Christmas

We have had a lovely Christmas. Andrew and Maree flew up from Hawkes Bay for the day. We started off at Mum and Dad's for breakfast which was really nice. Christmas lunch was at about 2:30 and I was actually quite chuffed at how well it went especially considering how badly Tai's illness threw me and my timings. We had ham, lamb, roast potatoes, kumara, parsnip and chicken. There was asparagus and for dessert we had chocolate pav drowned in berries.

Spyke went to the forest again on Saturday with Kristina (Oscar) and Nic from 'The Board' (Jake). We had a nice ride although Spyke did have a fairly decent strop at one point which involved running backwards and doing spinny half rears. I wasn't very impressed. The good thing was he walked nicely once he got over it. Spyke also had his grazing muzzle on for 24 hours last night, he was not very impressed and sneezed a lot. I have taken it off tonight but it will go back on tomorrow after our next forest ride.

The dogs have also been to the forest for a swim and a walk, they could do with more though.

Next on my agenda is a very casual barbecue for New Years Eve.

It is fabulous to be on holiday!!!!!

Touch Wood

Things seem to have settled down in my equine world, thank goodness. Tai seems to be fully recovered. He had a hacking cough at the end of last week and I thought we were in for another vet visit but I wormed him and he seems to have come right. Spyke seems to have settled completely after being off grass for a week. We had our second registered dressage competition in the weekend and I was quite worried about how he would behave as he has been SO awful when out recently.

I took him to the forest on the day before as I really don't like schooling the day before a dressage competition. I went with Kristina on her LOVELY little 5 year old Oscar and we had a really, really lovely ride. We trotted and cantered and everyone was sane and sensible. I gave Spyke a bath afterwards (in the rain) and then drove him home. In between me dropping him off and going to pick up my car the wee 'treasure' rolled in the muddiest hole he could find so when I plaited him up his mane was full of mud. Grrrr.

On the day of the dressage I was in complete agony. I had fallen off the three foot high brick wall at mum and dad's on the Thursday night (was helping with Christmas decorations) and I landed on my elbow. It turns out that I think I have torn a muscle in my chest and it is VERY painful. Poor Kristina turned up to help me on sunday morning and got sent home for Voltaren (which helped a LOT).

We arrived at the dressage about 30 minutes later than I had planned and, since we were third on, had very little warm up time. Fortunately, Spyke was his normal laid back self at Woodhill so he only needed a bit of trot and canter work before going in to the ring. He did quite a nice test but needed a lot of pushing on and he was very on the forehand (which crops up every time. I need to pay off some vet bills so I can get some lessons). I was thrilled with how cool he was.

We had almost an hour between tests but when we arrived back down by the ring to warm up 25 minutes before our scheduled time the horse two before us had just come out of the ring. Yikes!!!! Poor Spyke trotted and cantered once on each rein and then had to go straight in the ring. Well he was COMPETELY asleep!!! He tripped at E and didn't strike off on one canter when I asked him. Fortunately the judge didn't hear me shout "Bollocks" at the top of my lungs when I got that all wrong. LOL. It was a very laboured test but once again, as he was quiet I was pretty happy. The next dressage I do I will be rarking him up a bit to see if we can get him more forward (it won't be hard to get him more forward than he was that dayLOL). He got good marks, 63.5% for the first test and 61.5% for the second so he has qualified for HOY but I doubt we will be going.

The dogs are very well. Sammie is just full of beans after her operation and was full on playing with Brina up at the paddock last night. I love seeing them so happy. Brina is in dire need of a really good makeover which I will hopefully manage after Christmas. She was decidedly stinky last night when we got back from the paddock so a bath might be required before Christmas day.

Dramas

My word it has been a week!!!! My last post was about my fights with Spyke. Well that paled into insignificance very quickly!! On Wednesday evening Sarah and Kristina brought their boys down to practice for the dressage day. As they were coming down the hill I noticed that Tai didn't look quite right. I tied him up and we all watched him for a while. After a few minutes he started showing all the early signs of colic!!! NOT a good thing for a 27 year old. We got the vet down straight away and he diagnosed very mild colic and gave him a pain killer. I was quite surprised that he didn't give him some Buscopan to get things moving.

I asked Tina to count legs on the way past in the morning and did a quick check on Wednesday night at about 11 (he looked fine).

