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.