Good morning,

I thought I would add some photos and info that have been sent to me by new owners. I have been meaning to put some on for a while.

Melody, who we sold at the beginning of the year is doing well in her new home and her owner, Michelle is hoping to have her sarcoids lasered off next year. She says that they love Melody and that she has settled in well, despite occaisonally seeing "hedge-monsters" when out and about! Here are some photos of them both.

Koala has arrived and settled into her new home in Scotland and Joanne and her daughter are very pleased with her. I do not have any photos, but will try and get some soon!

Monty is absolutely adored in his new home. I have recieved a lovely email from Claire and her daughters saying how much they love him. They sent lots of gorgeous photos (but I am waiting for their permission before publishing them on here!. One photo was Monty hacking through a stream - he looks fantastic and we are so pleased that he has found a great family to love him.

Ruby is also doing fantastically - I bought her straight out of training, and had the intention of schooling her over the summer. I made her a profile on my website (as I always do for our horses, even our mares in foal) but hadn't advertised her and wasn't really planning to for a while). However, a local girl, Kate (who kept her other horse in the next village) saw her picture and was looking for a young horse to bring on herself. She came to see Ruby and loved her and we delivered her last week. She has already hacked Ruby in traffic and she was as good as gold. I am sure that they will do really well together. I will try and get some photos of the pair of them this summer.

Malteser, who we sold last Autumn, didn't get on so well in her new home. She was bought by a lovely teenage girl, who found Malteser too strong (and a bit too big) for her. Due to my back operation, I wasn't previously in a position to have her back, but now that I can ride again I have bought her back and hope to find her a more suitable home. She is a nice mare and is extremely good-looking although she can be awkward to catch without food (she is easy to catch with a bucket). I have got to re-assess her this week to make sure she hasn't picked up any bad habits before anyone can come and try her - but I am open to enquiries about her.

I have also just bought 2 more ex-racers from a trainer - these 2 have had a few months off and are not "racing fit" and are both geldings, aged 5 and 9. I think we will collect them next week, so watch this space for photos.

Sierra is having the vet (to sedate her) and then the dentist this afternoon. The dentist came last week, but Sierra was not too keen on his grinder! Her back teeth really need attention as they are unevenly worn and will certainly be giving her Jaw-ache - which should hopefully sort out her fussiness in the mouth when ridden with a tight contact. The dentist said that it could take up to 2 weeks to see a difference after her teeth are corrected, as the position of her jaw will change slightly and the ligaments will take a while to adjust.

I will take some dental photos today and put them on here later!

Bye for now x

Rain, mud and blood!

Hello everyone,

I have had a really busy day today (in the pouring rain)and i still don't think I have dried off completely yet!

To start the day, Rose's new owner arrived with her trailer. Rose (as we predicted) was totally unimpressed with being seperated from Jalpa, her partner in crime. She spent an hour inching up the ramp of the trailer, refusing to budge/swinging her quarters off the ramp before reluctantly deciding to go in out of the rain. Once in, Rose seemed very settled - Jalpa on the other hand went nuts and started galloping up and down the field screaming her head off.

She some how managed to catch her shoulder on a bolt on the post and rail gate as she was cantering past, which resulted in a visit from the vet and some stitches and staples. As you will see from the photos, the wound looks pretty nasty, but the vet said that luckily it was in a fleshy/muscley place and hadn't interfered with any major blood vessels and that she should recover well.

She is being kept well sedated for the next 24 hours to stop her damaging her stitches, but seemed very settled when i left her at 8pm tonight.

We had a new thoroughbred arrive today, she is very, very pretty and friendly and i'm hoping it is not going to rain all day tomorrow so that I can ride her! I did take the camera with me to take a photo of her, but like an idiot, left the memory card at home (and had filled my mobile phone up with Jalpa injury pictures!) So photos of her will be coming shortly. Her racing name was "Elevate Jack" - which we didn't think was very lady-like, so we have given her the stable name of "Velvet".

I have lots more to say, but can't keep my eyes open - so will say it tomorrow instead! Good night - Lucy x

Lincolnshire show

Good morning,

We spent the day at the Lincolnshire show yesterday. Jon had some newspaper work to do and a few people to meet there but it also gave us the chance to show the children some nice horses and other animals.

We watched some of the hunter classes and Violet insisted on stroking all the horses in the grooms area (which we sneaked into and nobody seemed to notice).

