Unfamiliar ground

Tuesday afternoon was strangely quiet and subdued. It was as if the world were holding its breath. Later it rained—gentle, fine rain—but remained windless and calm. I decided to ride Red the full circuit of the Coed y Wenallt horsetrail. Three quarters of this ride is through the woodland, with the last quarter being along a steep and narrow road. Red has traversed this full route only once before, with 'ö-Dzin riding him and with me on Dee, but in the direction of the road part first. On Tuesday we rode it finishing with the road part of the circuit.

We set out a little before 4 pm. The dullness of the day meant that it was already fairly gloomy in the wood, but we had a good hour of light left. Red was a little reluctant to begin with, and I had to gently encourage him, but he gradually became more interested in being out for a ride.

Red happily jumped over the log when we reached it. I did not ask him to canter up the hills this time as he still needs to get fitter and I wanted to canter the last part of the trail where it was not so steep. This all went well as this was familiar ground for Red. However he now expected to turn round and head for home through the woodland, as we had done many times. Red became unsettled when I asked him to carry on. He did as he was asked, but started neighing—which he hasn't done on a ride for a long time—and seemed a little tense.

I tried to reassure him by talking to him and stroking him. I also sang mantra to him which I often finds helps when things get tense, as it relaxes us both. We reached the road and started on the final part of the ride. One of the reasons for doing the ride in this direction was that the light was better on the road now that it was getting late in the afternoon.

It occurred to me that Red may have wondered whether I was taking him away from Wyndham, which I think he now thinks of very much as 'home'. It was late afternoon and a similar sort of day when we rode from Ridgeway livery to Wyndham. Might he have remembered this journey – and being on what seemed to him to be unfamiliar territory wondered whether this was what was happening.? We were also quite near Ridgeway at the end of the Wenallt – could he have sensed his previous yard or smelled the horses? I will never know, but feel that it is a sign of the trust that is growing between us that he continued without any arguement.

Going down the road, we had to turn around once and go back up the hill a little way to allow a car through, and duck into a track for a few moments later on for the same reason. Red behaved perfectly – I am so proud of him. At last we reached the part of the road that he recognised and soon we were home.

Well done Red.

February sunshine

I've had a couple of really great rides on Red this week. It is such a relief to be riding. I don't really like lunging – and neither does Red, so I'm happy to have tack again so that we can go out into the wood together.

Suddenly the weather here is quite spring-like. It was so warm on Saturday morning that I didn't bother to take my coat. I don't know whether the photograph quite shows how delightful the day was.

Now that we only have one horse to ride, we take it in turns. I rode first on Saturday so that I could take Red on ahead and have a few canters – to give him the chance to really stretch and exercise. 'ö-Dzin came off him the week before because Red came down one of the steep stretches of hill too fast. As Red trotted round the corner at the bottom of the incline, Red and 'ö-Dzin parted company, with 'ö-Dzin ending up in a heap on the ground. He was okay—if a little bruised—but I'm sure he came off mainly because he still isn't terribly well.

So on Saturday I took Red on ahead to the far end of Coed y Wenallt where there are a few good stretches for cantering. I asked Red to lope up the hills, and he was puffing a bit, so we must ride out together more often so that he can get a bit fitter. We also did something together for the first time – we jumped two logs! I was proud of myself. It was the first time I have had the courage to take the opportunity. I know J took him over a log now and then, but I had never had enough confidence. We are getting along so well now, he is so much more willing and always ready to canter, that I decided to give it a go. He sailed over each log and seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself. I'm not about to suddenly take up show jumping, but it's good to feel that Red and I are working so well together. I always knew Dee loved to jump and would take any log in the wood, but it has taken me a long time to feel ready to try it with Red.

We then headed back to find out how far 'ö-Dzin had walked and to swap riders. 'ö-Dzin just walked Red home. I got really warm in the February sunshine walking back—especially trying to keep up with Red's 'going home' pace—and even had to take my jumper off. This is amazing for February, and I hope it continues. As before, Red stopped and waited for me to catch up a few times – so sweet.

His mud fever is now nearly cleared up. He has been reasonably well behaved about having his legs seen to, but I will not be sorry to lose this chore. Let's hope the unseasonable sunshine is a portent of a good summer. Then perhaps the fields will have a chance to dry out for the first time in over a year, so that the horses no longer have so much mud to contend with.

