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Friday 26 August 2011

Autumnal doings

I may have mentioned that Q was a bit of a slug when I rode on Sunday, but that's not unusual. On Monday we free schooled him and he looked a bit choppy in front. It does happen occasionally, usually when he's been doing star jumps in the field. We were due to box out for a lesson at a nearby yard on Tuesday but he still wasn't right so I cancelled and gave the vet a call, who came out on Wednesday. She found a slight reaction with the hoof testers so it's possible he's had a mild attack of laminitis :(

The problem is that we can't keep him in without him weaving incessantly so agreed to put him on restricted grazing and a course of bute. This was ok at first but this morning I found he had worn a path along the fence line :sigh: so in an effort to keep movement to a minimum I've got two options: 1) try Zylkene, a natural calmer and/or 2) put a grazing muzzle on him and let him wander at will. On balance I think he will be less stressed if he can move about to keep an eye on the mares as normal but not stuff himself with grass, so we'll try that.

We had a blood test done which showed a slight elevation in the markers which indicate some inflammation, so he's got a week's course of bute and we'll reassess with the vet next week. Argh - I hate it when there's something wrong with any of the creatures.


Meanwhile, I rode T this morning who was clearly full of vim and vigour. Not one iota of relaxation was to be had in the in hand warmup but I decided to ride him anyway since if we are going to move forward I can't just rely on only riding him when the planets are aligned. Besides which if I have faith in the new-found levels of trust building between us then it's as good a test as any. So he started piaffing as soon as I got on but settled (ish) to a rather animated walk and we put hoof prints all over the school with circles, serpentines etc followed with some lateral work. Up to trot and he was full of beans but listening, though I can't say he ever really relaxed through his back or stretched out to the contact as with previous rides; instead he was a bit sucked up throughout but the tempo was easily managed and he was good. It's quite a thing having all that energy to play with (!), strapped to half a ton of very animated stallion.

Knickers then appeared with the wheelbarrow and he decided it would be a good thing to show off to her (?) and immediately launched into a passage which we might still be doing even now if it were up to him, and I must confess I did enjoy it. Even a slight firming of the lower back gave a transition to piaffe - man he's sensitive! - but I couldn't let it go on even if I was rather enjoying it as he's not really that fit, so pushed him forward into trot. We had a couple of canters on the spot followed by the nearest approximation to a stretchy trot that we were going to get, and I left it there, pleased to have ridden the Rocket Man through it but not wishing to push it too much.

Otherwise, it's raining, and raining and raining. I brought the girls into their shelter so that the younglings could lie down in the dry, which of course has set Q off wanting to know where they are. It's a juggling act and sometimes you just can't win.

Meanwhile Xacra, who has been making good progress in the hind feet picking out stakes, nearly kicked my head off the other night. It's always that right hind and always when she fears losing her balance, so I am going to ask Tessa to look at her and see if there is any adjustment to do. I think a course of Zylkene will benefit her for this and the forthcoming farrier visit next week, as he couldn't get ner her hind feet last time and they really need a trim. I just need to determine that it's safe for nursing mares.

Final meanwhile: after a Super Noodle effort, all bar two stables are now rubber matted and the dog pen is finished. Once Pheel comes to do the work on the remaining two stables  we can finish them off and get the shelter done. Then all that remains is to get two more loads of hardcore in (9am tomorrow) so that the boys can come and finish off everyone's all weather turnout areas.

Never boring is it.

Sunday 21 August 2011

Lifestyle stuff

This probably deserves its own entry as it's been a bit of a revelation, as well as completely unexpected.

It all started at the Bento clinic I attended back at the end of July, where there were many exhortations from the great man to develop my ridden position, as well as opportunities to discuss with mates the perils of hitting that particular time of life where you can no longer eat as much cake as you want without developing your own muffin-esque waistline accoutrements. I've no real idea what it was specifically that has galvanised me into action but the effect of it has been quite noticeable and I've ended up doing things that I never really considered as applying to me. I'm wondering if it is the onset of some sort of midlfe crisis and worry that if I'm not careful I may soon be driving a Porsche.

First I decided (after some years of cogitation along the lines of "ah yes, I really should get my beans in a row to do this..", it must be noted) to join a Pilates class for general posture and flexibility. So I looked into the available options and decided that the only feasible way I could cram it in would be to attend a class at the gym at work. It didn't really occur to me that actually joining the gym would be a realistic course of action until I weighed up the financial options, which it turned out were stacked against me:

1) Operate on a pay as you go basis, paying £5.50 per class plus a £25 "admin fee", or
2) Join said gym at a cost of £26 per month

As the people who run things at the gym know very well, two classes per week @ £5.50 a pop make little economic sense, so I was forced to conclude that joining would be the way forward. I tried to persuade a number of friends and colleagues to come along with me but in the end was forced to conclude that I was on my own and must therefore grow a pair and go on my own - feeling, it must be said, like a mildly wobbly fraud at the very idea. So off I toddled, completed the relevant paperwork, handed over my fee and booked my induction.

