Contains a little rant.

Grace is improving, as always. We have almost solved the halter problem, by spending quite a lot of time with her when we turn her back out in her yard, holding the halter on her until she lowers her head, and repeating the exercise if she flips her nose up when the halter slides over the end of her nose. She is getting better with her food too, being less aggressive and standing patiently until you walk away from her bucket. Not 100%, but better, safer.

We have had a couple of sit-ons on Grace now, as it is really hard not to. She is really very quiet and takes it in her stride. I had a 3 minute walk around the yard on her, and I will leave it at that for now. We will revisit when the winter is over. She is still too immature and I am afraid that we will get carried away because she is so willing to please that we will do too much for her (fairly) immature body. I have been getting comments from fellow agisters telling me that I should be breaking her in now, to help with her attitude problem, and that I am leaving it too long. Humph. We can work on her 'attitude' from the ground, thankyouverymuch, and even my very-un-horsey fiance can tell that she is still immature in the body. One of the agisters there told me about a little filly she broke in, then took on a 20km endurance type ride when the horse was only rising 2!!!!! Holy-broken-down-6-year-old batman! I'm sorry, but we intend on keeping this horse, and to wait 6 months to a year at this end of her working life will add on years to her working life at the other end. And you know what? She doesn't have an attitude problem around me. Funny that, huh? She is spunky and cheeky and I do have to watch what I am doing around her, but she is a freaking rising 3 year old!! That was totally unhandled and wild last september!! I don't think people realise that I have done this before. Harmph again.

We need to work on mouthing her a bit more, as she is reluctant to move forward. The recent rain doesn't help either, as there is almost no undercover places to work with her.

Grace was unrugged, but fed extra hay over the last wet week, but managed to catch a mild cold anyway. She is now rugged at night when it rains. She just fits into the 5'3'' lightly lined canvas we bought for her. Length ways it fits fine, just her chest is a little wide. The chest strap needs to be on the biggest hole, but it won't rub. She is looking more and more like a horse every day. She has a wither now!

I got hoof boots for Beckham for my birthday! I love love love them. I got a pair of Easyboot Edges from the Easycare Downunder website. I have only ridden in them twice (due to being rained out, and no daylight savings) but they were great for the short ride I did take them on, out on the road (he was forward over gravel!) and through the muddy dam, and a couple of big canters through the back paddock. He found them a little clunky at first, but it took almost no time to get him used to the feel and thinking about his feet. I cannot wait to ride in them again! They are super easy to put on, and I got a pair of comfort pads to go in them to simulate ground pressure. The pads actually molded to the shape of his sole, which is pretty cool. I can't believe I waited this long to get a pair of boots. :D

Pics? Ok.

I know that these are small pics, but do you agree that she is still too immature? She is 14.2hh. I look freaking huge.

New Addition

I forgot to mention the new addition to the money sucking clan. A little Domestic long hair kitty called Alice, this is the first* one we have PAID for, as in, she wasn’t rescued (well sort of, since there are so many cats these days most of the healthy ones get put down anyway).

She is a crazy, SOOKY, fluffy, bouncy, lazyyyyyyy, underwear eating (yes you read right, she eats our undies! Even when they are clean! Its disgusting!) monster. But she is so cute! She loves sleeping in the bed under the covers and doesn’t want to get up in the morning, so she just sort of stays in bed and watched me get ready for work :p.

I will put a picture up over the weekend of her.

*Actually the second. We paid for Leah, my kitten before this one but she passed away L. Very sad indeed. RIP Little Leah, I still miss you!

It has been a while since the last update. I really shouldn't let the whole blogging thing slip from my hands because I just dig myself into a deep whole that takes a whole lot of typing and updating to get out of. So here goes!

Goodbye warm days!

Since the last blog day light savings has finished (=[) and the freezing cold weather has crept up on us.

This will be Gracie's first winter out from the sticks, so I am assuming it's going to be a little more comfortable for her then what she is used to up at Putty. That's not to say it's not going to be freezing cold! I intend on getting her some kind of synthetic or unlined canvas rug before winter actually starts (she is usually quite warm as it is so I don’t really want to put too much on her, and only for the nights, she can go nakey during the day),the only problem is that we don’t know how much more she is gong to grow, I don’t exactly want to spend too much on a rug and have her grow out of it, although I doubt she will get any longer, so I suppose I could take the chance.

