Oppps, lack of posts again

So I haven't written anything for ages, and I could argue it is because there is very little to write as BG is still having the easy life, but then with horses there is always something to note each day, even if it is just their mood for that day.

BG has been getting very relaxed with her head collar again which is always nice, I think it is as a result of her knowing she won't be expected to do much, but it does make life easier. I have been trying to get her used to the fly spray for several weeks now too. She is very jumpy when sprayed so I normally always just spray onto a cloth and use that to wipe it on her. At the moment I am doing so little new with her I thought that the spray was something quick that I could start to get her used to. So I clip on her lead rope, use the cloth for her face, neck, underneath and back legs and then spray her sides and her back using the rope to allow her to move away a bit but not too far. To begin with she hated it; her whole body shook and she would tense as if she was going to swing her hind-quarters round. Finally though she is beginning to relax a bit more, just flinching when the spray hits her. Last night she was the best she has ever been and barely flinched or moved away at all. The down-side is I will have done all this work to get her used to it, then she won't need fly spray all winter and come next summer she will have forgotten that she isn't afraid of it.

So life with BG has fallen into a simple pattern. Each of the twice daily trips consist of headcollar on in the field shelter, food for BG, I poo-pick the field, push out the electric fence a little so she has new grass, check the waters, pop a rope on BG so I can fly spray her and then put some water on all her hooves before letting her go. She gets a quick brush too as her summer coat is all coming out and she is getting very itchy, she has started to rub herself on the shelter so her coat is looking scruffy with scratch marks and loose hairs.

One day she was very jumpy at something in her field although we never found out what, but she had a good trot round and around snorting. Another night there was a thunder storm really close by. BG was perfectly fine stood in the field, she had her back to the rain but other than that barely blinked at the thunder storm, but when I put her in her shelter to eat her tea she was spinning round and around. I think she was glad to be let back out again.

The field has been topped which is great, there is far too much grass up there for BG and it had grown so tall it had started to tower over the electric fence. It is already coming back again though, at least we should have a good amount of grass for winter.

On another practical note I am trying a worm egg count for the first time. I sent away my sample early on Friday and I am waiting to hear the result and whether I need to worm BG this time round. I hope not as she should be in a low risk environment as she is not in a herd and I poo-pick at least daily, normally twice daily.

The biggest thing of note since I last wrote is the damage BG did to her nose. It was the week after the vet had been, so on the 28th of June, I got up the field in the evening to find a gash down the right-hand side of BG's nose. I think the gash initially looked worse than it actually was as once I cleaned the blood up it wasn't too bad, and the following day only the hole at the top of the gash was visible. The worrying thing was the swelling, more so to me as it wasn't along the length of the gash suggesting it was just swelling to protect the area, but it was above it and around the hole at the top of the gash. Her face had really swollen (I will put up some pictures if I can get them off my phone). It didn't feel especially hot but I was really thinking should I call the vet for this.

I didn't call the vet, whether I should have done or not I guess is still debatable. The wound itself never looked infected but I still don't know what the swelling was. I just kept the wound clean and then put a coating of Sudocrem on to keep the flies off it. Then I kept an eye on the swelling to see if it got any worse/ when it started to get better to judge if I would need to get the vet out or not. It did take a long time for the swelling to go, but it did start to reduce and BG never seemed to be in any discomfort or have trouble eating. I would say now you would only notice the remaining sight of the incident if you were looking for it. The swelling has finally gone and the hair is growing back over the wound. It did take a long while though, but BG has remained healthy and happy throughout.

Mixed weekend and the vet's visit

On Saturday (the 18th of June - I'm a bit behind with writing this up) I finally got a nice stretch of time to spend with BG whilst my daughter slept. I tried to use the time to get a bit of exercise into her with a lunging session. It was a little windy but she was actually very good with that aspect, only looking scared a couple of times when the lunge rope got caught by the wind. She did refuse to lunge on the left-rein to begin with so we had to go back to basics with that, she would turn on the spot to face the other way and snort. Luckily it didn't take long to have her lunging on that rein again, although I had to use the tyre and pole obstacles set in a square to get her to do so.

Sunday wasn't as successful. I went to put her head collar on and, as she has done several times recently, she dipped her nose in and then pulled back several times. Unfortunately one of the times I had let the nose part rest on her nose whilst I went to reach up and pass the other strap over her neck. BG pulled back, the head collar resting on her nose, she threw her head up causing the head collar to fly off and hit the back of the shelter, scaring her so she spun round and fled out the shelter. It is a good job BG doesn't kick as I was in the perfect position to be double-barrelled had she wanted to. The big fear in my head was that the timing of this was not good, the vet was due on Tuesday giving me only one day to get BG's confidence back to have her head collar on easily.

As I suspected (despite getting the head collar on BG on Monday with only a few attempts) BG did not want her head collar on before the vets visit. I tried and she just turned her bottom on me and hid in the back of the shelter. I tried several times, and tried the usual trick of leaving her for a few minutes before approaching her again with the food. She wasn't having any of it, in the end I had to get her to pick her near-fore up and get my husband to hold it whilst I put a lead rein around her neck. She was quite calm with this so, rather than holding the lead rope to block her movements, I went straight to putting the head collar on whilst my husband kept hold of the hoof. Phew - I was glad to catch her.

The vet gave BG a basic check and then her jab, the flu and tetanus combined one this year, followed by a sedative. I asked for her to be sedated for her dental check, I don't really fancy attempting one without as I can see BG getting more and more stressed if we were to try that. The vet asked how old BG was (she was 17 in May) and he said she looked in great condition for a 17 year old. I know it is because she hasn't had a hard life (not been ridden etc.) but it is still lovely to hear. Her teeth needed some rasping but again he said they were in great condition for a 17 year old. It seemed like he needed to do more work than the previous year though. I am glad BG was sedated though as, even with the sedative, she tried to pull her head away when they started to do her teeth. I wonder if the sedative was lighter than last year as she seemed to put up a little more of a fight (only slight) and recover again quicker afterwards.

The vet also said 'from her condition I can tell she obviously doesn't have trouble eating'. Not sure what I should make of that! Does that mean she is tubby (she is tubbier than I would like) or her gleaming coat shows she is well in herself.

The only other note from last week is that BG scratched her nose on the Wednesday leaving a tiny raised lump. I wasn't sure if this was a splinter in her nose or just dried on blood as it just felt small and hard, luckily it proved to just be blood and the following day you wouldn't have known anything had been there.

Getting away with a quiet life

Things have been a little different around here for a couple of weeks. Finally my daughter made an appearance in the world so we have all, including BG, started to learn to adapt to a new routine that fits us all in. At the moment though it means there is very little time to do much work with BG, so she is getting away with an easy life which I think suits her down to the ground, except her tummy is getting a little big.

I have continued to visit her every day, but not always twice a day, so my husband has been doing the trips I have been unable to. She is being mucked out, water cleaned, poo-picking done, grooming, fly spray, food and all the basics, but not a lot more. I have managed to lunge her once since the birth, but only a quick lunge. I did think it would be easier than this. 'Babies sleep, so I could do BG whilst the little one slept' I thought. This is great in theory, but the problem is you don't know when the little one is going to sleep, and she normally seems to wake just as we get up the field and I don't want to leave my husband with a screaming baby for too long.

