CT
8th Sep 2001, 07:49 AM
Hi Everyone
We're back. Apologies for not posting before but it's been a usy and tiring time.
BTW if you want to see what the big boy looks like Sue has posted a picture which you can find on the Dougal Diary days 2-8 in the general section.
Happy reading and if anyone has any good tips for getting a horse to stand near to and still at a fixed mounting block I'd really appreciate them.
Caron
Dougal: Colour: Bright Orange Bay
Weight: Nice and round
Carrots consumed - several fields
worth
It's been a busy couple of weeks what with having to slap the carrot woman into shape and all that, I'm quite worn out.
First of all we had the lunging problems with her insisting that I go round in circles. I soon cured that by turning in and lowering my head and then giving her my puppy dog look. That worked a couple of times and she rubbed my head and told me what a good boy I was (ahem, doesn't she know that at 9 years of age I am quite grown up?). Then she started to insist that I not do my puppy dog impression and was mumbling on about how Heather had told her that I was just taking the micky; so I decided that I'd do my strong stallion instead. That seemed to take her back for a bit but then she actually encouraged me to go faster but by that time I was too tired and so I had to slow down. I noticed that as I slowed down she began to whistle slowly. What a weirdo. She obviously thinks I'm a budgie or something.
Well after a couple of days of whizzing in circles she spent ages brushing and combing me and then a (unnecessarily) long time putting all my togs on and so I knew that we were going to do something different. When I went out of the stable block Twiggy (love of my life, goddess of my dreams…, er back to the story) was there and did she look fab. Her carrot woman bought her a western saddle and she looked great in it with her brightly coloured saddlecloth and everything else. Anyway my carrot woman took me over to a different part of the yard and wanted me to get near to this grey thing that definitely had teeth. More particularly, I reckoned that if she wanted me to do it, I'd better not bother. Anyway, eventually someone else came over and pushed my bum a bit and the carrot woman jumped on board. With that Twiggy's carrot woman opened the yard gate and we were out of there. Yippee
I followed Twiggy down the road and there was a lot to see, horses in fields, cars, birds in hedges, dogs and bikes. I'd seen all of this before but Twiggy seemed to turn into a nervous wreck for some reason and jumped about a bit so, since I hadn't annoyed the carrot woman for a few minutes, I thought I'd join in. Didn't seem to have much effect on her though and she can really 'tut' when she gets going. Oh well.
Once we'd gone down this little road we went off on a track into the forest. Boy was it interesting in there. Lots to see and do. Some dark bits though which I wasn't sure about and some nice bright and open bits where you could see other horses coming before they were on top of you. Once we got into the forest I decided to show Twiggy what I was made of and insisted that I go in front of her even though I didn't know the way and the carrot woman was clearly clueless. I really extended my stride and walked so briskly that my little legged girlfriend had to trot a lot to keep up with me.
Since that day we've been out in the forest lots of times. We've had a few hairy moments with bike riders coming up behind me and not bothering to let me know that they are going to brush by my bum at speed - no manners some people. We've also had some yappy dogs try and bite my heels but the carrot woman soon sorted them out by shouting very sternly at their owner some words that it's not polite to use in mixed company.
So we seem to be settling down OK. I've got the food consumption thing firmly under my control with the carrot woman giving me ample stuff to eat. It's a pity she spreads my food around my stable floor rather than put it in one of those net things but it keeps me occupied when she's not around so no complaints from me.
Caron : Hair - greyer
Weight - lighter
Calories consumed - not sure as inability
to go home unless going to sleep
means I have taken up eating carrots.
Too exhausted to add much. Dougal's eating for England - half to one bale of straw per night at the moment - and the yard has had to order in more supplies just to meet his consumption demands. I'm thinking about moving him on to Hem Core as someone else has used it with good (non-edible) results.
By and large Dougal's been an angel out in the forest but an absolute devil when I've tried to mount him from either of the two (fixed) mountain blocks in the yard. Thankfully my friend Valerie had the foresight to put a small stool in my tack cupboard so that I could sit down occasionally and that's now become the Dougal mounting block. I'm working on tactics for getting him used to the fixed version.
Since I'm now riding him accusations have moved on to 'so what are you going to 'do' with him?' and 'aren't you taking him round the cross country course at the little show up the road on Friday?'. Er, 'hello' he's only just arrived in the area/with me/is it necessary to 'do' something with all horses? Personally I'd just like to chill out with him, have a chat, take him for little walks and become a friend of his first (not entirely sure that Dougal would like that but we'll see). Most recent and in fact funny accusation was 'haven't you given him a bath yet?" response "it's been raining for three days and I think he has been wet enough!".
Turn out goal posts seem to be shifting at the livery yard at the moment with the fields being shut recently because it rained - they'll never be open if that's going to be the criteria. Mmmmmm definitely something to monitor. More news in the next diary on this strange turn of events.
