An update

I've been quiet on here for quite a while. It does not mean BG hasn't been up to anything, just there didn't seem to be anything that made me leap to the laptop and feel I should record this.

So, what has been happening?

Luckily there have been no more shivering incidents. I'd like to think there will be no more all year but I think we might have another one or two over winter. As mentioned before I was trying to think of an alternative to hay to feed as a way of warming her up. I turned to the horse forum I post on, where everyone is always very helpful and non-judgemental. The advice there was any food with fibre in it (or peppermint tea!) and Allen and Page Fast Fibre was suggested which looks like it might do the trick. I'll need to take a trip to a tack shop sometime and investigate it a little more.

It seems strange getting ready for winter when Christmas is still four months away. Although some hay has been stacked ready for this winter for a while. The evenings are getting noticeably darker already which is very depressing. I get up the field around seven on a work night, by the time I have worked BG I am struggling to muck out the field in the dark. Soon I won't have any light at all at night and BG's education will be taking a break. I won't be able to keep the weight off her, but the cold should do that for me. P1 and P2's owner remarked the other day how good BG was looking, not tubby at all. Personally I'd like to see her a little thinner, but we weight taped her the other night and she was 411kg. I like her at 400kg so she isn't far off.

BG is still being funny about coming in for her food. Now it is getting colder she is better; 50% of the time and comes down on her own, but we still regularly have to go and herd her down the field. Unfortunately she doesn't always walk away when we go up to her with the head collar anymore. This is good and bad, but if she has her head down grazing so we can't put her head collar on I'd like her to at least move so I can herd her down the field. Instead we are stood there at a bit of a stale-mate.

This week we have hit a new milestone with BG though. You might remember in June I bought her a new head collar along with her rug. I haven't really pushed this new head collar as much as I should; since BG was being caught in the field I didn't want to ruin the good work, and then she wouldn't be caught at all and I thought the new one wouldn't help. She can tell anything that isn't her old familiar head collar. For a while I was having to put on the old one, the new one on the top and then take the old one off, since she would refuse the new one every time. This week though, with a few refusals, she is now having her 'new' head collar on. It sits tighter on her head and looks so smart compared with her old battered version.

I put the bridle on BG this week too. She did not want the bit in and threw her head around a bit trying to avoid it. The silly thing is, as soon as she let me hold it in the right place, she put it in perfectly. I didn't lead her in the bridle as she is silly about this, so I lead her in a head collar over the top. I did put the reins on too and twisted these through the throat lash so they weren't too loose. I thought she might be upset with them resting on her neck but she didn't seem to mind.

I led her around and a couple of times I thought she might turn her back on me like she does when the saddle is on. I don't know if that was due to the bridle or the wind, but she overcame the thought quickly and was very good. Even better she dropped the bit out of her mouth perfectly (she still pulls back as if expecting it to scare her) and had the bridle off over the top of her head without too much of a scare.

Her lunging has been improving. I think it might be helped by reducing the work load (wind/ slippery ground/ dark nights) as she normally seems better if you leave something and come back to it. She now does trot to halt transitions, sometimes perfectly, and halt to trot transitions (normally with a couple of strides of walk in between). These are all off voice commands. I carry a lunging whip which I do occasionally use but she does very nicely without it too. The other day I didn't have the lunge whip (P1 had moved the field shelter rubbing on it and buried my whip half under it) so I lunged her without and she went perfectly. She barely ever tries to turn in on halt now too.

For a couple of days she did look a little sore on her off-hind. I'm not sure what that was but a couple of quiet days and she seems better now. When I left her up the field yesterday morning she was bucking and cantering around.

So, that's what we have been up to. Let's hope I don't leave it so long before writing an update next time.