Other than being a bit on the podgy side BG is doing well. Last night we had rain! It was also very windy and the wind had blown the door shut on the field shelter and wound BG up. She came galloping across for her tea and I didn't think I stood a chance of getting the head collar on her so I left it off. I thought she'd stay in in the dry but after eating she left to prowl up and down the electric fence line looking for more grass. This resulted in her tossing her head and running up and down as the wind caught the tape. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the electric fence was down today. Before I left I put up some hay in her shelter, hoping it would encourage her to stay out of the rain for a little bit. I made sure the door was tied securely open first though, so she won't be trapped in.

Other than last night with the head collar I have got it on at every visit, although on Thursday and Friday she was a bit of a pain and it took several attempts to get it over her nose and I had her swinging her bottom round to face me a few times.

My husband hasn't been having quite so much luck. BG missed her breakfast the morning she wouldn't let him get the head collar on, so my husband hasn't tried again since. She also missed her breakfast on Thursday. Overnight she had escaped through the electric tape (first time since we fenced her off at the end of January, and the fence was getting a little slack in places so our mistake) onto all the long grass, so had no doubt been stuffing her face all night which I think has contributed to her larger belly. Luckily my husband had no trouble getting her back on the correct side of the fence and putting it up, although BG wouldn't go anywhere near him and legged it down the field, he was impressed with how fast she can run!

So that is the brief update on the last two weeks. Oh, except we also got ten bales of hay ready for the winter too, thanks to the lady who used to have P1 and P2 sharing with BG. Next week BG has her annual vaccinations and teeth check, so that could be interesting.

Still footsore, but getting better

So BG has remained in her quiet mood so she's obviously still feeling bruised on her hooves. They haven't always been hot, but they have had a pulse and she is definitely tender when turning on a tight circle or on the rutted ground.

Sunday night I went to lead her out of her stall and she just stood there looking out, obviously knowing if she stepped out it would hurt a little. So I used some of the shavings we had bought to make up a soft bed. It looks a little odd as I put islands of shavings in her field shelter rather than over the whole floor. She doesn't normally need to stay in for many days and the shavings get very dusty so I try to be careful and only use as much as she needs so as not to waste it. She has her favourite spots to stand in the stall so you can be selective where you put the bedding islands.

I left her out Sunday night as I don't like to put her in over night. I would rather have her in during the day, if I were to put her in over night she has to go longer between visits so I worry that she won't have enough hay for the night.

Monday morning she was still sore, and remained in her quiet mood, even letting my husband make a fuss of her in the field whilst I made up her food. Normally she'll turn her back on him and walk away.

When she entered the shelter she was very selective to stand on the shavings and not move off them, little things like that are good indications of how she is feeling. So she spent Monday in her shelter. I put up a hay net for her when we put her in in the morning, and then my husband very kindly gave up his lunch time break at work to pop back and put up another hay net. That night though her back legs had swollen round the ankles with fluid where she hadn't been moving around as much as if she had been out grazing.

She had Monday night out but was no better on her hooves on Tuesday morning although the swelling had gone. Rather than keep her in all day again, as I didn't want the fluid build up, I put up a hay net to encourage her to stay in on the soft bedding, but also gave her access to a small section of her field so she could move around and graze. Wednesday she had the same. I think she believes we should be spoiling her more since she is so sore, she still stands along the electric fence looking at us as if we should move it out to give her more grass, or follows me back to the shelter as if I should give her another hay net, even when she is out at night.

She is very sweet when she is feeling tender in her hooves, much more loving and stands alongside you looking for some tlc. It is a little bitter-sweet though as you know it means she is hurting.

Thursday I spent a fair chunk of the morning up there. I gave her a good groom and then cleaned all the water buckets and rearranged the electric fence in the far section of the field. I have split it into two so part can recover. She has the lower half and the small section outside of her shelter now. It meant I kept her in for a while on the bedding whilst I sorted it all out, and then I let her out on her newly restricted grazing for the day.

And it rained!!! I was so glad to see the rain, and I think BG was too. She was in a much perkier mood last night and the ground was softer underfoot so I think that helped. She still let me head collar her in the field (I am making the most of her being quiet to try and get her back into the habit) and then followed me all the way back into her shelter once we had let her out (cheekily hoping for hay). We gave her her first fresh section of grass (a couple of feet) for the first time in a week.

This morning she was looking so much better too. Head collar in the field again and then I led her in for breakfast. She was much better on the tight circle in her shelter and her hooves were cold with no pulse. She still looked a little sore but so much better, lets hope we are over the worst.

My husband stood and gave her a good scratch this morning whilst I was mucking out. She obviously enjoyed it a lot as her neck started straining and her lip quivering as she tried to turn and groom him back. It was very heart warming.

A little quiet

BG had the farrier out yesterday. She needed the visit due to her hooves starting to crack in the dry weather and on the hard ground. Its only been about eight weeks since they were last done, but I was amazed at how much the farrier actually managed to take off, almost a centimetre on some hooves. They look so much neater and tidier now.

I was a little worried about catching BG beforehand. As you know from the new water bucket introduction, anything unusual she thinks is some sort of conspiracy, so she would know something was up when we went to visit her half way through the day. Luckily she was good about coming down and being caught, and then just dozed in the sunshine till the farrier arrived.

BG stood nicely for the farrier too. Except when she was doing her off-fore when I think BG had a fly annoying her on her belly so she got a little jittery.

Today though BG was a little quiet this morning. I was half expecting her to go lame today, since the ground is so hard and it was quite a short trim. Her manner changes when her hooves feel a little sore, she goes quiet and that is the first sign more than her coming up short at all. She walked down the field nicely and her hooves weren't overly hot, nor was there a pulse. Turning tightly in the shelter and leaving the shelter where the ground is a little rutted she was very tentative though. With that and her quiet manner I think she is definitely feeling slightly footsore, so I will need to keep an eye on her. We've stocked up on shavings so we can make her a nice soft bed if necessary for her to rest her hooves on.

This morning, after a week, she finally had a drink from her new water bucket. She still seemed a little unsure about whether it was safe to do so, and gave long glances back over both shoulders after her drink as if to check everything was still okay.

Lets hope she isn't any sorer on her hooves tonight.

Hello....and thank you

It's been a quiet week. BG still hasn't really accepted her new water bucket, she's happy with having it around now, but she hasn't drunk from it. We are still desperately in need of rain. Apparently the last proper rainfall in this area was on February the 28th when there was 6mm, which was almost three months ago. Since then there's been 5mm in March, 3mm in April and 2mm so far this month. So we are desperate for more.

BG has been a little funny with having her head collar on, normally pulling back on the first couple of attempts, but we get there in the end.

The loveliest thing this week is on Monday evening when I went to give her tea she gave me a little vocal hello. Very rare for her, maybe she was letting me know she enjoyed the lunge and attention that morning! Then I lunged her on Thursday as well. She was good on both reins again, without obstacles. When I went to let her off, give her a well done pat and give her a treat she fluttered her nostrils at me again in anticipation, almost a vocal thank you for the treat.

