is where it's at for the next 10 days...
http://www.clairesholidayblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.clairesholidayblog.blogspot.com/
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
ringbone
is the differential diagnosis of choice.
interestingly, the farrier turned up to do another horse whilst i was waiting, so i was telling him, and he thought that, on the grounds that molly doesn't have the feet she would have for navicular syndrome....
so, booked him for the day after i come back from holiday, as Molly will be about due.
I'm to get cortaflex (that's easy).
the real question is whether this can be managed barefoot, or whether i'll have to shoe in front.. and if so with what?
anyway, she got a good lunging whilst we were working it out!
interestingly, the farrier turned up to do another horse whilst i was waiting, so i was telling him, and he thought that, on the grounds that molly doesn't have the feet she would have for navicular syndrome....
so, booked him for the day after i come back from holiday, as Molly will be about due.
I'm to get cortaflex (that's easy).
the real question is whether this can be managed barefoot, or whether i'll have to shoe in front.. and if so with what?
anyway, she got a good lunging whilst we were working it out!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
it's interesting
what one finds one has learnt after years of reading/observing...
today i was helping someone with pole work and jumping, and noticed stuff about seat/hands that i would never have noticed a few years ago!
Molly? i took the Max pressure halter out with me and a longer lead rope than usual, put it on and pulled... she came. but she is not right. we are thinking navicular syndrome or something of that nature, which should be managable (Queenie had the same)
and in terms of this becoming apparent after living on a hill when she didn't used to live on a hill.. this makes some sense, for regular readers, of the "standing at the top of the hill planted" refusing to go down to the 20 acre...
and this may account for some schooling issues as well.
in the meantime, i dug out the fly sheet i had bought for queenie years ago. i must have shrunk it in the wash, as it fit molly a treat. the other mares didn't recognise her! they all had to do sniff polite checking that itwas in fact a mare they knew!
today i was helping someone with pole work and jumping, and noticed stuff about seat/hands that i would never have noticed a few years ago!
Molly? i took the Max pressure halter out with me and a longer lead rope than usual, put it on and pulled... she came. but she is not right. we are thinking navicular syndrome or something of that nature, which should be managable (Queenie had the same)
and in terms of this becoming apparent after living on a hill when she didn't used to live on a hill.. this makes some sense, for regular readers, of the "standing at the top of the hill planted" refusing to go down to the 20 acre...
and this may account for some schooling issues as well.
in the meantime, i dug out the fly sheet i had bought for queenie years ago. i must have shrunk it in the wash, as it fit molly a treat. the other mares didn't recognise her! they all had to do sniff polite checking that itwas in fact a mare they knew!
Monday, July 13, 2009
someone did a rain dance....
but there are various culprits - i was in the process of putting saddle on, two were outi nthe field catching their horses...who knows. but at least i didn't leave any washing on the line. and it's still tipping down now an hour after i left!
anyway - catching and bringing in was a fraction easier today ... the first stage was uphill, and after a minute's pulling, she came ...
she stopped when we got to the down hill bit.. whether that was because it was down hill, or because one of the other mares came trotting over to her, i don't know.
i did try to take some video of her walking down hill, but not wonderfully successfully .. one bit i thought i'd taken, i hadn't, and the next bit there's a lot of her head in the way!
anyway - catching and bringing in was a fraction easier today ... the first stage was uphill, and after a minute's pulling, she came ...
she stopped when we got to the down hill bit.. whether that was because it was down hill, or because one of the other mares came trotting over to her, i don't know.
i did try to take some video of her walking down hill, but not wonderfully successfully .. one bit i thought i'd taken, i hadn't, and the next bit there's a lot of her head in the way!
i was starting to think about Queenie; she developed spurs on both front navicular bones.... but, her last few years she was sound barefoot in the field. alternatively, she's trying really hard to train me not to fetch her in, and failing....
edited to add: friend's OH, horse vet, says lame bilaterally in front.
edited to add: friend's OH, horse vet, says lame bilaterally in front.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
in hand walk..
after a wash off with hibiscrub solution for it's antiseptic/cleansing properties on the scabs.
and after a bit of struggle to get her in again. They were a lot nearer the gate. i took ordinary headcollar and schooling whip and bumbag with treats (happily the other 2 don't bother investigating those, molly would prevent them) .. caught ok, but again, no desire to move....movement was achieved by facing her, and tapping with the schooling whip (just touching) in/behind the shoulder....and me walking backwards!
i do think theres something about her action down hill... looked again on the way back out to the field, which is down a steeper hill but not on grass ...not quite right... will get someone else to watch, i think! or perhaps try and video it...
and the scabs...i wonder, actually, if she might be allergic to the fly repellent? i'd forgotten that i think it was one day last week instead of spraying, as the spray doesn't spray very well, i'd put it on a sponge and put it on that way?
so walked out in hand up to the next yard, stopped for a chat and back round...
