Quick thought on hooves

Quick thought as I was feeding up this morning about Sam's hooves. They really have improved out of sight since bringing him down to Wagga Wagga from Townsville. Just looking at them this morning, they look like normal horse hooves, no chips, cracks, no major flaring. We can actually fill a shoe now. I will take photos on the weekend so I can show you the difference. Having the right environment for hooves really makes a massive difference! I am even going to chat to the farrier in the morning about the possibility of Sam going barefoot - that hoof has held up so well with no shoe on.

Have a wonderful day and I hope you get to play with ponies!!!!!! I get to go horsey shopping at work today for Sam! YAY!!!!!!!!!!

Loosing a shoe and a new blog!

Sam lost a shoe last night! He has terrible hooves but you know what, this time you wouldn't even know the shoe has come off! No damage, the hoof is still looking beautiful! I think because the ground is so soft at the moment.

My best friend has just started her own blog. If you love kittens then check it out! http://livingwithsootyandsweep.blogspot.com/

Sore Sam

I think Sam is sore. I have booked the chiropractor for this weekend so hopefully we will have an answer to what is the problem. I can't really see anything, maybe a little short stepping from behind but on the left rein he won't go forward - something hurts. Canter on the left rein on the lunge is accompanied with a lot of bucking, changing the lead or just falling back to a trot. I guess this is why we should listen to our horses more.

Yesterday I rode and really concentrated on the warm up and asking for him to be really loose. I sort of got it, more on the right rein, the left rein was tense. He was able to give me a few strides of relaxed coming from behind but then straight back to being tense. I finished by taking him over to the reserve and going for a walk. In walk either rein he is fine. He walked out happily, very forward for a good 25min.

I put him on the lunge this afternoon just to see if there was any improvement. I started him on the right rein and no problems. Happy to walk trot and canter. Happy to travel around with his nose near the ground. Change the rein to the left. Walk fine, trot a little tense, canter - it took a lot to even get him to canter then buck, flying change so he was on the other leg. I left it at that - no point on pushing him when he is obviously in pain.

I pushed down along his shoulder/neck line on both sides and he moved away from the pressure. Now I don't know if he was moving away from the pressure or from pain. I guess we will just have to wait and see what the chiropractor says. I will take him for walks I think - keep the mind ticking over and to see new things.

Not such a good pony

Poor Sam struggled to behave himself today. He hasn't been worked since last Sunday and he did get locked up for two days this week due to the weather so I was expecting some forwardness but he has always contained himself in the past. Today I popped him on the lunge first so he could have a buck and just help get the sillies out. He didn't show too much so I figured he must have had a gallop around his paddock at some stage today. I mounted and we went straight over the road to the reserve. It is so slippery everywhere due to the weather but I figured we may have been able to have a trot around the tracks. Even getting across the road was an effort. Monsters were out and about this afternoon so we had to take our time.

Monsters where everywhere!!!!! We couldn't even trot out happily down the track like we normally do. I tried to get his focus by doing a few figures of eights, moving off my leg extra at the trot but that just made things worse. He would either stick his head in the air or speed up or put his head down touch the bit and then act as if I had jabbed him really hard with the bit. I ended up just walking and asking him to really bend around my leg, moving off my leg, moving hindquarters, moving shoulders. By this time it was getting late so I couldn't try trot work again but we ended on a good note. I am not working tomorrow, hopefully it is a beautiful day and we will have another go. I am sure he will be a lot better.

Yesterday a friend came around and bought his two little girls with him. Of course they wanted a pony ride and Sam was happy to help. (I am not a fan of children riding without helmets and I would have preferred to have them in a saddle but I just didn't have anything small enough!) Sam did receive a lot of licorice after his hard work!!!!!

Steady Eddy

Kate did a wonderful post on horse personalities

Sam is The Steady Eddy! If you are a novice or amateur, this is the horse for you. They are quiet and predictable, loving and engaging, willing to learn new things, willing to hang out with you and do nothing. This is not your big ego, career-oriented horse. They are happy to just be. Consistent and loyal, all you need to do is enjoy!


My Steady Eddy!!!!!!

PHOTO'S!!!!!

Photos as promised!


This is the front of the house
Looking down the left hand side of the house

One of the most important pictures - my tack/feed shed!
This is what I call the 'sacrifice' area. The horses come in here at night and have to come in here during the day for a drink. The shelter will be going on the left.

This little area will be turned into my wash bay/tack up area. It will be concreted, a roof put over the top and steel rails put around. That is the sacrifice area in the background.
Just a photo I took this afternoon of our ride out in the reserve across the road.
This is also in the reserve. When I ride through here I feel like I am riding up in the Australian High Country.

I will have more photos soon for my temporary arena and some more of Sam!!!!

A quick lovely ride, keeping the good ones

Wow what a week. We are having our half yearly sale at work this month so I have been working some big hours so poor ol' Sam has once again been on the back burner. The ground is finally drying out so I was able to try riding in the front paddock. The ground was quite good, firm but with give but a little slippery in parts. It was really cold here today, the heavy fog didn't lift until about 12.30pm and then we had a chilly southerly blowing around. I pulled Sam out of the paddock, gave him a groom and hoped on board. He was a little looky today so I walked him around so he could have a look. He worked reasonably well, forward but happy to listen and come back. A little tense to begin with but soon he started to reach down in all three gaits. I didn't work him for long due to his fitness and lack of work recently. I also didn't get to ride until 4pm and with his thick coat I didn't want him to work up a sweat.

Sam enjoys being ridden I think. He also enjoys getting out and about. Hopefully I will get a chance tomorrow to take him out across the road into the reserve and let him stretch his legs a bit.

You know what I really appreciate, good horse professionals. I rang my farrier during the week to book an appointment. We had tentivately booked in Monday because he also works at the local saleyards and wasn't sure what time he was going to finish on Monday, I rang yesterday to try and reorganise because I now have to work Monday (it is usually my day off) he was going to see what he could figure out and give me a call back. I hadn't heard but wasn't concerned, I would call back on Monday to see what we were going to do. This morning Scott and I went into town for some breakfast and to run a few errands. When we got home we let Jack out of his run and he ran straight over to one of the gates that leads into the back paddock, sniffing around and started to eat something. We went over to investigate what he was eating and it was hoof. There was fresh poo as well. I was puzzled, I went to check the horses wondering if the owner of Gull had been out while we were in town and trimmed his hooves without letting us know. Nope Sam had been re shod. My wonderful farrier couldn't find my number so thought he would head out to see if he could find the place. Found it, caught Sam, shod him, put him back. I was just so thankful. Keep in mind where we have moved to is 30km out of town. Also it would have been a good 5 weeks ago I bumped into him and told him about our new place!!!! I just couldn't say Thank you enough when I rang him.

I find it hard to find good professionals that you can trust but when you do find them look after them, treat them well, try and be prepared so when they turn up they don't have to wait for you, be respectful and I find in turn they will do their best for you.

Have fun with your ponies!!!!!

If tomorrow is fine I promise to go around and take some photos!