Tomorrow we have the joy of a farrier visit, for which I am slightly concerned about catching BG since she'll know something is up as it will be in the afternoon, and not her normal time for a visit from us. She needs the visit though, her hooves are cracking round the bottom, none of them have split off but several cracks go higher up her hooves than I would like. Some of the soles of her hooves have dropped off with the mud when I've picked them out, so it will be good for the farrier to tidy them up. I think she (the farrier) will also take off one of BG's front chestnuts that has grown rather large, the other one dropped off about a week ago.

It's a trick!

Yesterday we went to stock up on food for BG, another bag of treats and also to get her another water bucket. She has one in the field, but that seems to be being used a lot by the birds at the moment and gets mucky so quickly. I thought it would be nice to add one in her shelter too; one which would probably stay cleaner and cooler. That way both could be kept half full, so I waste less water when I tip them out to clean them.

There is no water up the field so we have to take it all from home. We have two ten litre containers we use and luckily BG doesn't drink a lot so we can cope with that, but it does mean I don't like to waste too much.

So last night we took the new water bucket up, put it in the back of her shelter (in 'her' corner which she likes to hide in) and topped it up. Cue snorting from BG who was eating her tea, and then it seemed to upset her the rest of the time we were up there. It is only a new bucket!

She gave it a sniff which I thought was brave of her, but that was it. She was a pain to catch hold of once she had eaten, she was very jumpy as we tended to her. My husband led her round to show her the new bucket and she leaned away from it as if he was introducing her to something that would leap up and attack her at any minute.

Once we let her out she would then not come back in the shelter, even when tempted. I don't know what she thought the bucket would do to her but she seemed to think we were tricking her into something! Luckily this morning she came in as good as gold, snorted a bit when her head collar went on, but otherwise ignored the bucket.

==========

This morning I spent a nice chunk of time up the field with BG. I gave her a thorough groom, although she is looking a little odd at the moment which a groom just seems to highlight. Where her winter coat still hasn't come out she is looking almost black. On the insides of all four of her legs it looks like I have attacked her with a shaver and not done a very good job. The winter coat is black, the summer coat a light yellowy almost, the contrast looks very strange. Her bottom looks mottled where she has lost some winter coat but not all of it. It's just a funny time of year for her on looks.

After her groom I gave her a lunge. Last time I got her going round the obstacles on her 'bad' rein with the whip re-introduced and got a trot out of her without her playing up. This time I went straight to lunge her on her 'bad' rein without the obstacles. She tried to turn round initially but with a bit of coaxing then corrected herself and lunged on her bad rein again. Phew, hopefully that is that silly phase over with for the moment.

One reason I really wanted to lunge BG was because she has been on some new grass. She was meant to move from the far section of the field to the mid section at the start of May, but she is doing plenty well enough size wise, and I really didn't want to risk putting her on all that fresh grass. So instead we started to move the fence posts out a little on the middle section so she had a little bit new each day. She does now expect this, and stands there looking most hard-done by if we don't move the fence out. Rather than do bit-by-bit we decided the other day to give her a bigger section of the new grass and so not have to do it every day. She's definitely enjoying the new grass, but still seems to expect more every day.

We will keep pushing the mid-section out a couple of metres at a time and will fence off half of the far section. Hopefully we will soon have four summer sections, and the final third of the field we will leave resting for winter.

Proud, jealous, lost....

BG is doing well. We even had rain the other night, at least four hours overnight and I lay in bed with a smile on my face listening to it coming down. Unfortunately I got up her field in the morning and it looked as though it hadn't rained at all, it was still pale, dry and dusty with cracks running through the earth. More rain please.

Yesterday morning we got up there to find her lying down again, only this time she was flat out. I don't think I have ever seen her lying flat out, normally she has her neck up and is resting on her chin. So I was a little concerned when I first glanced up the field to see her. Then one of her hind legs started moving as if she were galloping in her dream, I'd love to know what she was thinking of.

The biggest thing in the last few days though is watching my husband with her a couple of nights ago. I tend to go and get her food whilst she makes her way down the field and he wanders across to her shelter. Quite often recently she has paused on her way down and waited for him so she could follow him around the scary corner (I think there's some animal in the hedge and it's been un-nerving her). That night she made her way over to the shelter quite happily, but then she doesn't like him touching her and will swing her back on my husband.

Tough, she did that to him the other night so I said that she would have to like him and come near him as he was going to put the head collar on her before her food again. She went into the shelter with him, but when he tried to show her the head collar she swung round and exited. I don't know if she thought I still had the food or what, but she followed me back in and I shut the door. So my husband tried again and she swung her bottom round on him and stubbornly stared at the wall. I told him he might well have to leave with the food and re-enter to try again, and then I went to go and do another job and leave them to it. She needs to learn he won't give up and when he asks her to have her head collar on she has to do it or no food. That's the same rule with me.

I stood outside the shelter feeling a little lost as I wasn't involved and couldn't see what was going on. I could hear my husband encouraging her as she obviously made another attempt to get up the courage to have the head collar on. It sounded like she tried, then backed out again. Then he did it. It didn't take her long to come round for him at all, so perhaps I was also a little jealous that she behaved so promptly for him when I thought she was going to be really stubborn.

Lastly, once she had eaten, my husband led her back out to the field. He got out of the shelter and then switched to lead her from her right (which she isn't too confident about even now). The ease at which he turned her and the fact she respected him and kept to that side made me proud of the way the two of them were interacting. That and him getting the head collar on BG despite her protest made me proud. It is good to know she will be in capable hands if I can't make it up there one day soon. My husband is now only the third person to get a head collar on her in nine years. So I am proud of him, if feeling a little lost that I wasn't needed.

Early May update

On May the 1st we had to give BG her wormer again, not a pleasent task. Next time it is due I am going to investigate a worm count, they seem to be the latest fashion in wormers and the lady where I currently buy my wormer from was advocating them. I need to do some research first on the companies to use and exactly how to go about doing it, but this time round we stuck with Equest Pramox.

I didn't know what BG would be like as last time she was a bit of a pain when we tried to worm her, and this time she was just as bad. We backed her into a corner and I got my husband to use his body to block her forward movement, the idea being she then had no where to go. When she starts backing up or swinging round or throwing her head up in the air though there is a point at which we no longer block her in but give her her space for safety and then try again; walking her back to her corner.

As soon as BG felt the syringe in the corner of her mouth her head went up and she almost hit herself on the roof of the shelter, she did this several times which got me very concerned as the last thing I want is her to hurt herself.

She let my husband put his fingers in her mouth and play with the corners of it, but knew when we tried to get near her with the syringe instead. We kept attempting it, then having to walk her back round and calm her back down before attempting it again; giving her time to start chewing and lowering her head in submission. She tried to stick her head on my husbands shoulder doing a giraffe impression, it meant her head was partly stuck which might be the ideal time to attempt it, but then she might knock him out! The silly thing is when the wormer eventually went in I got all the wormer out in the one go and it was as easy as anything. BG didn't like the taste like normal, but still did not spit any out, even the bit on her lip she swallowed.

I did feel mean leaving her afterwards though, she won't eat for a while afterwards because of the taste in her mouth so she stood there in a grump in the middle of her field.

For the next couple of days after her wormer she was a bit funny in her field shelter with us. She would have her head collar on for her food, then not want it caught and would retreat to her corner. Luckily yesterday and today she has seemed slightly better.

