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.