Dusk photography

At the weekend 'ö-Dzin always comes with me to see the horses and he takes photographs.  These were taken when it was starting to get dark.

I like this picture of me – I think it really shows how much weight I have lost.


No point in losing it if it doesn't show, now is there!

And Dee doing her usual post-feed thing.  I love the way the flash has highlighted her mouth.  Her teeth look cleaner than usual.

Feeding

Life has been a bit hectic over the last three weeks.  My mother—who is 94—fell and broke her wrist.  She was in hospital for a couple of weeks and now is in a 'transitional care' home for up to six weeks.  They will then assess whether she can go home – whether she can realistically continue to live on her own.

The care home is lovely.  She has a large room with an en suite bathroom.  The meals are good.  There is a pleasant garden.  The staff are friendly and efficient.  There is a lounge with the TV always on and a quiet lounge with no TV.  There is a kitchenette where I can make mum and I a cup of tea when I visit.

Mum is determined to hate it, and is convinced that it is her evil daughter's fault that she is there – that I want to rob her of her freedom.  Sigh. . .

Needless to say there has not been much time for anything other than visiting mum.  The horses are in the top fields at the moment as there is still quite a lot of grass there for them.  I have been going straight up there every day and feeding Dee by the fence, rather than trying to take her down to the yard.

Last night I got stuck in traffic coming back from the care home, which is right the other side of town from me.  It was dark and wet by the time I arrived at Wenallt Road.  Although all other roads had been clear up till then, there was thick fog on the Wenallt.  I called Dee and a horse came over to me through the gloom.  The horse looked the right sort of size, appeared to have a white star and two white socks and was wearing a Masta rug, though I could not discern the colour.  So I fed it / her. 
After finishing the feed this horse put its head in the air to do the flehmen response – so at that point I was confident that it was Dee that I had fed!  She always does this several times after being fed even a treat.  She was quite nervous being away from the herd in the dark and the fog and quickly headed back to its safety as soon as she had finished eating.  I was also glad to get out of the rain and go home for my feed. 

I still had to go a way up the hill until I could get off Wenallt Road though and the fog got so thick that I was crawling along desperately trying to find what was road and what was verge as there are no road markings on this single track lane.  I haven't been in fog that thick for many years.  It was a relief to finally arrive at the main road opposite 'The Traveller's Rest' – where the fog miraculously disappeared.

Today Dee was waiting for me by the same bit of fence where I have fed her for the last three days.  Red was close by too so I went over and gave him a few treats and a bit of fuss while Dee ate her feed.  He would have already had his dinner as part of his livery.  There was another horse with them—Saffron perhaps—and Red was quite happy to share the treats with her.  It is sweet to see that Dee and Red still stay close to one another, as all the rest of the herd were one field further down.

Visiting

It's difficult finding time to ride at the moment.  We did manage to hack out one weekend earlier this month.  It poured with rain for the second half of the ride and we all got soaked – but it was still fun.

One of the reasons there is little time to ride is because I am visiting the hospital nearly every day.  My mother—who is 94 years old—had a fall last Saturday and unfortunately broke her wrist.  It seems that this is going to be the end of her independent living.  She will be in hospital for another week and then in a care home for a few weeks where she will receive occupational and physio- therapy.  The decision will then be made whether she goes home or into another care home.  It is mostly likely to be a care home as this is the third fall where she has hurt herself enough to end up in hospital.  It will be something of a relief for me if she goes into a care home as I worry every day that she will have another fall, but I do sympathise with her for her loss of independence.  I am hoping that the company will compensate, because she has been lonely this winter not being able to get out at all.

Today we just managed a trip to Briwnant to visit Dee and Red.  They are both so well and have amazingly shiny coats.  I don't know whether there is something special about this winter – but I have never seen them look so shiny or feel so silky.  Dee has lost a little fitness but is still a good weight.

I have been hearing amusing stories about Dee from the folks at Briwnant.  She is an honorary member of the stables' herd because Red is on working livery and they did not want to separate Dee and Red.  The working horses, old or ill horses, and warmbloods receive hard feed every day whereas those not working are just fed field hay.  Apparently every now and then Dee decides she quite fancies a feed and tries to come in with those who come in every morning.  Sometimes she pretends to be Red – they are not easy to tell apart at a glance as I have them in identical turn out rugs, especially if their hind feet are muddy and you cannot discern Red's one white foot and Dee's two white feet.  Red is bigger than Dee, but only by a hand.  Alternatively she will try to 'hide' among the big horses and sneak in with them – as if she were small enough to come in unnoticed!  They usually indulge her and give her a little feed. 