Yesterday I spent a few hours in the morning up there so gave her a lovely long groom. She has been rubbing her bottom on something so her coat there is all dusty and rough. Her hooves are starting to get cracks in them so I have been applying cornucrecsine to them, both round the coronet band and on the cracks. It looks like she might have a few bits break off the bottom before the farrier is next due. Despite the hard ground though BG is still trotting in for her food so doesn't seem to be feeling it too much.

I lunged her yesterday. Well, I lunged her on her 'good' rein, but kept trot to a minimum because of the ground and also because I hadn't trotted her on her 'bad' rein. Again I used the obstacles on her 'bad' rein to try and teach her to lunge again. Last time I did it I got really disheartened that it was not going to work, this time round it was much more positive though.

The lunge rope did go slack one time as she turned in abruptly and she stood on it and scared herself, but after that she was so much better. She started to walk at a distance from me again, only about three metres, but it meant I could retreat to the centre of the circle and stay reasonably still. I could also turn to face her rather than walking with her. She needed encouragement to walk forwards once halted but it was an improvement. I have moved the obstacles further apart for next time, and I will reintroduce the whip again on that rein next time or the time after and I think we might then be back to lunging on both reins.

And the last little note. We got up the field to give BG her breakfast this morning and she was lying down. I don't get to see that often with BG, and thought, being in a field on her own (even with the new horse over the fence) I would see it even less this summer. She had a roll before getting up to come down for breakfast; waiting half way up the field so she could walk the final section with my husband.

A little whicker

I got to spend unlimited time with BG this morning which is lovely, and the best advantage of using up holiday from work. She was waiting by the shelter for her breakfast and, having eaten, nodded peacefully over the shelter door whilst I gave her a thorough groom. She had a couple of times recently when she has retreated to the back of her stall to avoid having the lunge rein clipped on, but she has been better about this the last few weeks; I am insisting she has it on to be led out into the field whether she is being worked or not, just so she learns it doesn't always mean work.

Today I did lunge her though, well, in a sense. She is back to only lunging on the one rein, so I have set up some tyres and poles in a diamond shape in the hope that I can encourage her to lunge on her 'bad' rein again. The idea is I stand within the diamond and she learns to walk outside the obstacles. I then retreat to the centre of the diamond so she becomes independent and learns to lunge again. She got more independent, walking a couple of metres away from me a couple of times, but it is still a work in progress. On the other rein she was as good as gold.

The strangest thing was, when I went to take off her head collar afterwards, she gave a little whicker with her nostrils flaring slightly. She is not a very vocal horse. Occasionally in winter she will call out when we go up to feed her; she has a very deep voice. I have never known her whicker to us at any other time though. She stood for a while once I let her off too, letting me rub her all up around her ears, it was lovely.

On another note last night I stayed out of the way and sent my husband to put down her tea and put her headcollar on. He has done it a few times but always with me stood there too. I must admit, I felt very left out not being with her to see how she responded. Apparently she pulled back the first time he put it on her nose, but he did get it on her, which is great as neither is 100% confident about it.

Far too long

It's been far too long since I have put an entry on here, but then when I look at my last entry not a lot has changed. The ground is still bone dry and BG is still moulting. Her coat now has dry skin in it so I am wondering whether to bathe her, especially with the hot weather we have been having, but don't know if I am best off leaving it until all her winter coat is out.

I have continued to lunge her a couple of times a week. She was going very nicely, but the last couple of times she is totally refusing to lunge on her 'bad' rein, so it'll be back to bascis, but her stubborn streak is kicking in at times so we might have a battle on our hands. The hot weather probably hasn't helped, no one wants to do too much in this heat. Plus, the flies are out now and annoying her, so we are back to applying fly spray too. It seems rather early to have the fly spray out.

BG has continued to be good about being caught, but not in the field, only in her shelter.

On the first of April we moved BG into the far section of field again, and have added a walk way from that to her shelter so she can get out the sun and flies if she wants too. She is obviously feeling the heat as her water bucket needs constant topping up, it means it's easier to keep cleaning it to, which it needs as the birds seem to be using it too so it is getting messy. End of this week we will probably be moving her to the mid-section again, a month on each bit seems to be working.

We are having to keep an eye out for ragwort now and remove it as the rosettes pop up in the field.

BG now has a friend in the field next door, although they aren't grazing near each other yet. I led her over to say hello over the fence to him the day he turned up, they gave each other a brief sniff but both were more interested in the new grass either side of the fence.

So, that's a quick recap on the last month. Lets hope I can keep this a bit more up to date in the coming months, but BG will have a new challenge to overcome. How will she take to a tiny baby up the field with her when I am around? I am expecting and due in three weeks, hence why I have only been lunging her (I have been banned from doing much in-hand with her since I fell trying to take her over the jumps). BG is still going to be as important a member in our family as ever, there will just be another person to love her too.

Spring is here

Unfortunately not the beautiful lush spring you might think of, with thick grass. Instead everywhere seems to have gone bone dry. I've started putting water on BG's hooves to try and keep some moisture in them. Then, about a week and a half ago the dreaded coat moulting begun. You can brush the same part of her again and again and again, and the hair keeps coming off, building a little mountain on the floor, but you can't see where it has come from as her coat is still so beautifully thick. It is a never ending task, every time you look at her you see more loose hairs, and every time you go up you can see where she's been rolling and they've come loose, sweep your hand over her body and you've got another handful on the floor.

Having said that, much as the moulting coat is hard work, it is also the time of year you get to appreciate just how long her coat has grown. So many parts of her body have beautiful long hairs on them in a variety of colours. There are so many sections on her body that you think 'how wonderful', like the tops of her front legs.



The nicer weather has meant the field has dried out, but also that I get to do more with BG. The next time I lunged her after the jumping incident (of me falling over) I thought I would lunge her over the jump again as she had seemed to enjoy it before. She refused on her 'bad rein' though, then refused to lunge at all on that rein, so we had to go back to basics just to get her to lunge properly in that direction. She lunged fine on her 'good rein', and popped over the jump on the lunge on that rein too. My husband has since led her over the jumps with no issues, and she has lunged twice more (no jumps) very nicely.

It seems like the spring has luckily not got to BG so much that she is starting her summer stubborn season. She is still happy to be caught, my husband even put her head collar on a few times, for which she had to be very patient as he fiddled with it in the shelter. I have been catching her in different parts of the field to try and teach her it is perfectly safe, ready for when she does become more difficult. The issues with this is at the moment she is so good when she sees us she is normally down waiting for us by her shelter, and once her head collar is on she can be a bit of a pain being caught to have it taken back off.

BG has also had the farrier out this week, on Monday. I held her in the field rather than the shelter so there was more light. Except for an initial snort she was very good. There was actually a fair bit to be trimmed off, and the hoof around her crack has been nicely smoothed down. Even better, despite the trim, the hard ground and the spring grass (there is some, I can't see it but BG is still finding plenty to eat) BG has stayed sound.

Lovely Sunday

Sunday was another lovely morning with BG. I didn’t give her too thorough a brush as her coat was looking remarkably clean, so I just gave her a light brush to get the dust out and any loose hairs. Then I picked her hooves out. She tucked the near-hind up under her belly but didn’t kick it out this time so obviously just needed the stretch. Other than that she was very good with all her hooves. I am beginning to think she is only funny in the evening’s because she is impatient for her hay, rather than she is in pain or she is trying to be naughty.

