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.
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