The next morning Tina left a message to say that she couldn't see him in the paddock and had I put him in the stable. Instant panic stations hit!!! I rang Kristina who a) lives just around the corner and b) is a vet nurse. While I was waiting to hear from her I had another message from Christine, a horsey lady that lives around the corner the other way, to say that Tai wasn't looking so good. Kristina tried to ring me but the reception is really bad down at the paddock so we had to resort to texting. Anyway, she felt he looked very uncomfortable do I called the vet straight away.

To cut a long story short (too late I hear you cry!!) Tai had an impaction colic. He spent 48 hours on pain killers, had multiple vet visits, got a bleeding nose when the vets tried (and failed) to intubate him to get paraffin down him (Tai was not having a BAR of it even with sedation). The blood was terrible!!! There seemed to be litres of it!!!

Tai spent two days and nights in the stable, I spent two days and nights in the car next to the stable. We knew he was beginning to feel better on Saturday when he busted down the stable door and buggered off down the drive way.

Tonight he has gone back into the paddock and I am keeping everything crossed that the drama are over. It has been a VERY worrying and exhausting few days.

On a good note I had a FABULOUS ride on Spyke tonight, he did some really nice work but also did some tanking and leaning. Oh well, you can't have everything. :-) He is back in the good books for now. I hope he stays there on Sunday at the big dressage competition!!!!

By the way, I'm afraid there won't be any pics for a while as none of the three digital cameras I have are working now. :-(

Ashamed :-(

I have had a very mixed time with Spyke, he is very unreliable at the moment. In the weekend we went to the forest twice. On Saturday we went with Bert and Sarah and did a good 2 hours up and down hills. He was pretty good but for the first half he was spooky and refused to go out in front. At about half way he relaxed and went out happily in front. We had a FABULOUS canter along one of the tracks but then a spooky one along the next. When he got home and was eating his dinner he was spooking at traffic...sigh!!!

On Sunday we went to the forest with a group from the horse forum that I frequent. There were 9 of us all together and Spyke refused to go through a gate so I got off him and lead him through and then carried on to the locked gate. After I had opened it we stood aside to let everyone through so that we could shut it behind them. Well Spyke pulled back AND bucked...Grrrrr. We set off on our ride and he was very good in a crowd but once again refused to go in front. About half way through the ride we had to go up a steep bank and the two horses in front trotted up. Well Spyke let rip with a couple of decent bucks and got really wound up. Fortunately, because he was on a steep slope he couldn't do much. It took him a good 10 minutes to settle again and then he was lovely.

When we got home I lead him off the truck and he suddenly spooked at a recycling bin that he has walked past MANY times before and jumped on top of me. I confess that I completely lost it at that point and hit him repeatedly with the end of the lead rope. :-( (It is a soft lead rope but that was no excuse). However, he should never, EVER trample me. I was pretty upset about the whole thing really as he is just not my Spyke at the moment. My friend Kristina has taken a blood sample and we have sent that off to be analysed to see if there is a lack of selenium or a magnesium imbalance.

I rode yesterday and schooled him very hard. I worked him for over an hour and we were pretty mad at each other by the end. I felt like our 'relationship' had been damaged and that I am a 'bad mother' :-( However, tonight I went up and apologised to him and had a very gentle ride in the paddock. The plan now is to take things quietly until I have the blood results back and then decide what to do from there. We have the WRC dressage this weekend and I am VERY nervous about how he is going to cope with that. We will work through it though and hopefully rebuild our trust in each other. I am absolutely gutted to be suffering from this set back as I was so looking forward to this summer. I felt that we were going to really achieve things this year. :-(

On a nice note, I caught up with Richard, Heather and Dibley in the weekend and have now got a fabulous new cart for the girls. I just need a harness now and we will be able to go carting. Yay!!!!

Mad Mad Mad

Spyke is still in the bad books. The boy is just not behaving!!!! I think we have way too much good grass. I took him to club tonight and he was AWFUL again. I started off lunging him for ages and he still didn't quieten. I was going to get on him but he pulled back, ripped free and bolted down the paddock bucking. Grrrrrr. Eventually I did get on but I just walked and trotted in a very small circle. It is just not like him to be this wired. I am going to get some bloods done to see if he is out of balance somewhere. It is just so disappointing when I had so many plans. I am pretty gutted by it all really. :-(