Oops, feet and love!

Oops: where did the morning go!?

My little boy broke up from school today so this was my final morning with C alone for a while. We had the nicest morning, he was really pleased to see me today and we had a lovely hug. The weather was mild today so he had some naked-time which I could tell was much appreciated by his rolling around in the pen.

He was obviously feeling well today and made me giggle with his antics. He was an angel to groom and I dressed him up for his Xmas photo tee hee. I also wanted to mention how amazing he is with my dogs, they run around by him and in his stable and he is amazing with them all, I love the fact my woofs can come along to the yard with me and potter about, they also come on his daily walk and he isn't bothered by them shooting past him or woofing at things. We walked along the main drive today

Rockin' N Rollin'

and he really enjoyed the new route, he is lovely and forward when he is being led out now and gets lots of praise for walking well. He LOVES praise and I get an amazing response from him when I make a fuss of him, he adores it.

In fact I was having such a lovely time that I hadn't realised that I should have left twenty minutes earlier to pick up my son- Ooops! I did make it on time but poor Carats did literally get shoved back in his stable. He had celery, carrots and beetroot scattered around and hidden in his stable & haynets so wasn't too bothered.

Flippin' feet!

We had been having a small struggle with picking feet up (hinds esp) and he had been getting really grouchy with hinds even having a little kick out and catching my boot by accident. I am totally sure it is linked to his PSD so I made a plan with him for this. First of all I made sure he was standing securely and square before starting to pick up feet as being more balanced would make it physically easier for him. I also make sure that I don't pull his legs out to the side at ALL so there is no strain on his suspensories, I try not to take too long especially with his off hind and praise him a LOT! One week later and he is lifting each foot at the slightest touch and holding them up for me. Its a huge deal making sure he is good with his feet as now he is barefoot they are picked and brushed out religiously at least once a day and sprayed with Hypocare to keep any possible thrush or infections at bay. I do not want this to become stressful for us both (as it was starting to) but now he is just getting better and better.

Love N Stuff

Mr Perfect: Boo

So now, the downside to all this. The more time I spend with my lad the more I absolutely fall in love with him, I miss riding him but have found total pleasure in the groundwork and in learning more about this clever, cheeky and loving boy. It makes me feel even more emotional about his rehab and
the road ahead, but hey- we are certainly enjoying the journey!

I think sometimes we are gifted things in life. Its nearly Christmas and I have a lot to be thankful for. My husband and child make me complete and without them my life wouldn't be the same. But I also am thankful for my amazing pets, especially Carats and my perfect boy Boo. My two animal boys are just golden xxx

Introducing...

I thought it was about time to introduce you to Carats new companions- meet the ponies Windy and Rambo the miniature shetland!

Windy and Rambo the ponies

Windy is the sweetest and most gentle girl and is the first pony that Ethan ever sat on, he cried when she left Jules so he is extremely happy to be able to see her again. Windy joins Carats in the difficult management and rehab category as she has laminitis. Her owner Jo works really hard to manage it but it is definitely an ongoing battle. Poor Windy had a bit of a setback this week but with rest and care she seems to be improving again so fingers crossed for her.

Now Rambo! He is hilarious and acts more like a dog than a pony- in fact he is smaller than some of the dogs I know. Full of charecter and very bright he cracks me up nearly every day I see him! Jo began backing him for the kids last year and I think he did very well and took it all in his stride. He really is a funny little lad. Louisa has started clicker training him- watch this space for shetland tricks ha ha!

Shockwave 2

Today Carats had his second shockwave treatment. He behaved really well so fingers crossed that it's helping. This morning in his stable I found two neat sections of coat on the floor in his outdoor section- It seems that he has managed to totally remove two sections of coat and skin on his chest. We think its from leaning over the wall to groom Jos horses but can't believe he didn't feel himself doing it the big doofus! He is back in his Bossys Bib so hopefully that will help protect the sores a little bit. It did however make him a bit grouchy to lead out today as I think they were probably hurting him, he wasn't naughty at all, just not walking out like he has been.

He spent a lot of time out of his stable this morning, firstly in the wood chip pen, then walking out followed by the shockwave treatment then some recovery time with us in the yard area. He couldn't wait to get back in his stable afterwards for a good rest. I am so pleased that he is so happy in there, it makes me much more relaxed about the whole situation and he never barges out of his stable in the mornings even though he is keen to have a potter. So far the balance seems good and I hope this will
continue.

The vet is pleased with him so far, he is in great condition and his feet etc are looking good. We are to  continue with the current routine (stable rest, limited turnout and 15 mins walking in hand) for the next month or so then will see where we stand after that.

