Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

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Re: Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

Postby Andrew MacLean » Mon 16 Jun 2008 6:12 am

Well done Rosemary, and thank you for the photographs. It's good to know that Duke and you are both well enough to be jumping again!

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Re: Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

Postby rosemary johnson » Mon 18 Aug 2008 11:16 pm

NOt sure 4-footed "friend" is the best description at the moment....
I'm hobbling around very sorely having gallen off The Animal this afternoon.
This is particularly NAUGHTY of him as he is only allowed to dislodge me once a year, and the last time I fell off was only January, just a few days before That OPeration.
I hope this is not a premonition of another unpleaseant trip to That Hospital (or any other, for that matter).
I got back on board him, and made him take me out for a ride round the side streets of the nearby housing estate, as I wasn't letting him off work, and managed to ride OK, but when I got off to unlock the gate back into our field and lead him down the track back to his stable, I couldhardly walk.
Eeek, eeek, eeek.
And I've entered for the dressage class at te riding school's August Bank HOliday fun horse show - that's going to be fun!
Ironically, we'd gone tp practice our dressage .......
In our part of all-up-and-down Essex (yup, really!!) there's an area that has been levelled off at the top of the housing estate - I think to make a large enough flat piece of grass to make a footie pitch - on two sides it is banked up at the edges where the ground has been cut out, and a third side is itself banked up, where the bits cut out opposite have built the ground higher (the forth side is the sides of the neighbouring hosues).
I only discovered this recently, having ridden past a few times, but not realised how nicely flat it is, till one of the other riders said they went to practice there when all th efootball playing kids had gone home for dinner.
ANyone, we slid down the shallowest part of the banks, and were getting on quite well practiseing our nice trot circles and serpentines, then we had a bit of a canter round one way, then practised some trot on, change to walk for a few strides then trot again (part of the dressage for Monday), then I thought we'd have a canter round the other way -
.... except by then Duke thought he'd done enough work, took off, galloped straight up the steep part of the bank towwards the road round the estate, right under a couple of trees with low branches, one of which knocked my helmet down across my eyes, charged straight across the road, mercifully missing any cars, onto the far pavement and jumped up onto the banked up bit of grass on the far side, where another piece of very slopinggrass leads up to the main road and back towards our field on the far side.
By this stage I'd completely lost my balance and hit the grass (fortunately not the road) with a loud thud.
I feared he'd be half way home by the time I got up, ut he was only a few steps away munching the grass and made no effort to go any further till h'd eaten it all.....
SO all in all he is not in my best books at the moment....... this is qut apart from his attempts to wash my nice clean shirt or to avoid being groomed!
One thing at least: now he's had new shoes put on, he is certainly more "forward going" again!
Good thing I bought a new pack of ibuprofen recently.
The other bad news is that by the time I got back to the field. put him back in his stable and put his saddle, etc, away, the view out of this new lens was looking decidedly misty again.....
Rosemary

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Re: Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

Postby rosemary johnson » Tue 26 Aug 2008 12:28 am

Feeling much better tonight.
Pretty chuffed, actually. ALbeit knackered, dishelvelled and sweat-soaked.
Been at the roding school Bank Hol HOrse Show. AN dhave two pretty yellow rosettes!
The gold and cream one was for coming third in the Adult riders part of the Introductory dressage competition.
Well, strictly 5th, but the same person got the scores for 2nd, 3rf and 4th, and as she works there and rides the horses as part of her job, she wasn't allowed more than one rosette and they gave me third! ANyway, we came top of the ordinary clinets hiring a riding school horse.
I was riding Crystal, a large, heavy, sturdy brown and white mare. She feels a bit like riding a tank, and is expert at ignoring all a riders' urgings to exert herself, put her best hoof forward, hurry up a bit, or even to budge at all! ANd when she does deign to get a move on, she tends to lean on her bit and rely on the strength of her rider's arms to hold her together, so she doesn't overbalance and stumble and pitch forward on her nose. SO it takes quite a bit of strength and exertion to get her going forward with energy and enthusiasm - and then even more to hold her together. I was panting by the time we were half way through our routine!
I think Crystal could have done a bit better.
I think I might have done a bit better on her in different circumstances.
In fact, as we won the equivalent event two years ago, maybe we already did!
ut in the circumstances, I'm pretty pleased with it as an effort.
Being first time back riding dressage after the awful op, and what with still feeling all the jelly-muscles and exhausted easily after-effects of the steroids. Not to mention having been in A&E two days in the last week, and hobbling around dosed up on paoinkillers after falling off Duke.
So not bad - and next time we can do even better.
The little yellow rosette was for coming 9th (!) in a Handy Pony class - a sort of fun obstacle course to unwind at the end of the day.
And I didn't feel dizzy or seasick, let alone fall off, nor forget which bit of the routine came next.
Rosemary

