Pirate

I have decided to go and look at a horse that I have found for sale. Why, because unfortunately I fell in love with a photo. His name is Pirate and he is a 6 year old Thoroughbred gelding. He was broken in by the students of Marcus Oldham - this is a 'horse college', where you can study all different areas for horses so you can manage a stud farm, racing stables etc. I like the idea of him being broken in at this college as he would have gotten used to noise, hustle and bustle, being handled by a variety of people. Things I don't like about this idea is that he may have picked up a few bad habits - we will wait and see. He was trialed but never raced - too slow. The lady who currently owns him is a vet nurse and was on a call out with the vet to look at a horse (not Pirate). She saw him in a stable looking very sad and asked about him, she was told that they are trying to get rid of him. He was on a truck the following day to her place. She was training him to Hunt, so had taken him out on numerous occasions with other horses and dogs to get him used to sights and sounds, horses playing up etc. She said he was no problem at all. She has done clinics and a lot of flat work with him. I will meet him in 9 days.

Did I mention that he is 18 hands high! This last photo is when she bought him, she tells me he is in much better condition now.

And Sam has his own bathroom!

We now have a wash bay! The concrete was poured this morning so I still can't use it until the weekend but - I AM SO EXCITED!

So now Sam has his own shower/bathroom. We still need to bring the water over to it. A trench digger is in order but we are certainly on our way!

I did use it on the weekend once all the rails were up and it is a great size. I am able to turn Sam around in it if necessary. We can enter from the paddock and exit straight out towards the tack shed. At the moment we have chain up as a gate from the paddock to the wash bay but this is proving to be harder to use than I thought so we will make a double gate up for that area.

Once it is dry and I can take the plastic off I will take a final photo for you!

This is Thomo - our neighbour (the one dressed in black) and my OH last Wednesday using a two man post hole digger to dig a few more holes for the posts. The little pup behind Thomo is Rosie, a Red Cattle Dog that he got for Christmas. She loves his dad and will try and help him whenever she has the chance!
The view from the sacrifice paddock. This is where we will put a double gate.
Looking from the front into the sacrifice paddock. (That's Wilbur the cat checking it out with me and good ol' Sam in the background)

Looking from the tack shed. The opening there is where I will lead them out when I am riding. I will put chain across that bit because I think a gate will get in the way. We will make a pebble path from the concrete to meet up with the gravel driveway and I will make a little garden bed on the side. I was thinking of planting comfrey, aloe vera and things that have a medicinal value to the horses.

Sam is lame again. I jumped on him Friday night to see how the lameness was - Straight lines he is fine, to the left he is fine round to the right he was very lame. It was dark when I jumped on so I couldn't really see or feel anything. Saturday morning I found another splint, this time on his near side fore. I have turned him out again and will check him again this weekend. I am a little concerned that he has two splints in as many weeks. A neighbour is finding her Alpaca's are low in calcium and zinc at the moment so I am looking into a supplement I can give him. Though I have increased his lucerne intake which I thought would give him more calcium.


Bandages - I am thinking of bandaging Sam's legs when I ride. To give more support as our ground is rock hard now in this heat. I am comfortable with bandaging but what do people prefer to use - polar fleece or Polyester? Buy a bandage with padding already attached or use own padding? What type of padding?

I have also started to consider using paddock boots on him. I have a set of pure sheepskin paddock boots but I am afraid of the heat. We have just had two days of 40 degree heat or 104 Fahrenheit!!!! I don't really want to bandage for the paddock. What do people think? Or don't wrap him in cotton wool, let him be a horse and this is all just part of horse ownership!

I DON'T WANT TO BE A BAD MUM!!!!!

(But I do like to spoil him occasionally. :)

We are alive!

We are here and we are alive! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Sam and I have been working hard. We worked through the Christmas, New Year break and last weekend we had two lessons. Boy did we improve. They were great! I was very fortunate my other half came and videoed both lessons. What was interesting was that when I thought Sam was playing up or about to, you couldn't even really see anything! There was one point in canter where I was commenting out loud that I though something was about to happen and looking at the video all that was happening was that he was tensing a little more through his back! It is amazing how big things feel when you are on their backs.

My instructor commented on his movement and that she thinks the trot has improved - AWESOME!!!! I told her that I wanted to do a competition in March but she advised against it. She believes both Sam and I don't have the confidence yet. I appreciate her honesty but I am allowed to do the training day in February. So I will do a walk/trot test and possibly a Prelim test as well.

