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Post by sarah on Nov 9, 2010 22:19:57 GMT 1
I hope Millie will be feeling more comfortable soon, and Mina and her friend settle down again! I just have our two ponies at the moment ( but not for long! ;D ) and the retired one, second in the pecking order was bouncing and bucking his way round the field at tea time, and then double barreled the other over one of four piles of hay!
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Post by nellie on Nov 13, 2010 15:32:25 GMT 1
What are they like at the moment! But what do you mean "I just have our two ponies at the moment ( but not for long!) ", do you have news for us? I hope you haven't been holding out on us ...
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Post by sarah on Nov 13, 2010 18:56:14 GMT 1
Hi Helen , well ..... I would love to be able to say that I have one of Avril's horses coming my way, but sadly Arthur was not to be, and my wait will continue. But .... today, Meg's new horse arrived! As you know, she wants to have a go at eventing, and did her first BE90 on her pony Lucky, which she loved, but it was quite clear that Lucky has his limit, and she has now reached it. So, with the help of her trainer, we collected from just 2 miles away, a beautiful 16hh chestnut 5 year old thoroughbred - he is called Eleda Legend when he is being posh, but is known as Splodge to his friends. I am so relieved that Meg's trainer is going to be very hands on helping us 2 or 3 times a week, as he is VERY different to the little native ponies or cobs that we are used to. I will try later to put a few pictures up if you like. The good news is that we have no intention of parting with Lucky, he will stay with us, with Meg's previous previous pony Eddie - we find it very hard to part with them! ;D So, wish us luck, I think this is going to be a steep learning curve for us, and quite how I am supposed to keep up with a fit TB on the Forest, with me on my trusty bike, I am not sure!
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ange
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Post by ange on Nov 17, 2010 15:02:59 GMT 1
I seem to be going from one problem to the next at the moment ! Millie seems to have recovered from her sore back legs, and we went out for a nice couple of hacks at the weekend. I couldn't ride on Monday night but had a lesson booked Tuesday morning (I have to use a half days leave to do this!) Millie had settled quite well into the tucked-away stable - or so I thought - although I knew she was still a little unsettled if she was the only one in at that end of the yard, even with me in there with her ... the building work is still ongoing (so lots of drilling/grinding noises that seem to amplify in the corner where her stable is, and resonate through the metal light-fittings) and the yard owner's son has just bought a new gun dog - its kennel and run is also in the corner where Millie's stable is, and, understandably it is still settling in so is quite noisy. I brought Millie in for my lesson and it was immediatly obvious that she was more tense than usual in the stable - in 15 mins she never stopped moving (despite the haylage net) and she pooped 7 times! I managed to tack-up and get on board, and then rode a very tense horse up to the school - we spent most of the 45 min lesson 'working it out of her' as she was obviously running on adrenaline and was very spooky. She was very sweaty when we finished, so rather than put her back in the stable I tied her outside another one, grabbed cooler rugs and walked her and let her graze inhand for 20 mins - back to one chilled pony! Followed the same routine for turnout rugs and turned her out no problem ... its worth saying at this point that she will ride or lead past all of the building comotion without turning a hair. So ... back to work for the afternoon, with the plan to stay until 6:30 ... 4pm phone call from the yard owner to say they have had 'a problem' with Millie - she's been brought in and put in her stable, has done one circuit and tried to jump out over the door, ending up with her front legs hooked over it! So 5pm I'm back on the yard and didn't leave until 7:45pm - she seems OK, although I've put her back on bute on the assumption that she will be a bit sore, and with the other horses in she's mostly settled again - the yard owners have fitted an anti-weave grill to her door 'so she can't jump out again' ... not sure I'm happy with this as a 'solution' as she's scared, not naughty, but there are no spare stables and not suprisingly no one wants to swap. She was fine this morning, and turned out 'as if nothing had happened', and I think that the building work will be pretty much finished today, so one less scary noise for her I hope. It looks like a few days off work again for her, plus a discussion with the yard owner as soon as I can arrange to see her, to explore my options! Cheers, Ange.
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ange
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Post by ange on Nov 30, 2010 0:40:13 GMT 1
After a week and a half of very unhappy horse and not so happy owner, and visits to a couple of other yards locally, things finally got sorted out this weekend - but not the way I would have anticipated. (I need 5 day livery for my girls and need a sensible travelling distance so that I can ride after work 2-3 times a week, which limits my yard options.)
The first alternative yard I looked at was brill - but is mainly a retirement livery yard, although it does have a good outdoor school and a decent indoor one, the riding is so-so and there would be no one there to ride with at weekends - ridiculously it would have been cheaper to keep my girls there on 7 day all-inclusive livery than it costs me now!!! The owner is very professional and very horse-oriented (Louise - Lola/Lotus - came with me to have a look and said she reminded her very much of Avril!)
The second yard was nice but mega expensive and with even less decent hacking, although there are people there that I know and could ride with. Would have cost me extra for some of the things I would have wanted and I would have been paying for some things that I didn't want ... not really an option.
