Posts Written By Chloë

In order to try and ‘correct’ Dustry’s thoroughbred conformation (thin neck, natural tendency to try and balance by hollowing his neck) I have to always keep in mind when working him ‘fat neck, bouncy neck’ when I look down, between my reins I need to be able to see a big fat bouncy muscle pumping in his neck, over time this will grow and grow until he has much more top line than at present. Today in my lesson after a week of working really hard in the dark evenings after work to get ‘fat neck, bouncy neck’ there was a marked…

There is nothing that makes me more excited than to return home to find a big cardboard box with the words ‘mountain horse’ written on it! Mountain Horse have been my faithful sponsors now since 2009 and as well as sending me bits and bobs throughout the year every winter they send me a big ‘winter survival kit’ a box stuffed FULL of MH goodies to keep me warm, dry, and super stylish all winter. This year with Soap having to be PTS, and Dustry being brought on carefully and slowly I have felt a little guilty, because due to circumstances I don’t feel…

After several years of needing to make the same saddle fit multiple horses with various risers, pads, and girthing solutions now that GHE is a one horse band I decided it was time to take the plunge and sell my faithful orange close contact saddle, and invest in a ‘new’ saddle for Dustry in a more….errrm….appropriate colour?… 😉 Saddle fitting can some times feel like some sort of mystical art form with so many different opinions on offer, and prices that seem to go from the sublime to the ridiculous! I did a little online research to read reviews on saddlers in my area…

Without help on the ground to move poles, and adjust fences, jumping a young horse on your own is tricky. Last weekend was Dustry’s 2nd jumping lesson and after a week of working very hard on his canter and flatwork I was really looking forward to it. We started off with the usual flatwork exercises and he got his canter strike off’s correct every time, which was very satisfying. Then we began to work through a little grid, which was built up after each time he managed to correctly jump through the previous set up This is how the grid…

Well after months and months of lessons and home work I finally decided it was time to face the music and take Dustry to his first competition to see how he reacted! Very local to me is a lovely venue called Cholderton Equestrian Centre and they run unaff’ and affiliated dressage and showjumping. I entered D for a walk and trot test twice (once HC) I thought maybe plaiting him up might excite him and remind him of his racing days but he didn’t bat an eyelid, he just munched on his hay net. Used to travelling regularly for his…

Over the last few weeks we have been working in our lessons on getting Dustry to reach down and stretch when he goes over trot poles. This is helping him to use his back and also become more active behind in order to make the distance, and clean foot falls between the poles. Dustry’s natural reaction when off balance or when something  breaks his concentration is to revert to his racing habits and invert his neck and hollow. Lots of round, stretchy pole work should help to eliminate this reaction when we start to jump, and produce a nice round bascule. In…

Yesterday Soap had to be taken to the Equine Hospital in Lambourne. He had pulled a shoe off in the field, just days after being shod on Monday and despite wearing his customary over reach boots. Somehow when he pulled the shoe off a nail from the shoe managed to pierce his tendon sheath and make a hole in the tendon, the dirty nail infected the tendon wound and the tendon sheath. The vet from the hospital phoned me and explained that she had bad news, she very clearly explained the injury, and that if I chose to try and…

Soap received his first treatment for what we are diagnosing as ‘Navicular’ caused by bony damage/arthritis on August 1st. I can’t afford to have an MRI scan done, so we are going by the evidence we can see from the x-rays which points to some bony changes on the outside of his near fore’s Navicular bone. He stood like a lamb for an hour whilst he was attached to a Tildren drip, and once the drip was finished he had a steroid and HA injection into the hoof joint. The full effect of this should be evident in 4 weeks, but already…

It suddenly dawned on me the other day as I was booting Dustry up to ride that the brushing boots I was using were about 4th generation hand me downs! After a bit more thought I realised that they were in fact the original Woof Wear boots that came with my very first pony over 20 years ago! Credit has to go to Woof Wear for making such robust and hard wearing boots, and I haven’t thrown them away because they are still in perfect condition so they have gone into the tack shed as spares. Taking advantage of their Facebook discount code…

Soap has now been enjoying his R&R for several weeks whilst wearing his fancy new shock absorber rubber pads. These pads will last about 2 years and are designed to help reduce concussion which should make him more comfortable. He is much happier on his affected near fore now, sound in walk, but still a little ‘footy’ in trot on the hard ground. Next week he is going to have his first treatment of Tildren into the off fore to help medicate the bony changes to the outside of that foot. I am hoping that once this starts to take affect he can begin to…