The end of the Tail

Today was farewell day. Even when I arrived at the farm this morning Carats seemed unsettled and I am sure he knew something was going on today.

We arrived around 11am at his beautiful new home in the Wiltshire hills and Carats and Herbie started neighing at each other- Herbies eyes almost jumped out of his head when he realised he knew the horse on the trailer! After a very excited snuffle of each other Herbie (with Jenni on the other end of the lead rope) pranced all the way to the field with Myself and Carats following along behind, as always my C took it all in his stride. They had a good canter around, made faces at each other and settled down to eat, as if they had never been apart.

I shed a few tears when it was time to say goodbye but shared some wonderful stories with Jenni about the naughty orange pony and I left smiling, knowing he would be just fine.

He will leave a big hole in my life, and as I sit here and write this the tears start to fall again, he is truly a special horse and we were meant to have each other, if only for a short time.

A large and liquid eye...the swirl of dust around pounding hooves...these, then, are the images that move us.

Author Unknown

The sad truth of PSD; the penultimate post.

I have spent the last few months mentally battling with myself over Carats soundness. I have spoken to friends constantly and have tried to think as positively as possible.

Last week I hacked him down the road and he felt really off. After his out of charecter behaviour over the last few weeks I realised I had to get this straight for once and for all if he was feeling any pain or not. I called the vets and they managed to squeeze me in on a end of day appointment.

My fantastic vet came out and we trotted him up, he could see straight away that he wasn't quite right and flexion tests confirmed that my boy was indeed quite sore. We lunged him and it was obvious straight away that he just couldn't use his back right correctly and was dragging it and not lifting through. The vet nerve blocked him to see what/ if any difference that made. After a rest we trotted up and lunged again, although he wasn't totally sound still there was a marked improvement to show that the suspensory issue was still there.

Carats definitely improved for a while, after a long rest period and very gentle hacking (walk and no hills) he started to feel ok again. However, with upping his work load to include longer hacks, hills and trot work he just couldn't cope. After much thought and discussion we decided the best thing to do for him would be to retire him with the hope that he can have a long and happy good few years, eating grass and cantering round the fields.

My happy boy on our last hack

I am still in contact with his first ever owner. Jenni had Carats from when he was newborn and has always offered him a retirement home should he need it. When I got Carats I never thought we would be taking that option, let alone in just over a years time but here we are. Jenni said she would love to bring Carats home. She still has Carats best ever friend Herbie, he hasn't bonded with any other horse since I owned him and I wonder if he has just been waiting for his friend all this time.

So, next week Carats will be going back home. In the year I have owned him he has cost us a small fortune but he has given me so much. I have done my first dressage competition, my first fun ride. Learned to lunge, long rein and care for my own horse. We've jumped, dressaged, hacked and galloped. He is true and kind and I am going to miss him so much.

This blog will be closed once he goes, but I will do one last post after this to let you know about his trip and arrival back to Jenni and Herbie.

On Tuesday it was a gorgeous summers day and we decided to do one last hack, we avoided hills and mud and just had a potter up to the canal in the bareback pad. Carats was perfectly behaved and strode out smiling. I am sure he knew, he just stayed by the canal for a long time and chilled while he stuffed some grass. It really was a lovely final ride, I am sure, somehow he knew.

Oh My!

Well, I have had a rather interesting time hacking this week. After saying how chilled Carats was not going out in the field we have had rearing and broncing on hacks! He has been quite the character and quite naughty but always stops when he feels me start to become unbalanced... well so far anyway! We are not quite sure whats caused it, not going out, pain, change in weather or my bad riding :( But I will keep an eye on how he goes.

He was much better today on a short hack and my friend who is a more experienced rider than me is going to take him out solo this weekend to see what happens!

Other than that I am now trying yet MORE new bedding. This is a soft chip type bedding which is 100% Miscanthacus called Burlybed, its stocked locally and shouldn't move about as much as the hemp which although is pretty, just didn't work in our stables.

Fun week riding- legs are soooooo sore! :)

On the safe side

Carats seems to be doing well still. As a precaution and after a discussion with my vet, he is being kept off the mud and out the fields.