A few weeks ago she had practically a tree caught in her tail.  The stable girls do not really know Dee as she is not generally handled by them, and were a little apprehensive of helping her out.  Their main experience of her is seeing her bullying the other horses in the herd to assert her dominance.  They were amazed and pleased therefore, to discover what a sweet girl she is to handle when they went out to free her tail of its attachment.  I can understand that they are wary of her—she can seem intimidating in the field—but given the choice I would always prefer to be in the confines of a stable with Dee rather than Red.  Dee is respectful, cooperative and sensible, whereas Red can be pushy and uncooperative.

Dee is certainly a mare with plenty of character!

What took you so long?

The horses are spending most of the day in the hay fields at the moment.  They come up for hay and feed morning and evening and then wend their way back down.  The hay fields—as the name suggests—are usually left fallow for hay and the horses are not permitted to graze there.  However the grass was still quite long there by the time the snow arrived and they are finding a lot of grazing by scraping away the snow.

On Monday we arrived at the stables early in the afternoon and the herd was still in the bottom fields.  We plodded down through the snow as far a the stream which was one field away from the herd.  We called to Dee hoping she would come to call.  Red was out on a hack and not with the herd.  At first there was no response and then gradually horses started to appear.  At first they walked towards the stream, then they began to trot, and then—in groups of twos and threes—they cantered through the stream and galloped full pelt up the fields through the snow.  Their enjoyment of racing through the snow was evident.

Dee glanced at us as she splashed through the stream, but galloped up the field with the rest of them.  We then plodded back up the fields through the snow.  Dee was waiting for us by the arena.  The expression on her face seemed to say 'what took you so long?'

She is looking great.  She was a little lame last week but it has quickly cleared up.  I think she had just twisted a leg on the uneven ground.  I'm really pleased with her new rug.  It stays in place and she looks warm, dry and comfortable.

We have had an unusual amount of snow in Wales this month.  It has stuck around for two weeks.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you a healthy and happy 2011.

No riding

Twice this week I have transported Dee's tack up to Briwnant but not succeeded in riding.  On Wednesday I went out to the field to bring her in.  Usually she just follows me up to the yard, but on Wednesday she was not interested.  I said hello, gave her a treat and patted her neck, but when I turned away to walk back she did not follow me as expected.  Now I know from previous experience with Dee that if she really does not want to come in and I try to lead her in using an ordinary head collar and lead rope it ends in trouble.  It may have been that she would have walked up quietly with me – but I decided not to risk it.  I was not feeling bright enough for an hour following Dee round the field to get the head collar off her after she'd dragged me around for a while.  Although she would not follow me she stood looking after me for a long time – in fact I think I could see her still looking for me as I drove away.

This morning I went up again but she was too wet to put a saddle on.  It has been raining for a couple of days.  Ahh well – perhaps next week will be drier and Dee will feel more cooperative.

I had a nice message from Moira in response to my post about the fun ride.  Moira owned Dee when she was a sprightly five year old.  She said:

"I laughed out loud to read about Dee jumping that stream.  I have a very similar tale to tell from years ago.  We were out on a hack with a friend of mine and her horse, Chester, and were trying to find a stream crossing.  We knew the way vaguely, just hadn’t done that particular ride for quite a while.  My friend and Chester found what they thought was the crossing (it wasn’t the right place as it turned out) and Chester scrambled down the bank, across the stream and back up the bank on the other side.  As this was happening, I could feel Dee gathering herself up for the most almighty jump.  And, like you, I had absolutely no choice but to go with her.  She flew right across and landed just to the left of a big tree, allowing just enough room for my leg.  I always believed that she would never take a jump without being certain of her doing it safely and that if I stayed with her, I’d be okay.  It sounds as if that’s still very much the case."

She is correct.  I trust Dee completely when it comes to jumping.  She is totally reliable and sensible.  I love that mare!

