So far this winter we have been very fortunate with the dry weather. I was hoping that this dry spell would last until Christmas, but it was not to be.
The field is heavy clay, and so the surface gets slippery when there is heavy rain and gets poached by the horses’ feet if I am not careful. Mabel and Diva are not too impatient near the gate and dislike mud so tend to hang back when they are waiting to come in, but Julius goes right up to the gate and can create a bit of a mess.
Luckily, the yard has a horse walker so when the weather is really wet, I tend to keep them in every other day and they go on the walker when they don’t go out. As mentioned in previous blogs, Diva absolutely loves going on it and the others are quite happy to have a nice walk and then retire to their stables with plenty of hay. Mabel, now in her twenties, really appreciates a dry stable.
Along with the rain we have had some very windy days, and one day as I put out hay for them, I saw it literally blow into the adjoining field. A bonus for Indi, but not so great for mine. What could I do to stop this happening?
I had a half barrel that I had used for Jackson’s hay when he was with me, so I found another one and weighted them down with large stones scavenged from around the yard. Perfect for keeping the hay, or at least most of it, from blowing away!
Today was remarkably warm and sunny so I turned Mabel out stripped, as she is roughed off and has only a lightweight rug on to keep her clean Needless to say, she enjoyed a good roll!
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.