Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 11:14 am Post subject: February 2009
Fox or used to be NJH (navicular jumpy horse) went out with the Cheshire Farmers Drag Hunt on Saturday. The hooves worked most excellently pounding down the road in extended trot, blasting over anything stony, racing over the soggy fields, excellent traction round corners on the wrong leg in gallop but sadly the brain was no match .
He did however do very well for his second time out with a hunt. Caroline and Jazz tried to look after us (thanks) but even Jazz could not convince him that everytime the pack moved he wasn't going to get left behind.
Despite a pelham he still kept getting the better of me and I spent an awful lot of the afternoon disengaging the hind end . I made a critical error at one point when he had got the better of me so much down the road and a track that I was in danger of doing the unthinkable of burning off the whole field including the masters and possibly even the huntsman
When the track opened out I yielded the quarters and came to a screeching stop facing the on coming traffic and decided to try to wait for Jazz and Caroline. Big mistake after ducking and diving left and right and me blocking him he decided the only option was up Next thing we were vertical ....... time goes slowly and quickly all at once when things like that happen and just as I was thinking let go he is not coming back down someone yelled 'Let go' so gracefully I slid off the saddle and his back end and on to my feet ..... hooorayyyy. I think Fox was totally taken a back and wondered how I had got on the floor his brain just had gone fup! He stood quietly still while I got back on helped by some kindly other hunters and off we went again Yikes!
Thankfully it was a short afternoon otherwise I think I might now be typing with arms considerably longer than they were last week.
I am reliably informed that he should get better once he realises his herd are not going to abandon him. I do hope so
Next time out I think I will be sporting a standing martingale and a set of reins attached to the lower ring of the pelham instead of roundings.
...and bare hooves do provide superior traction, particularly when standing vertically balanced on just two of them
Poor Foxy, Mr Brain obviously had a day off...never a nice feeling Lets just hope he takes after Bailey rather than Ghost _________________ www.rockleyfarm.co.uk
or our blog: www.rockleyfarm.blogspot.com
Thank goodness you're safe Sarah, I've seen awsome injuries from a rear gone wrong. (that just didn't come out right, did it?)
Anni's a good friend - let me rant at her for a whole half hour today before giving me some good common sense advice
Had the vets out again - now they think it may be laminitis (hot foot, pounding pulse, lame). Vet very concerned about his heel first landing, must be because his toe is sore.
Apparently a horse with spavin is more likely to have laminitis as they get older...I didn't know that Vet did acknowledge that hoof abscesses were much harder to diagnose and treat in barefoot horses because "there's all that sole"! So still tubbing and wet poulticing...
Wed 4th: Update on Link - after 3 more days of poulticing and tubbing there's still no puss on the poultice and he's still lame in trot but seems OK in walk - still heat in the foot but not so big pulses now. Not standing like laminitic or really keeping his weight off the front of the foot - marching out across the yard OK - just pain on turning right and lame in trot!
Sounds like abcess not laminites to me Bruce. Or just a bruise somehow, maybe from all the frozen ruts if you have the weather we have.
Sarah I thought Foxy was really quite a good boy for second time out. It could have been lot worse - you saw the horse with the scars on its bum from where it backs into barbed wire in its excitement. Thanks for the mud in the face and all over my jacket as you left Jazz and me in your wake by the way
Barefoot performance in snow is magnificent - we are the only people on Exmoor able to get our horses out, I should think
A friend with shod horses had one fall over with huge ice balls in its hooves yesterday, and is not going to be able to get her horses out till it thaws.
Even turnout will be a problem for them, but there is no stopping the barefoot horses Andy and I took Jack and Charlie out yesterday afternoon, when the blizzard had stopped. We discovered that our horses were feeling rather too well - Jack and Andy piaffed most of the way
Charlie was a superstar - ploughing through snowdrifts and taking the weirdness of the landscape in his stride 95% of the time...
I can't wait to get out again today - its just started blizzarding again, so I won't inflict that on Felix - he had enough to cope with when I made him come and haul sheep out of snowdrifts with me yesterday
Thanks to Sarah's fab headcam, I have some great footage of us all in the snow, so will post that up later
Took our girls out in the snow today.
Cuckoo - TB (you know, the one's that can't go barefoot 'cos they have thin soles etc. etc.) went first. Decided she was going to have a TB brain if not feet and did her giraffe on crack impression - everything was spooky . However she did manage to piaffe and passage beautifully around the orchard.
Meggie went next (Welsh witch). Now anyone who's met Meggie knows that she isn't the bravest of horses and isn't too keen on going out on her own. Well she was a star today - barely waited for me to get on before she was off marching round the orchard. Totally ignored the scary 7' tall snowmen in the next field, wasn't fazed at all by the snow falling off the trees onto our heads - so we finished off with a fairly controlled gallop up the hill. YIPEE!!!
Sadly there was no one to wield a camera. Although we did get several comments of 'Oh! you're riding?' He He _________________ www.bluemoonequine.co.uk
Makers of quality natural horsemanship equipment
Jill, its fab isn't it I particularly enjoyed meeting a land rover and 2 pick-ups who were having to dig themselves out of the snow while I went cantering up the lane on Felix
Barefoot horses - the original quad bikes, and still the best
Barefoot horses - the original quad bikes, and still the best
N
Amen to that! We've been out with Dan and Magic this weekend - the snowmen and big lumps of snow are terrifying, but its lovely to ride on new snow - or even old snow that no one else has been out on. There isn't a shod hoofprint in sight and we usually meet at least two sets of horses being exercised at weekends.... and at the moment we have the place to our selves
Nearly did a midnight moonlit snow ride last night, it was soooo light with the moon and the snow that I was seriously tempted!
Max - 3 months in and the abscesses are over and he's absolutely cracking - fine on snow, deep going (was hard for him) and frozen ruts.... in fact I might have to put shoes back on him to slow him down, he's a 4 yr old nightmare in the field - galloping, skidding, playing, a total thug. And he was so meek and mild when he arrived.
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. I made a critical error at one point when he had got the better of me so much down the road and a track that I was in danger of doing the unthinkable of burning off the whole field including the masters and possibly even the huntsman 
Next thing we were vertical ....... time goes slowly and quickly all at once when things like that happen and just as I was thinking let go he is not coming back down someone yelled 'Let go' so gracefully I slid off the saddle and his back end and on to my feet ..... hooorayyyy. I think Fox was totally taken a back and wondered how I had got on the floor his brain just had gone fup! He stood quietly still while I got back on helped by some kindly other hunters and off we went again 
Andy and I took Jack and Charlie out yesterday afternoon, when the blizzard had stopped. We discovered that our horses were feeling rather too well - Jack and Andy piaffed most of the way 