She's back!

My last post was very sad, but in many ways due to us losing the old boy, this post is very much happier. Because shortly after his death, Kinna ended up on the market. Remember Kinna? The little odd coloured Appaloosa with the fluffy teddy bear ears and gangly legs. We had to leave her behind when we left France because we just couldn't afford to bring all four of them with us, let alone pay UK livery prices for four. She went to our friends John and Carole when we relocated back to the UK.

But now she was for sale, along with many of their other horses, as they were having to sell the business. and we now had a spare livery space. So with the financial backing of our friend Emma, we hatched a plan to get her back. There was a fair amount of paperwork involved, things have changed since we brought the others back, but yesterday it all finally happened and she stepped off the huge lorry (we used LOC International again, another excellent job), cool as a cucumber......

I think she was pretty happy to see Sky again, but the feeling doesn't seem to be reciprocated so for the moment we have put her in with Tari, who has chased her about a bit but basically doesn't let things like new horses arriving get in the way of important things like eating. For all her chasing, Kinna can easily outpace her and dances away with a contemptuous flick of her hindlegs.....

We're very happy to have he back, and are looking forward to having lots of fun with her again :-)

Goodbye Old Friend......

I have been neglecting this blog, as the horseback archery one has been taking over somewhat, and indeed I realise I may not have time to keep two of them going, and this could well be the last post on here.

If it is, it will unfortunately not be a happy post. Because last weekend we had to say goodbye to the incomparable Gandalf. I still can't believe he's gone. After 12 years he was so much a part of our lives that it is very hard to be without him.

Last Friday Ali noticed he was looking a bit out of sorts, and was lying down, then getting up then going down again. She stayed in the field to keep an eye on him for a bit, and when he went down like he'd fallen over, she got really alarmed. We called the vet and brought him in, by this time covered in mud. He continued to lie down try to roll, get up again and clearly was in pain. The vet did all the usual treatments for colic, gave him a hefty dose of painkiller and we settled in for a vigil.

Every 20 minutes or so we got him up, took him for a walk, put him back in the stable, where he immediately laid down. Ali sat with him in the straw, I paced up and down and went to see the other horses, many of whom were in for the night as it was so wet in the fields. All the time we were waiting for the tiniest sign that this may be passing, that he would appear more comfortable and start to look for something to eat.

Alas, it was not to be. After several hours with no improvement we called the vet again. Whilst we waited, we took him for a final walk down the track to the field, where for the first (and last) time he called to the others and one of them answered him. It felt like he was saying goodbye......

The vet told us the only other option was a trip to the hospital and surgery, we did not want to put him through that with no guarantee of success. So we did the only thing we could and let him go. We stayed with him at the end, he'd been given a further dose of painkiller, enough that he started looking around for treats so we could give him a few as the last thing we could do for him.

Afterwards, we brought Sky in to say goodbye as she's the sensitive one, who'd been with him since she was six months old. We think it's important for them to know when one of them passes away, rather than just disappearing from the field never to return. Ever since she has been strangely calm, but there is definitely a sense that things have changed in the herd.

So there we are, at the age of 23, Gandalf is gone. Ali wrote this on Instagram, which I think is a lovely tribute to the horse of a lifetime.

Goodbye old friend, we love you.......

Trust

Another excellent post from The Red Mare yesterday, who is the horse at the heart of The Happy Horse book.

It's all about people wanting a quick fix for horses with "problems" and buying gadgets or calmers to try and make them easier to work with.

"No calmer in the world will give you a bond of trust with your horse. If you do not build that bond of trust, day by slow day, there is always going to be a moment when you will find yourself in trouble."

The trust I have been building all these years with my horses has really paid off this weekend. I very rarely ride Sky. I have ridden her maybe half a dozen times in all the years we've had her. But I have done a lot of groundwork with her and general day to day interactions so she knows that I am the one who makes decisions and she also knows that if she gets scared, she can turn to me for help. She does get scared quite a lot. Yesterday she was snorting at a patch of snow on the ground because it was well, white, and it hadn't been there the day before. But I said it was OK and we went past it and it didn't jump up and eat her.

Anyway, a friend had brought her Total Contact saddle over for Ali to try. And after she'd done that, I fancied a go. So I got on Sky, she looked round at me as I was on the mounting block as if to say "Well this doesn't normally happen" but she stood still as I mounted and stood waiting for me to tell her what to do. We rode up and down the lane in walk and trot and she followed all my instructions perfectly. She was calm and relaxed, and amazingly sensitive and supple. She really is a credit to Ali.

Would she have let anyone else do that? Probably not. Our years of building up a trusting relationship really have paid off. And of course I trust her too. She was only wearing a cordeo......

