Horse escape!

On Wednesday instead of going to RDA like i normally do, i stayed at my course. I accidentally booked a driving lesson in the middle of RDA.

i had quite a hectic day, with finishing two assessments, a driving lesson and my darling prince who decided that it was the best day to escape.

i drove home and stopped in the driveway in shock. There was my horse who so obviously swam back across the river. He was looking pleased with himself, and very bloated. i quickly drove down the drive and parked the car and then got changed (i was still in my town clothes) and grabbed prince's halter and tied him up. i then turned detective.

He had obviously been out all day. The grass in the paddock i found him in was munched quite alot. there was two rolling patches in two different places.

i walked across the swing bridge to the other side of the river to do more investigating. he had obviously got a fright because the fence was broken very bad. i found one end in some brambles and another end wrapped about six times around a fence standard. There was some bent fence standards and some ones lying flat. There was also heaps of grass eaten and loads of hoof prints so obviously his.

My conclusion came to this, he got out about nine (because he had eaten his morning grass - i had shifted him over at quarter past seven, and a friend came over to feed the other animals (about ten) and he wasn't over across the river when she arrived but when she left he was across the river).

He must have been eating under the fence and the fence got caught on one of the brambles and he brushed the bottom of the bramble and it banged the fence against his neck. he must of panicked and swung around to the left (he had some hair stuck up the wrong way - to the left - on his nose) and scratched his nose.

He would have seen the fence go flying so he galloped into the pressure and broke it. then he would have galloped around like a loon until his adrenaline had gone down then wondered around eating. he would have heard the car and come across the river thinking it was me coming home (I've been in that car a couple of times) and he would have stayed there eating until i came home.

So there you have it. i ended up taking him back across the river (i can't take him across the swing bridge - it wouldn't hold him) and resetting up his fence.

I almost forgot to mention - the fence wasn't on at all. i haven't had it on for four weeks now.

So that was most of my week. i've been asked to move out from the house where i'm living- i have to be out by the end of November. i've been thinking of places to go to - any ideas?

Fusterations, and a Mountain

So i have spent about two hours trying to get those photos on the blog. They wouldn't let me put a caption under them or if they did they would only let me do half.. Grrr! anyway there they are.

i managed to trim Prince's back feet about two days ago. His hind feet were so long i trimmed about an inch of hoof (maybe an inch and a half) off. i also trimmed his tail up so now you can actually see a neat straight cut line at the bottom.
  i also had a look at his neck where the cover has been rubbing and it is bald! so i think i'm going to have to buy another cover.

i've taken a photo of the mountain (while up at dawson falls) and its just glorious, so i thought i'd share it with you.

Hoof Pictures

Hoof Trimming and Blog Update

I've decided i've had enough of the old blog, so, i updated it. as you can probably see.

This header and the previous one, is thanks to the author and creator of retrobabooshka ( http://retrobabooshka.blogspot.co.nz/ ) and my best friend Jazz. I've decided to change the header, to something i've created, but it can stay there for now until i've figured out how to make a new one.

I've been sick for ages, like two months now. to be quite honest i'm sick of been sick and i'm sick of the word! so i haven't done much with prince. He has basically retired for the winter.. lucky boy!

However i did manage to go out and trim Prince's front feet. i had noticed in the paddock that one of his front feet was really long in the toe and i got worried so i led him to the tie up area.i got out the hoof pick and picked his feet out and noticed he had thrush again, but just grabbed the hoof knife and trimmed most of it off. Along with that i took off alot of sole and then got the clippers and hacked of the hoof wall. Then i finished off with a file over, and some fat and oil mixture smeared on his outside hoof, with honey on the inside to prevent more thrush growing. After doing the other hoof the some  i was so tired i was trembling all over for about half an hour afterwards.

 i did get photo's but i stupidly left them at home. i'll try to remember them next time. but i supposed you know how it goes. :-)

Photos, of Prince Jumping and More!

I’ve had a rather busy two weeks, especially last week! My friend from Wanganui was here so I spent a lot of time with her and hardly any with my horse. However last week Friday we did get up so some mischief……

I tacked up Prince and did some groundwork, Jazz watching (my friend from Wanganui). She set up a small jump for Prince but he jumped it with such disdain because it was so small, and knocked it with his hind feet (picture below), so Jazz made up another jump using my two blue barrels. In the pictures you can clearly see (ignore me) that he is jumping the height of the barrels and the jump is about half a metre lower, so would you say that is a metre in height that he is jumping?

