Back in Business....

Sorry ......I have been hugely naughty in not updating the blog, but in my defence I have been a bit preoccupied with life.

It's been an odd couple of months really, major family crisis, getting Ardiente, losing Merlin, Bally been off work with her sore back, then a growth spurt, then teething and then her popping a splint - there was also the sadness over Little Dee.....

As I'd been getting on so well with Dee and tbh fallen completely in love with her I decided to get my own vet Andre (the guy that saw me through poor Safi's nightmare from start to finish and that I trust implicitly when it comes to legs!) to give me a third and final opinion on her forelegs - after much walking and trotting up the road and a gold star for behaviour from Uncle Andre he gave me the devastating news that he wouldn't even want to pass Dee as a prospective light hack. In his opinion because of her extravagant movement and the carpal deviations from her knees and fetlocks she'd not stay sound (although she's completely sound and not shown a hint of lameness to date) and would certainly not be able to cope with the level of work I'd want to be doing.
He was hugely sympathetic as he remarked on what a fabulous natured and super little filly she was, but he said I really didn't need to potentially be putting myself through more worry after the nightmare of Saf.
Had a long chat with her owner Steph and we decided she could stay with me indefinitely on a livery basis and we'll just let her grow up slowly without pressure and see how she gets on. She's such a plucky little fighter I just can't help feeling sure she'll come right in the end

So what have we actually been up to......

Still done a bit of pootling about with Bally although cut right back over the last few weeks as she had a small splint come up (ARGH!!!!) I'm stuffing her full of comfrey and also rubbing comfrey oil on it directly, so hopefully it'll reduce itself down in time. She's not at all sore on it - in fact it seemed to come up overnight cold and hard and hasn't given her a hint of bother...me just paranoid about legs....

We've just moved the entire herd from the 20 acre up to the yard so that the farmer can do some maintenance...it was a bit like the travelling circus :-D
The oldies Polly & Cossack went first, then two of the yard staff took Bonita and an hour later Gi and I along with three yard girls took Bally, Dee and the lovely new 2 yr old gelding up the lane - it's 1.5 miles and the big country house we pass on the way had an open garden day so quite a few cars.

Bally and I led the way as she's been up and down the lane loads so we hoped we could rely on her being sensible (hahaha) followed by Dee with new boy bringing up the rear. There were a couple of moments of skittery baby OMG from Dee & NB as cars went past, so I took Dee instead of Bally and she settled down, after five minutes she was like an old pro not batting an eye at anything driving past
Once we'd got them onto the yard they were all happily reunited and hooned around their new, much smaller home for the time being.

Great thing about being on the yard is that I can use the 20 x 60 school onsite without a 3 mile round walk .. So Bally and I have been in there nearly every night.

First time she had the horrors even walking up there - new place, new noises, lots of reverting back to refusing to move. Got her in there eventually and just led her round, tried a bit of lunging which was ok...but as I'd managed to lose half of my lunge whip not great and then some very unsuccessful close in hand work (leapy jumpy tense spinning hoohah a plenty) So just eased off the pressure and walked around in hand doing basic shapes and halt walk halt transitions.

Second night was much better, still a bit hesitant coming up onto the yard, but went to the school and worked whilst another girl was cantering her pony around - B was super fine about that and didn't bother when she left (the great benefit of always working on her own)

Got some really good focussed lunge work out of her - 10 metre circles in walk and straight between the markers, good half halts, halts and transitions (with a couple of reminders about what halt means when she suddenly went deaf) Got some nice steps of big trot- after a couple of yeehaaaa whoopee responses to me asking lol
Finished off with ten minutes of long lining to check our steering which was terrible after so long, but she was soft to the contact, not yawing or pulling which was good and we had a nice play with changes of rein and circles and finished with that as she was really trying hard.

Next update to follow....