Arena game

I've been working hard on websites and things over the last two weeks, and have not been finding time to blog. I'm pleased with the results of the work, however. I have a new Spacious Passion website that looks much more how I want it to look. The old site was powered by Joomla and I could never work out how to adjust the details of it, so I was never satisfied with it. The new site is powered by 'ö-Dzin's software to my design – it is great to have so much control.

Two weeks ago, Wyndham Livery was burgled and all the tack was stolen from the tack locker. This means I also haven't been able to ride, because I haven't had a full set of tack. Consequently I have been lunging Red rather than riding him. He's not been too impressed with this. It was a premeditated break in – they knew exactly what they needed to do to get at the tack, and sawed through metal gates and the door of the metal tack locker with an angle grinder. Needless to say, our insurance doesn't cover it.

We also played a game with him in the arena, based on an idea from Carolyn Resnick's blog. After lunging, we let him free. 'ö-Dzin stood at one side of the arena, and I stood the other side – both of us equipped with a bag of carrot treats. We called Red to us. When he came he got a piece of carrot – but only one piece. The other person then called him. If he wouldn't leave after his treat, we drove him away by waving a line. It took him a long time to get the idea, and even then didn't seem too sure. I don't think Red is very bright. We stopped on a success before he started to get either bored or frustrated.

We tried the game again the following day, however, and something had sunk in, because he got it right straight away. Unfortunately we were not able to carry on with him at liberty, because another horse was brought into the arena for lunging. This horse had been on box rest for a few days, so it went slightly beserk on the lunge line – galloping round and round with its tail up and snorting. Red got a little over excited, forgot to notice where I was, and almost trampled me. We decided to take him in.

Playing this arena game brought up a sharp yearning for Dee. She is such a quick and intelligent horse – she would have got the idea really quickly. I have been missing Dee a lot recently. I think when we first moved her to her retirement home in Cornwall, it was such a relief to be free of the anxiety and work of two horses that I did not feel the loss of her. Now that it is easier and less work, I've had time to let missing her arise. Hopefully, now the weather is warming up, we shall soon be able to reschedule our visit to see her. She will probably ignore me when we visit her, but at least I shall be able to see that she is well and happy.

Hosing legs

I'm trying to get Red used to having his legs hosed down on the occasions that I bring him in from the field. This doesn't happen too often because I tend to go up and see him in the morning. When we have needed to hose down his legs, it is like having a large prancing pony on the end of the leadrope.

Red has mud fever – not too seriously fortunately, and it is getting better quickly. There is no heat in his legs or swelling, just scabs. To treat the mudfever I have to clean off the mud, treat his legs with a liquid solution, and then dry them. He likes me to hold his leg to rub it down with the towel.

Red has tended to not like having his legs fiddled with in any way, but he has gradually improved over the 18 months we have owned him. It is a pleasure to pick out his feet nowadays, and he is being good about having his legs looked after. Fortunately he has never been too bad to shoe. His unhappiness with having his feet messed with does not provoke any malicious response, he just becomes extremely restless – which can be rather unnerving when in a fairly small stable with such a big animal. When he is restless he doesn't seem to have any awareness of where I am in relation to him, so it can feel slightly dangerous.

I think Red has always had quite an easy life, with good owners who have treated him well – or even over-indulged him because he is such a pleasant chap. I believe this is why he took so long to settle with us – it was a big change and he wasn't used to life changing. Moving him to a different yard after six months did not help, or trying him barefoot and with hoofboots. Now however, he is content and generally a ‘perfect gentleman’, as he was described in the advertisement placed by his previous owners. I think he is settled enough to try and get him over this aversion to having his legs hosed.

On Wednesday he gave me a bit of a shock. I was working on one of his front legs and he bit my head! It really hurt. I made it clear that this wasn't on, but on reflection, I think he was actually being a bit of a comedian and trying to take my wooly hat off. I think he misjudged how much force was needed. Nevertheless I feel it was important to make it clear that it had hurt and that this was not acceptable behaviour.

Connection

It is so wonderful to see our relationship with Red growing and deepening. On Saturday we went into Coed y Wenallt – me walking and 'ö-Dzin riding. Red definitely enjoys this arrangement.