Evie, Rambo & Carats

He currently spends his day bumbling around the large wood chip arena and stuffing hay which makes him very happy. If we didn't have access to the chip it would be a different story as I don't think it is fair to keep horses stabled 24/7 long term and I would have to risk turnout. However our fields get very, very wet and we have the option of chip turnout so I would be crazy to risk him in the mud.

Mostly he has been his usual happy self. Today we had a blip out hacking and he was very fresh which is not like him at all. I had taken him out in the bareback pad to allow his back to stay free, he was so naughty that I ended up having to get off and lead him for a bit (didn't want to end up in the mud) but he was still silly even being led! It may well be the change in weather and diet affecting him too so will see how he is tomorrow!

Nice to ride a happy, excited and forward boy though :) x

Bedding Blues!

Well, I am sure most of you who own horses know the ups and downs of different beddings. Just when I think its all perfect I find a problem with my new choice!

Carats was bedded on straw all last winter. I experimented with different mixes, trying deep littering with a base of Equibed. Full muck out on just straw etc etc. This summer the stench of straw finally got to me and I decided to try a new bedding.

After lots of research I switched C onto straw pellets. Throughout the end of the summer it worked perfectly. He was in during the day and out at night and I just had to pick up the poo which was always in one lump and dig out the wet patch with a shovel. I was over the moon with the bedding, super fast and clean.

The is one complication that we have in the bedding issue. We have fantastic stables with little courtyards at the back. Whilst this is amazing for the horses, it does mean that there is lots of in and out from each horse. Carats switched to nights in and the rain started as did the issues with the straw pellets. I noticed that he as his feet were getting wet, the pellets (which become almost sand like) stuck to his feet and compacted in his hooves and got stomped and kicked all outside. This in turn became a solid wet sand mush all over his courtyard and was heavy and very difficult to clean up. On top of this he would stomp the stuff all over the yard when he came out, even if I had just picked his feet out. I couldn't have it too deep as more just got kicked out because of the shape of our stables but holes were appearing in his bed in the mornings and the wee had spread in the patches that weren't thick enough which isn't nice for him to stand in or lay in.

So... the search began for another option. I didn't want to lose the pellets as the absorbency is amazing but needed something else to put on the top. I didn't want to revert to straw as its messy, heavy and non absorbent. Shavings weren't ideal as the flakes are tricky to sieve with the straw pellets and get stuck in tails etc, the absorbency is also low. I considered Auboise but it was cost prohibitive as were a few other alike beddings. Finally I found out about flax/ hemp bedding. On a plus side our local Scats store stocked Hippofan Flax, so I could try a few bags without investing in lots of stock. So, it is now laid, fresh and ready for Carats to destroy it! Watch this space for how it goes!

Fit or Fat

So, since my last post I have been working hard on Carats fitness. I want to get him stronger and fitter and he really needs to lose a little weight!

We are incredibly lucky to have acres and acres of grazing which at the moment we only have three horses on. Its fantastic but it does mean that there is no lack of grass for Mr C to stuff his face with... and stuff he does.

He is overweight at the moment and as restricting him where we are is very difficult I just need to try to work him a little more to burn off the calories. He has been doing more and more but not pushing too fast too quickly as I don't want him to break again. He has been hacking a lot, hill work and introducing more and more trot over the last month and is now starting more canter work as he is finding the trot work much easier. He also has been doing lots of long reining and a small amount or lunge work but only when the footing is right and in very large circles.

He also has a routine to help keep his back soft as he is so much more free to ride, and I think there will be less strain on his suspensories if he is using his back more. He has the back massage pad on pretty much every time before he is worked. We always start with lots of active walking before anything else and end the same way. After work he gets a proper groom and rub down and doesn't seem to stiffen up with this. I loved this grooming routine that I was recommended by a friend.

Some days he has the grump about having to walk out and work and other days he loves it. I am really happy with his progression so far. Fingers crossed he stays sound!!!

Finally we recently had a professional photo shoot with Sean Cameron. Sean is fantastic and has done Dog Agility photos etc for me in the past, he is also affordable which makes a huge difference! I will be posting and updating some of the photos over the next few blog posts.

Monkey!

Well Carats was totally awful hacking today, staring at everything, not going off my leg then not listening to downward transitions either. Just in la la land!

He'd been so terrible that I decided I had to give him a little school in the field on the way home. He was fabulous! Soft, forward and totally switched on! Wtf ?!?

He is so naughty!