rain

pouring down when i left the office, and i think it's following me up - forecast to be awful.

i jammed my finger in the stable door when i shut it after giving molly her tea. don't know how i restrained the shriek of pain!

now, shall I take my friend up on offer of wagon to Richmond EC on Wednesday and have my lesson there? she said, if the weather's pants she'll do that (would mean a 4 time trip for her, as she's south of there!) and she wants to watch the lesson anyway.....which means i get a camerawoman as well. which reminds me, not getting the wagon i was going to get - not mended yet, and with incipient big vet bill if insurance doesn't pay... well...

And yes it's petplan nicola, so with what you say, I'm hopeful!

no news on Queenie yet today, I haven't rung as I don't suppose anyone is in ATM, will ring tomorrow and no news is good news.

cat to vet in the morning....normally partner's responsibility, but there you go, she's away.

eating up

Queenie is. ate her slop last night. was let out for an hour today and TROTTED down the field to the grass! tucking into her hay at 5pm tonight. So looks like we're out of the woods. Here's a photo from the recent set I took (for all you reiki practitioners if you could/would?)
So we're all pleased about that. insurance claim form in the post to the vet, so crossing fingers that they'll pay!

Molly did a bit of groundwork again, after she'd had a good grooming. I was pleased to be able to give her a bit of attention. she was even behaving pretty well! but it was SOO cold, i only did about 10 minutes as my fingers were starting to get really cold.....

EE lesson next wednesday - friend is going to come up, watch, operate the camera, and if it rains (must look that up) she'll come up and get us and take us to richmond EC, which will be appreciated by emma, I expect. Apparently they're cool about letting you use the indoor through the week - especially for my friend who's friends with them and whose partner's a vet...

pleased about that; she'd originally been going to be away so i hadn't said, but her plans have changed.

cleared - phew!

mid morning ish.

She was apparently a lot happier this morning. when vet eventually came (not the 0900 first said!) Queenie was tubed again, and it had pretty much cleared so swilled through again with water.

She went out for a pick of grass for 10 minutes in the afternoon to encourage her appetite (i expect she's got a humungous sore throat, which won't be helping!).

she's on very little and often for a bit; clearly if she doesn't start eating then that'll be a different matter, but for now we're all very pleased.

phew!

and to help = i rang the insurers (she's insured for accidents, a veteran plan) and said, how do you treat choke? accident or illness. the young lady on the end of the phone said, ah! has been treated as accident, a subject of debate, get form filled in, vet to do full report and they'll look at it! which sounded very hopeful. that's petplan ... if they meet it, it'll have been worth the 10 pcm i've paid them since she retired, as it'll amount to pretty much that much anyway i would have thought, three visits and loads of drugs already.

As for Molly - ii suppose she was pleased to see me - i told her her mother was ill, but she didn't care - but she was pleased to have her tea tonight! it's raining, of course, but frankly after the emotions, travelling and hoo ha of yesterday, i don't think I'd have had the energy to do a lot anyway.

queenie - choke

I was rung this morning just before 11 - she'd been found this morning, clearly had been in some distress, vet called (had been and gone by this time but was coming back). had had some liquid poured down the usual tube but to no great effect.

I obviously went up - happily boss was OK about that when I told him (i was filling up, of course). We & vet spent about 50 minutes pouring the best part of a bucket of warm water down tube, got some out, but it's still there.

happily it wasn't blocking the windpipe, but is blocking the stomach.

vet's coming back in the morning, and is going to have one more go if it doesn't self clear overnight as a result of the sedative. if that doesn't work, the only option would be invasive surgery, and I'm not prepared to go there - she is after all 25 about to be 26.

so if it doesn't clear and the vet can't sort it, the decision is made that Queenie will be PTS. vet pleased I'm of that view, she said. I said, whilst we were in the process of pouring liquid down, that I didn't want to be officiously striving for the sake of it if it wasn't going to work. She says she's had 4 or 5 so far in her career and has always got them clear.

so of course emailed friend to do molly tonight, just as well didn't get back here till gone 8....

cold and dry so groundwork

rope circling the order of the evening, and i was quite pleased with both of us. i kept my body language positive, and she decided she had to go right and left in trot when i asked.

