Buttons!

This very cute little horse with the crazy hairdo is Buttons. His own family suffered a terrible tragedy and were unable to care for him. As a result, and regretfully, Buttons has not had the easiest time over the last 18 months. He's now come to stay with us and he's quickly become part of our family. He's backed, loves kids and knows his job, so he is now my 4-year old niece's pony. Buttons does have a strong, cheeky personality, but he's not bolshy like many Shetlands have the reputation as being.

The original idea was that he would be turned out with the boys (the mares and geldings are kept separately) however things didn't go quite according to plan. Jake, who is at the top of the herd, fell instantly in love with Buttons and wouldn't let any of the other horses near him, even to meet him. Wolfie was so excited, he stodd bouncing on the spot. He has a strange fascination for small animals, including sheep and dogs, so he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw a miniature sized horse! For some reason, one of the other geldings took an instant dislike to Buttons, and it all became too rough. For his own sake, we took Buttons back out again. He was so upset, he's been on his own for over a year and was desperate for company.

There is a pet sheep at the yard, so Buttons stayed with her for a few days to allow the other horses to see and smell him. We then turned him out with the mares, which seems to be working out fine. Buttons now thinks he's the man, being in with all the ladies. He really wants to be everyone's friend and is just glad of the company. The mares seem a bit bemused by their new pint-sized friend, but Buttons is clearly loving his new life, so it's all worked out for the best.

On the road again

I haven't posted in ages mainly due to having a really rubbish internet connection. In some ways not much has happened in the last couple of months and in other ways some mile stones have been achieved. At the end of March, Wolfie developed a cough. It appears to have been a dust allergy. There were no other symptoms, but I still felt like I'd missed something. I monitor his breathing and recovery rate all the time, but this cough just appeared, possibly a bad batch of hay. I stopped his work immediately and started soaking his hay. Luckily the horses were turned out for summer early this year and the cough disappeared. I gave him a few weeks off and there have been no residual affects.

I've been doing alot of hacking, gradually building up the hill work, to strengthen his hindquarters, back and generally build him up and increase his fitness. He's been great fun and is very adventurous, loving to explore. I think in the last couple of weeks our confidence and trust in each other has really strengthened. It has always been there when I'm on the ground, but I am really starting to feel the partnership whilst riding. We also went out on the road for the first time. I don't like the road near the stables and although it is a country road, it is busy and the cars go pretty fast. I wouldn't hack along the road just to ride, but to get onto another hacking track you have to go along the road for a couple of hundred yards. I also want wolfie to be able to hack along roads in the event that he ever has to. On the way there he was great. Blocked in by Jake, a couple of cars passed, slowed down and it was fine. On the way home, a car came speeding around a corner behind us, thought they would over take but there was a car coming towards us so they were forced to break hard right behind us. The screech of tyres startled wolfie and he barrelled into jake, bounced off him back into the hedge. Jake did his job and didn't even flinch or cock an ear. If we had been out with a smaller horse, I think wolfie would have managed to push through them, but not Jake. Fortunately wolfie settled down and we made it back unscathed and although it wasn't a pleasant experience for wolfie, I don't think it will have any lasting effect on him being ridden on the road in the future. It just makes me cross though. We were wearing full hi viz everything, I have taken the time to prepare wolfie to be as safe as possible on the road and some drivers still don't have any consideration.

The plan for the next few weeks is to increase his schooling and start asking a little more of him. We have been working on rythmn, straightness impulsion and balance. Now he is a bit stronger, he is working much more forward. His downward transitions have improved greatly and he no longer falls into them. He works consistently well on the right rein, but finds the left rein more difficult to stretch. and bend I have to be disciplined and get back in the school. When it's good weather, I just want to take him out. I do school him a little when I'm out, and I always correct and remind him. I suppose it's all educational as he's getting used to me getting on and off to get gates, experiencing new things and we have even managed to open and close a few gates (unfortunately there are not alot of horse friendly gates around us).

Wolfie is enjoying the spring grass a little too much. I am desperately hoping that the horses get strip grazed soon as I really don't want Wolfie getting any fatter.

I am very pleased with the way Wolfie is turning out. He has his youngster moments and his silly moments and the times when he just can't contain himself bouncing on the spot moments, but all in all he has never scared me and has never acted nasty in any way. Anything he does is just in good spirits. I am really enjoying him.

Houdini

I was up at the yard myself last night. I mucked out and left Wolfie eating some hay whilst I went to empty the wheelbarrow and make up his feeds. On returning I was ambling along, lost in my own little world when I looked up and Wolfie's stable door was wide open with no Wolfie in it. My heart leapt into my mouth. He hadn't passed me, I hadn't heard his feet and I definitely bolted the door as I check it every time. I grabbed his headcollar and went to run up a small track that leads behind the stables. I happened to glance in the hayshed and who was standing up the back stuffing his face with hay but Wolfie. Fortunately it was his own hay he was eating, but I'm not sure he hadn't sampled a few of the other bales. He is now in his stable with a clip on the bolt and the kick bolt over at all times.