Louisa (my buddy) came to the yard with me this morning, she has been spending time with the ponies and Carats and is having a lovely time getting to know them. C kept us entertained with his antics including stealing the empty hot chocolate tub and REFUSING to let it go, we ended up having to shove a carrot in the side of his mouth and yank out the tub while we had a chance- he is hilarious!

R+ (Clicker & Training an Orange Horse)!

R+ is Positive Reinforcement and Carats has been getting much more of this lately. I have been fascinated with training him compared with the dogs and learning more about different species etc.

So the basis is the same. If the reward (reinforcer) is high value enough to the animal then the training is pretty straightforward. Placement of reward is key and timing is important too as are training mechanics etc etc.

I think Carats is pretty damn bright, he understands and figures things out very fast and for a horse that hasn't been clicker trained he is brilliant at problem solving and failure. I think personality helps a lot here, he is naturally quite brave and pushy on the ground and likes a challenge. According to his previous owners Jenni and then later on Gemma & Abigail he has always been 'cheeky'; escaping from fields, stables and stealing food, drinks and anything else he can play with. This natural curiosity help immensely with the clicker/ shaping work.

I do find that boundaries have to be upheld very clearly though, especially when you start working with food, however the same ideas of timeouts and negative punishment are again the same.

The video below shows Carats third clicker session on food manners (known to me as 'It's your choice'). I stand by Carats shoulder with the food pot, what he wants to do (and what he did on session one) is turn his body and shove his nose into the food. When he does this I simply cover the pot and/ or step backwards by his shoulder again. At first I rewarded any head movement away from me and built up to asking for head/ body alignment. I make sure I ALLOW him to make the choice, I don't want to tell him off for mugging, I want him to choose a more desirable behaviour. You can see in this video he is mugging very little and for anyone who knows Carats knows what a PIGLET he is! I also vary my body position on either side so he can generalise the rule.

We are starting target behaviours and also a stand still rule so will try and get some video of this too. Enjoying the challenges that my boy is giving me! Clever boy Carats x

A week on...

We have now been at the new yard for over a week and I was interested to see how Carats coped with the first week of box rest and the new routine.

To say he has been a star would be absolutely fair, he has made friends with the new ponies and has coped absolutely fantastically with the routine. He is still a monkey around food and will paw the ground and kick his stable door when foods around. I get him out the stable as much as I can and he spends an hour or so in the wood chip pen and we do fifteen minutes of walking in hand each day, stopping at different places for short graze. He is never fizzy or silly and although he quite obviously looks forward to his exercise time he is happy to go back into his stable when we are all done.

I have been taking great care of his feet and he is coping really well with his shoes off, our walking is

Carats having his daily graze: supervised by Ethan x

on concrete and dirt type tracks with some small gravel/ stones in and he doesn't seem footsore at all, his feet are chipping and wearing a little but they are looking pretty good so far.

Our clicker training continues and we started target training today, he was absolutely fantastic and I may even be able to get some videos for you soon- I want to do some work with him soon with his back feet as he can be quite grumpy about them being pulled about and handled. I suspect that its due to the fact that his back legs are sore but I would like to try and re-associate this a little although I haven't decided quite how to do this yet.

I am really enjoying spending extra time with Carats and can feel our bond strengthening everyday, I love this boy to bits with all his ground pawing, tea stealing, door kicking, pocket mugging naughtiness. He wouldn't be our ginger boy without it!

Shockwave Treatment 1

The top of the Gallops Field- phew!

Frustratingly as soon as I move Carats the only direct road between school drop off and the yard is closed until the 10th December, this means what should be a short route now takes me much longer. It also means I don't pass the common which is where I usually walk the dogs. So today I decided to take the dogs to the farm and let them run there, I am VERY lucky that dogs are welcome on the farm
and there are field after field to walk on. I decided to take them to the top of the Gallop Hill. The dogs had a great time and my dream is to one day have Carats sound enough to have a burn up this hill, it is huge and just goes on and on then opens out to the common at the top- just gorgeous hacking!

I had Jos company this morning and between tea and chatting the yard took us forever again, my dogs got to wander about while we were doing things and I don't think they could believe their luck. Carats is perfectly happy at the moment and was really pleased to see me today. The Vet arrived at 11am (well 11.30am as he went to the old yard by mistake). Carats was sedated (after he thought it would be funny to try to stand on the Shockwave Machine). The machine is quite impressive and really belts out some power- I could feel the pulses through Carats leg and apparently it does give some level of pain relief too. We will have the next treatment in two weeks.

I spoke to the Vet about rehab and he is happy with what I am doing and plans for the near future, I think he would be happy for me to ride him out in walk fairly soon but I would prefer to keep him in hand as he has been lovely for this so far and also planning on long reining him which Jo is going to help show me how to do. I have already had a little go with Jules guidance on another horse so hopefully I will remember some of that.