We noticed in the programme that Candy (a thoroughbred we sold last year)was competing in the re-trained racehorse class. The class involved jumping a course of 3 foot rustic fences and 2 coloured showjumps, followed by a short ridden display and a gallop. The marks were given for jumping style, conformation and suitability as a riding horse. Candy looked really smart and Gavin rode him really well. He had a couple of poles down but all in all did really well (and did an impressive gallop - bearing in mind that Candy is lazy!). Candy behaved like an angel in the warm-up and collecting ring and didn't seem to mind all the activity. I have attached some photos of them both in the ring.

I have a couple of new horses, a grey Irish jumping mare called Koala and an iron grey thoroughbred (unraced) mare called Sierra. They are both still being assessed but photos are on my website.

I had a check up with my spinal consultant on Tuesday - really good news! He said that as i have no pain and numbness now and it has been over 2 months since my op, I can start riding again. I have already been doing a small amount of riding (but this was against doctors orders).

I am obviously going to take it easy and not do too much - and certainly won't be riding any confirmed lunatics! I should however, be able to ride a couple of safe horses a day without a problem. My baby bump is growing but I have always ridden during previous pregnancies, just no competing, cross country or breaking in youngsters.

spinal disaster!

Hi everyone,

I haven't blogged for ages due to various disasters! I know that this blog must make me sound super accident prone (which i obviously am,as the last 6 months have been just one thing after another!)

After mending my broken finger (Dec)I somehow managed to slip a disc in my back in April. I don't really know what specific incident hurt my back (and luckily it wasn't a big horse crash otherwise i would have had years of "horses are dangerous etc" from Jon!).

Since training and competing in triathlons in 2007/8 I had developed an aching pain deep in my bum cheek, which wasn't super-painful but did make me go to see a sports physio. The physio did all the proper checks and put it down to periformis/sciatic nerve problems and gave me a range of exercises to do.

The pain suddenly got worse one day in April (about 2 hours after I did some jump schooling on Tess). I couldn't get comfortable that night in bed and woke up in the middle of the night with a numb back and bum. I also went for a wee and found that nothing was happening and i knew something wasn't right.

I googled "numb bum can't urinate" on the internet and everything i read suggested i had a rare condition called Caudal Equina syndrome.

I went to the doctors and he was very dismissive telling me a probably had a bladder infection!? I put my foot down and made him read the medical pages i had found online and within a minute of reading it he buzzed straight through to the spinal unit at the QMC.

I went into hospital, was assessed by the spinal consultant and given an MRI scan (where your whole body goes into a space-age tube!). The scan revealed that i had slipped a large disc and it had snapped off and was compressing the spinal nerves that supplied my bladder.

Despite being 13 weeks pregnant they had to operate immedietely under general aneasthetic. I was told that if they didn't operate within 24 hours there was a good chance i could lose all bladder and bowel function and in some cases use/sensation of legs.

The operation went well and i had to stay in hospital for over a week. I had an ultrasound after the op and the baby appeared to be fine (i am now 21 weeks pregnant and she is completely healthy).

I was told no running, triathlon or horse riding for months. My absolute favourite!

It has now been 7 or 8 weeks since my op and my back has healed brilliantly and i can wee normally (i had to have a nasty cathetor for 3 weeks after the op and we were worried that i had sustained permanent nerve damage either before or during the op, but all is fine now).

I am fully mobile and have been walking 2 miles a day for the last 4 weeks. I have ridden a few times in walk (and a tiny bit of trotting) and been out for a few hacks (on 100% safe horses) but am not doing too much as riding is very concussive.

I initially panicked and decided to sell all the riding/dealing horses and just keep my mares. Monty, Ellie and Az have all been sold now. Because i am more mobile than i originally thought i would be, i have decided to keep selling a few carefully selected ponies/small horses but am not handling youngsters or breaking in again until next year.

We still have 4 broodmares and a couple of riding/selling ponies which the girls have been exercising.

Tessy and Belle have been scanned in foal and we are collecting them from stud tomorrow. We are taking Nita and Marcie to stud and doing a swap over.

I will try to post something more horsey and less disaster-striken soon!

