equine sports massage

I met Lucinda when I was at Trudi's in the summer, lovely lady, and the massage works a treat, so pleased to find she has a blog....it will be very interesting to follow it!  just a shame she's not up here...

having left the numnah on the line to dry

longlining was again the order of the day (different set of padding under roller).  

round the 20 acre again ,the same unusual route we rode last night, and this time in stead of leading her through the narrow bit and to the gate, i longlined the entire thing.

the only vaguely worrying bit was opening the gate, which had been closed again, molly followed me through and me with my heart in my mouth in case we had a tangle, as i hadn't had the opportunity to collect the reins up even more and/or go back and longline through it.

happily, fisherman coming the otherway offered to close it for me.

after that, no problems at all, and i got back before it got dark..

won't be able to do too much of this in the evening unless i knock 1/2 hour off at the end of the working n day.. really i could do that without problem at the moment, as i'm starting work when i get out of bed whilst partner gets ready for work...(being disciplined about working hours....)

vast improvement

despite the slipping saddle (twice) in that we went (eventually) roudn the 20 acre and a slighly different route to the usual...

first up, Molly more than happy to set off and go down the hill towards the 20 acre... half way down, i thought this feels odd, then realise saddle slipping to left to i gently got off before i fell off, put it back together and led her back up the hill (there being nowhere to get back on down there) and having opened the gate that would otherwise have blocked the route before i did so. I never know why people shut that gate, there's no livestock either side of it..

anyway, back up the hill, got back on and set off again

half way round the 20 acre there's a gap where a hedge used to be; through that, and we could hear hidden voices (hidden fishermen), which rather disconcerted molly .. but instead of wanting to go back, she was happy to turn left and walk parallel to the hedge, instead of the normal continuing along the riverbank (normaly one goes straight on and left at the far end of a square field, this time we turned left and then to go right, the other half ot he square) and ending up back at the normal gate back to the track.   I was singing to us along all of this ..


Approaching this gate from a different angle molly found most disconcerting, and wanted to nap back, and in trying to prevent that i realised the saddle was slipping again so had to get off.

so led her back along the track.

but i was non the less pleased after th eperformance of Monday, so maybe there is hope.


why did the saddle slip?


2 reasons:

1. i hadn't gone back to the pro choice girth
2. i'd rashly sprayed fly repellent under the numnah before putting it on molly. that possibly was a bit daft.  it's now in the wash!
   

so quite happy with that!
and a good thing about working from home, timed it so still done in daylight. 

rained....

all day, just about, with about 10 minutes of not raining and the occasional easing off.  not too bad when i went out, and i was surprised to find molly still warm, had been thinking i should have rugged.  so fed her and that was it, she was damp and would have taken forever to dry.... 

spitting feathers

that mare of mine!

decided to ride today, you never know the further longlining might have been sufficient to persuade her she can go  out on her own and remind her that she'd done so before.

not.

and then she started kangaroo hopping in the arena again and the saddle was slipping even though the girth seemed tight enough..

on the saddle front, think i need to go back to the pro choice girth

on the kangaroo hopping front, god knows, save that the arena's tiny

on the hacking out front.  i'm hacked off.

friend suggested that i get RI to take her out, and i think i'll go with that suggestion. 

busy day!

spent most of the day pulling up the rest of the potatoes that didn't get done a month ago!  it was a glorious day - went out wearing several layers and thick socks, ended up wearing my sun hat!  I knew it would be a long job (it's also an opportunity to pull out loads of stones/broken pottery/etc from that area of the garden) and by the time i got down to molly i really didn't have the energy to do anything much with her!

so i just loose schooled her round the arena, which happily has been rolled etc .. doesn't stop it being deep, but it's a huge improvement on where it had got to!  think she was the first horse in there since it was done last week.

the midges were still out in force as well, clouds of them...i'd have thought the overnight cold would have done for them by now, but no such luck!

good drying day

and that's about al that can be said for it!  the wind was already up when i got up this morning, and still hasn't let up.  bits of trees on roads and verges, NOT a day for doing anything with one's horse.  So i didn't.  but some washing got done, hung out and dried!

getting darker...

will this be the last week we can do anything after work?  i think i'll be ok for at least another week, given that i don't have the hour's drive anymore!  but the nights are closing in (although it seemed worse today as it was cloudy, had rained all morning...)

anyway, i longlined round the 20 acre and back along the track, was about the last one there and don't think anyone else had done anything

molly was very good, more than happy and didn't play up, just as well as my boot lace came undone half way round the field and she didn't want to stop and eat grass whilst i sorted it out!

forecast for howling gales tomorrow, shame as a hack had been planned with a friend...so hoping the forecast is wrong...

willow...

another first - molly walked under the willow with no argument whatsoever!  on the longlines.  very impressed.

now can anyone explain why she wouldn't even thinkg about going that way ridden last sunday?

anyway, only went as far as the ford, as didn't really have time to do much more, but at least we did that much!

hopefully will do a bit more tomorrow, and a hack, hopefully, in company, on the cards for saturday.

pitmen painters

went to see this play tonight - at the Theatre Royal, not the live theatre, but same play - about the Ashington Group.  excellent, hilarious, true  - we wonder quite how it works in other geographic areas where pitmatic is not the local dialect - entire audience howled with laughter throughout save in the serious bits) and they got 4 encores.

the only problem with the night - it was match night, so traffic was at a standstill going in and not much better getting out, but i think the theatre was out a different time to the match

anyway, i'm going to do my month end accounts now, much easier than doing them tomorrow!