Carats had a new toy today, watch the video- he was hilarious!

Oh and I broke down at the yard and literally spent the whole day there- it was only when I opened the bonnet to get the car ready for RAC that i realised the positive battery terminal had fallen off- doh!

Day One- and we're off!

Day one today of the new regime: school run, walk dogs and off to see Carats. He was pleased to see me and I got a big whicker on arrival.

Nom Nom

It took me forever to muck out even though Jo had been awesome and skipped out for me just because it needed to look perfect! All Jos other stables are immaculate and I had serious stable envy ha ha. The order of this rest period is plenty of attention for Carats and things to keep his brain ticking, after he tipped over and DRUNK my whole cup of tea I decided I had better give him some other challenges.

Clicker Savvy Ponio
He was subjected to a thorough groom and cuddle and then I decided its time to start training! Yes I can't help it, I am at heart an animal trainer so couldn't resist the chance to have a play with a pony. First challenge 'prime the pump' (e.g. pair the clicker with the reinforcer). In conjunction with this I wanted Carats to learn food manners (no mugging) when working. Criteria (Head Straight) So challenge one in underway.

I needed to set him up for some level of success and also set up so it can be to be clear for him. I stood just behind his shoulder with treats in my hand and pocket etc, at first he just tried shoving his head at me and nibbling on my hand, he a a lovely boy so I didn't worry about him biting and just waited it out for a bit, as soon as he moved his head away from me I clicked and rewarded away from
me for head position. I must admit I don't think I have given Carats credit before as to what a very bright boy he is- the same as any animal the reinforcement just has to be correct. He picked this up amazingly fast and although he still tried to steal he very quickly corrected his head position to earn his Click and Treat- super boy!

Ooo this smells good...

Tomorrow and over the next few days we will continue with this. I need to be careful as the clicker is such a powerful tool and I could see today that Carats thought the click was coming for head tucked in as I think I was probably reinforcing too close to his body, tomorrow I will vary a bit more and try to reward further out. Reward Placement is of course key!

Walkies And Decehedrons
We went for a little in hand stroll around the yard today to keep him from getting too bored, the tracks are mostly concrete so nice and hard and non slippy for him. He was really quite forward going and loved having a sneaky peek at the farm and we found a patch where he could do a little hand grazing. We didn't go for long but he was very happy to get back to his fresh stable and hay.

I also gave him his stable toy- a flat sided ball that contained grapes and carrots. This has a hole in the
side where the treats can fall out as the horse knocks it around- Carats had it cracked from the word go and took great joy is kicking and moving it around.

A big kiss goodbye and he is left in peace until after the school run when I will pop back up to skip out and check hay/ water. What a wonderful morning I had with my boy.

The start of something new

The Stable Jo had prepared

So today we bid goodbye to our old yard and beautiful friends I have made there. I had lots to load into the car (how many cr*p HAVE I got him over the last six months) and my boy to get ready for travels which kept me occupied and stopped me from crying into anyones shoulder.


Carats was such a good boy going into the lorry this time, he walked straight on without questioning a thing (he wasn't sure about going onto them the last few times as had got used to trailers) and it really makes you realise how much trust plays a huge part in a horses psyche.


His new stable had been beautifully prepared by Jo ready for his arrival with multiple haynets, another manger full of hay a big fluffy bed and some extra rubber matting. Suffice to say he was pretty damn happy to go in there. He has two pony friends who will be within kissing distance at pretty much all times- more about them in the next post. They all seem to be happy with each other which in fantastic.

Carats Stable with outdoor area

His feet seem to be doing well so far without shoes and I am keeping an eye on them and taking good care.

So far so good, Carats has a lovely stable with some outdoor access plus friends to kiss and bite, lots of food and a view of the big horses in the field over the river- pretty nice life I'd say!

Six Months, Fun, Frocklicks and Oh F**k!

So here we are, Carats has been with me around six months and has already changed my life and given me so much. Sadly now we are not in the place I had hoped but more about that in a bit.

I started looking for a horse in the spring of 2013 and viewed a fair few unsuitable ponies! Finally my friend Katie found an advert for a beautiful chestnut gelding who sounded like the perfect schoolmaster. After going up to view him I was pretty sure I had made the right choice, especially after I fell off him while trying him jumping and all he did was stop next to me in the massive open windy field and wait for me to get back on lol- he was my man!

Carats: Arrival Day!

Fun & Frolicks!

Carats (aka Orions Gold) arrived with me at the beginning of June and we cracked on with having some fun. I did my first dressage competition and my first fun ride with him and he was a superstar at both, polite yet fun, what more could I want. He proved himself to be a true schoolmaster and knew his job whether it was dressage, jumping or hooning through the countryside.

