never been clipped before. I always approach these youngsters with the hope of giving them a good experience first time so they will hopefully settle to being clipped and be no bother for the rest of their lives but if they don't like it then I don't take a hair off and dope them instead. I bring Bear into my clipping box and he instantly goes to the big pile of shavings at the back of the stable to have a good sniff. Whilst he settles into being in the box I oil the clippers and sort out my brushes. "Come on sunshine, over here please." I say as I go collect him from his investigations. "Now these are clippers, they make a hell of a racket but they won't hurt you and it's just a noisy grooming session buddy." I tell him as I switch them on. Bear's eye pop out on stalks as he snorts and stares in horror at the machine in my hand. I hold them out for him to inspect and being the inquisitive youngster that he is he duly sniffed them and stuck his nose on them. Now usually if a horse is willing to touch them themselves and not jump through the roof it's a safe bet that I will get them clipped without too much bother. Bear gives them another sniff then decides there's more interesting things to be looking at and sniffing from this new box. Before I start taking hair off I run the clippers all over his body so he can feel the vibrations as well - did he care? Did he heck! "Good lad, so your going to let me clip you then." I start taking hair off of his shoulder and he doesn't care one bit woohoo! I got the whole of the near side done except the top of his neck and head - I always leave this bit until last so I can do both sides at the same time in case I have to twitch them for it. I swop sides to do the off side and he won't let me near him! Weirdo! So I quietly wait him out and he couldn't figure out that he can still look out over the door just not wedges up against the wall! When he got this idea he stood like a rock again to be fair to him. Doing his head was a little trickier as he is bloomin big horse and he likes putting his head in the air! "Look mate I can't reach that high, not even standing on my box so you either bring it down a bit or I twitch you, your choice" I say to him. I would like to think he understand what I say but I doubt it though he did drop his head just enough for me to be able to do a half decent job of it. He looks good! I do like it when youngsters are well brought up, it makes my life so, so much easier!
I clipped another Malinas horse next, Neena. She is a total sweetheart but also a complete and utter madam at times! But she is awesome to clip! She stands like a rock, isn't ticklish at all and doesn't care where you put the clippers. It's funny because they do say traits run through families and so far the 3 Malinas horses I have clipped have all been great to clip. Same with Milan horses. I only ever doped Arthur because he was always a bit ticklish and I wanted to make sure he went out immaculately for his races. If he was just a bog standard northern horse that would be hunting round the likes of Hexham I would never have doped him and left him with slightly hairy elbows and flanks.
My first lot to ride out was a bit of work on wee Bloorie. He is coming back from a pretty nasty injury, he got jumped into at Perth last year and basically degloved his hind leg down the back from half way down the lower limb all the way to the fetlock. And of course you can't just have a horse heal normally now can you? Oh no! He got an infection which ate away at a bit of his tendon so he had to go back into surgery and have it all scraped away. There was always a question mark of if he would stand up to training but here we are, a few weeks off of a run and he is 100% sound and loving life! 1st time up the gallops he just tootled away quietly. You would be forgiven for thinking he was a nice ride if you saw him do that. 2nd time up with Max and he tanked along taking a good pull. 3rd time up is where things got interesting! I swopped work partners because someone was on their own that shouldn't be on their own and Max could do it by himself so I hopped off with Sut's. The lass on Sut's has never done a bit of work before so I had to help her quite a lot. Bloorie is the far better work horse of the 2 and just over half way up Sut's started to drop back a wee bit. "Steady up a second wee man" I say to Bloorie as I bring him back to a nose behind Sut's, come right over next to him to eyeball him and start clicking. Oh crap ... 'Your clicking! That means we go faster!' Bloorie said.. "No, Bloorie! We are helping Sut's!" 'Nope! This is waaaaayyy too much fun!' was Bloorie's response as he pulled my absolute arms out and tried to sprint clear of Sut's. "NO! Bloorie! NO! We are helping Sut's!" I try to reason with him. 'Pah! That's what you think! Let me GOOOOO!!!!!' Bloorie argued back, flinging his head up and back at me before trying to plunge forwards and zoom off."Oh fine! Off you go! We only have 3/4 furlong left anyway" I give in and drop paw. 'YYYAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' Was Bloorie's response to that. We went FLYING! And then we had to stop! Needlss to say Bloorie is feeling very well for himself at the moment and he bounced all the way home.
