Last month I had to make the really difficult decision of retiring Ben. Two years ago after a set of broken ribs and some very sudden quirky behaviour, the vets found out Ben had some blindness in his right eye from a cataract. It was only blocking a certain spot and we spent a few weeks doing a lot of work on that side to help desensitise him.
Although the weather can’t make its mind up between winter and spring, and the ponies are still in their winter woollies, somehow the first show of the season was upon us!
It’s been a bit of a busy couple of weeks, with Bob having a lesson each weekend, alongside myself and my partner doing some long walks with the local walking group (I will get fitter!) and more yard maintenance and sycamore seedling patrol.
It wasn’t just the bunnies that were out bouncing recently. Bob and I had another lesson which proved successful as it seems he decided he wanted to learn. Our school isn’t the biggest, but we managed to get a grid of five fences and a start off pole at each end diagonally across it. The exercise was to show Bob that poles didn’t immediately mean rushing.
I am finding it hard to believe we are a quarter of the way through 2023 already, it feels like time has flown by, equally on reflection, I don't even know where to start with the small steps towards big goals!
The last week has been a bit of a soggy one - although I have enjoyed seeing the rainbows, with the fields looking more like a marshland than grazing paddocks. I’ve put the horses out when I can and luckily, they haven’t galloped about much – I think they were grateful to be out!
There was great excitement on the yard last weekend when a new resident arrived. Charlotte, the yard owner, had bought a two-year-old mini Shetland pony filly. Charlotte fell in love with Shetlands after getting to know both Diva and her friend Peanut the mini Shetland who also lives at the yard.
That was a bit of a chilly one last week – did many people get snow? We weren’t hit too bad the first day, however, when I woke the next morning, it was a different story! There was a thick layering with more to come. Cue an early wake up call to the other half to come with me to the yard. You wouldn’t believe that it snowed most of the morning as by the time I finished work it had all melted and evaporated.
It is important when you have horses and ponies – or indeed any type of animal under your care, that you have contingency plans for if you are ill. We all think of what we need to do if our horse or pony is ill, but do we put the same level of care into planning what happens when illness hits us?