I really got cemented in my head to get him going forward first. Once forward to get him into a rhythm and then I can ask for a little more round. When I did things in this order he carried him self very well. On the Sunday we got a 20m circle, soft, round, forward and 'on the bit'! I punched the air and nearly cried I was so proud of him. I did have a few tears of joy at the end of the lesson after I had hosed him down and we were heading back to the float.

The two days were extremely hot and unfortunately both my lessons were in the hottest part of the day. Sam and I coped quite well. We were both buggered by Sunday night but it was so worth the pain!

Of course after awesome lessons Sam went and hit his back leg and gave himself a splint. He has done a good job. I will lunge him again in the morning to see if he is sound yet. I have given him a week off and he seems sound in the paddock at trot in a straight line but we will see on a circle.


As a Christmas present I was very spoilt and we found a lovely wooden saddle rack that will hold three saddles! See below, I love it. Now I just have to find matching bridle hooks.


My arena is under way as well. A friend came out with his laser level and had a look, there is a two foot drop on where I have been riding - no wonder I feel like I am riding down hill! I went in to Country Energy last week (they are the electricity suppliers) and asked them how I can go about getting the old wooden electricty poles they don't use any more. I was told there was up to a 12 month wait. So I started looking around for an alternative. Monday morning I recieved a phone call, asking for my address, they bought out 8 poles! A neighbour down the road also has 6 that they won't need so that should be very closer to being enough! It is a start and I am very excited!

Winter is back!

Well the big freeze has hit us too! Over the weekend temperatures dropped to 14 degrees during the day and Sunday night was down to 4 degrees! Over at Perisher it snowed! We are in summer people, normally we are sweltering in shorts and singlet tops at Christmas time, lying around until the evenings because it is too hot to even breath! They say things will be warming up soon - hope so I had to pull out winter rugs again!

Saturday I had to work and Christmas shop. I was exhausted when I got home so Sam got the day off. Sunday was horrid weather - thunderstorms rolled on through at hourly intervals and the wind was horrible. I tried to brave the conditions in the afternoon racing out between storms but Sam would not have a bar of it. He was up on his toes and monsters lurked in the long grass, behind trees and who knows where else! I thought I would stay in the arena area, just at a walk do some suppeling exercises but this just made matters worse. I ended up getting off and taking him back to his paddock. Walking over there the rain started again and he was trying to hide his face out of it - Sam really is the biggest princess ever!

Monday was still cold and windy and I was just too tired to play with the horses so they got an early dinner and I went to bed early.

This afternoon we rode. I changed things today. I know I have said it before in the past. WARM UP is soooooo important. Especially with a horse who takes a good 20min to warm up and start being able to work. Today we spent 10min in the walk, suppeling, moving off the leg, stretching down. Halt, walk, walk, halt. We moved up to the trot. The walk, trot transition is usually horrible, a huge jump in the air instead of using his hind end. Today the first transition to trot wasn't too bad. I didn't correct him because I could feel that he did try and use his hind end. In the trot I just asked once again for bend around the inside leg, changing the rein a lot, small circles, big circles. After a while he started to really focus and start to show some rhythm.

Back to walk and he really stretched down and stepped out. I would be very happy with that walk in a dressage test. After a bit I picked up the contact and we worked on some walk, trot, walk transitions. These were quite good, especially the walk, trot.

We moved up to canter and after a warm up with going forward in the canter I thought I would have a go at these trot, canter transitions. Quite a few were a disaster but I really concentrated each time so I could change the way I asked each time until I figured it out. We got two really good ones so I stopped there. Back to a walk. Once again it was big and forward with stretching down.

I thought I would have a go at the trot, canter transitions the other directions. Walk, trot transition perfect. Trot was lovely. So lovely I ended there instead.

I went to get Poppy to take her for her 20min trot exercising off Sam. We started in the back paddock and trotted around for 10min. Poppy started lag so i thought we would have a go at going across the road into the reserve. We just got there when Megan my neighbour came up the lane way on Gundy, leading her new horse Cooper. Well she is trialing Copper. He is a little Quarter Horse Gruella in colour. About 14.2hh, 5yo. He really hasn't done much and injured his knee about 2 years ago. It is huge but seems sound. Vets have checked him out and say he is good to go. His hind quarters aren't very nice but he has a lovely face.

After having a chat (as we girls like to do) I showed Megan the tracks hubby and I had mowed into the side of the hill in the reserve. The grass is so high in there - over Poppy's head! With the fear of snakes and goannas the grass was just too long to ride through. I was so impressed with how both Sam and Poppy dealt with this. They both walked along happily with Megan and her two behind us. At the end we stopped and chatted some more and all the horses stood quietly, swishing their tails a the mozzies. All good ponies!!!!!!