So - I decided to put Penny (my old lady) who is retired due to injury on retirement livery on the first yard - it felt like the right thing as I knew she would be happier there - she moved on Saturday and she LOVES it there and really seems glad to be free from Millie!
I gave my current yard owner a final chance to sort something out for Millie (as the riding and the company there are good) - we agreed that the wall in Penny's stable would be replaced with a full-height partition wall, so the gelding next door can't poke his nose through, and this was done by last Friday (in two days) as promised and Millie is now back in there - what a difference its made - she's happy and chilled (and isn't really missing Penny). Next step is to get her checked over to sort out any aches and pains she may have from her recent bad experiences - it wasn't an option whilst she was so tense and worried - she would simply have undone anything that was done to help her.
I've now got only one horse's stable, etc, to sort out at weekends, and Penny is close enough for me to have time to visit on both Sat and Sun - I can now spend some quality time with her as I don't have to worry about her bed, her hay, her feeds, etc. So I'm hoping I've made the right choices.
We're expecting the snow tonight but have been pretty frozen for a few days - we did manage a Riding Club Handy Pony on Sunday - I'm mentioning it as, although Louise couldn't ride, a friend took Lola (Lotus) in ... and she won! A testament to Avril's training I think (although also an unfair advantage for the rest of us)!
Cheers, Ange.
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Post by em on Nov 30, 2010 13:55:44 GMT 1
Hi Ange Really sorry to hear about all your aggro.. it must be very frustrating when things outside your control affect your horses... I see in your last post every thing is improving and Milly and Penny are settled... Hope it remains like that for you... all we need now is the SUMMER.... oh its so far away Take care x x
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ange
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Post by ange on Nov 30, 2010 14:56:14 GMT 1
We got the snow as forecast last night, although perhaps not quite as deep as they'd said it would be - but its still trying and I think we will get quite a bit more today by the colour of the sky!
I'm hoping that this few days will be it - winter over and done with - OK, maybe I'm a bit optimistic, but you never know!
And thanks Em for the good wishes!! Cheers, Ange.
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ange
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Post by ange on Jan 11, 2011 16:23:35 GMT 1
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Post by ange on Jan 11, 2011 16:49:03 GMT 1
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Post by ange on Apr 4, 2011 23:25:24 GMT 1
Hi everyone - I've been watching all of your posts but have had little time to respond to them or to post myself recently - lots of positives seem to be happening for people at the moment - well done - and best wishes to those who's lives are less than perfect at the moment too!
I've had two 'firsts' with Millie this weekend - on Saturday I decided that her short but VERY dense coat simply had to go, as she was sweating too much being ridden if the sun came out - so she had what is almost certainly her first full clip ever (minus her hairy legs and a small saddle patch). The fact that she stood happily and let me do this, even her tickly bits, was great, especially as when I first had her she was apt to wave a back leg at me if I went anywhere much further back than her girth line under her belly when grooming!
The second was part of the reason for the attempting the first - on Sunday I did my first Riding Club Drill Ride since my last, very bad, experience with Kia - hitting the deck twice in less than 15 mins, plus the chaos that followed, was what finally made me decide that I HAD to sell her - so needless to say, i was more than a little nervous!
There were six in the ride - three youngsters, and three older (inc Millie) - one of which had his rider off while we were still warming up! He bombed around in panic for a couple of minutes before he was caught - he went within inches of Millie several times, and bless her, she just stood there and took no notice, although she did tense up a bit when he did an 'emergency snort'. I'd almost settled up until then, but realised afterwards that I was actually trembling and really had to make myself carry on.
Millie is usually very forward going, even in the school - she tends to 'power' around, so I was also a bit worried that we might trample the other people and not be able to keep in pace, but she was really good - so good that we were paired with the shortest, slowest youngster (a 13'3 ish Fell on his first drill ride and who has been known to be quite difficult).
Other than a little buck when we cantered to warm up, and a couple of turns down the centre line in trot that tried to turn into canters she really didn't put a foot wrong - she is such a sweet girl!!! However, she wasn't that keen on the music once it started - it was quite loud - one of the others, who is in the next stable to millie, also wasn't keen - Sue and I are now looking for a cheap battery-powered radio so that they can have a couple of hours of music during the evenings! Slippers and freshly peeled grapes to follow!!!
So - I survived and I enjoyed it - it's taken me over 12 months to get this far and there's still a way to go on the confidence front, but I'm enjoying the challenge again, and love Millie to bits!!!
Penny is also mega happy in her new retirement livery home - I'm summoned to groom and remove loose coat, plus feed apples and treats a couple of times a week, but otherwise I'm not really required (although I think she is still secretly pleased to see me!)
Cheers, Ange.
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Post by ixioviysouc on Apr 12, 2019 22:59:30 GMT 1
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Post by Kelkats on Oct 18, 2019 19:56:47 GMT 1
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