On the way home Red walks rather fast. When we first had him he used to continually break into a trot, unbidden, on the way home. He no longer does this, and it was not difficult to break him of the habit, but instead he walks fast. Consequently when I am on foot, I find it difficult to keep up with him. There are a couple of places I can take a pedestrian shortcut on a footpath and catch up, but inevitably I still lose him towards the end of the trail. On Saturday however, without 'ö-Dzin having to ask, Red stopped two or three times and waited for me to catch up. I was so touched by this. As soon as I was ahead of him again he started off. He would walk beside me for a while again, and then it would be as if he just couldn't help himself – he had to walk faster, and would get ahead of me. I feel it shows great self restraint for him to wait for me – and hopefully the beginnings of a strong connection.

I rode Red out on my own this evening. He came to call in the field and was happy to come in with me. It was about an hour before sunset when we set off and the woodland was quite spooky in the gathering dusk. Red was a little edgy, but behaved well. He was responsive and we had a couple of short, but enjoyable canters. This time he walked home even faster than usual – so much so that it was quite a challenge to remain relaxed and deep in the saddle his body was moving so much, especially downhill. He was certainly keen to get home for his feed and a warm stable.

Sense and sensibility

It's poured with rain all day today—absolutely torrentially—so I am happy that I was able to go for a long ride yesterday. It was the longest ride I'd been on for a couple of months and it was delightful.

Red and I set out after a rain shower, but we did not experience any more rain – in fact the sun even shone occasionally. We rode through the bottom part of the Coed y Wenallt trail, and then across the stream onto the bridlepath that links the wood with a road called Rhiwbina Hill. At the top of this bridlepath Red noticed a few horses in a field and neighed to them. I realised in that moment that he doesn't neigh all the time when I am out riding him on my own any more. I think he is feeling so content at Wyndham and happy that we have now forged a relationship, that he feels secure when we hack out alone.

We then rode on up Rhiwbina (pronounced Rh-oo-by-na with the Rh aspirated) Hill to the end of the lane that leads to Ridgeway, where we used to keep the horses. To my surprise, Red was quite keen to go down the lane. I had to encourage him to ride past it. Yesterday was not the day to go down there, but I will take him down there one day. I was interested that he remembered it so well and wanted to go there. Just past the lane is the entrance into The Ganol – my favourite woodland. This is just a little too far away from Wyndham for an everyday ride, so it was nice to have time to go there.

After a steep descent from the road, we were on the top track of The Ganol. This is a long, wide, straight track know by some riders as 'The Gallop'. The first part slopes gently down so we walked that. As we walked I said to Red that it would be good to have a canter for the rest of the track. As soon as we reached the dip I squeezed with my legs a little and he went straight into a canter. We kept going all along the rest of the straight part of the track, and even maintained the canter around the bend at the top and along the short stretch to the road. It was great. Red was like that throughout the ride – he seemed to understand what I wanted and responded. He was very relaxed, often walking with his head low, and I was able to ride him on a loose rein nearly the whole time.

We then made our way back at a fast walk (well we were going home...). On our return to Wyndham he was most reluctant to go out in the field. He is not like Dee, who would pull her head out of the halter in order to walk away from you immediately. He likes to hang around with me for a few minutes at the gate. Yesterday, however, he really didn't want to leave me. I think on reflection, that he was probably tired and would have preferred to have stayed in his stable munching haylage rather than having to slog up a muddy hill to get to a field with very little grass left to graze. It was only an hour or so until the horses would be brought in anyway. I wish I hadn't insisted he went out and had been more sensitive to his needs and wishes, as he had been so kindly sensitive to mine on the ride.

Sorry Red – I'll do better next time.

Winter ride

I realised that I had not posted any pictures of the horses for quite a while, and so have decided to rectify this today. This photograph was taken on December 30th during one of our excursions into Coed y Wenallt. We have had a few nice outings with 'ö-Dzin and I taking it in turns to walk and ride. Red seems to enjoy having one of us walking with him and has been quite good at standing still for us to change riders. He is also happy to be taken ahead on his own for a canter.

Thanks to a ride out with J and her horse Sandy during the Christmas period, we have discovered a part of the wood that is ideal for a canter. We had not traveled that part of the trail in this direction before, having usually turned for home a little before there.

I have not been up to see Red today, but Sally tells me he seems to be better. The swelling has reduced, and has moved down the leg towards his knee. She has suggested we exercise him lightly tomorrow to see how he is, so we shall be going up there in the morning.