We have been pumping the both of them full of feed and lots of hay, which is working in our favour so far since they both look really good. Grace holds her weight quite well, and she eats all the grass hay (unlike someone who just nibbles a bit then decides its fun to stomp on it and use it as a horsey litter/comfy bed! Weeeeeee*). Becks holds his weight fairly well too (after a few years of Lisa spending mounds of money experimenting on what does and doesn’t work for him) and with the feed he is on now he should hold up quite well during winter, he is a spoiled sooky big old thoroughbred so he gets rugged with one of his 50,000 rugs of a night and usually naked during the day.

Progress

With much frustration and annoyance with baby horses (on my part) we have taught Grace to lunge almost perfectly on her left side and we are getting there with the right side. She doesn’t quite understand what we want from her, then she gets annoyed because it's taking too long and starts being a brat (she gets bored very easy with things so we have to keep it interesting). She has a problem with turning in on her right side when she reaches a certain corner, no matter how much you get up behind her she still tries to turn in and run the other way. I am thinking that maybe she has difficulty on her right side because of her old injury on her back right leg making her a little uncomfortable. That being said, she will sometimes go perfectly on that side and not turn in once, and then other times it is nearly impossible to get her going without turning in (Lisa likes it when a horse turns in, I have grown upon HATING it since having a filly :), and the worst part is that she acts completely oblivious like its the first time we are lunging her and she is like "well what are you asking? I have no idea what you mean, just let me run the other way" and then the next time she goes perfect. Gah! Babies! So we are working on that every now and then, being careful not to do too much and ruin her little legs, just walk and trot for now.

Grace observes and listens really well when it comes to anything people are doing, I like this, I like that she is inquisitive and has an interest in people and what we are all about. She knows what "back back back back" means and also the clicking of the tongue thing gets her listening and she doesn’t seem to have trouble understanding that it's directed at her (I think this is going to be really helpful once we finally start riding her). She understands that when she is being a shit, she will be put out of her comfort zone until she understands what we want from her (we usually back her far away from where she was being a shit then start again and she generally understands this.

Pet Peeves

One thing that is just a really really really annoying pain in the neck thing is that Grace has issues with feedings time, or anything to do with feed. She turns into a completely different horse and tries to bully people into just chucking her feed in the yard and running for dear life out of there so she gets to eat in peace. Its really quite bad, she has pulled the wool over some people who feed up at the properties eyes, and I am pretty sure Lisa and myself are the only ones who go in and make her stay away from her bucket until we are ready for her to eat, then she gets to be scratched and hugged and smothered ;).

The attack of the clicking fences! Oh no! They will eat me! I can't possibly walk past them without bowling someone over or running for dear life!.....No, she isn’t QUITE that bad anymore, but she does have issues with walking past a clicking electric fence. She either rushes past the fence or plants her feet on the ground and refuses to budge (the Grace technique, other horses should try it, it really works! When you have one person that is, that cant direct you in front AND push you on from behind at the same time). I think this is just one of those things that she needs to deal with herself, its good in a way that she wont go near it in her yard, but a pain in the neck in other ways when we cant walk her up the isle past other yards that are clicking, when that's the only way to get her out. It's a 2 man job.

The Halter issue. Grace has no problems at ALL when putting on a halter, in fact she loves it! She would shove her nose in there and attempt the straps herself (if she could), but when it comes to taking the halter off it's a different story. She will get quite arrogant and try to hurry you when you undo the straps to the halter, she stands still until she feels a bit of leverage from the side (when we have JUST unclipped it) and then she throw her head in an attempt to rush you into letting her go so she can get her feed. She is getting better with this though, we don’t allow her to do it what so ever, we usually put the strap right back up when she even moves her head slightly and start all over again. Sometimes it takes 15 tries until she lets us take it off without her throwing her head, sometimes 2 goes. In the end I think this is another thing that needs work.

With all that being said, I think most of my pet peeves of Grace are based on that fact that she is young, a little silly, a little cocky and a little moody. It can all be fixed with time and dedication.

So that is it for now, I will surely update when I remember something that I have forgotten ( I know there is a lot missing), and I will update with some pictures over the weekend.