now, can anyone tell me why, when i send her back, she doesn't do it in a straight line? ends up with her left flank to me....

dug a rug out - i wanted a compromise between lightweight and heavy - and foudn one perfectly clean but with a rip in it. i think she's had it on once, and i forgot it had that rip..also i seem to recall it wasnt' perfectly waterproof...

fugly horse

link in sidebar ... thanks to others for the reference ... love it. especially love the writer's take on rollkur..

alone for a fortnight

up at 04:00 - to get partner and her friend to airport for 0600, friend at Stocksfield which is about 15 miles cross country

so at yard about 0610, home for 7, breakfast and back to bed until lunchtime!

This is "worming weekend" - it is tedious. 48 hours in, and the YM never does what she's supposed to do = collect samples for testing! and, as with every other yard i've ever been on, poo is never picked. so I really can't see the point of keeping them in.

Anyway, got to the yard about 2 30 ish i suppose, groomed/mucked out. Clearly going to ride in the arena, no one about.

I decided to try the mullen mouth - had longlined in it the week before last and that was fine. But clearly was never going to be a good move today. She was setting her jaw against it before I got on, and in any event wouldn't stand to be mounted.

So, to the myler. she wouldn't let me put that in at all.

So, after several goes at that and rather than continued to stress us both out, i went for the bitless. That shocked her, actually, she was expecting to have another argument about a bit in and found herself bridled up with nothing she could do about it, tee hee.

That all wasted 1/2 hour!

Still couldn't get on, happily someone turned up and held her so finally got into the arena at about 15.40. Once the saddle had warmed up again, and i'd kicked myself for not wearing sticky jods, we got some nice work in the scale of things.

I decided to try what really raising my hands would do, and it did seem to help substantially in terms of direction, and we had some not too bad circles in trot. And I managed to find my left seatbone, which goes missing regularly, so I must have been doing something right there.

then decided to see if i could get through the yard, as she'd been going reasonably well. did that - she didn't nap back to the stable as I had schooling stick and kept tapping down shoulder on stable side when she tried. So we went out of the yard (heading to the bogey willow, after yesterday's success at going up the geldings field thought that might be worth trying on my own). Not to be. Partly she'd realised she'd let herself be conned into getting out there on her own, partly, possibly, because the old lady of the house & her companion had come out for a walk - so started paddying all over. That meant I had to get off - not because I'd started shaking again, I hadn't, but because the old lady is very pottery, has to have an arm to hang on to, and I certainly don't want to be the one to knock her over with my horse. don't have quite the control with the BB as one does with a bit.

Anyway, is there something with her teeth? who knows, tooth lady due over Christmas.

And the shaking - possibly once, Caroline, many many years ago and ended up feeling quite ill. but that time I hadn't got as far as getting on! don't know what it was about yesterday at all.

annoyed

and I don't know whether i'm annoyed with Molly or with me.

I did say whilst I was grooming that I thought she was in a bit of a mood - bouncing round the stable which she doesn't normally, but then the shoot people were all arriving.

when i got on, at first she was standing nicely which was what i wanted whilst the others got on, then as gaynor drove through in her car she HAD to follow and go into the arena.

on the other hand, she came out of the arena at the first time of asking with no difficulty.

She then happily went up the side of the geldings field, with no demur at all, past her bogey big log with narrow gap, having totally refused to do so for about a year.

Also walked happily along the track along the top, beside the drive, didn't spook at the new cattle grid, and waited calmly whilst the gate to the next field was opened and walked quietly through.

so you can imagine, i was very pleased so far.

The field we're now in is pretty big, and we walked round the outside, then through a gateway that has no gate, and about half way down to the gate we were going to leave by - she turned round. she wouldnt turn back. and just to really help, i started shaking quite badly. i'm not sure if it was the cold, the fact that i hadn't had breakfast (and it was now about 3 hours after i'd got up. i tried to relax, but couldn't stop shaking, and clearly shaking, whatever the cause, is not clever when you're on a horse that is in any event dooing what you don't want.