Fun Ride

Sunday 10th was the day of the fun ride at Briwnant Riding Centre.  We approached the arrival of this event with a mixture of trepidation and excitement.  At the last Briwnant fun ride we were able to attend I rode Red because Dee was lame.  Red got seriously over-excited with the result that I came off him over a jump that I didn't want to take but couldn't stop him.  This time I was to be riding Dee and 'ö-Dzin riding Red.  We had decided to join the quieter, shorter ride with the option of 'ö-Dzin missing out the cross country part of the ride at the end if he wished, as this was where Red was likely to get over-excited.

photo by Alfie

There was a good turn out for the ride.  Most of the centre's horse were used, plus a few of the livery horse owners were there, and a few people brought their horses in from other places.  The weather was perfect being sunny and clear.

This was Dee's first trail ride in four hoof boots rather than just two at the back.  I'd ridden her in the arena in all four boots, but had not had an opportunity to hack out in them.  I wondered how they would cope with the deep sticky mud on the first track.  As it turned out Dee's hoof boots stayed on with no problems throughout the ride and she was clearly comfortable and relaxed in them.  I cannot overstress my satisfaction with these Cavallo hoof boots – they are brilliant and available from many UK stockists now.

Our group set off along the muddy track that leads up to the Wenallt trail.  Approaching the Wenallt in this direction meant that the beginning of the ride was slow with a lot of steep downward hills.  I generally prefer to ride it in this anti-clockwise direction as it means that you can have canters on the flat at the bottom of the trail, rather than all the canters being up the hills.  Dee doesn't have the stamina for uphill canters any more and we tend to get left behind.

Arriving at the bottom part of the trail, the ride became quite lively with a lot of short, fast canters.  It was most enjoyable.  We then headed back to Briwnant for the cross country ride across their fields.  I expected 'ö-Dzin to finish here, but he bravely decided to take Red out into the fields.  He felt that Red—having insisted on being in second place in the ride on the trail—had not had the opportunity for a good, go-for-it canter with all the stopping and starting, and wanted to let him go.  Wow!  I was so proud of him.

There were about 14 jumps scattered around the six or seven fields of the cross country ride.  I jumped about half of them on Dee.  She loves to jump and showed no hesitation at any of them.  I just did the smaller jumps.  I made a point of taking the jump that had unseated me on Red on the previous fun ride to lay that ghost.  The photo show us taking off over the third log jump and we did about another three slightly larger jumps after this.

photo by Helen Westlake

The biggest jump of the day for me was one I did not intend to do – isn't always like that?!  The approach to one field is via a little stream.  The stream is only a couple of feet (60cm) wide and shallow, but there is a bank about two feet (60cm) above it set back from the stream on the approach.  There is room to go down the side of the bank, plod through the stream and up the other side.  Twice I asked Dee to do this, but to her the logical approach was to jump it.  I had to submit to her reasoning and let her go for it.  It was a huge leap from a standstill to clear it, but we got across without mishap.  I went back there yesterday when I went to check on Dee to have a look at how big a jump it was and I reckon it is a 6 - 8 foot (180 - 240cm) spread going from high ground to low – a real cross country water jump.  I feel quite proud to have done it.

photo by Helen Westlake

'ö-Dzin rode Red through the first two or three fields, avoiding the jumps, and enjoyed a flat out pace back to the yard.  We both had a fantastic day.  It was great to ride with so many other people and to do something a bit more exciting and challenging for a change. 

I'm a two horse gal!

I rode both Dee and Red today.  Woohoo!

I brought Dee in and saddled her up to ride in the manège, but then noticed Alfie leading a horse in there.  I was a bit disappointed because it is always a bit worrying taking Dee into the arena with another horse and I cannot take her out on her own at the moment.  I have decided to leave her barefoot as the Cavallo simple boots are so successful, but do not have boots for her front hooves yet.  I also just didn't feel like trying to hack alone with her today.

Then I realised that the horse in the manège for a lesson was Red.  Dee usually behaves well with Red and Alfie was happy for me to go in there too.  So I schooled Dee for half an hour.  I took great care to keep her out of Red's way and not be a hindrance to the lesson and that all went very well.  Dee has not forgotten any of her schooling.  We practised up and down transitions, turning on the forehand, leg yielding and shoulder in.  It was good to be working with her and she was relaxed and responsive.

At the end of the lesson, I then took Red over and Alfie tied Dee up for me.  I schooled Red a little for about 10 minutes.  He is so strong and less cooperative than Dee.  I am still aware that he is too much horse for me – but it was nice to ride him a little anyway.