Gamebird
Well-Known Member
Archie has been with me for just over two weeks now and it is nearly 5 weeks since his last race so he is well into the transformation to all-round superstar 
. I measured him tonight and he is just a smidge under 16hh but at 4 I hope that there is some growing left to come and he'll look 2 inches taller when he fills out. Funny how I look huge on him when I looked fine on the Coloured One who was a good two inches shorter 
.
So far, apart from 4 days box rest after pulling a shoe half off and standing on a nail
(TBs, eh? 
), he's done a reasonable amount of work, though obviously keeping it short and sweet. Following a blast around some stubbles I have a fairly good idea why he's not still in racing 
and he's passed the most important Gamebird test - hack alone along the main road to a friend's house, stand in the yard whilst I partake of a pint of lager, then hack home again on a (very) long rein 
.
He's actually the nicest horse I've owned since... erm.... the Coloured One and has made many fans on the yard. His favourite hobby is eating, shortly followed by sleeping - sound familiar? I'm vaguely disappointed that he hasn't put on more weight as he has 2 humungous buckets of feed a day (would be 3 if I could get home at lunchtimes). He's currently on Alfa A Oil, A&P Weight Gain, Topspec and Equitop Myoplast (judge me as you wish but I have secured a free source for Fugly, who has improved his topline no end in the same period that I've been feeding it, so I thought it would be worth negotiating Archie in on the deal
). I think that I'm being a bit impatient though as for the calories he consumes he has to a) work and b) grow before he uses the surplus to put on weight.
I am considering a diet swap whereby he eats pizza and wine for a month and I eat chaff.... I think it has potential!
Anyway, the important bit - some pics. We had a wee jumping practice tonight for a tidgy SJing outing on Friday. This is the third time that he has ever left the ground
Starting with a tiddly one:
A bit bigger with a filler, though I'm folding as though it's 4ft
Skinny? No probs
And finally a proper fence
Knackered
Then I tried to improve Fugs' shape over a fence. First attempt: more like a racehorse than Archie
Special tricks:
Better, but still rotating over my hands
Who left that 8-pack of Fosters in the middle of the arena?
Sorry if I've bored you, but I always think that it's nice to see the 'works in progress' or the untidy bits between the comp reports. There's a tiddly bit of spaghetti with prawns and chilli left (though it might just be sauce as I suspect my husband's picked all the prawns out) and some of the aforementioned Fosters.
. I measured him tonight and he is just a smidge under 16hh but at 4 I hope that there is some growing left to come and he'll look 2 inches taller when he fills out. Funny how I look huge on him when I looked fine on the Coloured One who was a good two inches shorter .So far, apart from 4 days box rest after pulling a shoe half off and standing on a nail
(TBs, eh? ), he's done a reasonable amount of work, though obviously keeping it short and sweet. Following a blast around some stubbles I have a fairly good idea why he's not still in racing and he's passed the most important Gamebird test - hack alone along the main road to a friend's house, stand in the yard whilst I partake of a pint of lager, then hack home again on a (very) long rein .He's actually the nicest horse I've owned since... erm.... the Coloured One and has made many fans on the yard. His favourite hobby is eating, shortly followed by sleeping - sound familiar? I'm vaguely disappointed that he hasn't put on more weight as he has 2 humungous buckets of feed a day (would be 3 if I could get home at lunchtimes). He's currently on Alfa A Oil, A&P Weight Gain, Topspec and Equitop Myoplast (judge me as you wish but I have secured a free source for Fugly, who has improved his topline no end in the same period that I've been feeding it, so I thought it would be worth negotiating Archie in on the deal
). I think that I'm being a bit impatient though as for the calories he consumes he has to a) work and b) grow before he uses the surplus to put on weight.I am considering a diet swap whereby he eats pizza and wine for a month and I eat chaff.... I think it has potential!
Anyway, the important bit - some pics. We had a wee jumping practice tonight for a tidgy SJing outing on Friday. This is the third time that he has ever left the ground
Starting with a tiddly one:
A bit bigger with a filler, though I'm folding as though it's 4ft
Skinny? No probs
And finally a proper fence
Knackered
Then I tried to improve Fugs' shape over a fence. First attempt: more like a racehorse than Archie
Special tricks:
Better, but still rotating over my hands
Who left that 8-pack of Fosters in the middle of the arena?
Sorry if I've bored you, but I always think that it's nice to see the 'works in progress' or the untidy bits between the comp reports. There's a tiddly bit of spaghetti with prawns and chilli left (though it might just be sauce as I suspect my husband's picked all the prawns out
) and some of the aforementioned Fosters.
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