So i got off and led her back, which is about 1 1/2 miles. phooey.

and then she was, for a wonder, good as gold to be wormed (it's worming weekend, they come in no later than 10am and can't go out again till monday morning).

so what was all that about with both of us?

greek dinner

was huge - we went for the mezze (feast) and couldn't begin to finish it. food all very good though, the lamb was melting in the mouth. Friend did molly - impossible to do her and still get out in time - as it turned out, partner got stuck in ginormous traffic jam caused by massive accident on the motorway....we could see it driving up the side road parallel when we did set off, looked like a real horror (apparently a wagon had overturned).

the broken foot

regular readers will remember than in June 2006 i broke my foot and had three weeks in plaster.

Ever since, I've had pretty continuous pain - at varying levels - at the site of the break and was convinced it wasn't mended.

back in October I went to the GP and he referred me to hospital, where I went to day - orthopaedic outpatients at north tees hospital

xrays were duly taken - and guess what, it's still broken. a clear flake fracture, never got anywhere near healing.

They can't take the flake off as it has a tendon attached to it and there would be no way of getting the tendon fixed back in place, so essentially i have to live with it.

as to support, he recommended one of those support things one gets from the chemists or wherever, such as sportsmen use.

ggrrhh...might do some research on the 'net to see what comes up, but i think he's probably right, and i don't want to do anything that might make it worse. i know i'm not short of calcium, that bone builder, as i eat loads (probably too much) cheese

and as for the fall i had Monday this week - think I've done something to the left leg, particularly noticeable when I try to get up from a chair, so will have to go back to the GP for another orthopaedic referral and more xrays on that. might be just bruising, but i've a feeling not.

as for molly - the weather is no way near good enough to do anything, so again she just got fed and left. can't even groom when it's like this (dirty bits are wet as well....)

We're out tomorrow night, so we'll see what the weekend brings in terms of weather and riding possibilities.

dried out

at least, didn't have to drive home in the rain. but huge traffic jams.

i think i really jarred myself when i fell on monday, left leg seizes up interestingly when i sit at my desk at work...

looking forward to the next fortnight - sounds awful, but partner will be away and i therefore don't have to answer to anyone and can spend longer at yard at night without being nagged (subject to weather, of course!)

rain...

just like everyone else in the country....

so i'm watching telly - bought a new digital box with hard drive recorder so have set it to record soemthing and we'll see what happens. a vast improvement on the old one though! and not hugely expensive

tempting fate

That's what i did last night by talking about the slippy mud and Blake's occasional tendency to bounce a bit when being taken out.

he was, in fact, good as gold. But that didn't stop my right foot slipping, Blake standing on it, and then me falling my length in the mud .....

i had to go home and have a second shower after I mucked out, and i haven't looked at the foot since then but anticipate a mahoosive bruise.

the jodhpurs & knickers I had on - which were clean on - got taken off IN the shower then left to soak all day. the jacket got left to try and dry in the tack/feed store area, and currently is in the washer without washing liquid to try and rinse all the mud off, along with the gloves. the plastic bags I'd had in the boot to protect it from plant dirt ended up on the car seat to protect it from mud whilst i drove home for the shower...

and I've been really stiff all day, so must have really jarred myself up!

Oh, and younger cat decided the catch for last night was - a PHEASANT! FULL GROWN! goodness only knows where he got that from, we don't GET pheasants in the churchyard or anywhere near the house...

and that was all in the dark.

at least we didn't get snow

as caroline did ....but an awful lot of rain. It's going to be horrid leadinv them out in the morning, the track to the field gate is very slippy. Molly wil be OK but BLake, my friend's horse, has a tendency to pull a shade if he think's HIS friend is out. Hopefully he'll behave!

Plus, this morning the road to the yard was closed - apparently there'd been a fatality (one assumes an RTA) at about 0500 - not only did they close that road, they seemed to have closed all the roads roundabout and people had to remove bollards to get to the various yards! don't know what the police think people are supposed to do! and we didn't see any anyway! Open again by tonight.

interesting....

The reiki, that is. The person could tell where molly's off hind had been injured in the various places - more interesting, she asked about the near hind above the hock. I'm not aware of any injury there, but who knows?

molly was very good. took the off hind away a couple of times, but that was all.