and after a bit of struggle to get her in again. They were a lot nearer the gate. i took ordinary headcollar and schooling whip and bumbag with treats (happily the other 2 don't bother investigating those, molly would prevent them) .. caught ok, but again, no desire to move....movement was achieved by facing her, and tapping with the schooling whip (just touching) in/behind the shoulder....and me walking backwards!
i do think theres something about her action down hill... looked again on the way back out to the field, which is down a steeper hill but not on grass ...not quite right... will get someone else to watch, i think! or perhaps try and video it...
and the scabs...i wonder, actually, if she might be allergic to the fly repellent? i'd forgotten that i think it was one day last week instead of spraying, as the spray doesn't spray very well, i'd put it on a sponge and put it on that way?
so walked out in hand up to the next yard, stopped for a chat and back round...
Saturday, July 11, 2009
poles and jumpies
but before that, the ongoing saga of getting her in from the field.
today, there were only 2 mares out, mine & steve's; we went down together... Steve was back up at the yard (a hike up a hill!) and nearly tacked up by the time i got molly there.
I'd not expected her to plant when she could see that Tia was being led off and she knew she was the only horse left in the field, but plant she did. ggrrrhh
BUT, i do wonder if in fact it is the going down hill? whichever field we are in , one goes downhill to the gate in the valley, then up the other side to the yard. going out to the field, she moves on, but then of course she's going somewhere she wants to go..i dunno, but it's getting very tedious.
I might take up tash's idea and take my pressure halter and 12foot line out and work her in the field....dunno.
anyway, after she was in, and had her massage, still a shade scabby down the side where the saddle flaps woudl be, i decieded lunge and poles
2 poles on the ground one side of the arena, 2 poles on polepods on the other side.
she did both very nicely.
i then set up a very small jump which she jumped nicely from the right but not quite so nicely from the left...
then we called it a day.
it was VERY hot in the arena, no breeze - because it was blocked by the copse, soon as you left the arena and came to cross the road, lovely breeze blowing up to cool us down.
and finally, completely OT, the water lily in our pond has flowered:
today, there were only 2 mares out, mine & steve's; we went down together... Steve was back up at the yard (a hike up a hill!) and nearly tacked up by the time i got molly there.
I'd not expected her to plant when she could see that Tia was being led off and she knew she was the only horse left in the field, but plant she did. ggrrrhh
BUT, i do wonder if in fact it is the going down hill? whichever field we are in , one goes downhill to the gate in the valley, then up the other side to the yard. going out to the field, she moves on, but then of course she's going somewhere she wants to go..i dunno, but it's getting very tedious.
I might take up tash's idea and take my pressure halter and 12foot line out and work her in the field....dunno.
anyway, after she was in, and had her massage, still a shade scabby down the side where the saddle flaps woudl be, i decieded lunge and poles
2 poles on the ground one side of the arena, 2 poles on polepods on the other side.
she did both very nicely.
i then set up a very small jump which she jumped nicely from the right but not quite so nicely from the left...
then we called it a day.
it was VERY hot in the arena, no breeze - because it was blocked by the copse, soon as you left the arena and came to cross the road, lovely breeze blowing up to cool us down.
and finally, completely OT, the water lily in our pond has flowered:
Friday, July 10, 2009
30 minutes
to get her from the top of the field to the bottom ... a 1 minute walk, probably? i stand at the end of the lead rope .. eventually she moves to me.. and so on, for half the distance .. then she consented to walk on properly and follow me. duh.
the rash. could it be buttercups? scabbing, anyway, in places! so didn't ride as she's not wholly happy about the areas being touched. in fact, by the time i'd wasted 1/2 hour talking to lisa as well, then gave her her massage (another 1/2 hour!) i decided not to do anything with her as it was getting on by then.. turned her out, came back and realised baaad mummy had forgotten to do her tea!
she's clearly short of something, though, as she used both licks (one horselyx, one himalayan salt lick) neither of which she's touched for a while, so that'a s good sign in one way (that is, that she knows she needs whatever it is and helped herself!).
oh, and if it's buttercups ... there are sheep on the estate, but whether the estate would put them on the horse fields to get rid of the buttercups i don't know..
the rash. could it be buttercups? scabbing, anyway, in places! so didn't ride as she's not wholly happy about the areas being touched. in fact, by the time i'd wasted 1/2 hour talking to lisa as well, then gave her her massage (another 1/2 hour!) i decided not to do anything with her as it was getting on by then.. turned her out, came back and realised baaad mummy had forgotten to do her tea!
she's clearly short of something, though, as she used both licks (one horselyx, one himalayan salt lick) neither of which she's touched for a while, so that'a s good sign in one way (that is, that she knows she needs whatever it is and helped herself!).
oh, and if it's buttercups ... there are sheep on the estate, but whether the estate would put them on the horse fields to get rid of the buttercups i don't know..
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