oh - and molly? since she's the point of this blog?  i went down mid afternoon, hoping to time my visit with that of barefoot trimmer that new livery has, but that had been cancelled.  given we were going out, i didn't have time to do anything with her so just groomed, massaged, fed and turned out.

saffy....

is my friend Lynne's horse; on the way back from Edwinstowe, i called (by arrangement) for a horsey afternoon as her yard is on my way back - a good time was had by all (including saffy, who will offer spanish walk at the drop of a hat!).

molly was fed her tea whilst i was still on my way back, all sorted.

back to groundwork

well, i thought rope circling, largely because i'd had a bad day, not assisted by yet ANOTHER late lunch!  i get into what i'm doing and forget about lunch, very silly!  and then at 5 pm i'd started sending a very long fax (the email with attachments that i sent middle of last week having bounced back to me today!) and it was just as well i waited as it crashed half way through (overloaded document feeder, methinks!).  so time i got to the yard i wasn't in the fettle for a long walk, and decided on a small amount of rope circling. all good, save that now she's trotting round nicely right rein, but not left... guess she's still feeling that shoulder a touch even if she does look sound, so i'd best not do that again for a while...

when we got up this morning there was no water - turned out the entire village had no water!  didn't' come back on until mid morning, who knows what the problem was!  better not happen tomorrow, i have to put the suit on and go to nottingham to see new client! 

today

She refused to go anywhere save the arena.

back to the longlining, i think!  i wasn't overjoyed, as you can imagine ...

never mind, it'll come!

but i wish the midges would go!  one got me in such a place that i had to go buy two new bras without wire....which i've always disliked. 

treeless saddles and horses backs

occasionally one reads articles about treeless saddles being bad for a horses back .. 

i thought i'd say that Molly's back has improved a lot over the last while since i've been using a treeless saddle (mostly a fhoenix or vogue, after a short spell with a barefoot)

I did that as would never have got a treed to fit molly anyway and having read up on them decided to go that route.

I think if you buy one that isn't from a reputable manufacturer/name, isn't properly constructed (i've seen pics of some horrors with e.g. cardboard where the memory foam shoudl be!) and don't put a proper pad underneath whatever you use, then yes, you'll have problems.  in the same way that if you use a treed saddle that's too narrow/wide/unstuffed/other fault you'll have problems.

but i think a properly made treeless saddle, properly fitted to the right horse with the right pad/numnah, will not be bad for the horses back and in fact will be positively good.

there are some good before/after photos about of horses whose muscles have come back to their proper form/place/state after use of a treeless

and we've all seen awful atrophy at the wither of horses ridden in ill fitting saddles...

guess I'm a convinced convert?

i don't believe they do work for all horses, and i don't believe they suit all riders...

but they're not bad for the back!

and molly?  muscling up much better than she ever has, after some good work in a treeless saddle!  i'll never get rid of the congenital asymmetry, but no more hollows and is looking good!

breakthrough?

we went round the 20 acre on our own, with a fair amount of trot, and NO signs of backing off once we'd got through the gate at the bottom of the hill out of the yard that had been left shut (I never understand why that's shut, there's no livestock either side of it and the gate at the other end is never shut...go figure)

happily, a lass from blackdene was coming the other way and did the gate (and i met her on the way back as well, as we essentially both did a circle, one of us one way, the other, the other!)

and i dropped my stick there, so whilst molly was eating her tea after i walked back down to get it.

I was WELL impressed.  whoo hoo!

i reckon this is a function of 2 things

1.  no bute & cortiflex

2.  longlining 

2 dead mice

in my carrots - the carrots hadn't lasted 5 seconds anyway due to the heat, and needed binning, but 2 dead mice, looked as though they'd fallen asleep actually but hadn't.  

I lunged.  I think she's fine so will ride tomorrow!  hurray!  thinking i'll try round the 20 acre just, we'll see.

but I think we all need those old fashioned veils ladies used to wear - would keep the d*** midges off!

about 2 miles

is what we did tonight, i think, judging by how long it took us .. longlined out the yard, under the willow, along to the ford, over the bridge at the ford, turned right along track immediately past there, right along to the end, then turned round and came back.. was going to go through the gate, but there were cows immediately the other side of it so i allowed molly to turn round there.  She had previously shown a desire to turn round twice, but i'd kept her on the line i wanted... was a good night!

not much done tonight either...

because i went down to wait for the farrier; i went early (you never know) and he turned up late.  so that was 3 hours gone between us, and i had to come home and do some work that i hadn't done ....

but the good news is, i slept until the alarm went off this morning!

because i woke up at 04.30

for some reason (pain in my neck, tingling in my fingers, overheating badly) and then started working at 5 (nothing else to do when awake at that hour, and not wanting to wake partner) i was totally knackered by 5 pm .. no energy to do anything with molly, so didn't, just fed her and applied cream to another wound on her flank.  and didn't notice the skinned inside aspect of her off hind until after i'd turned her out again!  the mind boggles how that happened, but it is just skinned, no wound, no bleeding etc.  i'll have a closer look tomorrow.. but if i'd groomed her i probably wouldn't have noticed until i got kicked for touching it!

hopefully i'll get a good night tonight; i've changed my pillow, think partner had put the wrong one on last time sheets changed...doesn't help.

looking ok, i think...

lunged as planned, and she seemed ok - i reckon, if you've forgotten which leg it was, there's not a lot wrong!

didn't do ahuge amount, maybe 15 minutes if that.

if the weather is ok, i'll longline tomorrow.. it rained a lot today, and is raining now!