I didn't do anything else with her at all today, planning to ride in the morning unless it rains. I thought (and reiki person agreed) it was probably as well just to let her be. She thought it would be interesting to know what reaction a Reiki master would have/molly would have to same (person is level 2, not planning on going further with it).

went and bought plants though; dwarf conifers I'm seeking for one side of new rockery, also bought some new raspberry canes. must get some rotted stuff off the muck heap tomorrow...garden man suggested he'd get his trailer emptied and fetch that down, otherwise its plastic bags in the car, not clever!

I should really post photos of what's happening in our back yard -- it's having a makeover of major proportions. when it's done, i'll post a before and after. new shed was put up yesterday (the old one was falling down, having been backed into several times by the coalman over the years (people in this street still get coal delivered....)

martin luther king

40 years ago this week, was given an honorary degree by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (about 12 miles from here) and came over in person to be given it. I didn't know that before; it was on the local radio station tonight, as they are doing a special event commemorating the occasion. I didn't know he'd been to the UK at all (but I guess I can be forgiven, I was 12 at the time and he was killed about 5 months later). I do remember the following April when he was shot - I suppose by the following year I was taking more notice of what was going on in the world.

As for Molly - everyone had gone home by the time I got to the yard, and partner's going out tonight, so I didn't do anything - save put a heavier rug on. unusually she was feeling cool, most of last winter she was fine with the lightweight, but i guess we've been having much colder weather than this time last year....it'll be totally filthy by the end of the week, from clean on tonight!

Tomorrow a friend is coming to give her reiki; don't know whether it'll help or not, but friend offered and it's for free, you never know! friend does massage as well....

longlinging

was in two minds whether to work or not, so groomed, then decided on longlining ... only 10 or 15 minutes (wasn't prepared to dig my watch out from under the layers to find out!), with the mullen mouth in.

she was working much better left than right - seeking the contact, softer on left rein, where right rein head in the air (not too much, but up) and slightly set in teh jaw. but i felt much more in control of the paces today, she came back to walk very nicely which she hasn't done in the past, so i'm doing something right there!

and i'm having a lesson on the 5th december on inhand work, clicker training ... see where we go. emma, hope you're enjoying the read! you're welcome to comment in advance!

washing

i had decided i really had to come home and get some washing done (running out of things to wear, as you do) - and it was cooold and daaark and looonley .... (now there's a whinge!). Molly only wanted her tea anyway (nothing new there then!). She'd managed to untie the haynet, which was in the bottom of the haybar (haynet for when she first comes in, then i can take it away easily if we're going to do something). also, alternate nights is good in the winter (unless it ends up raining tomorrow, of course...)

and a lie in

thanks to friend doing early turnout! and I was so glad. didn't muck out until about 0900 on the way to the dentist.

Molly did a little bit of groundwork tonight, rope circling - worth doing that at least once a week, although probably should do more. I hadn't dried my glove off properly after it got wet this morning, the result was raynaud's in the right index finger which is pretty painful so we only did about 10 minutes work. but she was better about going right again this time (maybe the lunging last week helped!). But, she insists on coming in to me when i haven't asked her to when she's stopped, and so i have to send her back out again without moving myself. tedious. She is, i think, starting to find it easier to cross her hind legs when i ask for turn on forehand, so that's good, must be doing something vaguely right.

there's an auction (for a charity) on EE ATM and someone put up an EE etc. lesson within 2 hours of sheffield. I'm within 2 hours of sheffield so i've bid on that, so far the winning bid. I'm at the extreme of 2 hours from Sheffield, but it is 2 hours! assuming no traffic jams or other horrors....

and I'm seriously thinking about changing RI....

Wagon is still where I left it; it is going to be taken to vendor's fitter and looked at. consensus still is muck in fuel through being left.

I have said that next time i have to do that sort of trip i will go the day before (I'd been saying that anyway, but was over-ridden)

solihull

by train - 0656 from durham, got back there at 21.25 -----just got in ... .aargh. if there is a next time, i hope to be able to convince boss that the day before by car and drive back after...