The sun has well and truly stayed this week which has been lovely! Despite chilly but beautiful mornings, the days have been glorious! The horses have enjoyed not wearing their rugs and having a good roll /scratch, and it has been lovely to see them glistening in the sun. I’ve also been enjoying the lighter and warmer evenings, and being able to ride in the light is such a fab feeling!
Autumn has been doing well this week with her schooling and I even let her have another jump session which she loved. With the beautiful weather we managed to get out for a lovely hack too, initially only going up the road, but as she became a bit nappy and the weather was so nice, I decided to keep going and before I knew it we had done a 4 mile circular route. Unfortunately it was all road work as we have no local bridleways but it was a fairly quiet morning with minimal cars which made it great. We had one hairy moment on a tight corner where a dog launched at its garden gate at her, again luckily no cars around, and after the initial spook Autumn completely ignored it as she went passed – I’m lucky to have such a well behaved horse!
Aria has been pretty good for her for a few days, the lunge work is progressing again and the temperamental behaviour is reducing a bit which I’m pleased by – hopefully the nice weather has had a positive effect on her.
Bob's been good with his schooling although he is feeling the change in the weather and becoming a bit fresher as he feels spring approaching. He’s been a bit sharp in the arena at times, even when just doing flatwork, I’m having to keep my wits about me to avoid baling out the side door if he has a sudden side step – those lethal leaves are coming through, and on the nice evenings people are daring to walk down the path on the opposite side of the road – Bob is not liking that (how dare they ay?! Or so he thinks that)!
So far I’ve not come face to face with the sand – but there’s still time! I’ve had him doing a bit of lunge work with his side reins and some poles too as he started to lean in a little bit on the right rein again, so want to nip it in the bud and ensure he stays balanced.
We did have a lesson booked for the weekend, but I had to cancel it as we had a very sad and unexpected event happen at the yard. My friend and I had planned to ride out on the Saturday morning but on my friend trying to get her pony out of the stable, the pony took a step and sadly collapsed. At first we thought colic due to a lot of the signs, but on waiting for the vet we witnessed a few seizures and on his arrival he advised it looked like a stroke. Sadly there was only one decision, and I know my friend is heartbroken. I know she cherished her pony and there was nothing Pepsi ever wanted from her, she was treated impeccably. I ensured I stayed with her the entire time, as having gone through a similar experience with Merlin I know how much support you need, as well as saying goodbye to a huge part of your life. My heart just goes out to her as you never want to say goodbye to your beloved animals, but you know sometimes the decision is taken from you and you must do what is best for them. I was very upset, and after I ensured my friend had gone home with her husband, I went home but was just not in the right place to proceed with the lesson later that day so decided the best decision was to rearrange. Unfortunately it did bring back a lot of memories about losing my pony Merlin, even five years on its still so raw.
I know the horses despite being in the field at the time have known something has happened and they have definitely noticed Pepsi is no longer around which is very sad as I know all three of mine adored her. I will continue to try and keep their routines normal to minimise them feeling distressed, and will be ensuring my friend has as much support as I can give during this sad time. It does make you realise how lucky you are, and I took a moment the following morning just to watch my 3 in the field grazing and appreciate them, as sometimes we have so much to do we don’t get the chance to stop and just look at them. We will be back on track this week, as it looks like a few of the shows in the area have restarted so I’m hoping to get Bob out this weekend again and also get my lesson booked. Fingers crossed hes not too fresh and jumps me in to orbit!
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Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.