Meanwhile, back at the clinic my friend Susan was telling me all about how her own Pilates adventures had transformed her riding and how she had consulted a nutritionist to discuss dietary changes to help both lose a bit of weight and gain some much needed energy levels. She's in the same position as me in that she works in London, commutes a long way by train in order to fund the lifestyle, only to find she has very little energy to devote to her homestead and horses by the time she gets home. Hmm. All sounds very familiar, Rachibum, does it not.

Anyway, according to said nutritionist, the mistake that many people make is not having protein for breakfast. Aha! Although I was feeling pretty pleased with my exisitng quite healthy granola, fruit and natural yogurt breakfasts, neither those nor my propensity to opt for a plate full of carbs at lunch were doing me any favours in the energy stakes, so an overhaul was called for. What the nutritionist recommended was this:

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/pages/product_detail.asp?pid=2521&prodid=2786&cid=141&sid=0

First impressions on trying it were along the lines of "Christ, that's really rancid" but in fact it grows on you, and particularly once you realise just how good it is at delivering both energy and satiety for a good few hours. Result!

Next step was to ditch the lunch time carbs in favour of a salad and some protein, which also helps. As a result I have found that my appetite has been steadily shrinking to more manageable levels so I'm eating a lot less at night, too, and what's more I find I am tending towards more healthy suppers, give or take the odd pizza or kebab. I never thought I'd see the day and it reminded me of a "health and wellbeing" course that I attended at work last year which cited all these things - healthy diet, exercise, not so much cake, yadda yadda yadda.

What's more, I've been going to the gym three times a week and really rather enjoying it. Of all the things I might reasonably be expected to blog about, this wasn't one of them. And it's spreading! Sid is becoming a firm fan of shakes, having discovered that if you whisk them well they are much more palatable, and as a family unit we are starting to favour them even as weekend breakfasts for the energy and general good feelings that they engender. Who knew it would come to this? It's very obvious if you then have something like a bacon butty instead just how much of a sap in energy levels that gives by comparison.

So if I sound like a religious zealot expounded the virtues of my new found godhead then so be it, I don't care. It's helped me no end through the weekend's rubber humping endeavours, I can tell you. And I'm writing this not only as an aide memoire should I slip from the path of virtue, but also to spread the good tidings to anyone who, like me, suffers from a lack of energy and really wants to do something lest they bury themselves under a compensatory mountain of cake and coffee.


Catch up

You'll be unsurprised to learn that things at Luso Towers have been very busy. In the last entry I mentioned that we had collected two trailer loads of rubber matting a couple of weeks back, which was followed the next morning by another trailer load delivered courtesy of Pheel's boys. So that's three loads of matting, and in case you wondered how much rubber matting it is possible to fit in to one 12 x 12 stable, the answer is three trailer loads - so long as you don't plan to close the stable door afterwards. That's a lot of rubber.

Over the last couple of days we have hauled, humped and dragged what must be several hundredweight of the stuff into stables and spent equivalent amounts of time power hosing it down, with the result that six of the nine stables are now fitted out. Which is nice. Plus we all now look like Geoff Capes. We can't do the others until the mods are finished, but it looks as though there will be enough left over to do the shelters and the dog run (!).

Our little herd is all back together after their sojourn at the vet clinic and I am trying not to think about whether, after the injection of (a) a bucket load of cash and (b) several doses of frozen semen, the girls are indeed pregnant. Argh. Plenty of distractions, not the least of which was the final push to get all the forms signed off and completed to send off for the younglings' passports. Only time will tell whether Gualter's passport will arrive in time to take him and Alfama to the breed show.

Meanwhile preps are under way to bring T up to fitness for the proposed classes, and he has been going very well indeed. Each ride finds him more relaxed and with progress to report - less tension on the left rein and trot work really going very well. Hitherto I've been pleased to get some softness during the course of the trot but today for the first time we kept it through transitions and changes of rein on both reins, and I really feel we are starting to gel. He is an extraordinary horse to ride and I can't express what joy it is to finally feel I am getting somewhere and that he is really enjoying his work. Knickers is working both boys three times per week, which is a huge help, and she is really enjoying it. Good lads they are.

We're trying to get a rider over from Portugal to present him at the breed show but logistics all need to be worked out, so I've been busy trying to work out what is possible too. And best of all, I now have a week off work to immerse myself in horsey doings, and hopefully get Pheel to start on the outstanding work to finish off the all weather turnout areas, convert one of the stables into a cross tie bay and the other into a larger stable for possible weaning or foaling. Not to mention ideas to try to convert an area into a covering room for a dummy.

