Lame

I've been away on retreat for five days and returned home on Tuesday. This ancient oak grows in the grounds in front of the house we hire for our retreats. The photograph does not really capture the size and majesty of this tree. It was a wonderful retreat and I feel refreshed and inspired. As the weather has been so cold, we were not able to engage in Tibetan yoga on the lawn in the afternoons. I enjoy these yogic practices but do find them quite exhausting, and so am happy to be feeling less tired than usual on returning from a retreat.

Hence I was looking forward to riding yesterday when I went up to see Red and complete my chores. However it was rather foggy from about half way up Wenallt Hill, so I decided not to ride in the morning, but just groomed Red and turned him out. I arrived at Wyndham mid afternoon and was pleased to see that the fog had lifted out of the woodland so that I would be able to ride before it got too gloomy. To my surprise, as I drove down the track to the yard, I noticed Red and another horse in one of the fields that adjoin the track. This was not the field I'd put him into earlier on. Red and his chum had decided that the grass was greener in this field and forced their way through the fence. The centre of the field had tracks across it where both horses had galloped pell-mell in their excitement.

G had just gone out to catch the other gelding, so Red was ready to come in. Unfortunately, as he came to me I could see that he was moving awkwardly, and when we got onto the track he was clearly lame. We checked him over as best we could in the gathering gloom, but could not see anything seriously amiss. It is Red's only vice, pushing down fences to get to a field that looks more attractive. To be fair to him, there is more grass in the field next to theirs, because the geldings' field has been grazed bare. I acknowledge that this behaviour must be irritating and inconvenient for Sally—although she has not complained—but a horse is a grazing animal. If there is nothing to graze and the fence is not horse proof, it is actually fairly intelligent of him to try to get to a field where there is still some grass.

This time he has hurt himself however. The top of his left foreleg is swollen, although we have only been able to find a tiny cut. We have given him basic first aid treatment and will see how he is tomorrow. He was so cute when we were checking him over – he held his leg up like a puppy with a sore paw, and he had such a sorry-for-himself look on his face. I think he is a bit of a wuss.

Apart from having a bad leg, Red is looking rather splendid. I had him clipped last week, and I am finding time to groom him more regularly now that he has my full attention. His coat has a wonderful shine, especially where he has been clipped. Hopefully we shall be able to take some photographs of him looking smart on our next visit.

Dee grazing

These two videos show Dee at Wyndham the day before we moved her, and then the day after she arrived at Gorgeous Grazing. As you can see she is grazing quite happily in both videos. The only real difference is the noise of the motorway behind her in the Wyndham video, and the peace and quiet of the GG video.

I phoned Kim at GG today to hear how Dee was doing. She is now out with the herd. The first day Dee was turned out Kim was a little concerned because Dee was quite aggressive towards the inquisitive younger mares, kicking out at them. Fortunately no-one was injured and they have now learned that Dee doesn't like them to get too close. Kim says she is with the other horses in the field—not separate and isolated—so they have accepted her and she is feeling part of the group. Kim also says that she seems to have made friends with a mare called Blue. They are going to start a GG blog, so hopefully I shall be able to link to photographs of her soon.




Thank you for the supportive comments dear readers. And yes, Red does appear to be enjoying being the centre of our attention. I had a lovely ride in Coed y Wenallt on Friday. He was very well behaved. At first he seemed a little less confident than usual – but it has been a couple of months since he was hacked out on his own. He will soon get used to this I am sure, and his confidence in me will grow as well.

It is good for me that he has moved stable—as well as suiting Red—because I am not always noticing the absence of Dee in the stable next to him. The relief has kicked in a little more now, to displace the sadness somewhat: knowing I can now afford to keep them indefinitely, and feeling more rested physically after a weekend without stable chores. I do get a pang of anxiety now and then when the weather is wet or cold in the night and I think of Dee out in a field. I think it will be important for me to visit her next month to see that she is well and happy to ease my mind.

Goodbye India

This picture shows the mare's field. The mare in the centre is called ‘India’ (Dee is on the left) and I thought it would be nice to post a picture of India as sadly she has now left the yard. She is owned by the lady who loaned Red for a few weeks, but J. has now taken her to another livery yard where she can live out day and night. India is a friendly, sweet mare and Dee seems fond of her – even though she bosses her around. Dee seems to like young horses and greys. I'm not sure how you would describe India’s markings, but they are most attractive.

I have mixed feelings about 24 hour turnout, after seeing my two horses through a winter under such a regime. I think if you have your own land so that you can easily have access to the horses twice a day to bring them in for feeding, and if they have proper field shelters, it is probably an ideal way for them to live. At the yard where my horses were living out day and night however, they were fed hay in the field twice a day and this seemed to be a very hit and miss affair – the dominant horses made sure they got enough and continually moved the more subservient horses on. Also the horses were always given hay in the same place and would congregate when they knew a hay feed was due, sometimes becoming a little agitated, so inevitably that part of the field became excessively churned up and muddy. Consequently Dee and Red were spending a long time every day standing in mud. Even though I fed them extra hard feed over the winter, and part of the livery charge included regular hard feeds, they both lost a lot of condition.

Now they are at Wyndham where the horses come in for the night through the winter, and I'm glad that this year they will not be out in all weather through the cold of the night once winter really starts to bite. They are always waiting at the gate, ready to come in; they have a warm stable and a comfortable bed; they have easy access to water; and their have their own net of haylage that they do not have to guard or compete for. They will have turnout rugs and stable rugs changed daily when it gets colder, but will be able to go further into the winter before they actually need to be rugged. I certainly am not rugging Dee yet, whereas I would feel I should rug her if she was out all night.

So farewell India. I hope the regime at your new yard offers the advantages of 24 hour turnout and avoids the disadvantages. I've been thinking about her a lot over the last few evenings, while it has been so cold after dark, and pouring with rain – it must be a bit of a shock for her suddenly being out in it all. I hope we shall meet J. and India riding in Coed y Wenallt occasionally.