So that was a slight turn up for the books with all the snow over the weekend, did everyone enjoy it? My poor partner had to get up early on Sunday and Monday morning to take me to the yard as I was petrified of the ice (a lot of the roads weren’t gritted and the snow had compacted on them😫) but we made it each time!
The horses loved it, well for a time, one of the days I let them out for the full day they looked miserable and queued up at the gate to come in! When they were only out for a few hours however they loved rolling, leaping and galloping about at full speed! Even the cat enjoyed rolling about in the snow. The one day that wasn’t too pleasant was when it got down to -8; very cold and everything was frozen – the gates kept freezing to the posts, locks refroze in minutes and the water tap had completely frozen so we had to ferry water in the car via lots of containers (and dummy here was too impatient to put gloves on rushing about in the morning – big mistake especially when undoing locks and chains – ouch is all I will say and lesson learnt!). That day the horses were very happy to stay indoors! I do like the snow even though I detest driving in it as it makes the scenery look lovely and also helps us see what wildlife we have – I seen rabbit, fox, deer and bird tracks across the fields so far – weve also got two egrets that have moved into the fields recently.
Aria’s not been very well recently, one evening (before the snow) I brought her in and half way through her dinner she started to look off and wouldn’t eat, then started showing choke and colic signs. I sprang into action with vet on the phone. An emergency visit and some jabs (which she was not pleased about) and she perked up. But on further inspection we also noticed her glands were swollen too so we then had the task of getting some blood for tests. Well i have to say the vet was excellent – Aria was an absolute cowbag and he did not bat an eye lid and managed to get the blood samples despite her excessively obstructive behaviour. The tests came back with a few high readings so she’s had bute and antibiotics. The antibiotics were an nightmare to get her to eat – but if anyone needs a way to try – crush up a packet of extra strong mints and add to the feed alongside mint tea (or dissolve the mints in some water and add to the tea) makes a very strong flavour and although it took her a while to eat she ate every feed (I had tried lots of other ways to no avail)! Unfortunately after the antibiotics etc were finished her glands have slowly gone back up so we are having another set of bloods taken at the end of the week and a mouth examination, as luckily everything else is okay – eating, drinking, toileting etc! I bet the poor vet dreaded my call especially as he needs to take bloods again, although I do have to say she behaved quite well for him the majotrity of the time so think she liked him – sadly he did refuse my offer of giving her to him lol (cant think why?🤔).
Bobs in a bit of trouble at the moment – last week he was a bit fiesty when it came to bringing in and he kicked my partner in his thigh….hes been in a lot of pain since and is off for an xray this morning as the Doctor thinks it may be a fracture 😖ooops – don’t think he will be a fan of Bob for a while!
The arena work will be underway once the field drains of the ice , snow and rain so hopefully in a few weeks time and we can start planning for the start of the 2021 season! I definitely want to get the horses in work asap as both Bob and Autumn have been whizzing about in the fields almost doing their own fitness regimes! They will be fitter than me at this rate when we get restarted!
Hopefully the weather will start to improve now as we head towards spring 🤞
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.