After that I jumped on (after pulling up the girth another two holes) and rode him around doing very little. Just some simple stuff such as a pattern using four standards and doing a figure eight around two then crossing over and doing the other two. Also I trotted prince around the tree in the middle of the paddock.. He just wanted to see what Jazz was doing thank-you very much.

Once I felt he was calm and feeling safe I held Prince (not that he needed holding) while Jazz did up her stirrups and jumped on. She did a lot of walking and trotting. When she felt ok with it she asked him to canter. He only sped up trotting so I put a bit of pressure on him and slapped my leg with my savvy string (when I ride him it means go faster). Only when I did this the second time a car went past and he half cantered and then threw a bucking fit (too much pressure at once). Jazz half came off his front then flipped over his shoulder and landed on her head (my horse has a terrible tendency to land people like this). Thank goodness I told her she HAD to wear the helmet or else. If she wasn’t wearing it who knows what might have happened.

Jazz being Jazz jumped back on. I rubbed Prince and we let him sigh and lick and chew before walking again. I asked her if she felt safe enough to ask him to go over the barrels lying down sideways on the ground, she replied “Well, don’t we need a canter for that?” I shook my head, he can jumped them at a walk if necessary, then I told her that he had never jumped with a rider on before- she exclaimed THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR TELLING ME NOW! Why didn’t you tell me after?

So she decides to do it anyway and she takes him about six strides back from the jump and then asks him to walk then trot. I noticed he was watching me the whole way down and it wasn’t until the last stride he realized there was a jump and he stopped and swung around doing almost 360^o. Jazz nearly fell off again but she managed to hang on. I told her to take him over again because he was watching me, and I said he would jump it. I had been watching his face the whole time and he just didn’t see it.

She takes him up to the jump except this time I point over the jump (he was going to refuse it) and he shot over it. He had about a seconds delay before actually jumping so poor Jazz got banged around a bit. I was so pleased with Prince I told Jazz that we would leave it there. This is the first time he has EVER jumped with a human on him. After the ride I picked his feet out and brushed him. It’s so cute because after riding and playing with him he gets so cuddly, and this time he wanted loads of cuddles.. ohhhh that horse!

Prince's idea of jumping

Well, almost clearing the barrel!

Half rear and kicking the fence

his springy high action trot

Check out the height in those legs!

Me riding Prince

Going past the jump- not over yet!

The Dramas Of The Day And Past Week

This morning I came out to Prince's paddock and discovered a sagging fence. From what i can tell from the long farrow past the fence line and the missing fence standard, is that Prince either decided to go for a gallop and ran straight into the fence, got hooked up and got a shock and then bolted back the other way leaving a farrow. The standard then went flying, landing by his feed bucket.
  i had to move him out of the paddock anyway because he had no grass, so i just picked up the standard and drove into the ground, pushing down the electric fence- which by the way i had turned off. i sent him over and we walked (well i walked he trotted) to the goat paddock (named that obviously due to the fact that it used to be the goat paddock) and he trotted through (he seemed to be doing a lot of that) and i jumped him over a pile of leaves and a branch and fired him into the paddock.
  
On Friday last week, i rode prince in the home paddock. I got him to do trotting poles (Spare fence battens), jumping (over a drum), sideways over a pole, pole bending, and we rode.
   When i rode him, i did pole bending which with his normal savvy flew through them.. and then we did trotting poles- what a disaster! he just wanted to canter up to the other side of the paddock completely missing them. i strongly SUGGESTED for him to trot over them and he responded with a small rear. Hmm- How Interesting! so i made him do them again then he got his reward- to munch on some long grass and poha.
  Then because all he wanted to do was trot i made him do circles. he did at least five laps before getting bored - which i bent him and let him eat just two seconds before he did. Then i decided (to keep him balanced) i asked him to trot the other way, wow! you should have seen the circle! instead of a perfect circle around a dock it was like a flower, all wobbly around the edges. Also i noticed when we got to a slight rise in the paddock and turned towards the gate he got rather straight and faster. How interesting! Suddenly i remembered Mum saying something about a sweet spot other then the gate. Oh of course!
  so as soon as our circle improved slightly and his gait stayed reasonably steady i bent him towards the middle (the 'sweet' spot) where the dock was and let him eat. i then got off leaving that on a good note.

I haven't been out taking photos because i have a cold (thanks to Ruffles lol) and its been raining loads... so HOPEFULLY this weekend i can ride too... 

You Tube Video- Kaimanawa's and the Wilson Sisters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khZP2hKSXvk&feature=youtu.be&fb_source=message

Check this out...