Ciao!!

My Favourite (most discreet) things about Grace!

We have had our ups and downs with Grace the past week or so. She had Spasmodic Colic last Monday night and throughout the rest of the week she was not really herself.

We came out sat morning to find her laying down again in her yard and then rolling. So of course we sort of panicked a bit. She seemed fine, she was eating and drinking, she had a little bit of hyperactive gut sounds but not too bad, she ended up being fine. We let her into the grass arena with Beckam to graze for a while and she ran around like an idiot for a while stirring up the other horses (as she does). She settled down after a while and we watched her for about half an hour and realised shes in season.... joy ;). She was doing the whole look at me thing to Beckam and he really didn't give her anything to work with, which was frustrating her I think, it was interesting to watch the way she acts when shes in season.

So I though since I haven't put any pics up in a while that I would post some detailed pics on my favorite (not so noticeable) things about my pony :).

First and foremost, my absolute favorite thing is her quirkiness. This isn't so discreet as she LOVES people and has obvious strange habits thats she likes to make extremely evident (a la' picking up sticks and making random piles in her yard- "this one goes in this pile cause its short, this one goes in this pile cause its long!" - no, she isn't quite THAT smart). Grace has an unconditional love for people and finds comfort in their presence, this doesn't mean to say she wont kick you in the head though!

> "oh hi mum! watcha got in your hand there?"








Her fluffy ears! Well I know it is coming into winter (grrrr winter coat, grrrr!) but I can put up with the winter coat if it comes equip with hairy fluffy big ears!


>Don't you just want to sing into them? Cause I know how much she would LOVE that ;)







Her eye (this is the bad one too! - it is almost all healed up, you cant see the white spot in the photo - just don't stare too long, it will eat away at your soul!). She has the sweetest eye, it fits perfectly with her "i love you!" attitude towards people (unless theres food around, or souls too I suppose, eh eh eh ;)).







Her NOSE! Oh so scrumptious and soft and squishy! she has the cutest muzzle, don't you just want to kiss it? Go on, she will let you, she'll even kiss you back!

>nom nom nom!








Her random dark spot! Time will only tell what lies beneath. We will see once she is completly grey I spose. Without the dark sport, Gracie wouldnt be Gracie ;)


> notice the winter coat starting? No!!!








Now this is something I DONT like. Evertime shes inthe grass arena, she comes back covered in thick, sticky spidey webs.. God only knows what kind of ironman spiders make those indestrucable things but I can never seem to get them off her, and if I succed in doing that, I spend the next half hour trying to get them off myself! I hate those sticky spidey webs, HATE THEM!

>oooohhh I hate those flies too!!





Alas! I am done, but you are not! here are some photos form the weekend.
Ciao!

The weather has been horribly unpredictable lately. We went from a 4 day heat wave, to torrential rain and freezing temps for about a week after. Now I'm not quite sure how to explain today's weather but apparently its supposed to clear up and reach 31 degrees, somehow I don’t think that is going to happen given the look of the sky :.

Anyhow, since the weather has been so confusing, it's been hard to really do anything practical with the horses. We were supposed to go on a ride at Kurnell beach last Saturday but Becks had to have the Chiropractor out because he has been super sore all over lately, but that's a story for Lisa to tell, it ended up storming severely for about half an hour that afternoon anyway.

Grace has grown a lump on her left mandible, we started to get quite worried about it so we had the dentists next door have a look at it (as her baby teeth have started to fall out) and we were told it was not to do with her teeth and to get a vet out to X-ray her head as it could be an ulcer or a fracture. $300 later, I have just been informed by the vet that it IS in fact her teeth and it will go away with time as her baby teeth fall out. I asked the vet if I should get the dentist out to pull the teeth that are stoping the adult ones growing through but he insisted it wouldn’t be necessary! So there you go, $300 down the drain, sort of, although we do get to keep the X-rays which will be pretty interesting!

There is a lady at the property where we keep Becks and Grace that kind of looks at us like we are idiots for not breaking Grace in already, because apparently we should break her and then spell her for a year. Kapish to her, you can tell just by looking at Grace that she is not ready to have someone on her back, she is too gangly and still a bit bum high.

