Sunday 8 November 2009

Tired and emotional

Not sure exactly what was up their noses yesterday, but both boys were hard work! I went out on a hack on one of our landlady's ponies, a black Sec D mare who is a fluffy quad bike, and was accompanied by a friend on Fin. I knew Quadi had been left in on his own whilst Kate had been schooling Fin in the evening, so gave him plenty of hay and assumed he'd be fine. When we came back I found him sweating, the stable floor covered in trampled droppings and he'd even managed to stand on his tail and pull some hair out :( I assume he'd been jigging around, I felt awful. He's been so good about being in normally. He has had previous separation anxiety issues and I'm worried they're coming to the fore. Assumption is the mother of all f*** ups, perhaps I should have brought in a friend for him or left him out? We'll have to work on this over the coming weeks.

Then whilst I did some physio work with Quadi in the school Fin proceeded to poop all over his stable and trample it in!

The physio session didn't start well because, once I'd let Quadi loose to have a roll in the school, he proceeded to charge up and down the long side fixated on his field. I grabbed him and did some work on the ground, trying to snap him out of his head-in-the-air-every-muscle-tense-where-is-my-friend state he was in. I'm not sure if it's a Monty Roberts exercise, or even a dog handling one, I can't remember. But it's simply changing direction without warning and, if necessary, insisting that he follow me. The aim being that he should follow me without tension in the leadrope and follow me as soon as I change direction. Of course he was very up at first but I had my dope-on-a-rope back after about ten minutes. I did wonder what the neighbours would have thought to see me making snap changes of random direction all over the school! He was a good boy after that, although he caught me out by having a roll when we were in the middle of pole work.

Today was a little calmer. I was labouring under a bit of a hangover after getting 'tired and emotional' last night, so began by moving their electric fencing to give them some more grass. Then Kate did some jumpies practice with Mr Fin, he was tackling his first ever bounce fence and he did so with his usual aplomb. I borrowed some Pole Pods to raise the ends of Quadi's ground poles which I've taken to scattering at random angles and distances. He knocked them quite a bit. However, I was pleased with him because he was, in the main, concentrating and he was touching them with his nose as he knocked them over. I hope that's because he was 'feeling' where they were and not because he's losing his blinking eyesight as well!

He caught me out again by rolling when I thought he was just mooching along behind me as we turned in on his poles. Will have to concentrate more, rolls are either for itchy ponies before work or as a rewards afterwards, not during!

The crack in his hoof appears to be growing right out. I need to do a hoof-specific blog post though, too much to type about!

I'm going to have to make an appointment with the doctor this week as I've been having dizzy spells. I fainted in Fin's stable last weekend, and on Saturday I felt the same again. Even felt like I was having an attack of vertigo in the evening. I don't want to go to the doctor but it would be foolish not to get checked out.

But I'm pleased I rode this weekend and I saw Quadi trot over the field this afternoon and he didn't look a bit lame. Plenty to smile about :)

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