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Re: Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

Postby Andrew MacLean » Tue 26 Aug 2008 6:12 am

All the way down to the foot I was thinking "yellow=gold"!

Well done, yellow=yellow is still an achievement for horse and rider!

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Re: Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

Postby rosemary johnson » Fri 03 Oct 2008 11:29 pm

I don't believe this!!!!!
Totally stunned, shocked not to mention gobsmacked.
I am sitting here beside a beautiful red-and-maroon two-tier rosette for winning Class 2 - "Prelim 1" - a tthe riding school's dressage event this evening!
On board Crystal, the brown-and-white mare withthe crystal -blue eyes - we won the little yellow rosette in the "Introductory" class at the August Bank Hol horse show.
This one was more difficult - a slightly more straightforward routine maybe, but this time we had to canter in the arena.
I thought we'd done really, really badly and were nailed-on hot favourties to come last.
Couldn't believe it when I saw the scores on the whiteboard outsid ethe judge's box!!!!!!!
Long, long time since I'd tried to get Crystal to canter in an arena...... out for a ride on Wanstead Flats is another matter (another horse creates a diversion; Crystal sets off at top speed straight across all the football pitches inthe direction of home and her haynet.)
Got her to canter eventually in the warm=up arena...... by dint of grabing hold of a large hunk of mane (she has plnety) with one hand and giving her a big crack of my whip with the other. Big buck and off she goes....... in the arena, not so successful.....
ANyway, here I am, one big red rosette. Incredible!!!!!!!!
SOmeone else had already bagged Crystal for the first class - the same Introductory routine as Aug Bank Hol - so i had a go on another horse; Chester, who is new to the school and I only rode him for the first time at a practice session on Tuesday.
Best thing to be said about that is, we will improve on that next time! - by which time he will have had more chance to learn Who Is The Boss In This Partnership, Matey.
Oh well. Good to try on different horses.
Still can't believe this red rosette.......
Rosemary

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Re: Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

Postby Andrew MacLean » Sat 04 Oct 2008 12:01 pm

Well done Rosemary! Horse and rider in perfect harmony (even when the particular horse and rider are not normally paired)

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Re: Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

Postby rosemary johnson » Sat 04 Oct 2008 7:34 pm

Dunno about perfect harmony.......
But at least I didn't fall off!
And in both cases we got to the end of the routine where you have to trot up the centre line of the arena, halt and bow to the judge in one piece and more or less going the same way at the same time.
Next time, we'll do better. Mind, so may some of the others, so we may not win again, but would be good for the morale to feel we're improving.
BTW, anyone who's interested, this is Aldersbrook Riding School in London E12 -
I think it's www.aldersbrookriding.co.uk but the famous KC supporting search engine I'm sure will find it. There's a picture of Crystal looking over her stable door with her crystal-blue eyes. DOn't know if Chester is there yet, as he's only newly arrived.
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Re: Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

