Monday, 1 August 2011

herds, healing, hands and hooves!

Saturday I was back to work as usual but the first task of the day was moving the horses. fortunately i have healed well and was just getting twinges in my back but my left arm was still a bit weaker than usual.

Paris has been living in a forest pasture with Kaluwa but that was only ever meant to be temporary until Paris was intergrated into a herd. As Sanne and Anna have all only recently arrived with their horses, all the student horses are not yet settled into a steady herd.

So Saturday morning I went with Anna to fetch Paris and Kaluwa and we lead them both to Dino's Place. Sanne was there waiting with her mare, Tasha, who had been staying at Dino's Place (Dino works for Marie-Claire and lives in a house on the Plessis. the barn and paddocks near his house are known as Dino's Place) with Joke's horse Rox. Tasha and Rox had formed a strong attachment and would get upset whenever they were seperated so we did not want to leave one alone at all. Sanne took Tasha to the feild next to Marie-Claire's old brood mares to spend a few days with Killiwatch (MC's old school pony) whilst the herd got to know her. Rox immediately started pacing the fence and completely ignored Paris after their initial sniff. Anna took Kaluwa up to his pasture which is next to Paris' and Rox's field (Anna built the fence on Friday and i helped a bit). Paris simply started following Rox around so I started to open the gates of the corridor so that Paris and Rox could go into the field next to Kaluwa. Rox began running around and was too right braing to notice the new path to i haltered him and lead him up the path and then i took his halter off and drove him into the field. Paris followed.

once we had decided that they were getting along we got on with our work. Sanne was worried because Killiwatch was just standing at one end of the field near his freinds and Tasha was running up and down the other end of the field trying to work out how to get back to Rox. she did some online work to help Tasha find comfort in the shade near Killi but Tasha was pretty right brained for the whole day.

we had another Game of Contact lesson in the afternoon. this time I put a polypad, theraflex and bareback pad on Paris so that I could sit on Paris and start teaching stage one - reins mean go! it was a difficult excercise as my hands are conditioned to close slowly open quickly and release when he gives not when he takes! at the end of the session i felt that he had thought forward and moved a step forward from the pressure of the bit so i leapt off and gave him lots of carrots. before the riding session we had done lots of rein and contact simulations as well as seat building exercises.

I was about to help Anna clear the poop from the forest paddock our horses had been in when Thomas said Gabi was available to do Paris' hooves. We discussed his feet which were a little long in the horn causing them to flare and a little thin in the sole predisposing him to sensitivity. they did say he had good frogs though! his hoof balance wasn't bad, mainly his breakover needed to come back a bit. we brought the hoof wall down with a mustang roll and decided to use hoof boots whilst his sole adjusted to deal with the new workload. I put the boots on him and took him back to the paddock and then went and helped Anna do some poop picking for a little while.

On Sunday tension was high. Anna was preparing to leave for three weeks to work for her freinds in payment for her horse, Kalhua. Also two new girls arrived, Jarra and a name i keep forgetting. They are from Holland and speak basically only Dutch but understand a little English. We also had our final test of the new Kakka machine which was an interesting experience. basically we had to drive arround with a giant vaccum cleaner and suck up as much poop as possible!

Marie-Claire went away to have surgery and we worked on game of contact and finesse posture excersises using barrels. i was pleased that my posture is much better than it once would have been and that i really do have some core muscles however burried they may be!! we then got our horses and played with the game of contact again. Paris was not reponding and i was reminded to get the impulsion back at freestyle and then ask again - suddenly Paris had energy and he found it easy to offer "go" to the pressure of the bit. end of session!!

Today I learned how to grind linseed for the horse feeds and did the feeding tour. i was then paired with one of the dutch girls to make a team lunch. i used most of the remaining vegetables and cooked them mediteranean style and then cooked some chicken in chopped tomatos and some rice.

after lunch I visited Kalhua who was hot without shade and being plagued by flies. i used Joke's spare flymask to protect him and got Sanne who helped me hose him down all over to give him some repite from heat.

i then went on a youngster trail ride with Sanne - I rode Sirius again and took much more care to warm him up and get more respect and impulsion from him. i then mounted him and tested out his gaits and steering as well as lateral flexion, direct and indirect reins. I am happy to report that we had an uneventful ride, we walked trotted and cantered with not one buck. i did feel Sirius go a bit fast at some points but i realised that tension was creeping into my body so i worked really hard on relaxing! Sirius is so advanced and so sensitive that he responds more to the cues you don't know you are giving. it was really interesting for me to find more buttons and really work on maintaining focus and relaxation simultaneously!

Sanne then played with Zippy, Marie-Claires old quarterhorse gelding who has a lot of health issues. he lives in a small paddock with a shetland pony called Nac. i took Nac out for a play and he was rolling like mad and galloping about bucking. at one point he galloped so fast he pulled the rope clean out of my hand! i played a touch of liberty with Nac before having a fruit salad and fetching Paris for a trip to the Playground. Joke arrived and brought Rox to graze and we had fun playing on 45 ft lines jumping logs and banks.


As I cycled home I saw bats flying through the trees. it has been so hot here and there are loads of these gentle but very fast, sweet, little lizzards. everytime i see them it reminds me of my first family holiday to Greece.

i can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!

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