Queenbee
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
Just a quick update on how ben and I are doing. Well bless him, he wasn't best pleased with losing his golden girl Ebony as you can well imagine and was a bit of a cross between a limpit and a doped up 'thing' for a while. The first day he had a couple of hours in the paddock/schooling area with her after she was pts, then god bless him ran straight to me and it was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other to get to the stable. The following day his haylage and water had hardly been touched and again when we went to the field he was hanging his head and just plodding along, the little monster was very emotionally drained.
He was then popped into the paddock/schooling area on sunday while I did my bits and bobs around the yard, the other two horses had gone off and I wanted to make sure he was happy in there and knew it was still a safe place... not impressed and feeling a little bit insecure he banked out of it and ran up to me, wanting to go in his stable... he went out in his field that afternoon He did not like being in the field alone, so I made sure he had access to the top gate so he could see the others next door, he was far more worried about where I was and what I was doing than what they were and only bothered looking out for them when I wasn't there, when I was there he was hanging his head through the post and rail and nibbling the grass right next to where I was sat.
The following morning I was greeted with a surprise, he had undone the rope to his inner gate and let himself out of his field and was standing at the outer gate... hmm, what a clever boy
good job there are three gates and a yard gate!! As the days have gone by he has become brighter and more his old self.
We had a visit from the local Allen and Page rep yesterday and I decided to keep it even though it was primarily for what was happening with Ebony, she was a lovely lady, weight taped him at 478 (I think) and he was given a body score of 3, we also did the string test
which is showing he has about 4-5 inches left in him He is now 15.2-15.3
He had a lunge in the paddock for 5 mins but he was brimming with energy and had forgotten what walk was, so I didnt push him, I was just so glad to see him happy in there considering he'd said goodbye to ebony in there on saturday.
With such progress I have started to make definate plans for bootcamp next month! Hoping to have his wolf teeth done (if they are through) next week and then send him off the second week of july. He has now done 2 days in the field where he has walked calmly to the field and then trotted off and started grazing
and he is taking advantage of mummy (yes I called myself mummy) being soft and is having 3 small meals a day of fast fibre and has had a HUGE bed made in Ebonys old stable so he can see the other horses better and we are taking advantage of the situation and fixing his roof, cutting most of his field for haylage and I intend to have a break while he is at bootcamp. The woman who is backing him has also agreed to me going up and having smooches and kisses whenever I want and watching his training so I feel a part of it all.
He is doing so very well at the moment on his own and I think we will be ok, although I have the offer of a mare as a companion for him who will have a level head when it comes to hacking, so I may look at doing that when he returns. YO has been fantastic and even though I offered to pay for the empty stable while Im hanging around making my mind up, hes not going to charge me and is happy for me to move a companion in when/if Im ready, I think he likes the opportunity to have the stable free for a while so he can do all the work on the roof he needs too and he sees the hay cutting as a bonus
All in all the cards have fallen as favourably as they could under the circumstances, I actually can't believe how well I am doing but I think its the fact that I came to terms with the outcome before it happened and then I just had to make sure that everything was ok for ben.
Anyways, a bit of a pointless waffle but things are going ok and I wanted to share that, here are a few pictures of ben... for you to smile at... (I am also having a really weird sense of de ja vu so if I have already posted this the other day please forgive me, perhaps my brain is a bit more mushed than I realise
Bens new party trick... undoing the gate (he does have HC taken off before I leave him)
Very cute in his big sis' stable... I have no idea how he managed to make himself look so small, he towers over the door normally!
sniffing the purple spray following dinging his leg banking 4.5 foot out of school and running up to me like a lost soul
Anyway He is doing ok, and thats the main thing, cant wait to keep you up to date with all his boot camp antics
Just a quick update on how ben and I are doing. Well bless him, he wasn't best pleased with losing his golden girl Ebony as you can well imagine and was a bit of a cross between a limpit and a doped up 'thing' for a while. The first day he had a couple of hours in the paddock/schooling area with her after she was pts, then god bless him ran straight to me and it was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other to get to the stable. The following day his haylage and water had hardly been touched and again when we went to the field he was hanging his head and just plodding along, the little monster was very emotionally drained.
He was then popped into the paddock/schooling area on sunday while I did my bits and bobs around the yard, the other two horses had gone off and I wanted to make sure he was happy in there and knew it was still a safe place... not impressed and feeling a little bit insecure he banked out of it and ran up to me, wanting to go in his stable... he went out in his field that afternoon He did not like being in the field alone, so I made sure he had access to the top gate so he could see the others next door, he was far more worried about where I was and what I was doing than what they were and only bothered looking out for them when I wasn't there, when I was there he was hanging his head through the post and rail and nibbling the grass right next to where I was sat.
The following morning I was greeted with a surprise, he had undone the rope to his inner gate and let himself out of his field and was standing at the outer gate... hmm, what a clever boy
good job there are three gates and a yard gate!! As the days have gone by he has become brighter and more his old self.We had a visit from the local Allen and Page rep yesterday and I decided to keep it even though it was primarily for what was happening with Ebony, she was a lovely lady, weight taped him at 478 (I think) and he was given a body score of 3, we also did the string test
which is showing he has about 4-5 inches left in him He is now 15.2-15.3 He had a lunge in the paddock for 5 mins but he was brimming with energy and had forgotten what walk was, so I didnt push him, I was just so glad to see him happy in there considering he'd said goodbye to ebony in there on saturday.
With such progress I have started to make definate plans for bootcamp next month! Hoping to have his wolf teeth done (if they are through) next week and then send him off the second week of july. He has now done 2 days in the field where he has walked calmly to the field and then trotted off and started grazing
and he is taking advantage of mummy (yes I called myself mummy) being soft and is having 3 small meals a day of fast fibre and has had a HUGE bed made in Ebonys old stable so he can see the other horses better and we are taking advantage of the situation and fixing his roof, cutting most of his field for haylage and I intend to have a break while he is at bootcamp. The woman who is backing him has also agreed to me going up and having smooches and kisses whenever I want and watching his training so I feel a part of it all.He is doing so very well at the moment on his own and I think we will be ok, although I have the offer of a mare as a companion for him who will have a level head when it comes to hacking, so I may look at doing that when he returns. YO has been fantastic and even though I offered to pay for the empty stable while Im hanging around making my mind up, hes not going to charge me and is happy for me to move a companion in when/if Im ready, I think he likes the opportunity to have the stable free for a while so he can do all the work on the roof he needs too and he sees the hay cutting as a bonus
All in all the cards have fallen as favourably as they could under the circumstances, I actually can't believe how well I am doing but I think its the fact that I came to terms with the outcome before it happened and then I just had to make sure that everything was ok for ben.
Anyways, a bit of a pointless waffle but things are going ok and I wanted to share that, here are a few pictures of ben... for you to smile at... (I am also having a really weird sense of de ja vu so if I have already posted this the other day please forgive me, perhaps my brain is a bit more mushed than I realise
Bens new party trick... undoing the gate
(he does have HC taken off before I leave him)
Very cute in his big sis' stable... I have no idea how he managed to make himself look so small, he towers over the door normally!
sniffing the purple spray following dinging his leg banking 4.5 foot out of school and running up to me like a lost soul
Anyway
He is doing ok, and thats the main thing, cant wait to keep you up to date with all his boot camp antics 