The weather has been reasonable this last week and I've managed to get Wolfie out almost every night. He's been really fresh and full of nonsense. I lunged him the other night and he was just having a complete carry on. Bucking, taking off, leaping off all four legs. I decided to just let him burn it off. At one point he stopped dead and did the biggest buck I have ever seen in my life. He was completely vertical. One half of me was thinking I hope he never ever attempts that when he has a rider on him and the other half of me was in total awe that he had the ability to do that. It was a handstand. The boy is an acrobat.

I long reined him up the fields the other day. It was just meant to be a break from the school as he hasn't been out in ages and a little hill work. He kept taking sharp left and right turns into ditches, thick trees, bushes, streams. To be fair he caught me unawares every time and I was being pretty useless. Take your eye off him for a second and he takes his own route. Coming back down, it's fairly steep and I was intending to traverse across the field. Wolfie had other ideas and seemed to think cantering straight down the hill would be much more fun. What should have taken ten minutes to get home, then proceeded to take about three quarters of an hour as I had to keep circling him to slow him down and try and prevent him from bouncing on the spot. He then started spooking at a big clump of snowdrops (they obviously hadn't flowered the last time he was up there) . He's funny when he spooks. He acts dramatically for about a minute and then he marches straight over to whatever he's spooking at. I lunged him again tonight and he was very good. His canter transitions are becoming much more balanced. He is stiffer on his right rein and I am trying to be very concious of making sure that I do even amounts of work on both sides, including leading etc. I am going to lunge him in side reins next week and do a bit more long reining and then get back to riding. I'm hoping now the weather will remain good enough to get him back into consistent ridden work. I have a new wintec saddle (well it's new to us) and I haven't had a chance to try it out properly.

Who can't walk over tarpaulin?

Driving up to the yard today I was feeling really positive. The weather over the last three weeks has been absolutely awful. A combination of snow, ice and sub-zero temperatures. A blunt reminder that although the nights may be getting longer, it's still winter. I haven't been able to do any work with Wolfie at all as the ground has just been too hard or too slippy. Today was warmer and the sun was shining. As I drove up the driveway, Wolfie came cantering down to the gate. I grabbed his head collar and went to bring him in only to find he had lost a front shoe. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I had been desperate to ride him. He was only shod less than three weeks ago, but the fields are in a pretty horrendous state and the mud is really deep and thick after having been frozen for so long, a few of the other horses have sprung shoes. I won't risk riding without a front shoe incase he's foot sore or the foot starts to break up. I hope the farrier can fit him in early on this week. I brought him in anyway and decided to take him into the school as the surface was soft and do a little ground work with the 'dreaded' taurpalin. Again he acted pretty dramatically although it was folded up into a very small square on the ground. I worked him in the dually halter and then brought one of his turnout rugs in and layed that out flat. He was soon walking over that no problem, although every time he passed the offending black object he would snort and leap past it. Working in the dually halter again I managed to get him walking around the taurpalin. I unfolded it bit by bit, each time asking him to walk over it. The first few times he was able to jump it. As the area became bigger he would follow me over it, but at 100 miles per hour. Eventually he was walking back and forth over it when it was spread out fully. I was very, very pleased as due to his initial reaction to the tarpaulin I thought this might have developed into a bit of an issue. Wolfie loves praise and as he had an audience he was in his element. We achieved alot today and that made up for not being able to ride.

He jumps!

Wolfie had a visit from the dentist last week. Just his routine ten month check up, but he's been shedding his caps so I was anxious to get his mouth checked and make sure everything was ok. Since November last year, I've been finding the odd tooth in his feed bucket, which initially was quite disconcerting! He got rasped to get rid of the sharp edges and the dentist said he was fine, just an uncomfortable time for him. Four of his incisors are coming through at the front, so he looks a bit gumsy! It doesn't stop him eating though. I haven't ridden in a bit for ages now, and have been riding in the dually halter. I used to alternate riding between the two, but found in the dually halter he was much softer through his back and neck and willing to stretch. With the bit in he tends to tuck his head in and concentrate on chewing on it. To be fair he hasn't done that much work with the bit in, but I will be waiting until his mouth is well and truely settled before starting again with it.