Postby rosemary johnson » Thu 27 Nov 2008 8:36 pm

Horses! Dontcha just love 'em??!! Always a laugh a minute.
Duke has been off work with infected hooves for several weeks - stuck in his stable because the field is so muddy and we're trying to keep the infected its dry.
His owner now reckons he is improving, ans has got him some rubber boots so I could put those on, lead him up from his stable to the front gate and then ride him - sans boots - so long as we stuck to the roads and didn't go across the fields and get mud inthe hooves again.
This wonderful plan came to a rapid end with Muggins Here lying on some wet muddy grass in the bit of park between the main road and the housing estate......
..... propped up on one elbow, gasping hard for breath, watching Duke galloping away up the park in the direction of home......
....... with my asthma inhaler in his saddlebag....
Duh!
Caught up with him eventually, standing outside the gate to our field, busily eating the brambles in the hedge at the side of the gate.
He's none the worse; I think I'm going to be very stiff and sore in the morning.
Just hoping I'm not going to end up in A&E wondering if I have broken ribs.
Mind, not much to be done about broken ribs, so maybe not worth bothering, anyway.
Oh well, pass the whisky. Best painkiller around.
Some really really bad news earlier inthe week.....
a few messages back up this thread, I wrote about winning a big red rosette in the alst dressage club competition, riding Crystal, the big brown-and-white mare with the crystal-blue eyes.
Went round to have a practice for the next event.
Poor Crystal had to be put down on Monday.
SHe'd got a really bad colic, and a twisted gut. She wasn't improving, so she'd been taken round tot he vets for an operation to remove the knotted-up bits of intestine. And still wasn't getting any better.
Hadn't had a day off work sick in her life. And then this.
SOunds horribly like my dad - who died of roughly the same thing....
Poor Crystal - she will be very much missed.
Rosemary

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Re: Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

Postby rosemary johnson » Fri 16 Jan 2009 9:55 pm

More bad news today.
The vet came round to look at Duke's feet.
Well, it's good news he came, and gave an expert opinion - I'd been worried for a while in case this was more serious than it seemed.
Due is going to have to be booked in, taken round to the vets' place and spend some time there, while his feet are cut back drastically, the extent of the infection inside his feet is assessed, and he'll need two sorts of stronger antibiotics and special shoes with plates over the holes left....
It sounds like a case of getting rid of every bit of infection or it will only start up again - like trying to eradicate Japanese knotweek (or even bindweed).
How long this will take, we don't know - and the cost ..... his owner (from whom I rent my part share) will be very busy contacting the insurance comapny on Monday.
ANy good thoughts, best wishes, etc welcome.
Meanwhile, if anyone has any second hand heavy-duty rubber matting they'd like to "freecycle", hire out for a while, or even sell, we'd love to hear it. Similary, any second hand paving stone, patio slabs, crazy paving, etc etc - to put over the mud in our field - we'd love to hear from you.
Or an ideas where to get it from at a price we can afford.
We're on north-east London/SW Essex borders - cllection possible from reasonable distance.
HOpe I'm not going to get chucked off for putting "WANTED" ads..... but we're sinking in the mud in our field.
Rosemary

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Re: Four-footed friends (15 hands and otherwise)

Postby rosemary johnson » Sat 14 Feb 2009 9:33 pm

WE'VE MOVED!!!!
I'm far too exhausted to say much more than that today.
DUke nad his equine companions have now been relocated out of the quagmire of a field, to a stable yard with proper brick uilt stables, with electric lights and concrete floors.
Duke moved over Friday, was installed into his new stable, fretted madly until one of his friends moved in next door, had lots of nice new clean wood shavings bedding, so much better for his infected hooves than the earth floor of his old stable that flooded and the bedding turned to mush in recent weather.
And this morning his ed was all soggy because he'd knocked his drinking water barrel over all over it during the night! Only Duke....!
We have been moving luggage over for a while now, and today the rest of the ponies, two goats and more luggage came over. More luggage, etc etc and the chickens to come tomorrow.
Lots of work getting everything set up as we want it.
I'm knackered..... and the job I seem to have been doing most is putting kettle on to make yet more tea and coffee for the others doing all the ahrd work, and washing up the mugs.
Dunno what the hospital would say if they could see me wading round half way (at least) up weelies in all that mud, lugging all that kit to the gate and onto horseboxes to take to new place, not to mention shoving recalcitrant SHetland pony up ramp onto horsebox bodily! And all with splashes of mud all over my face...
..... probably tell me to sit down and measure my IOP immediately!
Oh well.
Off to bed - morestuff, and the chickens, to move over tomorrow. And lots to do at new place.
Rosemary


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