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.