catembi
Well-Known Member
As is the way with horses, it's been pretty much ups & downs.
The 'herd' has settled - if I bundle Tiffany the New Forest & Florence the Shetland into a stable together, they don't neigh while I'm out hacking. Summer is hacking v nicely alone, last time out only neighed once instead of once every 5 seconds (yes, seriously...!) and doesn't care at all about things like enormous tractor with telehandler on the front speeding towards us in a narrow road, lorry full of roof trusses, etc.
The massive crack in her foot is growing out nicely & she's sound. Barefoot & rock crunching.
The shiver is proving to be very slight, & I'm doing her feet pretty much normally, but keeping the back ones v close to the ground.
We hacked out last Sunday to try out the route to Keysoe EC. We did about 10k according to mapmyrun, including several canters and a bit of a gallop. She didn't put a foot wrong, especially since it's the first time we'd been that way. Then when we got home, she blotted her copybook by biting me extremely hard. Thank goodness I had a thick fluffy fleece jacket on or she would have removed a lump of flesh. She properly grabbed & held on, and my entire upper arm is black & blue, with teeth marks, and even through the fleece coat she has torn off some skin. FFS...!!!
O/h wants me to sell her, & tbh having been kicked in the face & bitten hard and on purpose, it's hard to keep making excuses for her. BUT it depends on how she jumps. I've jumped her in my improvised jumping lane at home up to about 3 ft, and there is plenty of scope & power, but I'm not very safe in a dr saddle. A friend took a mini video of us jumping. He sent it to me on messenger & if anyone can explain to me how to get it off messenger & onto here, I'll post it!
I am hoping to hack to Keysoe at the w'end & do a polework/jumping lesson, and we will see how we go. Maybe borrow a jumping saddle from a friend up there. Once we've started jumping properly & seen what she can do, I can decide. If she's going to affiliate easily, I will keep her & be very careful of where her teeth & feet are at all times. If she's not, I will sell her as a MW hunter. She was sold to me as having hunted in Ireland. I have a fair sized ditch on my property & she jumped that, even the first time, without a care in the world, so I would say she probably HAS hunted. I think it's all ditches in Ireland out hunting?
And I tried her in a hackamore up the field & she went nuts, so that's a no. Might wait til I've got my arena at home & then experiment with the other types of bitless bridle.
So, yeah. We are about to start the planning process for stable block & arena; going to get a lorry the week after next, having had a few false starts; hanging on til pay day & am then getting a jumping saddle if it looks as if we're going to need one! Little by little, I'm getting back in the game!
The 'herd' has settled - if I bundle Tiffany the New Forest & Florence the Shetland into a stable together, they don't neigh while I'm out hacking. Summer is hacking v nicely alone, last time out only neighed once instead of once every 5 seconds (yes, seriously...!) and doesn't care at all about things like enormous tractor with telehandler on the front speeding towards us in a narrow road, lorry full of roof trusses, etc.
The massive crack in her foot is growing out nicely & she's sound. Barefoot & rock crunching.
The shiver is proving to be very slight, & I'm doing her feet pretty much normally, but keeping the back ones v close to the ground.
We hacked out last Sunday to try out the route to Keysoe EC. We did about 10k according to mapmyrun, including several canters and a bit of a gallop. She didn't put a foot wrong, especially since it's the first time we'd been that way. Then when we got home, she blotted her copybook by biting me extremely hard. Thank goodness I had a thick fluffy fleece jacket on or she would have removed a lump of flesh. She properly grabbed & held on, and my entire upper arm is black & blue, with teeth marks, and even through the fleece coat she has torn off some skin. FFS...!!!
O/h wants me to sell her, & tbh having been kicked in the face & bitten hard and on purpose, it's hard to keep making excuses for her. BUT it depends on how she jumps. I've jumped her in my improvised jumping lane at home up to about 3 ft, and there is plenty of scope & power, but I'm not very safe in a dr saddle. A friend took a mini video of us jumping. He sent it to me on messenger & if anyone can explain to me how to get it off messenger & onto here, I'll post it!
I am hoping to hack to Keysoe at the w'end & do a polework/jumping lesson, and we will see how we go. Maybe borrow a jumping saddle from a friend up there. Once we've started jumping properly & seen what she can do, I can decide. If she's going to affiliate easily, I will keep her & be very careful of where her teeth & feet are at all times. If she's not, I will sell her as a MW hunter. She was sold to me as having hunted in Ireland. I have a fair sized ditch on my property & she jumped that, even the first time, without a care in the world, so I would say she probably HAS hunted. I think it's all ditches in Ireland out hunting?
And I tried her in a hackamore up the field & she went nuts, so that's a no. Might wait til I've got my arena at home & then experiment with the other types of bitless bridle.
So, yeah. We are about to start the planning process for stable block & arena; going to get a lorry the week after next, having had a few false starts; hanging on til pay day & am then getting a jumping saddle if it looks as if we're going to need one! Little by little, I'm getting back in the game!