I made sure he was cared for and he had visits from the dentist, physio etc. The physio picked up on some soreness in his lower back and we gave him some rest and massage treatment to help him and didn't think too much more of it.

We continued to play and I felt like my relationship just got better and better with this lad. I remember one of our last hacks before the lameness appeared he made me laugh my head off....

The Galloping Field

We had  gone to the field that we usually use for a good canter/ gallop and I wanted him to have a good burn. We trotted all the way down the field a lovely punchy trot and as I turned him around to canter him up the track I thought yep- we should get a good one here... off he went, nice steady canter first, then I squeezed him for a little more speed, nothing... kick, kick... nothing... tap with the whip... still nothing: Lazy monkey! So we trotted back down the track and turned him again ready for a canter back up, this time I was ready to give him a big smack. As we turn i put my leg on and he is GONE, all of a sudden my little ginger one has decided he is a racehorse ha ha! I take a little pull to steady him for the turn he steadies and uses the corner to grab hold and accelerate up the track tee he he. As we get to the top of the field I was giggling my head off at him and he had decided he was tired now and ready to pull up. He then spooked at everything all the way home as he had tired himself out. Boy he makes me smile!

Oh F**k!

So a few weeks later, I noticed that he was starting to feel really hard work on a hack, he had a few days off then we popped him on a lunge. He looked obviously lame when trotting so we gave him a few weeks total field rest. We brought him back in quite slowly but as soon as he got back to trotting in a circle we noticed he was lame again.

The Vet was called out and ended up having to Nerve Block both hind suspensories to see him sound again. We suspected this time that he probably had suspensory issues but needed XRays and Ultrasound scans to confirm.

A second visit confirmed the diagnosis that Carats was suffering from PSD (Proximal Suspensory Desmitis) I can honestly say that I didn't take much in that morning, i just kept thinking poor, sore broken pony :( It all made sense, his (more than usual) reluctance on going forward recently (well after the cheeky incident above), his lower back/ sacroiliac pain and he had also been grumpy with the farrier bout back feet being done. Part of me is annoyed and upset that I didn't click sooner but I think realistically I know Im not to blame and that not many people would have made the link. I have also discovered that his insurance won't pay out so everything would be from my lovely, supportive (thank you my angel) husbands pocket.

A few days later when I finally got myself together I called the vet and left a message for him to get back to me. I researched the web, talked to some awesome friends of mine who have had experience of PSD and when my vet called back I talked through all my questions. I came away feeling much more positive as I had a plan and a goal and although it will be a long and emotional journey I could get things sorted in my head.

The first issue was that Carats needs box rest and individual, limited turnout. The lovely yard that I am at has no spare boxes at all, and on the budget we now had to look at I wouldn't be able to afford for him to stay here even if a box could be freed up. I also wanted him as close as possible to home so that a few trips a day to him plus weekend visits were manageable and fuel wouldn't cripple us. I still am feeling a little tearful about leaving as not only is it run by one of my best and most knowledgable friends but it's also where i learnt to ride and where i have met so many awesome new horsey friends. I will miss you all so much but hopefully will be back up to visit often.

So today I am making plans for him to move this weekend, Katie is kindly moving us again and he is going to the most wonderful, friendly and perfect little private yard less than ten minutes from home. I have some lovely friends who run it who are aware of Carats problems and knowledgable and supportive. Carats has a wonderful stable with its own small outdoor area plus space he can get private turnout. It is also on a private farm so he can walk out in hand safely and avoiding mud or too many deep surfaces which can be detrimental to his healing. I have also had the offer to ride out with one of the girls on her little TB which is immensely kind... i hope she doesn't change her mind when she sees me ride ;)

Next week he will begin shockwave therapy combined with steroid injections into the affected area. He will be on box rest and strict turnout combined with some short walking in hand for around three months, following this he will start walking over poles etc then onto trot work all in hand until we can get back to being under saddle when he is ready. It will be a long process but most importantly I will not rush it but I must keep him moving gently as I feel too much muscle wastage will be detrimental to the process. Hoax my little dog went through a spinal steroid injection followed by kitchen rest and months of slow and controlled rehab- a year on and she has won a championship ticket and qualified for Crufts without a day of lameness so I am hoping with the care I can give him that we can get to a comfortable place for Carats too.

Today his shoes came off (under the vets advice) so my boy is now barefoot and I have been shopping for stable toys, slow feed hay nets (he is a pig) and some awesome 'Back On Track' quick leg wraps all in a bid for a sound and happy ginger pony.

So, we come to now. Changes are ahead, I'm scared and nervous but feeling positive that me and Carats might have a riding future together. A long and emotional journey lies ahead- bring it on!