I put out four poles in a row to trot BG over, four strides in-between them seems to be a good distance for her. I walked her over first, for which the strides aren’t quite right, but it gave her a chance to look down at them and step carefully over. Then I trotted her over them and she was bounding over them, almost jumping each with both front legs over at the same time. I popped the second and fourth up a tyres height each and ran alongside again so she could go over them. I would say she did really well, but I didn’t give her a chance too, my body went too fast for my legs and I fell onto my knees as she jumped the second! I think she spooked a couple of steps side-ways and then stood waiting, looking at me as if to say ‘are you okay, that was strange’. She was very well behaved all morning.

The second and third times I managed to avoid falling flat on my face and she stepped over them, but didn’t feel she needed to jump them.

Then I removed the first pole, popped the second back on the ground and the fourth went up to two tyres height. She was as good as gold again and went over with a slight jump that was only just more of a jump than a step over. She looked like she was enjoying herself as sometimes I wonder if she does like jumping.

I gave her a fifteen minute lunge afterwards and she was nice and active, quite happy to trot several circles when asked. I left one jump up, only one tyres height, to include on the circle sometimes. Normally BG will run around the poles if she can, she is very good about avoiding them if you give her the slightest chance too. I only intended to take her over it at a trot, since I thought it was raised too much for a walk, but she herself steered towards it and did exaggerated steps over it in walk, and on her ‘bad’ rein.

I trotted her over it a couple of times and she took it really nicely. Then I switched reins. Seeing as she thought it was possible in walk I asked her to go over it in walk but she just caught it on the way over, she stood very patiently whilst I put it back up though. When I asked her to trot over she did so very nicely, for a moment it looked like I might even get a canter out of her (I have yet to get her to canter on the lunge). I was tempted to put the jump up another tyre again but decided I had better finish and not push her too far. She had been a little super-star already.

As a reward she got her paddock lick whilst I mucked out and tidied the jumps away.

*******

In the evening my husband tried to put the head collar on her. I think he has done it once so far in the two and a bit years she has been with us. She was very patient, he had to have two attempts as the first time he took it back off her nose. She stood very patiently whilst he tried to get the strap over the top of her neck and then struggled to do the buckle up in the fading light. She was so patient and good though, you wouldn’t think she was the same pony that sometimes refuses to have it on at all and swings round on you.

Sunny Friday

BG was funny with her hooves again last night. She wasn’t as bad as before but she had my husband stood at her head the whole time. Just going to be time and patience to get her back to being good again I think. The farrier is due in the next few weeks, although I have yet to have a reply to my attempt to get an appointment. Monday will be ten weeks since she last had her hooves trimmed, they don’t really look like they need doing, but I worry a little due to the crack on her near-fore. I was hoping for an appointment around 12 weeks.

After putting BG’s net up last night I gave her an evening hug around the neck – her coat is so thick and soft it is gorgeous. One of those feelings you just wish you could capture.

This morning we caught BG in her penned off area for the first time in a while, head collar on no problem. She did look as though she would get funny about having her head collar caught afterwards to have it taken off but thankfully she was fine so we got to work on time.

It is beautiful sunshine out there now so she is probably getting a little warm. I just wish I could spend such a beautiful day with her.

Lovely morning

Today I had the day off work and nothing to do - it felt so strange. I couldn't think of a better way to spend the morning than with BG though, especially as it was a nice day to be out in the field. It was cold, but not too windy, and no rain. I gave her a thorough groom which is half an hours work. I didn't quite get all the mud of her fetlocks but I felt around that area to ensure it was just mud and there were no scabs on her legs.

After her groom I led her out and did a little in-hand work before lunging her. I even got her to stop and then stay there whilst I walked away, before calling her to me. Normally she won't stay as she takes me moving as an indication for her to move too. I think it probably helped she was half distracted by something in the hedge so not so impressive as it could have been.

She was very good on the lunge, though she was carrying her head quite low the whole time. She did spring into trot beautifully though and seemed much lighter on her hooves than last time I lunged her. I did quite a few quick transitions with her to get her listening and she almost looked like she was enjoying it. She looks like she needs to build up some muscle though.

As a treat, after she had finished, I gave her the paddock lick in her field to have whilst I poo-picked the field. She started to chew at the plastic container after a bit because the lick had got low on the inside - I will know in future to remove the lick from the container straight away, I'm worried she might cut her mouth chewing on it. I had a bit of a battle with scissors to try and get the lick out of the container for her though, by the time I had managed to remove it she had taken herself off and was happily grazing, so I've hidden it away for another day.

It was lovely to spend time up there this morning with her, even just watching her grazing. The down-side on news recently though is that she has been funny having her hooves picked out again. I did them last night and she was really kicking back with her hind-legs, so much so I have been banned from picking them out unless my husband is up the field too just in case she catches me. When my husband stood at her head she was fine, but when I just tried doing them on my own like normal she was a pain. I think it is because she was wanting her hay net but whatever the reason it is unacceptable behaviour that I need to sort out.

March grazing

We got some more electric fencing at the weekend and the field BG is in is now split into three sections. There is the section she was on for the whole of February, which has hedges on three sides for shelter. The middle section has a hedge at the top and bottom so not a lot of shelter, but this section is the one her field shelter is in. Lastly there is a section with hedge top and bottom and the perimeter fence. This section doesn’t have much shelter but, since it is the muddiest section of the field, I don’t intend to use it for a good few months. I might even leave it to recover for winter grazing.

I am trying to preserve the fields but ensure BG has enough to eat. I can’t wait till the spring grass starts coming through, then I’ll probably complain there is too much grass. The sections can then be split down further, and hopefully I can rest some of the field enough to have a decent amount of grass in winter. The main thing I need to ensure is BG has plenty of access to shelter, especially in the hot months which is about the only time she uses her shelter for shade and to escape the flies.

Having had a month on the far strip of the field we moved her onto the middle strip on Saturday night. I was quite excited when BG seemed to find lots of bits of grass to snip off with her teeth – there is grass after all! I thought I could cut back on hay and would need to start managing her weight more, but after a couple of days she doesn’t seem as excited by the new grass, she must have eaten all the tasty bits. Although she will head off to graze when we leave rather than stand watching us expectantly I do wonder how much grass there is there for her.

The spring grass might not be coming through properly yet but there are signs of spring – the first few strands of BG’s winter coat is starting to come loose from her neck. She’ll be loosing all her winter coat in the next few months.

We weight-taped her on Sunday and I think we got it very wrong. I would have expected her to be in the 420-430kg range, last time we did it she had dropped a bit to 417kg. The weight-tape read 387kg! In summer when she is perfect weight she is 400kg and you can feel her ribs. Sunday there was no chance of feeling her ribs, they were nicely covered and not just by her winter coat. I think we got the weight-tape position wrong, she wasn’t stood square which she should be, although I don’t worry too much about that since I use the tape as a guide only. I can’t feel her ribs and you can still see a belly on her so I think she is doing fine weight wise.

