Horse Chefs, Sarcoids and Powerstation Ash!

I have been in London all weekend and left Jon and Rosie in charge of the horses. Rosie had a list of who ate what and was happy to be chief horse chef while I was away!

Coffee has been sold to two teenaged sisters, who tried him last week. We are dropping him off tomorrow morning.

Melody's sarcoid is looking really good (compared to 2 months ago). I have just bought a £50 pot of blood root, a homeopathic cream to try. The vet said that he has seen a lot of improvement on horses being treated with it.

I rode Tess again today (she is my own horse and not for sale). She was very naughty to begin with and spent 5 minutes trying to buck me off, which was almost certainly my fault as she has been stabled, overfed and under worked over the last few days. I soon distracted her from her tantrum by doing loads of 10m circles and changes of direction. As soon as she started concentrating she went really nicely. She bucked once each time I asked her for a flying change, but she did this when I tried her out (before I bought her) and I think she justs finds changes exciting. I was told by her previous owners (who had owned her for 7 years) that she didn't/couldn't jump. I jumped her today and she was fab - really collected, perfect strides, correct lead. I jumped her in both directions from trot and canter over a 3 foot bright coloured jump and apart from being slightly strong on the get away, found her really lovely to jump. I am assuming her old owner (being a good dressage rider) had just never bothered jumping her. I am going to jump her over some combinations next time and over 3 or 4 jumps, just to make sure she doesn't get super strong around a course....then we are going evening showjumping : )

I have been looking at various samples sent to help choose a surface for our menage, which we are hoping to build very soon. The most unusual being FBA (Furnace Bottom Ash) from a local power station, but I didn't like it - a bit messy and I've heard it can be dusty. I have been to see a local tree surgeon who is going to supply us with woodchip, very cheaply - we are speaking to the planners this week.

More Tess Pics

New Arrival

We have been to collect my new horse Tess today. She is an absolutely beautiful, pink papered mare, from the Fleetwater Stud. She is a branded Trakehner (and has the cool 7 pointed elk horn on her left flank). She has 81 British Dressage points and has been competing at elementary and Medium level. I am going to have some dressage lessons on her and am going to try and improve her jumping (which apparently she has not done much of). I have been googling all the horses in her bloodlines and have found that her great grandad sired the olympic gold medal winning showjumper, Abdulah - so she has no excuse for not being a good jumper!

Vets and puddles

Candy went to his new home last week - he loaded fantastically - i think he was secretly hoping he would be going racing!

Amy and Shirley sent me an email today with a Max update. He is jumping well and has won and been placed with Amy showjumping. Detective Shirley has tracked his history back to New Zealand - where he was bred and imported as a 4 year old. She also sent me a copy of old eventing results, showing Max beating Oliver Townend and Clayton Fredricks!


Cham passed her vetting on Tuesday and we are delivering her at the weekend. She is going to get lots of fuss in her new home - they have already bought her an entire wardrobe of pink rugs and accessories and we are sending her with a pink saddle cloth as part of the deal! Pink is of course the new black and Cham needs to keep with the times!

I lunged Coffee today, he was a very good boy and did a lovely elevated trot and was very calm. He has clearly benefited from time off over and is ready to start more training. I rode Finn in the field, bareback with just a headcollar and rope tied as reins. He was wary of the huge JCB parked in the yard to begin with, but after three trips past it, was great. He is so quiet for a pony of his age and didn't try and run away with me or do anything naughty (even though he could have done with only a headcollar on). I rode him right to the bottom of the field and trotted him back. He then had a good groom (and scratch!) and rolled in front of me in the field as if to say "ha ha you are an idiot for grooming me".
Naughty pony!

I schooled Laudie and then took him up the field to where a MASSIVE puddle has accumulated. We cantered through it 3 times, i thought it would be great cross country practice for water jumps. He wasn't bothered by the water (which was up to his knees!).

Melody is healing well, the vet checked her this week and we are going to start her on blood root ointment, which is homeopathic. The vet has seen sarcoids disappear within a month after this being applied. Melody is being turned out for a few hours a day and lightly hacked but is basically stabled all the time because I am trying to put weight on her. She is gobbling her way through my first supply of Eurobale haylage, which is the stuff that the Metropolitan Police (and loads of top racing yards) feed their horses. She is also being fed vast amounts of sugarbeet, weight gain mix, mollichop, carrots and rolled oats! I know most thoroughbreds would go crazy on such high energy with minimal exercise, but she is still a good girl to ride.

Bonfire escapees

We had a rather amusing shock at the weekend. We were having a bonfire in one of the horse fields, so I moved the cobs to a field around the side for the night (that we hadn't used before). The fencing in the side field is new post and rail, with a deep ditch and hedge along one side. Completely safe, obviously. Well when we left the yard all seemed well, Jon and I spent the evening in our local pub and and drank slightly too much white wine. The next morning I woke up (with a throbbing head) to my mobile screaming at me. HORSES HAD ESCAPED INTO NEIGHBOURS NEATLY LANDSCAPED GARDEN AND WERE CONSUMING VAST AMOUNTS OF APPLES (AND CHASING EACH OTHER DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO A NEW CONSERVATORY) ARRGHHH! Had to drive to yard, still bearing self inflicted headache and deal with (remarkably understanding) neighbours, who kindly said the horses might as well have the rest of their apples as they had bitten chunks out of most of them! Horses won't be frequenting that field again until ditch/hedge side has several thousand volts running along it! Coffee looked very sorry for himself - i am not sure if this was because he was cross to be taken away from apple heaven or because he had eaten too many and made himself sick! Luckily he is fine now and didn't develop colic. Phew!