I started clipping Wolfie today. I say started, as it's always a 2 day job. He doesn't have the concentration to stand to let me finish a clip in one day. I usually do it the first or second week in October, but I had the weather and the time this weekend, so just decided to do it. He is actually very good with the clippers (apart from on his belly as he is very ticklish), but he is such a fidgit. I've pretty much given up on ever having straight lines. I'm borrowing clippers as my own set met an untimely end last year. I was going to replace them this year, but I still haven't decided on what kind to get. I should have sent my blades away to get sharpened though. I have washed and re-proofed all the turn outs though, sent a couple of no longer needed rugs to the shetland pony welfare society and one of Wolfie's old rugs to a sanctuary in Aberdeen. I cleaned out the back of Wolfie's stable to find the mice had chewed through my grooming kit. Fabulous. Wolfie looks so different with his hair tied back. At least I know what he will look like if I ever decide to chop off his mane. We went for a little ride around the fields after I half clipped him and accidentally jumped a stone dyke wall. I really want to take him cross country schooling. He's really bold across country, just a little strong and over enthusiastic at times.
Wolfie and Zoe have grown up together. They are the same age and have known each other since they were both just babies. Wolfie is quite infatuated with Zoe and is always delighted to see her. He seems to understand that she is only little and he has to be extra careful around her. Wolfie is not reknown for being quiet, but he is exceptionally good with her.
Strike a pose!
I've written a review of the bespoke natural products I have been using on Wolfie, Buttons and Honey.
.....you'd be in the hospital or infirmary cause you'd have a dose ae the flu or even plurisee if ye didnae have your feet in your wellys.
wellys they are wonderful wellys they are swell cause they keep out the water and they keep in the smell. and when yur sittin' in a room you can always tell when some bugger takes aff his wellys.
Billy Connelly 'The welly Boot Song' I am having trouble finding wellies that don't leak. I have worn the Hunter Original for over 15 years and I adore them. Only within the last maybe 3 years every pair of Hunters that I have bought have leaked within a couple of months. I used to wear Hunters when I worked on yards, they endured a lot and were really hard wearing. Since they moved production from Dunfermline abroad, the quality really has suffered.
3 pairs of Hunters with very little wear to the actual welly and sole, they just leak. Every day I get to decide which foot I want to get soaked that day. I used to be quite smug about the fact that my Hunters were work boots and I didn't wear them to the supermarket like many of the Hunter wearers today. I think I have to now agree that the Hunter Original is no more than a fashion boot. I do love them and find them so comfortable, I however, can't justify paying £70.00 for a welly to wear to the shops. I have to make the sad decision to toss all of my Hunters in the bin, otherwise I am going to end up with trench foot. I had a pair of Dublin Deluxe wellies which started leaking within a couple of days. They were returned to Dublin. I decided I was going to buy cheap wellies and just toss them when they burst. I bought a pair of £9.00 wellies (which make me feel a bit like Captain Birdseye when I wear them). I have worn them twice.....I think they are leaking.
Friday, 21 September 2012
The sun was shining today. It was a really beautiful day to be out riding and Wolfie was thoroughly enjoying himself.... a little too much on occasions! His winter coat is coming through thick and fast, it will soon be time to clip him again.
Wolfie and I have managed to stay fairly busy in between the rain showers. Weather and ground permitting we have been walking up a fair amount of fat busting hills and having short schooling sessions if there aren't too many puddles. There is one thing that Wolfie finds particularly difficult in life and that is to stand still. We have been working hard on this and play a game of statues where we are gradually increasing the length of time that he stands still, particularly whilst he is tied up. This has been improving greatly whilst I am there with him and I can cue him with my voice to stand even loose in the stable and he is to 2 and a half minutes now, however if I go out of sight or leave him, he reverts back to, well doing his own thing, which doesn't involve standing still. To be fair, we haven't even got anywhere near me taking steps away, so a lot of work to be done still. The other day I was just about to get on him and go for a ride when I realised I had left my phone in the car. He was tacked up so I just put his headcollar on and tied him up outside the stable whilst I quickly nipped to the car to get my phone. I was gone probably less than a minute but on my return I found him just about to smash up my saddle holder and mounting stool. Yep, one day I will learn not to leave anything within his reach.
We finished our 'tester pots' of the itch ointment and the hoof therapy balm. We now have big pots of each as so far I have to say that I am really impressed with both. Sorry the photographs aren't very clear, I will try and take some pictures of the feet after I have applied the balm outside in daylight. I have been using the itch ointment as a sort of multi purpose cream and have used it on Wolfie's mud fever over the last couple of weeks with great results. I will do an in depth review on both a little later on. Proper update and post to follow.
Grandpa John made her a souped up Bogie using the battery from an electric golf trolley. It goes really fast and you can drive up the hill before you come back down. I wanted to test drive it, but no chance I was ever fitting on it.
At Scone Palace to see the theatre production of Black Beauty
I found a video my friend of taken on her phone of Wolfie when I first got him. I never took any photographs of him in the first month I had him. In all honesty, in my heart I didn't know if he was going to make it and I didn't want to look back on photographs of him and remember him that way if the worst did happen. This video must have been taken around 2 weeks after he arrived and 2 weeks before he was in a stable enough condition to go to the vet school and undergo surgery. Despite his body being overrun with infection, he did start to put weight on and in the video he already looked much better than he did when he arrived. He is still covered in rain scald, you can't really see from the video, but his coat was enormously thick, I'd managed to get rid of the lice that he was infested with and even though he had put on a little weight, under the coat was razor sharp bones sticking out. I don't know if I've just blocked that time from my mind, I don't ever think about it. I took all my annual leave from work and just spent practically every minute of every day during the course of that first month with him, slowly picking all the scabs, dead hair and mud from him. He didn't know me, I didn't know him, but I think from pretty early on Wolfie realised that I was really all he had. He was a baby, had no handling and yet he gave me his complete trust. The vets all said that it was likely that I would never get near Wolfie's back legs properly after everything, but I can. Even at his sorest when I was trying to clean and remove scabs, he would warn and warn me to move away. He would never intentionally lash out at me. It brings tears to my eyes watching this video as the survival rate of schirrous chord is poor at the best of times, Wolfie's abcesses had formed right at his gut wall, the prognosis for him was...well it wasn't good. I'm uploading this video today, because I can look at this now, and although it upsets me, I only need to think about far we have come and remember where we started.
Wolfie had major abdominal surgery and spent a month recovering in the vet school. It was a long haul and the wound sites were draining infection right up until 2 days prior to his discharge from the vet school. Schirrous chord is resistant to antibiotics so it's a case of waiting and hoping. This next short clip was taken about 3 weeks after he came home and well on the way to recovery.
Wolfie had vet visits at least 3 times a week for that first month. My vet likes to tell all his students about Wolfie when he's visiting . The last time he was up he was saying what a nice type of horse he was and that he was lovely looking and very striking. Then he said '.........because he certainly wasn't much to look at when you got him'. No he certainly wasn't, but he was still Wolfie and I'm sure it was his heart and spirit that got him through those first few months with me.
