Whatanejit
29th Aug 2006, 08:56 PM
August 2006
I just thought I would update you on my share horse May and as I have learned so much about her fill you in on her recent past.
Well I have been sharing May officially since the month of May – 4 months now. How time has flown.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/MayDee.png
It started off tentatively as she was recovering from a period of being unshod with a Strasser Trim and was extremely sore footed, she was grossly overweight and had about 3 aunties (including me) and one Mum all of whom were having a say in how May was to be looked after, exercised etc.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/Maycloseup.png
I won’t go into the ‘gossipy’ details here but just lets say that I was tempted to run a mile on several occasions because of the human involvement and not the poor horse.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/Mayyawn1.png
We are not sure of May’s early life experience but know that at the age of 8 she was bought by the RDA for £2,500. She was a well schooled, forward going cob who loved to jump.
She didn’t take to RDA life well and soon became extremely badly behaved and hard to handle. She frequently reared when handled on the ground and quickly became a very NON RDA pony!
In the meantime one of the volunteers fell in love with her chestnut maerish cheekiness and after a lot of thought she decided to buy May – her current Mum J.
She only paid £750.00, didn’t get her vetted and took on a hip injury that occurred in the trailer as May was transferred from old owner to the RDA.
Now J has had horses on and off since she was 6 so knew what she was taking on but adult life and time were soon to be a problem.
May settled well in her new field with 24hr turnout and plenty of company.
She had easy access onto Epsom Downs and frequently went out hacking in large groups of other horses sharing the field. This didn’t happen quite enough, though and May’s waistline soon began to grow.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/MayJantrailer.png
J enlisted the help of Auntie no. 1 (E) to help care for May as work commitments meant that J was unable to always fulfill her duties. E, an RDA volunteer herself, soon decided that she would like to buy a horse too and soon became the proud owner of a rescued mare who bites, kicks, naps and spooks at everything – big mistake.
3 years down the line, to give E her due, she has stuck with her mare – some would say foolishly – and she is much improved but still very unpleasant. To help with her development J frequently hacked out with E and, as the others refused to hack out with E and her horse due to the bad habits she was passing onto the younger horses, it soon resulted in E’s horse and May being hacking partners.
E’s horse is a dominant mare in the field but then looses all confidence when out hacking. This soon resulted in May losing her confidence, refusing to lead EVER and napping etc.
E and J moved their horses to our current yard last October where the relationship continued.
May continued to grow, E did the DIY jobs during the week, J only rode at the weekend and once again, May grew even more.
Although E helped with the care of May, May would not let her ride her and indeed J had tried 2 other sharers in the past that May just didn’t like and wouldn’t move for – the little madam.
When we arrived at the yard with Cooper E soon adopted us and offered to take us out with her horse in front, Coops in the middle and May behind. It was so kind of her and she was so proud of the fact that her horse was now willing to lead a ride out and was given the opportunity to baby sit us.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/Maysears.png
Two things from this…………
1. We got on with J like a house on fire and she soon asked me if I would like to try May so that OH and I could ride out together – we had thought of looking for a share after about 6 months. For one to have arisen so soon was a dream come true and yet daunting at the same time.
2. E’s horse was not a good lead horse for Cooper. She napped and refused to go forward for a lot of the ride. It was on our second ride that we learned how comfortable Cooper was to go in front as OH was concerned as to what Cooper was witnessing that he gave him a gentle nudge and he took the lead. E’s horse was delighted and followed along like a lamb behind. 6 weeks later we stopped hacking out with E’s horse as Cooper had begun to mimic some of her napping.
In the meantime I tried May and she responded to me as a rider and on the ground.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/th_MayCooperSchool.jpg (http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/?action=view¤t=MayCooperSchool.flv)
She was so different from Cooper in both of these spheres.
1. Ridden. Oh my goodness she is such an armchair of a ride – a lovely comfy cob with a rocking horse canter. Compare this to our bone shaking youngster at the time. She gave me a lot of confidence in my riding and our hacking out on our own ability.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/Trec4.png
2. On the ground. Oh my goodness! A chestnut mare! What a cheeky, bolshy madam she can be. Compare that to our dog horse of a gelding. Taking her on had added a huge dimension to my experience as a horse owner / handler.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/Trec3.png
Back to her feet again.
From October last year her mum went back to a normal barefoot trim but May was still very sore. I felt cruel riding her over some of our hacking terrain and she and I were frequently covered in scratches where we hugged the grass verges tightly to stay off a stony path.
Her front feet were shod in June and after a period of letting her ‘forget’ the pain she is such a happier girl when walking out. She even wanted to canter over some hard ground only the other week – I had trouble keeping her in trot – before she would only have walked on the verges of this part of the park.
Her weight.
After succeeding in getting her on the horsewalker way back in May, and a feeding, turnout and exercise routine agreed upon between Mum and Aunties May lost weight.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/MayHW3.png
She felt brighter, more forward going and her girth shifted from three holes on each side to four holes on each side.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/MayHW2.png
TThis only lasted about 1 month, though and a few of the parties involved miscommunicated, let things slip etc. The fat comments from YOs started again and the girth was back to 3 and 3.
This was very disheartening for me and once again, due to the human interactions, I felt like running away to Cooper’s corner never to be seen in May’s barn again.