We're back. Apologies for not posting before but it's been a usy and tiring time.
BTW if you want to see what the big boy looks like Sue has posted a picture which you can find on the Dougal Diary days 2-8 in the general section.
Happy reading and if anyone has any good tips for getting a horse to stand near to and still at a fixed mounting block I'd really appreciate them.
Caron
Dougal: Colour: Bright Orange Bay
Weight: Nice and round
Carrots consumed - several fields
worth
It's been a busy couple of weeks what with having to slap the carrot woman into shape and all that, I'm quite worn out.
First of all we had the lunging problems with her insisting that I go round in circles. I soon cured that by turning in and lowering my head and then giving her my puppy dog look. That worked a couple of times and she rubbed my head and told me what a good boy I was (ahem, doesn't she know that at 9 years of age I am quite grown up?). Then she started to insist that I not do my puppy dog impression and was mumbling on about how Heather had told her that I was just taking the micky; so I decided that I'd do my strong stallion instead. That seemed to take her back for a bit but then she actually encouraged me to go faster but by that time I was too tired and so I had to slow down. I noticed that as I slowed down she began to whistle slowly. What a weirdo. She obviously thinks I'm a budgie or something.
Well after a couple of days of whizzing in circles she spent ages brushing and combing me and then a (unnecessarily) long time putting all my togs on and so I knew that we were going to do something different. When I went out of the stable block Twiggy (love of my life, goddess of my dreams…, er back to the story) was there and did she look fab. Her carrot woman bought her a western saddle and she looked great in it with her brightly coloured saddlecloth and everything else. Anyway my carrot woman took me over to a different part of the yard and wanted me to get near to this grey thing that definitely had teeth. More particularly, I reckoned that if she wanted me to do it, I'd better not bother. Anyway, eventually someone else came over and pushed my bum a bit and the carrot woman jumped on board. With that Twiggy's carrot woman opened the yard gate and we were out of there. Yippee
I followed Twiggy down the road and there was a lot to see, horses in fields, cars, birds in hedges, dogs and bikes. I'd seen all of this before but Twiggy seemed to turn into a nervous wreck for some reason and jumped about a bit so, since I hadn't annoyed the carrot woman for a few minutes, I thought I'd join in. Didn't seem to have much effect on her though and she can really 'tut' when she gets going. Oh well.
Once we'd gone down this little road we went off on a track into the forest. Boy was it interesting in there. Lots to see and do. Some dark bits though which I wasn't sure about and some nice bright and open bits where you could see other horses coming before they were on top of you. Once we got into the forest I decided to show Twiggy what I was made of and insisted that I go in front of her even though I didn't know the way and the carrot woman was clearly clueless. I really extended my stride and walked so briskly that my little legged girlfriend had to trot a lot to keep up with me.
Since that day we've been out in the forest lots of times. We've had a few hairy moments with bike riders coming up behind me and not bothering to let me know that they are going to brush by my bum at speed - no manners some people. We've also had some yappy dogs try and bite my heels but the carrot woman soon sorted them out by shouting very sternly at their owner some words that it's not polite to use in mixed company.
So we seem to be settling down OK. I've got the food consumption thing firmly under my control with the carrot woman giving me ample stuff to eat. It's a pity she spreads my food around my stable floor rather than put it in one of those net things but it keeps me occupied when she's not around so no complaints from me.
Caron : Hair - greyer
Weight - lighter
Calories consumed - not sure as inability
to go home unless going to sleep
means I have taken up eating carrots.
Too exhausted to add much. Dougal's eating for England - half to one bale of straw per night at the moment - and the yard has had to order in more supplies just to meet his consumption demands. I'm thinking about moving him on to Hem Core as someone else has used it with good (non-edible) results.
By and large Dougal's been an angel out in the forest but an absolute devil when I've tried to mount him from either of the two (fixed) mountain blocks in the yard. Thankfully my friend Valerie had the foresight to put a small stool in my tack cupboard so that I could sit down occasionally and that's now become the Dougal mounting block. I'm working on tactics for getting him used to the fixed version.
Since I'm now riding him accusations have moved on to 'so what are you going to 'do' with him?' and 'aren't you taking him round the cross country course at the little show up the road on Friday?'. Er, 'hello' he's only just arrived in the area/with me/is it necessary to 'do' something with all horses? Personally I'd just like to chill out with him, have a chat, take him for little walks and become a friend of his first (not entirely sure that Dougal would like that but we'll see). Most recent and in fact funny accusation was 'haven't you given him a bath yet?" response "it's been raining for three days and I think he has been wet enough!".
Turn out goal posts seem to be shifting at the livery yard at the moment with the fields being shut recently because it rained - they'll never be open if that's going to be the criteria. Mmmmmm definitely something to monitor. More news in the next diary on this strange turn of events.