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Nic · Joined: 11 Jul 2006 Posts: 1140

Chris, I used to live in the New Forest - we had those nasty, flared, lame hooves going past our door every day Crying or Very sad

A testament to the fact that wet, stressed, overgrazed grass is not a good environment for hooves...

What a week its been, with dreadful weather here, though nothing like as bad as its been for you guys in Scotland Shocked

Here's to a better weekend for everyone Confused

N
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Chris Thompson · Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 11:10 pm Post subject:

brucea · Joined: 15 Feb 2008 Posts: 1134 Location: Aberdeen

QAR · Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Posts: 101 Location: Cheshire

Frozen here this morning and I drew the short straw and got the old car which doesn't defrost itself very well Sad

. Time to dig out the Seal Skinz I think Smile

Mr P and OH went dressaging yesterday - P stomped over the horribly stony track again which I was very pleased to see and they went and scooped 5th place in the prelim and 6th in the novice. OH is very pleased - they've made a great improvement since last month with some really positive comments. He only did the novice as he thought he might as well while he was there, only learned to rein back properly the day before and certainly didn't expect a placing. Very pleased with, and for, both of them Very Happy

My turn next week - area teams SJ.

Jane · Joined: 11 Jul 2006 Posts: 264 Location: Warwickshire

Max and Magic went stressaging yesterday. No big deal to Magic, but another pretty major milestone for my navicular baby!

He was the perfect pony, and got 60% in his test doing everything as and when asked.

Video on the blog Laughing

(don't tell anyone but we might even be eventing by next spring!)
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brucea · Joined: 15 Feb 2008 Posts: 1134 Location: Aberdeen

Well - so far so good. Went to the new yard tonight expecting to see little laminitic pony hobbling around, Link with three legs, and the cob's head had fallen off...

But Bramble's fine and was on top of the 15 foot high muck heap braying a the donkeys in the next field, Apollo is fine and Link is OK but missing his friends.

Now Bramble has access to grass - but is chosing to eat hay, and seems to be OK so far. So there is grass, and there is grass...

Keeping on with the Remount 1, added in the Yea Sac and doubled the MagOx in the short term. Seems to be workign touch wood.

And the best thing? The 79 year old lady who is our landlady, and an ex event rider herself, looked at our horses and commented "they look like good functional feet - I always kept mine barefoot and the vets were always horrified, but they did very well and I just didn't see the point on spending money on shoes when they didn't need them at all - it's all a nonsense you know" ...could have knocked me down with a feather!!!!! Very Happy

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sarahh · Joined: 09 Oct 2007 Posts: 299

Bruce, you've struck gold! So glad to hear your clan are doing ok at the new yard
x

brucea · Joined: 15 Feb 2008 Posts: 1134 Location: Aberdeen

I think so Sarah!

I had my first hack out on Link this morning into the woodland adjoining the new yard. There are miles and miles of tracks. I used to hack up there about 6 years ago with Link and it has not changed much - but what has changed is that we were cantering up a track over all sorts of stuff - even quite rough rocky stuff - and I remember when we were last on that track he struggled up there in shoes and was picking his way over those rough bits. It was no trouble for him today. Interesting to see the changes over that time period. Smile

We were not using boots either!

What he did struggle with though was the field of mini shetland ponies we had to pass - all big horses know that shetlands are really evil little cannibals and will eat them given half a chance. Rolling Eyes

The donkies were quite interesting to get past too - but that was more "What the **** is that?" On the way back he walked on the furthest verge giving them warning snorts all the way!!!

He really is a 1 ton bunny rabbit. Rolling Eyes

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Nic · Joined: 11 Jul 2006 Posts: 1140

He's right to beware of the donks, Bruce - they have a particularly evil sense of humour and find it hugely amusing to bray and then watch the effect it has on horses who haven't heard donks before Shocked

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lazeearabians · Joined: 21 Sep 2009 Posts: 32

Two notable things today.

A couple of weeks ago I moved two of mine to a livery yard in a village on the moors above Darwen where I used to keep my horses a couple of years ago. The hacking up there is simply the best in the area, though typical of moorland it's mostly quite stoney tracks, especially after lots of rain! And we get lots of rain up there.

The weather has been nasty since we moved so we've only really hacked round the village and up round the bridle path that's sheltered in the valley. I've done that on Haj with no boots a couple of times and he coped no problems with the stoney track... but we were only walking and trotting.

This afternoon I decided to take him into the woods - again mostly shingle paths or stones or cobbles. When I used to ride in there I used to worry constantly about slipping - shod hooves and slick stoney paths = lethal. There's lots of steep ups and downs too which we used to tiptoe down. I opted to go without boots - his feet are coming on a treat and as he'd managed on the shorter rides I figured lets give it a go. I've competed him this season in boots because his shoes only came off in June and haven't done anything challenged without boots as we only had very foot friendly hacking before.

Anyways we set out in the drizzle. Haj was very bubbly and keen. We were soon doing power trot along the road to the woods - this road is very slippy and you take your life in your hands with a shod horse. Oh no - we powered along, then he decided canter was the thing, so we cantered (feeling like naughty schoolkids) all the way to the end of the woods. Then into the woods, breezed over the slippy cobbles, skimmed effortlessly down the slope (apart from slight blip where big scary dog came gallumping towards us which almost resulted in a spin and disappear back the way we came move but brave Haj dithered then stood his ground). Then and this is the first notable thing we got to the bottom of the slope where you turn right and head through the woods back towards home. It's been two years since I last rode him there but he absolutely remembered where we were and that this was the place we always canter. It amazes me that horses can remember so well - they're just such incredible creatures. Anyway he was off like a rocket. We cantered all the way back through the woods - the places where I always used to slow because of fear of slipping I just kept going. He felt so sure footed and balance. The last bit of the woods is a narrow track that twists and turns up the side of the valley, finishing in a very steep, very rocky slope. Again he remembered this was a cantery bit and he was away like a bloomin exocet missile! His feet didn't miss a step. He negotiated the twists and turns on the muddy track easily without slowing and attacked the steep rocky slope like a lion attacking a gazelle. The rocks did not worry his feet one bit. I think, for today at least, he finally qualifies as a rock cruncher.

So the two notables:
1) Horses have amazing memories (and also love to gallop as much as we do!)
2) Today was the most I've ever asked of his hooves since taking his shoes off and they seemed to pass with flying colours.

Plus - isn't it great not to worry about slipping Very Happy