In other news, I rode Tari for the first time ever today. I think she trusts me too :-)

You can't do that, it's dangerous!

Yesterday we did something that is apparently very dangerous. We went for a hack and as soon as we got off the main road and started trotting, Sky started shaking her head up and down as usual. We have come to the conclusion that she doesn't like the feel of the bridle moving around on her head, even her specially made soft leather sidepull. So Ali took it off, and we did the rest of the ride with her just in the neck rope.

Sky is much happier like this it would seem. The head tossing stopped. We went up into the woods and decided to see what would happen if we went for a canter. It was very civilised and she didn't even feel the need to race with Damson. The neck rope was fine for stopping and no innocent passing hikers were run over.

Sky strode out, sniffed the path at times, looked around, nibbled the grass a time or two, but didn't brace her neck, didn't do her giraffe impression and generally seemed more relaxed then usual. I love this picture:

There is something very special about having the trust of a horse like this. I hope I can have the same with Tari when I start riding her. Ali also did her first Interdressage test bridleless this month and she got 77.5 % in spite of a few occasions when Sky made her opinion very clear that she didn't really want to be doing some of this stuff.....

......but then, when did she ever not do that? It's why we love her ;-)

Searching for calm

Today it has been raining, A lot. Almost biblically in fact. Making us wish for a return to last weekend's freezing cold but dry days.....but never mind, we thought, we now have an indoor school at the yard, we can do some work with the horses and stay dry!

However, when we went to get the girls, they apparently had other ideas. I was expecting a certain amount of distraction due to the usual Saturday ritual of attempting to shoot the bountiful number of pheasants up in the woods behind the horses' field that seems to amuse the locals. I don't know how many they actually shoot, but they sure use a lot of ammunition during the attempt, it's just like being back in France really.....so Sky in particular was already somewhat on alert.

But they came trotting (well, sliding sideways at the trot, the field isn't exactly flat) down to the gate and walked along with us down to the yard, snorting at puddles and random bits of plastic, as is Sky's wont. It's not really Tari's won't however, and she seemed more worried about life than usual. Then we got to the Waterfall of Doom, where a gap in the guttering along the side of the school roof meant some water was falling from the hole and making a scary noise. This was simply not to be contemplated unless from the far end of the leadrope with much more and much  louder snorting. Not even peppermint horse treats would induce Tari to approach this monstrosity.....well alright, she got a bit closer but it's truly amazing how far her chunky little neck stretches out when she wants the treat but doesn't want to get any closer to something ;-)

Ah well, we thought, at least they haven't run away, but the general unease meant that we gave up on any idea of in hand or ridden work so we just decided to turn them out in the school and see what happened.

Running about, more snorting, pawing at the sand, a bit more running, generally ending up by the gate and not at all keen to be anywhere away from me and Ali. So we stuck with it, wandered about with them and bit by bit they calmed down enough for a few scratches and a bit of yawning.

So I suppose it was half an hour of what a friend of mine calls "nothing happens horsemanship". But by the end they were calm enough for me to be able to take them back to the field just in their neckstraps. In the rain.......

A shiny new sand school!!

Sun came out today, went for a hack (I rode Sky!), then had a play in the new school that's just been built at our livery yard, such luxury!!

Tari wasn't sure about the step up into the school at first but soon got the hang of it.....

Ali's been riding her with both reins and neckstrap, she's getting the hang of it all now, even managed a bit of steering without her bridle

Obviously hard work though :wink:  :lol: 

She's done so well today, she's gradually getting the hang of steering etc, and she's interested in everything. We've been doing a little bit at a time and giving her plenty of thinking time, and she picks things up well, not as quickly as Kinna or Fina, but she gets there :-D 


Sky started out on full, tense alert (after all, we'd changed things!!) but once she'd got back to the school and got used to being in there, she settled enough to do some nice calm work.

 The sand is really hard going at the moment as it'll need time to settle, so we'll be doing slow work for a while.....Interdressage Baroque test should be just the thing :-)

Skyfaxa or Shadowfax?

Continuing our little and often approach with Sky seems to be doing the trick. Ali has been doing a little bit of work with her a few times a week and we have now progressed to totally bridleless riding. We've done plenty just at walk to start with, and as there's nothing on her head to brace against, she seems to be more relaxed......

Then yesterday we decided to try a trot and see if things changed. Usually, any increase in pace brings with it an increase in stress and anxiety, and fairly often a tendency to bog off, but this time, she was really listening.....even when she got a bit distracted by the dog!

So we will continue to build on this, as long as the weather allows (still no sign of the indoor school being finished). Ali says Sky seems more relaxed and attentive with nothing on her head. And Ali must be pleased, she even broke into a smile :-)