Due to the weather again, I haven't been able to do much. I have been wanting to introduce more ground work alongside riding. Yesterday the sun was out, the surface in the school was good. I worked him on the long reins in walk, I then lunged him on both reins, letting him get rid of some excess energy and worked on lots of transitions. I always lunge with two lines from the dually halter. Once he'd worked off a bit of steam he produced some really lovely trot work. It always amazes me how long his stride is for his size, he really covers the ground. I let him off the lines and let him walk around and stretch down. I put out a pole and he was walking and trotting over it. I brought out another pole and made the tiniest of crosspoles. He trotted around towards it, ears pricked, took off about one and a half strides away and absolutely ballooned over it. He must have cleared at least 3ft 6" over it. He then took off at the other side bucking and squealing. I expected him to stop, but no he came back around again in canter and launched himself over it again, he obviously thought this was great fun. I have seen him jumping the stream in the field and he always makes a lovely shape over it. I haven't really considered jumping, probably because my aims at the moment are straightness and to establish him in all three paces and jumping just seemed like something that we would do much later. I have to be very careful not to bore him with the schooling, so introducing a little pole work every now and then for a change may be beneficial. To be honest I was surprised at his ability. I don't know why though, he's a compact, powerful little horse. Maybe it was because he's not the tallest, but then didn't a 15hh horse win Badminton in 1968 ;-). I have never been that keen on show jumping and always preferred cross country, watching Wolfie yesterday I felt a bit of anticipation and excitement at the thought of jumping him.

There's somebody under the tarpaulin!

Over the last year I have become really interested in Le Trec. Until recently there was nobody locally in my area that held Le Trec events. However, that has now changed and a woman has began holding training sessions and a BHS Le Trec competition is to be held at our local RDA in January. Le Trec consists of 3 phases. Control of gaits, navigating obstacles and usually a ten mile hack with a map. We are hoping to hold a training session at the yard which I am very excited about . As it is a training session I can ride or attempt the obstacles in hand. I think it will be beneficial for Wolfie and will also give us an idea of what is involved and give me ideas for things to work on.

In preparation, I decided to get a piece of tarpaulin out and folded it up into a fairly large square and placed it in the school. I brought Wolfie into the school, let him off his rope and we walked over to the tarpaulin. We stood at the edge of it with him snorting. The wind caught the edge of the tarpaulin making it rustle. It didn't flap around, just gently moved and made a noise. Wolfie reared straight up vertically and was pawing the air in a style the black stallion would have been proud of. When he came back down he was striking out with his front feet at the tarpaulin. He then spun and took off for about three strides and then screeched to a halt and turned and came back and stood next to me. Monty Roberts has demonstrated that horses are capable of conscious thought and has shown this at his demonstrations by the horse choosing to stay with a human as opposed to his natural flight instinct. This maybe what Wolfie had decided, but it felt more like he had came back for me to go with him, but he made it clear that whatever he perceived the tarpaulin as being and whatever predators he thought lurked beneath it, it was not safe for either me or him to be near and certainly not to be stepped upon. Wolfie acted in fight and then flight mode. I don't know if he was trying to kill whatever he thought the tarpaulin was to protect me. I don't really know what reaction I was expecting, I certainly didn't think he would just accept it and walk over it, but I didn't think he would react like that. Certainly some work to be done here and back to the very basics.

Bonded

Despite my best efforts and intentions to keep Wolfie in consistent work, the weather has just been too awful to really do anything over the last few weeks. The horses had to spend 4 days in their stables as the yard was like an ice rink and there was no way of getting them to their fields. The surface in the school froze and now with such heavy rain, the ground and fields are like paddy fields.

Wolfie comes in about 3pm, and I usually get up to the yard around 4pm. When I've been arriving I've noticed that he's been really unsettled and anxious. Thinking that it was probably because he's hungry and it's nearing feed time, I have started leaving a bucket with a little chaff and carrots for him and some haylage for when he comes in. Wolfie is handled by the girl who works there, the owners of the yard and the girl with the horse next door will change his rugs or bring him in if she's up before me. I think it is good for him now to let him get used to being handled by different people. I wouldn't let anyone else work him, but leading and changing his rugs etc, I'm confident in him now that he can behave and is well mannered. Leaving the feed for him doesn't seem to be making any difference. I arrived at the yard the other day, and although he can't see my car coming from his stable, he knows the sound of the engine. I just got out of the car and was changing my boots when he started whinnying and calling. I went over to the stable and he'd got himself all wound up. As soon as I get to the door I can see him visibly relax. I normally just give him a scratch and start mucking out. He follows me around the stable for a bit and then begins munching his haylage. The other night I was changing my boots next to the car and my friend was leading him in from the field, he spotted the car and near enough dragged her off her feet to get around the side of the car and then refused to walk with her back to the stable. I don't really know what to do about that. I'm sure that he knows now, that no matter what, someone will always feed him. With him having been starved it has always been an issue. Even when he is out in the field and I'm walking around, he stands at the fence and shouts to me or gallops down the fence line following the car when I drive away. I don't know if it's because when he was so ill at the start, and was on his own, I was all he had. I became his herd and we spent a huge amount of time together, trying to care for him. He's not a cuddly horse, but likes to be scratched and likes you just to be around him. He doesn't want me there all the time, he's confident in himself and likes his routine. It just seems to be when he knows I should be there (he's an excellent time keeper) and when I am there he just thinks I should be with him.