In other news Franklin D. Husky has had his plums whipped off and was feeling very sorry for himself, but is bouncing back with the amazing powers of recovery possessed only by the young and vital. He's confined to walks on the lead for a few days but coping pretty well.

Sunday 7 August 2011

Long weekend, ups and downs

The vet came on Wednesday to scan the girls, only to find that Alfama had a particularly ripe follicle necessitating that we got her in for AI at our earliest convenience. As a result I took a couple of days off and arranged to take her and Gualter in on Thursday. It took a bit of convincing to get Gualter on the trailer and judging by the way he leapt up into it I believe his issue to be that he doesn't want to step on the ramp. It was quite a sight seeing a gazelle-like leaping colt heading straight for me, but he managed to miss both me and the ramp, at which feat I was personally very impressed.

On arrival at the vets we took them straight into the barn for Alfama to be scanned again. This was particularly intersting to me because although the girls have been scanned many times this season, it was the first time that I've been on hand to see what a ripe-ish follicle looks like. We turned them out in what might now be considered their usual paddock, and drove back home. Most of the rest of the afternoon was taken up transferring wood to the new wood pile and taking the dogs for a long walk. By the time I'd finished I was too battered to ride - I really should learn to ride first then do other jobs afterwards, because thinking "oh I'll just..." really Does Not Work. In the evening we had a chap round to discuss some land matters, at which point T decided to put on a show for him involving flat gallops, caprioles, pings, star jumps and flirting displays to the mares, and I'm really not sure whether it was T or I who were the most surprised that the chap took No Notice Whatosver. Funny.

We had a very busy day on Friday, cleaning up the garden, putting the roof on the wood pile (involving standing on tip toe on top of a ladder, banging nails into onduline sheets at precarious angles) etc etc. Knickers went off to do some stuff with a friend at 2ish so all that remained for me was to work both boys, hump more wood and walk the dogs, what with Sid pulling 16+ hour days and being effectively welded to his laptop. It was the first time the dogs had been out with only one of us and, aside from the incident with the rotten rabbit's head that Frankie was particularly wanting to protect at all costs, it went really well and they were very manageable on the lead. Interesting that they stayed closer and were more attentive than when there are two of us out walking them.

Saturday was also extremely busy. Pheel had called a couple of days before to see if we wanted enough rubber matting to fit out all the stables at a very good price (yes please), which necessitated being round to his with the trailer for 8am to follow him to the place where we were to get the rubber, waiting while his boys loaded the trailer then driving back and unloading it into one of the stables. For anyone out there that has never unloaded a trailer full of heavy duty rubber matting, I can tell you that it is bloody heavy, and hard work. One trailer load done, I went back to collect the second load, return and repeat in between a visit from Tessa; chiropractor, adviser on all things vegetable garden, dogs and all round good egg. I can advise that unloading two trailer loads of heavy duty rubber matting is even harder work than doing one. And it had to be done, because I gave Xacra her prostaglandin injection on Wednesday evening and we had to take her to the vets that afternoon, so we needed the trailer.

So with no pause for anything so civilsed as a break, we loaded up Xacra and Golfinho and undertook the hour's drive to the vets to drop her off. Again we took her straight to the stocks to be scanned (follicle not developed enough) while Golfinho took the opportunity to investigate everything, knock things over and generally cause a ruckus. Our little herd were reunited with much nickering in the paddock while we did the necessary paperwork, then loaded up Alfama and Gualter for the journey home. Very pleased that Gualter loaded much better this time, and even deigned to put foot to ramp, if only for milliseconds before clattering into the trailer at speed. Another hour back home, by which point it was about 4:30. Ordinarily we'd have had a lighter evening of it but had invited our excellent neighbours round for a barbie and had all the preps to do, so there followed a period frenetic activity to get it all done, and we were just back on top of things as they arrived (phew). Had a really lovely evening which was much more civilised than our last get together, when we all got completely battered on the last of our sloe gin and spent the evening dancing wildly on their lawn.

All of that was the good stuff, but the bad news is that we lost one of the goats, Gerry, on Saturday night :(
Not sure what it was but the goat sanctuary have also been losing quite a number of their MoD goats of late - she was always the least vigorous of the three, as well as the oldest. Poor old girl :(

Needless to say, losing an animal that is classed as livestock requires different handling than losing a pet, so we had to call round to find a licensed carrier to dispose of her body because it's against the law to bury it. We had to wrap her in a tarp and drag the body to a collection point for the lorry, which is coming tomorrow. Very sad business, but at least she had a nice life with us for a few months as part of T's posse of goatie girlies. RIP Gerry :(