I picked out BG’s hooves last night, I hadn’t done it for a while. I’m not as religious about it as some people. She isn’t shod and her hooves do tend to keep themselves reasonably clean, if they do get anything in them it is mud and not stones. At the moment I will take out the mud and then she’ll go straight back out in the field and they get fill again, hence why I don’t bother all the time. Often the mud drops out itself when it dries a bit and you find big hoof shaped lumps of mud in the field. I picked them out last night so they would stay clean for at least the duration of her staying in the shelter to eat her hay net.

She was funny about having them picked out again. She sprung her front hooves up in the air so fast she almost kicked her belly. The back hooves she tucked under herself and didn’t want to stretch back, when I asked her to she went to put them down again, and she moved about to avoid me being able to take hold of them. I don’t know what that was all about.

After a battle to get them all picked out I went round once more just to hold them up and she was better about that. I did them again this morning with my husband holding her. She was better again, much more like her usual self. I just need to do them a bit more regularly I think so we can tackle any issues she has with it before the farrier is due in a few weeks.

So BG is on her March grazing now and has settled into that section of the field. The second night she was in there she was a little un-nerved and could hear something in one of the hedgerows. She took a mouth-full of hay then shot out her shelter, and didn’t really settle after that. We did a full search by torch-light and couldn’t see anything, but she obviously had her senses heightened by something that day. She may get another horse in the field next door in April, that might be nice for her as a bit of company, even though they won’t be in together. It might make her settle more when there is something around as there will be someone else to be on the look-out for danger too.

Won't let us catch hold of the head collar

We never got to the bottom of the mystery orange smear, I’m beginning to think it must just have been where she rubbed her nose and still had paddock lick on it.

I am opting for the catching BG in her shelter and then hopefully moving it (catching her) back out into the field again. It’s rained recently though so the field shelter entrance is starting to puddle up again. This morning we let her through and she trotted across to her shelter to wait by the door and I decided to try the penned off area in the field again. Once she figured out that was where her food was going she followed me in as good as gold and the head collar went straight on. You could tell she wasn’t 100% sure on it but she didn’t protest.

So she had her breakfast and then the issues started. She would not let us get hold of her head collar to lead her back out and take it off. Unfortunately in the morning we have a time limit as we need to get to work so this wasn’t a good time for her to start stubbornly swinging her bottom round at us. Eventually we had to get some hay, use that to lure her into her shelter and catch her in there (which we almost couldn’t do either). I wouldn’t want to leave her with the head collar on.

Sorry, I’ve just realised how dull this must sound on this blog, all about head collar this and head collar that. Not the most exciting subject. It is the biggest day to day battle in mine and BG’s life though, except when she is being very good.

Mystery orange smear - blood?

Since the wind we have been unable to get BG back into the good habit of being caught in the field. She almost doesn’t seem sure that she is allowed to eat from her bowl in her field. So we have a dilemma; do we let her eat in her field so she learns it’s okay and not to be nervous, or do we bring her across to the shelter so she still has to have the head collar on before every meal? We are leaning towards the latter, although she has so far been as good as gold in her field every day. We’ll start feeding her in the penned off area again soon and then move back out to the field.

For now we are letting her across to the field shelter and she charges over (sometimes we even get a canter). Last night she ran across in the dark once the fence was opened up for her and had her head collar on as good as gold and then I picked out her hooves. She was being a bit funny about this; shifting around her stall so she wasn’t balanced right for picking them up, holding her hind legs under her rather than stretching them back and stomping and pawing with her front right leg. It was almost like she was desperate to get back out or not happy about something. Then I noticed an orange tinge on the white coat above her front right hoof, like blood smeared in the coat. I searched and searched to see if I could find where it came from but couldn’t find anything. I checked all her legs both for blood and heat, and her nose too. I couldn’t find anything. The only other theory could be that her nose still had the colour of some of the paddock lick on it and maybe she rubbed that on her leg, but that wouldn’t tie in with why she was stomping (unless she was just in a bad mood). Although she ran across perfectly happily so can’t be feeling too sore.

This morning as we arrived she trotted up and down her fence line tossing her head at us, and when I went to let her through I got a hello (a neigh) which is always nice from a not very vocal pony. We got a canter across to the shelter too, and then she stood there sticking her head over the door whilst I caught up with her to let her in.

Head collar on no problem, and I went and cleaned her water bucket out whilst she ate her breakfast. Then I took another look at her leg and her nose but still couldn’t see anything. I used a wipe to clear up the remaining orange on her leg but there was nothing else there, it’s a complete mystery. When I asked her to lift her hoof up she did so very suddenly and almost knocked herself on her belly though, which isn’t like her.

Turned her back out and felt very guilty as we left for work and she stood watching us. I think this weekend we might need to move her onto another section of the field so she has some newer grass to keep her busy.

Weekend update

BG has started to enjoy her lick a little too much. I have been taking it off her but put it out last night and she’s now about half way through it, and it’s supposed to last a pony 30 days. So I think I will be keeping it hidden for a little while. Problem is she acts as though she is so hungry at the moment, but she’s not dropping weight at all and is still plenty active. Yesterday as I was mucking out I saw her trying to learn over the fence at one end of the field to eat the grass on the other side, really pushing against it and scrapping at the fence with her foot. I dug out some old electric posts and have put fencing up half a metre inside the field fence now. I can’t have her pushing the fence, especially as it is quite old and wobbly anyway. There is a hedge the other side to stop her going anywhere but I don’t want to risk it. Strange how should would touch the main fence though but won’t go near electric tape, I guess it’s because it flutters in the wind. It does mean she can’t get as close to the hedge for shelter now though.

It’s been a quiet week, it’s still too dark after work to do anything with BG, but I made sure on Sunday morning I spent plenty of time up there. I gave her a thorough groom; there is just the beginnings of her coat starting to come loose on her neck (the odd hair) so spring must be on it’s way and I can expect her to start moulting all her winter coat off soon. Then I lunged her, only quarter of an hour but she was very good. She was a bit keen on looking at other things (people walking past the field etc.) to begin with, but she then calmed down and listened. As she was doing so well at the end and it was a calm, quiet day I decided to take her out of the field for a little walk.

This is only the second time I have done this on my own. Walking along the road she was very alert peering in the bushes. Then we turned up the track that runs alongside her field. She was still very alert and trying all the time to eat grass. I didn’t take her very far. I was quite glad as walking her back she got very excited by the sight of some walkers on the other side of the hedge and then walking along the road she was looking at things and taking a bit of persuading to keep going.

I checked she hadn’t picked up any stones in her hooves, popped her over the tiny jump I’d set up in the field (I’m not convinced she’s a fan of jumping) and then turned her back out. Whilst I mucked out she followed me round the field, approaching me when I stopped. It was quite sweet, could it count as early join up because she trusted me when out on the walk? Probably not I guess. I need to dig out my two books I’ve got on working with horses and start reading them in earnest so I have lots of different things to do with her this summer to keep her interested and build trust.

Paddock lick - but where's it gone?

We had to go and get BG another bag of food at the weekend and I also wanted to pick her up some Apple Crunchies. I never used to give her any treats, it’s a bad habit I’ve got into, but she still knows her place and does not nip. Whilst there I also had a look at the paddock licks they had in the shop. I have been ummmming and ahhhing for ages over whether to get her one. As her hooves can get hot on the spring grass the sugars in them probably aren’t the best thing for her, but she does love them and I want to give her something more of interest in her field now she has no companions. P1’s owner put one in the field before and BG loved it, after her breakfast every morning she would go and lick and lick at it.