I had an easy start to my day with a few to clip so I started with a lovely young Malinas 3yo gelding who has never been clipped before. I always approach these youngsters with the hope of giving them a good experience first time so they will hopefully settle to being clipped and be no bother for the rest of their lives but if they don't like it then I don't take a hair off and dope them instead. I bring Bear into my clipping box and he instantly goes to the big pile of shavings at the back of the stable to have a good sniff. Whilst he settles into being in the box I oil the clippers and sort out my brushes. "Come on sunshine, over here please." I say as I go collect him from his investigations. "Now these are clippers, they make a hell of a racket but they won't hurt you and it's just a noisy grooming session buddy." I tell him as I switch them on. Bear's eye pop out on stalks as he snorts and stares in horror at the machine in my hand. I hold them out for him to inspect and being the inquisitive youngster that he is he duly sniffed them and stuck his nose on them. Now usually if a horse is willing to touch them themselves and not jump through the roof it's a safe bet that I will get them clipped without too much bother. Bear gives them another sniff then decides there's more interesting things to be looking at and sniffing from this new box. Before I start taking hair off I run the clippers all over his body so he can feel the vibrations as well - did he care? Did he heck! "Good lad, so your going to let me clip you then." I start taking hair off of his shoulder and he doesn't care one bit woohoo! I got the whole of the near side done except the top of his neck and head - I always leave this bit until last so I can do both sides at the same time in case I have to twitch them for it. I swop sides to do the off side and he won't let me near him! Weirdo! So I quietly wait him out and he couldn't figure out that he can still look out over the door just not wedges up against the wall! When he got this idea he stood like a rock again to be fair to him. Doing his head was a little trickier as he is bloomin big horse and he likes putting his head in the air! "Look mate I can't reach that high, not even standing on my box so you either bring it down a bit or I twitch you, your choice" I say to him. I would like to think he understand what I say but I doubt it though he did drop his head just enough for me to be able to do a half decent job of it. He looks good! I do like it when youngsters are well brought up, it makes my life so, so much easier!
I clipped another Malinas horse next, Neena. She is a total sweetheart but also a complete and utter madam at times! But she is awesome to clip! She stands like a rock, isn't ticklish at all and doesn't care where you put the clippers. It's funny because they do say traits run through families and so far the 3 Malinas horses I have clipped have all been great to clip. Same with Milan horses. I only ever doped Arthur because he was always a bit ticklish and I wanted to make sure he went out immaculately for his races. If he was just a bog standard northern horse that would be hunting round the likes of Hexham I would never have doped him and left him with slightly hairy elbows and flanks.
My first lot to ride out was a bit of work on wee Bloorie. He is coming back from a pretty nasty injury, he got jumped into at Perth last year and basically degloved his hind leg down the back from half way down the lower limb all the way to the fetlock. And of course you can't just have a horse heal normally now can you? Oh no! He got an infection which ate away at a bit of his tendon so he had to go back into surgery and have it all scraped away. There was always a question mark of if he would stand up to training but here we are, a few weeks off of a run and he is 100% sound and loving life! 1st time up the gallops he just tootled away quietly. You would be forgiven for thinking he was a nice ride if you saw him do that. 2nd time up with Max and he tanked along taking a good pull. 3rd time up is where things got interesting! I swopped work partners because someone was on their own that shouldn't be on their own and Max could do it by himself so I hopped off with Sut's. The lass on Sut's has never done a bit of work before so I had to help her quite a lot. Bloorie is the far better work horse of the 2 and just over half way up Sut's started to drop back a wee bit. "Steady up a second wee man" I say to Bloorie as I bring him back to a nose behind Sut's, come right over next to him to eyeball him and start clicking. Oh crap ... 'Your clicking! That means we go faster!' Bloorie said.. "No, Bloorie! We are helping Sut's!" 'Nope! This is waaaaayyy too much fun!' was Bloorie's response as he pulled my absolute arms out and tried to sprint clear of Sut's. "NO! Bloorie! NO! We are helping Sut's!" I try to reason with him. 'Pah! That's what you think! Let me GOOOOO!!!!!' Bloorie argued back, flinging his head up and back at me before trying to plunge forwards and zoom off."Oh fine! Off you go! We only have 3/4 furlong left anyway" I give in and drop paw. 'YYYAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' Was Bloorie's response to that. We went FLYING! And then we had to stop! Needlss to say Bloorie is feeling very well for himself at the moment and he bounced all the way home.
