Spyke's Halo Slips

Gosh a lot has happened since I last posted. Brina has become a regular vet visitor. She had a week on Rimadyl to see if it helped with her gimpiness but it didn't really make a difference. She is currently half way through a course of four injections of Pentosan. I have also changed her onto Lurisyn which is supposed to be amazing for arthritis. I am starting to see improvement so I am keeping EVERYTHING crossed that the treatment will do the trick as otherwise we are looking at surgery and my bank balance is not really up to that. :-(

Spyke had a visit from the equine physio (Rachel). He was very, very sore!!!!! He even tried to kick her at one point (gently, of course). The new tenant has moved onto the grazing and Sarah has brought Em and Bert on. The tenant has a rather lovely 2 year old colt. Unfortunately it appears that Spyke reacts to the colt. He has been MADLY in love with the colt's dam (he has never shown any interest in any mare before, even when he lived right next door to two) and hated having to leave her side for even a minute. Fortunately that seems to have settled (may it stay that way).

We have been going to the forest a lot which has been just lovely. Spyke, Oscar and Bert all get on soooooo well that we have some brilliant rides together. Spyke really seems to enjoy them too. We have also been doing some jumping in the paddock which has been brilliant. It's really nice having riding buddies again!!!

Today we had a Show Jumping Clinic with young show jumper Lisa Coupe. We had lessons with her before at Redhills. Today's jumping was at Limbury Park in a group of five for 90 minutes. I was really, really looking forward to it as Spyke has been jumping soooooo well. We got there nice and early, tacked up and walked the horses around the arena to have a look at all the jumps and 'scary things'. Spyke was great, didn't put a foot wrong. At the start of the lesson we had to find a space on our own somewhere around the arena and Lisa came to us individually to warm up. Spyke was a little, teeny tiny bit unsettled at this point but not enough to worry me. But then another horse trotted past and he just stood on his back legs.......TWICE!!!! It really rattled me as rearing is not something he has ever done. I had a chat to him about how if he ever did something like that and I got hurt he would be sold instantly......AND (and I think this is what got through to him) that if he misbehaves at jumping days then he would just have to only do dressage.

The next part of the warm up was to trot and canter over some poles. When I rounded Spyke up a bit in the canter he started throwing his head around and hollowing again. I very nearly gave up at that point and seriously thought about getting off. Instead I cantered him again but on a fairly long rein and he seemed OK so we carried on.

We did some trot poles and a small jump and then we did the trot poles, followed by a line of two jumps. The second jump had a scary (apparently) filler. Spyke trotted into it, I was COMPLETELY convinced that he was going to jump but at the very last second he slammed on the anchors, ducked backwards, dropped his shoulder, dumped me in the sand and buggered off. TOAD!!!!!!!

I got back on and jumped him over it about six times until he jumped it smoothly. After that, he really didn't put a foot wrong and we managed to finish the lesson. It is sooooo frustrating as Spyke is usually SUCH a fabulous horse but he always seemes to save his bad behaviour for these days. I am hoping to get a few more lessons with Lisa (she has a broken foot and can't ride which means it is easy to get lessons with her at the moment :-)

Anyhoo....pics (of him behaving, although the 5th one is of him about to launch over the 'bogey fence':

Nearly Christmas

Yikes, it is November! How did that happen??? Where did the year go? Life, you will be surprised to hear, has been busy.

My friend Martina is very ill and in hospital at the moment so I am having to look after her horses. How ironic as it was only a few weeks ago that I got kicked by her 'little darling' and had to say that I would be unable to help with any handling of her and now……sole charge!!!! Yikes!!! Jelly and I are doing some gentle work on ‘how to be nice grown up horse’ which is coming along nicely and I even managed to lead her through an entire paddock with getting kicked, front footed or bitten. Woohoo!!!!!

Bad Jelly and her mum

Bad Jelly

Brina is very limpy at the moment :-(. I ran out of glucosamine and since she has been so sound I really didn’t rush out and instantly buy some more and now she won’t come sound again. It looks like we will be off to see Uncle Vet. And Spyke is having visit from the equine physio next week as he is not 100% happy at the moment. We had our final dressage day of the series yesterday and he was awful!!! He was all hollow and was throwing his head around and just hated being asked to collect. I did my second test on a long rein (which got me slammed by the judge) but he was completely happy so I will get him checked out.

Spyke looking shiny and clean

Brina 'helping' Spyke with his dinner

The girls had a photo shoot last weekend. A friend of a friend wants ot get into pet photography and needed some practice so we took the girls up to the forest and took lots and LOTS of photos. It was such fun (at least Brina and I thought so). Sammie hated it, she hated the camera and REFUSED to put her ears forward for ANY reason. Whereas Brina would bounce into focus with ‘Pick me! Pick me! This is my good side……no wait….this is too” She was soooo funny.

Last night (Wednesday) Kristina and I went for an evening ride in the forest. It was sooo lovely!! We had to make it all a bit 'snappy' as we didn't have a LOT of time after work but the boys were just fabulous and I so enjoy riding with Kristina and Oscar. Next time we should have Sarah and Bert along too as she is moving her boys back west and.....in with my two. The new tenant wants four geldings in together and I have to say I was not very keen on strange horses in with my two so I contacted Sarah and she is really really keen and moves in a week on Saturday...Yay!!!! Sarah and her boys are lovely.

In the weekend Tina and I took young Biscuit off to Abderry for her to begin her formal education. It's quite exciting really, I can't wait for her to come back in a couple of months all trained and ready to go to the forest.

Biscuit about to head off to boarding school

I think that is all my news. Oh except that Spyke did actually get third in one of his tests at the last dressage day. :-) He is a luffly, luffly boy!!!!!