In the end I thought we’d give it a go. My main concern was that she would like it too much and it would be bad for her, in which case I would need to restrict her access to it. We took it up on Sunday night when it was a little windy, BG has been a bit jumpy in her section of the field recently. She had her tea and I got all the mud off her and then I put the lick down. She gave it one sniff, snorted in horror and flew up the field as fast as her legs would carry her! It smells like molasses to me so not sure why she didn’t like the smell of it. She wasn’t going to come anywhere near it though.

So I went home thinking ‘and we thought she was going to like it too much’ and that maybe she needs another horse to show her this blue box isn’t scary and is actually a tasty treat.

We got up there yesterday morning and she walked down the field to wait for her breakfast, and there she spotted the paddock lick. She was still very nervous of it, edging towards it, then back again, and finally when she dipped her nose in it she did a bit of a bobbing duck impression as if she still wasn’t totally convinced it wasn’t going to bop her on the nose.

I got her food ready and took that over and by then she had figured out it was tasty, I had to put her breakfast right next to her to get her to drag her attention away from the lick. When I left I had to remove the lick from the paddock as I was afraid she’d be there all day licking it other-wise, almost as if she felt duty bound to finish it since it was there. I don’t think she clicked that I had removed it as, as I walked away, she was looking round and round her sniffing the ground and hunting for it.

Last night after her tea we hung her evening hay net up and then put the lick back in the field across the other side so she didn’t see us do it. That way I hoped it would take her a while to find it and we wouldn’t get up there in the morning and find all she had done all night was lick it.

Got up there this morning and she started to move down the field to greet us before suddenly springing into a trot. I think she had only just noticed the lick despite it being there all night. She trotted down to it and her nose went straight in. Again she needed persuading to leave it for her breakfast and she returned straight to it afterwards whilst I poo-picked the field.

I think she feels a bit like she isn’t supposed to have it as she gets very nervous when we go near her as she’s licking it. Almost like she’s trying to hide that she’s having it, she’s not quite sure she’s allowed to.

I removed it again this morning to stop her having too much, I’m hoping eventually I can just leave it in the field and she’ll monitor her own in-take but I don’t want to risk it yet. Having said that I wonder if by removing it she’s going to feel that when it is there she has to have as much as possible.

She didn’t realised I’d taken it again so I left behind a very bewildered BG turning round and round on the spot looking for it.

The last couple of weeks

So a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. P1 left not last Friday but the Friday before and P2 left last Wednesday. BG is now on her own and I am feeling very sorry for her. The day P2 went we got up there in the evening to hear a loud neigh as we got out the car. She isn’t very vocal normally, and hasn’t been since, but it did make me feel she must be happy to see company. The funny thing is BG has such a deep neigh, you wouldn’t think she was a mare.

She seems to be reasonably happy on her own though, although obviously company would be preferable, I am hoping someone else might join us on the field. After P1 left P2 would follow me round the field as I mucked out with his nose on my leg – so I think he felt more abandoned than BG.

BG continued to be reasonably good with her head collar, except the night my husband put up the electric fencing so she could see him doing that faintly in the distance. A couple of times she has even let us put her head collar on her before I’ve got her food ready and every time she has been good about letting me catch her to take it back off.

The Sunday before last I spent a good couple of hours up with her. She had her breakfast first and then I took her in the field shelter to give her a thorough groom. She went and hid in the back, no idea why but she just didn’t want a groom that morning so I had to tie her up to groom her.

I also gave her a lunge but she wasn’t overly enthusiastic. I put out some poles as that normally perks her up but it didn’t really seem to do the trick.

My husband and I had put up electric fencing down the field ready for when P2 went so we can move BG onto a smaller section and rest the rest of the field. I was feeling reasonably confident about this until last Tuesday, since she had been so good with her head collar, but that day she wasn’t having it on.

She came running down when she saw us arrive and then she tried a couple of times to have her head collar on but each time just wasn’t quite confident enough. I popped her in the field shelter in the end and she had it on there first time, may be it was just the bitterly cold wind that morning. The reason I resorted to the shelter so quickly was I also had to give her her wormer that morning before work.

She didn’t want her wormer – I don’t blame her. I got my husband to hold her and try and use his body presence to block her in the corner, but even then we managed to do a full circuit of the field shelter some how with her throwing her head up in the air, I had a sore upper arm for the next couple of days from trying to hold her head still. She doesn’t help herself though, since she was being silly half the wormer ended up on the outside of the syringe so I had to give her slightly more to make sure she had it. She kept trying to snuggle up to my husbands shoulder too so I couldn’t reach her mouth. He went to work with wormer and slobber down his coat!

Luckily she has still never attempted to spit it out afterwards, and this time she even accepted a well done minty treat quite soon after without turning her nose up at it.

So P2 went the day after that and on Thursday morning we moved BG over to her fenced off area. She did let us put the head collar on over there, but then the wind really got up for quite a few days so we didn’t stand a chance. A couple of nights we let her back on the whole field so she would have access to her field shelter as the wind was so strong the hedge only did a half hearted job of blocking it.

We were determined to spend a fair chunk of time with her at the weekend to give her some interaction and stop her getting bored, but the wind limited what we could do. We caught her in her field shelter both mornings. Saturday my husband did some in-hand work with her (with her running round him because of the wind) and Sunday I was going to. After she had her breakfast though she decided she didn’t want to talk to me and hid in the back of her field shelter, swinging her bottom on me whenever I tried to approach her. It gave me a chance to catch up on the mucking out and tidying up.

When I did eventually get hold of her head collar and turn her out in her section of the field she went straight off to graze so at least I didn’t feel guilty like I do most mornings when she hangs around looking for treats.

Last night the wind finally died down, it felt so eerie up there. We tried the head collar in the field and poor BG did try several times but just couldn’t get her confidence up to put her nose all the way in. Eventually we resorted to the shelter again, at least that way she still has her food but has the head collar on first. This morning was all frosty and we tried again, but no luck in the field. We opened the fence to let her through to her shelter and you could tell she was hungry – she cantered across to her shelter. In there the head collar goes on first time without a fuss, it makes you wonder what makes it so scary outside.

She had a slight bit of dried on blood on her nose so we think she must have scratched herself on a bush, it all looked clean though. She also got spoilt with some hay this morning (she is still getting a net at night) since the ground was frozen.

Going to be lonely

P1 is due to leave the field on Friday and I believe P2 will be leaving in the next few weeks too. Poor BG will be left on her own. I am reasonably lucky that she is an independent little soul and so doesn’t get upset if left on her own, but ideally I would like her to have a field companion. If only I could afford another one…

I am feeling guilty about her being left lonely though. This morning when we left the three of them were grazing side-by-side, often they can be totally different sections of the field to each other so I am sure they are just doing it to make me feel bad. Apparently yesterday the three of them were tearing round the field, wish I’d seen it but I was told ‘she was flying never seen her go so fast!’. BG can run if she wants to and I love to see it, so I’m feeling guilty now she won’t have anyone to play with.

