I have a wonderful new addition to the family, another ex-racer from the same yard as Ben and he really has made quite the entrance to the family. On the night I was due to see him, I was staying with my work in Derby and he was in Lincoln. With me being in Cambridgeshire it made sense to pop in. That day was heavy flash flooding, the lady kept in touch all day regarding the road conditions, yard conditions and arena conditions. Eventually, while sat in the car park outside the hotel, contemplating whether to go or not, I went.
She was not wrong about the conditions! The journey took one hour more than it should have due to road conditions, and there were times the puddles were so deep I was worried the car was going to float away. I finally made it to their nearly flooded yard, where she had Mister ready and waiting for me in his stable tacked up and dry. We had a chat and I had a fuss, I really felt incredibly guilty dragging him out of his cosy stable into torrential rain. The lady reassured me she didn't mind, she understood I had come a long way and said he would be fine, and to my total amazement he was foot perfect! He came straight out and tried his little socks off in awful conditions, and although very green, I decided I had to have him - how could I possibly turn him down after all this!
He arrived a week later using a transport company, and the handover was incredibly smooth, where he settled in like he had always been here. We got straight to getting out and about and this horse lived up to every expectation, proving to be completely unflappable just like his first night. Within the first 12 weeks we had done busy hacks, a little dressage test and even introduced him to some jumping and cross country - nothing phased him and he was still foot perfect. Out of nowhere he then suffered severe impaction colic and I was so sure that while the vet was on his way, I was going to lose him. After a few hours and lots of fluids, it was clear that IV fluids were needed and a hospital referral wasn't an option. We turned the stable into a hospital bay with the help of my wonderful vet, we managed a suitable set up and for 17 hours straight we changed his fluids through his catheter, disconnecting every couple of hours to lunge and reconnect. My wonderful partner stayed in the stable with me all night, bringing coffee, snacks and setting up a Netflix viewing area. Mister seemed to be doing better and our vet was happy with his progression, but unhappy at how sore the catheter site was getting. We decided to take out the IV fluids and tube him, one more time.
Thankfully after 21 hours we had cleared the impaction and it was time to start slowly reintroducing food. After another five days of barely any sleep from total paranoia of it reoccurring, he was looking really well and got back in the saddle like nothing had happened, so onwards and upwards to 2023 retraining (with a significantly smaller bank account)!
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.