Unfortunately I don’t have any recent photos of the horses, but will post some up within the next week or so. Like I said the weather has been horrible so it's hard to do much when you combine one crippled sore horse, an unbroken horse, slushy muddy ground and sheets and sheets of rain.

We have come to the realisation that a free animal will almost ALWAYS cost you more then one you have paid for (well for us anyway). We have a new kitten to add to the addition, her name is Leah, we paid for her, so no vet bills as of yet (fingers crossed).

Nat

February already!

The ponies have been good. I had some time off work last week, so was able to ride a bit and do some stuff with Gracie. She still is not 100% better from her New Years Eve escape, but she is almost there. Just some pretty hefty scabs on her leg and her eye has a small white cloudy spot that will go away with time.

We have had a saddle and bridle on her now, before the NYE escape. Didn't girth her up tight, just enough to keep the saddle from slipping. She took it in her stride, she wasn't worried about it at all. Very proud.

Beckham had pulled the wool over my eyes a little bit in the schooling department, going around pretty heavy on the forehand and not trying at all. Linda (another agister) watched me riding him and offered to help. She got on him and pretty much kicked his bum into gear. He's a different horse now. (Pictures below!)

While I was off, we went on two big trotting rides, out the back with Linda and her horse Houdini. Poor Becks had a bit of a hard time trying to figure out that if he didn't try to pull himself along with his front end and actually use his hind legs, that it was much easier for him to keep up with the massive easy floating trot of Houdini. I have 2 off-property rides coming up that I would like him to be fit enough for him to actually enjoy - one ride to Kurnell beach and a 20km social ride up at Colo.

Piccies? Ok.

Gracie's leg (about 1 and a half weeks ago)

And Gracie's feet:

Just hanging out, enjoying daylight savings and the good weather:

Linda sorting Beckham out for me:

And then (half) one good shot of me riding him after that:

Grace under saddle:



Aaaaand it's bed time.


Lese.

Back!

Ok so a lot has happened since we have not had the internet. Good and bad.
Grace is 100% comfortable around us now, this includes picking her feet, hosing her, leading her and we even attempted to get her onto a float.

We have managed to get Beckam completely comfortable with floats and travelling. He used to be quite good with getting on floats but hit his head on the roof once while backing out and ever since then he has gone down hill. Our good friend Linda (Lisa's saviour) managed to get him on and off the float to the point where we don’t need to walk on with him, just tap him on the bum and tug his tail lightly when we want him to back off. She used the old trick of making outside the float as uncomfortable as possible, so every time he backed off she would make him back up continuously not able to move forward until she asked him, then when he walked onto the float calmly she would leave him alone and give him some TLC. So that problem is solved and leaving 2 to 3 hours prep time before we take the horses on a float will not be necessary anymore.
We attempted getting grace on the float, just to see how she would react, since we haven't done anything all that interesting for her lately. It was as successful as it could have been for one day. She ended up having her whole front end inside the float, remaining calm; of course, she continues to surprise us with everything new we try on her. We decided not to push it since she was being so good with eh float that we let her rest for the rest of the day.

Grace had her first experience with a saddle on her back that same day! Lisa and I decided to see how she would go, and she went really well!! We free longed her around the longeyard for about 10 mins. She did not buck, or rear or chuck a skits or anything! Like I said, she takes everything we throw at her in her stride, literally ;).

With all the good things that have been going on, or were going on I should say, it was all put to a holt thanks to the neighbours who started fireworks on New Years. Grace has NEVER seen fireworks in her life, but stupid me didn’t consider this at all. We get out to the paddock on new years day to find that Grace is MISSING! All her fences were down in her yard. Everyone started looking for her and eventually Linda found her over the back of the paddock, covered in blood on her face and two front legs. She was ok, no major damage, thankfully it was electric fencing and note wire, then we would have had some serious issues.

So the only major issue with that was that she had a corneal ulcer on her left eye. It looked quite severe at first but has now made an almost full recovery. Thank god!! No one wants a blind horse, especially not a blind 3 year old.

Her legs are fine, no damage to the tendons and they will end up with minor scarring. Which isn’t a big deal to us, she's not going to the Olympics or anything.

So that was a small update, I'm sure a lot more has happened that I just cant seem to remember as of yet. But will keep you posted from now on! And pictures for the next entry!!
Nat.