I just thought I would update you on my share horse May and as I have learned so much about her fill you in on her recent past.
Well I have been sharing May officially since the month of May – 4 months now. How time has flown.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/MayDee.png
It started off tentatively as she was recovering from a period of being unshod with a Strasser Trim and was extremely sore footed, she was grossly overweight and had about 3 aunties (including me) and one Mum all of whom were having a say in how May was to be looked after, exercised etc.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/Maycloseup.png
I won’t go into the ‘gossipy’ details here but just lets say that I was tempted to run a mile on several occasions because of the human involvement and not the poor horse.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/Mayyawn1.png
We are not sure of May’s early life experience but know that at the age of 8 she was bought by the RDA for £2,500. She was a well schooled, forward going cob who loved to jump.
She didn’t take to RDA life well and soon became extremely badly behaved and hard to handle. She frequently reared when handled on the ground and quickly became a very NON RDA pony!
In the meantime one of the volunteers fell in love with her chestnut maerish cheekiness and after a lot of thought she decided to buy May – her current Mum J.
She only paid £750.00, didn’t get her vetted and took on a hip injury that occurred in the trailer as May was transferred from old owner to the RDA.
Now J has had horses on and off since she was 6 so knew what she was taking on but adult life and time were soon to be a problem.
May settled well in her new field with 24hr turnout and plenty of company.
She had easy access onto Epsom Downs and frequently went out hacking in large groups of other horses sharing the field. This didn’t happen quite enough, though and May’s waistline soon began to grow.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/MayJantrailer.png
J enlisted the help of Auntie no. 1 (E) to help care for May as work commitments meant that J was unable to always fulfill her duties. E, an RDA volunteer herself, soon decided that she would like to buy a horse too and soon became the proud owner of a rescued mare who bites, kicks, naps and spooks at everything – big mistake.
3 years down the line, to give E her due, she has stuck with her mare – some would say foolishly – and she is much improved but still very unpleasant. To help with her development J frequently hacked out with E and, as the others refused to hack out with E and her horse due to the bad habits she was passing onto the younger horses, it soon resulted in E’s horse and May being hacking partners.
E’s horse is a dominant mare in the field but then looses all confidence when out hacking. This soon resulted in May losing her confidence, refusing to lead EVER and napping etc.
E and J moved their horses to our current yard last October where the relationship continued.
May continued to grow, E did the DIY jobs during the week, J only rode at the weekend and once again, May grew even more.
Although E helped with the care of May, May would not let her ride her and indeed J had tried 2 other sharers in the past that May just didn’t like and wouldn’t move for – the little madam.
When we arrived at the yard with Cooper E soon adopted us and offered to take us out with her horse in front, Coops in the middle and May behind. It was so kind of her and she was so proud of the fact that her horse was now willing to lead a ride out and was given the opportunity to baby sit us.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/Maysears.png
Two things from this…………
1. We got on with J like a house on fire and she soon asked me if I would like to try May so that OH and I could ride out together – we had thought of looking for a share after about 6 months. For one to have arisen so soon was a dream come true and yet daunting at the same time.
2. E’s horse was not a good lead horse for Cooper. She napped and refused to go forward for a lot of the ride. It was on our second ride that we learned how comfortable Cooper was to go in front as OH was concerned as to what Cooper was witnessing that he gave him a gentle nudge and he took the lead. E’s horse was delighted and followed along like a lamb behind. 6 weeks later we stopped hacking out with E’s horse as Cooper had begun to mimic some of her napping.
In the meantime I tried May and she responded to me as a rider and on the ground.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/th_MayCooperSchool.jpg (http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/?action=view¤t=MayCooperSchool.flv)
She was so different from Cooper in both of these spheres.
1. Ridden. Oh my goodness she is such an armchair of a ride – a lovely comfy cob with a rocking horse canter. Compare this to our bone shaking youngster at the time. She gave me a lot of confidence in my riding and our hacking out on our own ability.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/Trec4.png
2. On the ground. Oh my goodness! A chestnut mare! What a cheeky, bolshy madam she can be. Compare that to our dog horse of a gelding. Taking her on had added a huge dimension to my experience as a horse owner / handler.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/Trec3.png
Back to her feet again.
From October last year her mum went back to a normal barefoot trim but May was still very sore. I felt cruel riding her over some of our hacking terrain and she and I were frequently covered in scratches where we hugged the grass verges tightly to stay off a stony path.
Her front feet were shod in June and after a period of letting her ‘forget’ the pain she is such a happier girl when walking out. She even wanted to canter over some hard ground only the other week – I had trouble keeping her in trot – before she would only have walked on the verges of this part of the park.
Her weight.
After succeeding in getting her on the horsewalker way back in May, and a feeding, turnout and exercise routine agreed upon between Mum and Aunties May lost weight.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/MayHW3.png
She felt brighter, more forward going and her girth shifted from three holes on each side to four holes on each side.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f270/Whatanejit/MayHW2.png
TThis only lasted about 1 month, though and a few of the parties involved miscommunicated, let things slip etc. The fat comments from YOs started again and the girth was back to 3 and 3.
This was very disheartening for me and once again, due to the human interactions, I felt like running away to Cooper’s corner never to be seen in May’s barn again.