Lucy x

Blood-tests and blacksmith-games

I am 12 weeks pregnant now and have stopped feeling sick all the time (as predicted in my last blog!). Nita, Tess and Belle had their C.E.M swabs done this week and Tess and Belle also had an E.V.A blood test (Nita didn't need one as she was vaccinated against E.V.A in Sweden). A friend of mine has suggested that i breed from a mare she has. She is a 15hh coloured ex polo pony, I am probably going to put her in foal to a 15hh warmblood that I like the look of.

I took Nita showjumping last night and won the 85cm and 95cm classes, we had 7 faults in the 105cm class - one pole down when we took off a stride out and a refusal at the last jump because I didn't put enough leg on, both were my fault and not Nita's.

Dee amd I hacked Finn and Ellie this week, Finn was great in the lead and behind and we went past very heavy traffic and along the bridleway (where he had never been before). I jumped him over a combination of 4 different jumps in the field out of trot and he was such a good boy.

I gave the girls a lesson today on Micky and Monty, they did some lovely trotting around the field and both the girls seemed in better control of their ponies today! Micky is an ex-riding school pony and will run off and eat grass whenever he gets the chance, Monty is just green and has never been taught manners with a rider on board. Since they are being ridden regularly they are both coming along nicely.

I bought Rose her first show jacket yesterday, she looks very smart in it. Both the girls (my Rosie and Rosie who owns Micky) are getting very excited about doing some showing classes and lead-rein jumping over the summer. They have even decided where they are going to pin up their rosettes!

I caught Rosie and Daisy playing blacksmiths the other day - Dais was on all fours whilst Rosie hammered imaginery shoes onto her hands and feet using a wooden mallet. I liked this and thought It was a far more interesting game than playing Barbie.

Black Is Back

Hello everyone, sorry it has been a while since blogging. I am 9 weeks pregant and have been spending far too much time with my head down the toilet! I am not worried though, I have been sick during all my pregnancies and the good news is that it goes away after the first 12 weeks.

Melody and Laudie have been sold to lovely homes and I have bought 2 new mares, Nita and Belle. They are both black, beautiful and bought for us to breed from this year. They have great bloodlines and Nita has a fantastic competition history. Tess is also being put in foal, she is going to End House Stud in May, along with Belle. Nita needs to put on some condition first, so will probably be going to the same stud when we collect the other 2 (who hopefully will be scanned in foal by then).

The kids are getting very enthusiastic about the horses now that it is getting drier and lighter. They had their first jumping lesson at the weekend and were very good. I will attach some pictures to this blog. Finn is coming on really well and is hacking now in busy traffic all by himself! I was getting sick of his long mane, so hogged it with a pair of scissors at the weekend! It is a bit bobbly but I still think he looks handsome.

I am hoping to take Ellie jumping on Friday night to do 65cm, 75cm and 85cm classes and possibly going jumping on Sunday day time to do 95cm and 105cm trailblazer classes (although not decided which horse to take yet).

My short-term plan at the moment is to advertise Ellie and Finn in the next month (they are both ready for sale). I will replace them with either one selling horse and another broodmare or 2 selling horses. Being pregnant, I will have to avoid youngsters or nut cases! Not that I make a habit of buying nut-cases, I hasten to add!

We have finished collecting woodchip now and have collected loads of huge silage bags from the family farm to lay down as a retaining/weed membrane. We are now just waiting for the JCB to level the ground and shift the woodchip.

Computer crash, banana mash

Hey everyone!

My laptop completely crashed this week and won’t launch windows. I can’t find my vista recovery disc and I know it must be around, so am reluctant to buy a new one. Temporarily, I have managed to start it up using a program called Puppy, which Jon put on a cd for me. It is a very simple operating system (although I wish it was simple to use!). It allows you to retrieve your saved files in the event of a crash (If you can find them that is!). I have so far managed to recover over 2000 photos, but all my horsey ones seem to have vanished. I have also not had much luck with my outlook emails and have lost loads of contacts. If you have previously bought a horse from us or have been emailing recently about either about buying or selling a horse then please email me again! I have always been able to receive emails but have no record of email addresses or old messages and want to start a new contacts folder on one of the other computers.

We have had 3 loads of woodchip delivered this week and I have paid for 9 more loads to arrive asap. I cannot wait for our school to be done to enable me to do some proper schooling with the youngsters. I rode Tess in the back field (which is the least wet) this morning, initially she was strong and naughty and did 3 rather massive bucks but after 20 minutes she stared to go beautifully. She has taken quite some getting used to as she only responds if you are very, very light on her mouth and push her into an outline using your seat and legs.