So another go at riding everyday with the good weather!!!!!!

Warts

OK guys I have just noticed poor little Poppy's muzzle is starting to be covered in warts! I know sometimes babies go through this stage but she is meant to be about 3.5 years old. WHAT SHOULD I DO!!!!!!! They are growing so fast.

I heard smothering them in Vegimite works.

Update

I hope all my American friends are surviving the big chill you seem to be having at the moment. Does it help if I tell you, we have had a few very warm days but it starting to cool down a bit again, but still t-shirt weather during the day! Sorry had to rub it in! We have had a lot of rain, flooding so mozzies are out in full force. Sam and Poppy are sprayed with aeroguard every morning and night to give them a little peace.

Sam has started his fitness program. I am starting now, getting him ready for his first dressage comp in March. He is working ok. I am finding that he is starting out quite stiff and it is taking a good 15-20min for him to loosen up. His walk trot transitions are improving. He only jumps into them about the first 4 times then figures out to use his back end first. Then you can really feel the power.

Poppy is doing well but OMG she is fat. I have started to work her more to try and get her to loose a few pounds. How do people keep weight off little ponies? She is allowed out on native pasture for 1hr in the early morning (when the sugars are low) then she is locked up in a dirt paddock about the size of a dressage arenafor the day. During the day she gets 350grams of wheaten chaff, 1kg of oaten hay and the scraps of hay Sam has left from the night before. In the afternoon she is led off Sam at a trot for about 15-20min or lunged for 15-20min. For dinner 350grams of wheaten chaff, founderguard, 1kg of soaked and dried lucerne hay. She gets to have a pick of grass while I work Sam. She has pockets of fat in places where she shouldn't! Her crest is still loose but I really don't want her to founder - I worry.

Spoke to a fellow about an arena so fingers crossed that will happen in the new year. I had the gentleman out to look at the area for the wash bay so he will pour the concrete in the new year. Hubby and I will get the posts in over the Christmas period for the wash bay area and another yard. By the end of January I should have a wash bay!

My wonderful hubby also put shelving in my tack room. I think it looks great, all I need now is to find some saddle racks. It is all coming together slowly!

We are alive!

Yes we are alive! Life gets in the way!

Sam is working well, we have had another lesson and it was in a new place. Scary place. The arena was surrounded by trees and shrubs but Sam worked well, of course. I had a small panic attack during the first canter but Sam looked after me and carried me around like a pro. My instructor was happy with our progress which is always fantastic. She did tell me suck it up and just ride. Sam is quiet and isn't going to do anything bad. I also have to be a bit tougher, not let him get away with so much. Because he is a lazy horse by nature when I let him get away with things - be sloppy through transitions - it is harder for me to get him to work when I want him too.

Poppy is improving as well. She is really starting to trust now and allows me to put her flyveil on without much fuss. She is doing well with her ground work and lunging. She is even jumping a small jump while on the lunge. She seems to enjoy this, kicks up her heels afterwards and squeals sometimes! I gave Poppy her first bath and plaited her mane the other weekend - she loved the attention! I love ponies!



I was able to head down to Melbourne for Equitana. My neighbour came with me and we shopped for ten hours straight the first day and about 5hours the second. I purchased two saddlecloths, some Eco2000 shampoo and Show off spray, a horse dressage head belt buckle, a polar fleece jacket, wormers and some white dressage boots (the fleece ones) for Sam. I was very controlled. Found some great info about fencing, working horses, generally looking after them. Next time it is on (in two years time) I am going to be organised and get tickets to some of the performances and clinics. My head was spinning for days afterwards with all the information - it was a bit of an overload! It really was awesome.

I got to pencil at the Wagga Wagga dressage Championships the other weekend. I have never done it before and had to pencil for the Grand Prix, and Intermediate tests but the judge was lovely, helped me out and we got through it. My friend Katie was competing and did quite well. I got a photo of Wilson. Wilson is smaller than Poppy and just beautiful. He has a huge character and does his job very well. He was bought to baby sit one of her big horses. He used to panic and scream and just be a ball of nerves at competitions when she took the other big horse away. With Wilson he stays calm, is happy to stand tied to the float and munch his hay! Happy horse, better competition results!



We are having terrible weather at the moment, a lot of unusual rain which is putting a dampener on our riding. I will be taking Sam to the indoor on Saturday and Sunday so we can do some solid work.

I have been reading all your blogs - keeping up to date with everyone. Sounds like you are all having fun even if it is starting to get chilly for you guys!

I promise to blog more often! I will try and get some up to date photos of Sam for you. He is looking good at the moment.