Just hoping we will be allowed to stay on the field, there aren’t many places around here to move to and BG takes so long to settle anywhere new.

On the positive side BG has continued to be good about having her head collar on in the field (so long as food is visible) and letting us catch hold of it again to take it off. P1 did sneak up and try to steal her tea last night after he had been so good recently and left her alone.

A very late and brief update on Christmas.

No Christmas treat for BG this year – I forgot her carrot, but I can’t say that she seemed too upset. Christmas did give me a chance to catch up on all the poo-picking though, now there’s a Christmas treat for me! Luckily it was all frozen, I prefer hacking the muck off the ground to the thick mud we had a few weeks later. There was mud, mud everywhere.

BG had the farrier out over Christmas. As the farrier still hadn’t got their van fixed they turned up with another farrier who was going to trim BG and P2, whilst the normal farrier shod P1. I was a little wary of this, since BG isn’t good with strangers. The first time she met her normal farrier she broke free three times. She was relatively new to the field so still not at home and the farrier did have a scary towel at the time. Despite my worries it went really well, maybe BG prefers male farriers. He made a gentle fuss of her so she got to know him and was very calm around her. She snorted to start with and then just stood as normal. The sides of the crack on her hoof didn’t get smoothed off as much as normal so I will need to keep an eye on that, but despite the trim and hard ground she did not go sore at all afterwards.

We had one shivering incident over the Christmas period on a very wet day, but some hay soon had her steaming and the shivering stopped.

We also acquired a new field companion over the Christmas period, although I haven’t seen them for a few weeks. A black cat could often be found curled up on the hay.

Getting better and better, but I know not to expect it to continue

So BG and the head collar in the field has been going from strength to strength. We haven’t had to use her field shelter again, she is getting more and more confident with having her head collar on in her penned off area, so much so she has stopped pulling back at all and is as good as she normally is in her shelter. We even had a breeze the other night and that didn’t phase her. Okay, it wasn’t full on wind or anything, but every small step counts. When it has been dark she has been continuing just as well too.

This morning she was trying to dip her nose in her food as we walked across the field so I thought ‘okay, I’ll try it her, in the middle of an open field’. She looked for a moment when I put her food down as though she was going to skirt around the edge of the bowl to approach it from the other side and avoid me, but she was actually as good as gold. I left her to eat her food after that, luckily P1 and P2 don’t bother her.

Once she has finished came the difficult part of trying to catch her head collar so I could take it off. I stood a little way away from her and called her to me. She had seen I had put my hand in the treat pocket so came over. I thought she would try to keep her nose on my hand so trying to get round and catch the side of her head collar would scare her into pulling away. No, she was as good as gold. So I got hold of it, gave her a polo to say well done, and took the head collar off.

Now the challenge is to keep this up despite what the weather might throw at us, and to some how keep it going in spring when food is no longer a lure. We’ll see how we get on.

I don’t get to see much of BG in the week due to work and the dark so one day at the weekend we attempt to spend a fair chunk of time with her and give her a thorough groom over. My husband led her round whilst I began the mucking out, and then I set up some poles for her to walk and trot over. She seemed to have more confident over them than in the past. We put out three and raised the middle one a tyres height so she would pick her feet up properly over it. We also tried raising each one at a different end so she would centre herself down the middle of them (she is the queen of avoiding them all if she possibly can).

Then we put out two parallel poles and walked her between them, backing her up as well. Then I got the dreaded mounting block and put that alongside and stood on it as she was led past. There was no pulling back in fear or anything this time, she seemed remarkably calm. Even when I stood up on it as she approached she only tensed but kept walking past and halted alongside.

And in the dark too

I have never attempted to put a head collar on BG in the field in the dark. I will do so in her field shelter by torch light, but considering how funny she is outside anyway, I didn’t think having head collar straps flying round her head when she couldn’t see them would do any good at all. After yesterday morning’s success though I did attempt it in the evening.

I led her into her pen and my husband held the torch. I went to hold the head collar out for her only to find her head was already in the food bowl having her first mouthful. She is normally quite patient and waits until I hold her head collar out and puts it on until she starts eating, but when it is dark I have always just put her food bowl down and let her eat in the field, so I can’t blame her for being eager.

I showed her the head collar and she stole another mouthful of food before she realised what I was asking. By this time I was thinking ‘oh no, she’ll have a strop because she has already had food and she’ll get upset I interrupted her with the scary head collar and holding it at eye level’…but she didn’t. It took her five attempts of dipping her nose in and out of the head collar and a bit of pulling back from me before she let me put it on properly, but she let me do it! I was so impressed with her. It sounds silly, most people expect to be able to catch their horses, but for BG and me these little hurdles (changes to normal routine) are a big achievement.

This morning she was good again. It does make me wonder a little if she is very hungry, the fact she is being so good to get her food, but she has plenty of covering on her.

She was a little timid this morning around us, I’m not sure why but she was being very careful; inquisitive but tentative. She is a beautiful pony.

Typical

So I am very out of date, I have a half written update of BG over Christmas time that I will have to post at a later date.

The general update is that BG is doing well. It hasn’t been as cold as I had thought it would be, so they are only getting hay in the evenings at the moment. It is very, very wet instead and BG can normally be found covered in mud and with a wet belly where she’s been lying down. No recent shivering incidents though, in fact one morning I got worried because I think she was over-heating in her big woolly coat, but I think they had all been running round just before I got there.

Because of all the rain the field is just puddle after puddle, and the entrance to the field shelter is the biggest puddle of all, I’ve lost my welly in the mud there once. P2 was being kept in at night and when we opened the door in the morning to come out he would just stand there and survey the mud, not quite knowing whether to risk it or not. On the mornings he did leave the shelter reasonably quickly we put BG in there for her breakfast, so we could put the head collar on her. She had recently become very tentative about walking through the boggy entrance, and would take a while walking around it to find the best way in and out. Last night she was very particular about finding the right route and at one point looked like she might even forgo her food to avoid the mud.

So we have eventually penned off a bit in the field to feed her in there, hopefully it will help the entrance recover as well. The reason we need to pen it off is not to stop P1 or P2 trying to eat her food as they are both very good, but so that BG doesn’t run off immediately after eating. Plus, I want to be able to put her head collar on in there. That isn’t the biggest problem though, if I succeed it getting it on her catching her again to take it off is the bit that really upsets her if she can escape to the rest of the field instead.

This morning was the first morning we used the pen. I thought, if she refuses to have her head collar on then I would take her food into the shelter instead and catch her in there. I don’t have time before work to put up with her stubbornness in the field.

So I got her breakfast ready and walked across the field and what did she do? Walked straight in to the field shelter no hesitation! Then she had the cheek to look out the door at me as if to say ‘I’m here, what are you doing’ as I walked around the side of the shelter to her new pen.

Luckily she picked up what was going on quite quickly and followed me round, and wasn’t even worried about the electric tape that was the sides of the pen. I held out her head collar and she popped her nose in then pulled back out of it. Try again, second time perfect! So that went a lot better than I thought it would. She even stood patiently whilst I moved the strap up over her neck so I could buckle it on a higher setting.

I think it helped that she was feeling very hungry this morning. As I walked across the field with her food initially she was almost running rings in front of me trying to dip her nose in the corner of the bowl as I carried it.