When you learn basic dressage, you are taught to push the horse from your leg into your hand to establish a contact, but in reality not many horses or riders actually do this. I would like to think that most of the time I try to ride correctly but I know that sometimes, when I am on a difficult or strong horse I can find myself using too much hand and not enough leg - which can sometimes result in the horse over-bending or bending incorrectly and not fully engaging it’s hind quarters. Tess absolutely refuses to bend and soften if you try and force her into a shape with your hands. I have learnt by trial and error with her and found that if you keep your hands soft and still and push her with your leg and seat she comes instantly onto the bit and stays there. Like I said above, she has taken some getting used to because although this is the correct way for a horse to work, it unfortunately isn’t the norm with most horses unless they are specifically trained for dressage. I still need to practice more with her before we attempt a dressage test but after today’s session it seems a far more exciting prospect.

I hacked Laudie down the road today and he behaved impeccably - although he was plastered in mud and looked far from impeccable! Laudie, Tess and Ellie all had new shoes on today and were very good for the farrier.

I stabled Mel today and sprayed her sarcoids while she was eating her lunch and she wasn’t bothered by the spray. Sometimes she can be fidgety and doesn’t like them being touched (I think she has bad memories from after they were operated on and were sore and not really because it hurts to be sprayed).

I have bought an ex race horse and a cute dun pony this week, we are collecting the thoroughbred next week, possibly Wednesday and the pony the week after. I have plenty more that I could rattle on about but
won’t, as my 1 year old daughter has taken the opportunity of having only half my attention to smear banana on the sofa. Nice.

Feedback

I had two lovely, complimentary emails from a complete stranger last night. I’m not sure the compliments were completely justified but it was still very pleasing to receive such nice messages out of the blue.

Here is what the first one said: "Hi, no enquiry, but just wanted to say what a brilliant website you have. Great descriptions, very detailed and super clear videos and pictures. Anyone coming to look at one of your horses would really know well from the site what to expect about the horse. Brilliant & refreshing. I am really impressed; very professional and had to tell you so".

It’s great to get positive feedback. We really do try to be honest and accurate about our horses and match them as well as we can to suitable buyers but it is an art, not a science.

For a start, horses seem to love to make liars of their owners. We had one horse that had its problems but seemed to love to jump and never refused. Someone came to try her and, sure enough, after we had given her the big build up, she refused three times in a row. Fortunately, she then got her act together and that helped to lessen the embarrassment.

Positive comment is also doubly appreciated as, these days, so many people seem to use all their energy being critical and negative. My husband is a journalist and, sometimes, after he has written an article for a newspaper, there will be an online discussion about the story (usually about the content of the story or the conduct of the people involved, rather than my husband's grammar or punctuation!)

Anyway, it is obvious that people are far more likely to be negative than positive. I guess that, when someone agrees with an article or likes something, they will usually think "hmm I like that" or "yes, I agree" but rarely feel strong enough about it to post a comment. If, however, they have read something that they don't like, they are happy to take the day off work and spend all day discussing it!

My first personal experience of this occurred a few months ago, when I first built my website. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and combine some free advertising with some feedback collection. I started an online thread on the horse and hound website asking for feedback on my new website. I was really hoping for feedback about page layout and how different web browsers were displaying my site etc. It didn’t turn out that way! Go and look for yourselves - type "saxelby sports horses horse and hound feedback" into google and the thread should come up.

I got loads of messages from people saying "your site is rubbish, your horses are awful, you can't ride, your photos are scruffy" and so on.

Ok, I admit that, at that early stage, some of the buttons on my site were a little bit bright and didn't load up quickly and I was trying slightly different styles on different pages so the site was far from the finished article (still is, really). Anyway, I received some really useful feedback but also some which seemed nasty and gratuitous (even allowing for the fact that no-one likes criticism).

I mean, how could a random person tell from a still photo on my website whether I could ride or not?! I have been riding since I was a child, worked on two different Olympic dressage yards in Switzerland, trained for five years at equestrian college and have show-jumped, hunted and played polo. I certainly don’t claim to be the best rider in the world but I do know how to sit on a horse. I also know what the text books say about riding and looking after horses, even if I don’t always follow them to the letter.

Several people who made constructive comments wanted to see formal, side-on photos of the horses – traditional conformation shots really. However, in the end, I decided to stick with more informal snapshots as I think they show the horses as they really are and give a better idea of their personalities. You will have to believe me that I know how to plait up a horse and make it look smart but I am not sure that that would tell potential buyers much.

One thing that several people were fairly rude about was that we were not selling "sports horses".

It is true that not all of our horses are sports horses by the narrow definition (certainly not at the moment, when might rename ourselves PONIES R US or COBS-U-LIKE).

However, all horse riding is a sport and, when choosing our horses, we are looking for animals that are at least good at one of the main equestrian disciplines (dressage, showjumping, cross-country).

To me, this makes them “sports horses”. We initially did have some true Irish Sports Horses, which I believe is an Irish draught crossed with a thoroughbred, but they are not necessarily more “sporty” or athletic than many other breeds.

I personally love thoroughbreds. If they have raced, they are almost guaranteed to be good loaders and travellers, as well as used to hacking out everyday in all sorts of traffic. They are also so used to cantering on grass that they don't go looney.

Ok, you get the odd thoroughbred that lives up to the “crazy” stereotype but I personally do not think that is the norm. Horse racing is the ultimate equine sport and I certainly class thoroughbreds as "sports horses".

Thoroughbreds normally have muscular, fit bodies that can be trained and finely tuned to any discipline. I would like to say: “a bit like my husband” but he is not so trainable, although he assures me he used to be fit and muscular 20 years ago!

EVENING JUMPING

My finger is mended now thank goodness and I can ride again HOORAY! This week I rode Ellie properly for the first time (I hurt my finger a few days before she arrived and have been desperate to get on her but didn't want to risk breaking it again). She is a lovely, sweet horse and I know I will have to sell her quickly otherwise I will want to keep her! I jumped her a couple of times at home in the field and really liked her, so took her evening showjumping at Trent Valley Equestrian centre this evening. She jumped fantastically in the 65cm getting a double clear round and coming 3rd. This was really suprising because I kind of forgot the course in the jump off and went a really long way round to the 3rd jump, which must have wasted loads of time - so it just shows how quick she was to still come 3rd. We also did the 75cm class but had the FIRST jump down AARRGHH nothing more annoying (except the last jump maybe).

She is a very easy horse to jump and basically just needs to be pointed and steered! I was telling Jon on the way home how I would have loved to have had her when I was a teenager - my 13.2hh Whisky would always get into the jump off by jumping very slow and precise rounds but once in the jump off no amount of kicking (or wishing) would make her go faster! Whisk was brill in other ways though and we used to kick ass in the big wall classes (higher and higher) and win all the riding club dressage tests!

I have put a new horsemart advert on today, with reduced prices - this is because there are several horses I am wanting to buy at the moment - but don't want too many at once at this time of year. - I intend to sell a couple before I restock.

We are starting our woodchip riding menage next week - can't wait to have somewhere a bit drier to ride the horses in. Our fields are very wet at the moment, but then It is January, so what do I expect!

Jon took some pics of Ellie with her rossette, but the camera is downstairs and Violet (our lovely baby/toddler daughter is asleep next to me. I just know that if I go and fetch it, she will roll out of bed (even though she hasn't moved a muscle for the last hour). So apologies, but I will upload pics tomorrow. Night night xxx

Birthday visit to the hospital/Goodbye Whisky

Hi everyone,

I haven't blogged for a while - mainly because I had a nasty accident at the beginning of December, which severed and broke my finger (so therefore I've not been riding or selling this month). I was loading a pony (Polka) into a trailer and she walked backwards as i was tying her up. Somehow my fingers got tangled and trapped in the rope and they were crushed. I initially thought they might just be badly bruised because my hands were numb from sorting out the haylage and the trailer was dark inside, but when i got out of the trailer i realised that my middle finger had snapped and only a small bit of skin was holding the end of my finger on. Yuck, I know! We had to abandon the Polka delivery (the poor lady that was waiting for her had taken the day off work too) and rush to A & E. They managed to stitch it back together thank goodness and now, nearly 3 weeks later it is feeling loads better, although still broken.

Yesterday was a sad day, my first pony Whisky had to be put to sleep (she was over 35). She had gone down in the stable and couldn't put any weight on one leg. She would have needed a sling for there to be any hope of saving her and at her age and with her arthritis it wouldn't have been practical or fair on her. She is the piebald pony in thew picture on this page (taken when i was at a show about 10 yrs old). She was a really fab pony and my sister Jo and I have so many fond memories of her.