Our Gang 2017

another busy weekend, Gem ridden both daysin field and hacked out Sunday - coming on nicely- Devon was wth us on Sunday so he did some inhand work and groomed Nuts and then had a walk round the field on Gem with daughter leading as a treat - she was good although not sure what was going on. farrier came today and both Acorn and charlie trimmed both okay, others will be check on next 4 week visit - Nuts will ne done next time , Tess normally goes 12 weeks but will be checked, we don,t know yet with Gem, she is getting roadwork so will be checked and balanced if needs be - she may go the 12 with Tess, farriwe is good will check and only tim if he feels it necessary.
 
what glorious weather Gem worked both days and a loveley hack out on Sunday - she met Farm traffic today and no reaction at all, shes getting better with water evidently the large puddles still hanging around due to faulty drains in village only hold monsters on her return from a hack - she is leg yielding now really well on one rein and coming on nicely on the other = she is also now stretching on both reins as her muscle develops and subsequent bending is now balanced on both reins, She is schooled 4 times a week in Walk - concentrating on balance exercises so plenty of transitions halt to walk, half halts and leg yields - some transitions walk to trot, trot is mainly reserved for hacking out on Hill work and today in open stubble building up her general muscle tone and stamina - shes fitter and lighter and going off the leg - very quick to learn.

Charlie is doing well and is npw long reining and walking out 5 times a wewk as recommended by the backlady, Acorn is now out long reining and is a little star - long may it last :)

Nuts is fine, all of them have their winter coat coming in Tess has never really been without bless her = she has a sore on her hind leg which we are keeping an eye on, skin not broken but applying miracle cream twice a day.- gave her tail a good comb through looks like a wash tomorrow - same with Gem.
 
Limited work this weekend and week due to weather - ~Gem had a couple of short rides out, road, track (new) and stubble fields - the route included the track with water from edge to edge, her dislike of water has been getting better but this gave her no option, she went straight through it little madam, so its only got monsters when it suits.

Gem and Tess have been getting access to the winter field over night as nothing left on their paddock now and Tess struggling with her weight again, Gem loves the freedom of the bigger field and spends a lot time running and exploring as well as eating - one seems to be compensating for the other but will keep an eye on her weight.

weightaped all of them at the weekend , ~Tess and Charlie underweight so dealing with that , ~Gem is fine , Nuts in more than fine she is now 150kg ( a long way from the 300+ she came at) and Acorn is under his normal at 147kg.
Coats are well on their way in now, fields are just starting to get tacky due to being kept short but have opened them up now so more area to move around in.
 
Farrier rebooked for this Sunday - cancelled last week due to illness - weather set to be dry which is good as they are done in the field and rain will mean extra muddy feet, despite attempts to clean off before he arrives.
Its nots been great weather this week so they have not worked at all - half the village has been closed off due to drainage works for 6 weeks meaning its bedlam on the detour route to the field, single track country lane with vehicles trying to go both ways and only way in/out to the EC in the village - should make interesting hacking out at the weekend, the signs are okay going out coming back in they are monsters but heyho she has to get used to them.

they are all getting their woollies now, Tess is holding weight better now she has access to the winter field and extra grazing, Gem is still bounding about the winter field which is helping keep hers down, she makes us laugh as she comes over all confident but is not when Tess is not in the same field as her - I think she finds the bullocks behind the hedge in the next door pasture a bit daunting and uses Tess as a bit of a security blanket. we have a bit of a battle on a night when I let them through as Tess won't go through until Gem has finished running around and Gem won't stop running around and relax until Tess goes through a bit of a catch 22, no doubt it will sort itself out, just have to make sure you are out of the way as she is a full pelt gallop between both sections until Tess decides she will go in - its her way or no way at her age and Gem is going to have to learn.
 
Lovely sunny day - hay in this morning so 1 tick off list - farrier has been- all trimmed execept Tess who was fine -he found an abcess on Charlies off side rear - on Toe still draining so poultice for a few days - no pain or lameness so was obviuosly sti;ll maturing - hes happily running round the field. Gem was hacked out yesterday - shes napping going out but fine on way backi - testing us littlemadam - not nasty just trying it on.
 
half decent weekend, good day on Saturday so Gem was hacked out, we tackled the napping and daughters hubby walked behind with the driving whip, showed her it if she stopped with daughter giving a tap on shoulder and reinforced with leg, a few stops and then she seemed to get the message, the rest of the ride was good - Gem by name and by nature for the most.

Charlie's abscess seems to have drained , packed it yesterday morning , will take the wrap off tonight, spray and leave off - it Peed it down yesterday, the fields are trashing quick at standing points now and we have the puddles, checked the pond in the winter field and there is water starting to gather in the bottom a few more days of rain and it will start to fill - at that point the girls including Nuts will go in there full time, will then sort out the summer paddocks and change the fencing around and the boys can go in together in the best area to allow the rest of the paddocks to rest - if all goes to plan the boys will follow the girls into the winter field possibly December some point and the 3 girls will go into the 2 acres that Farmer allows us on until spring, at which point we come back down and the 2 acres is rolled, harrowed and grown for hay, it worked well last year - the ponies eat all the rubbish off for him and naturally fertilise the field so win alround,
 
All okay up at the field, a bit of drama as the filly next door decided she wants the grass at our side and almost bent the wooden fencing over with the tap attached , temporary fix and next door are going to put some support posts in today, they are going to re fence that section next spring - its a section ours are not on other than Tess to eat it down now and again but was more worried about the water supply being damaged.

Gem was hacked out on sunday, No Napping - so the walking behind and showing the driving whip seems to have done the trick, quick learner only the one session and a handful of shows of the whip and shes remembered.

She has now decided the white lines and sharks teeth on the road are monsters, even though she has seen them on every hack so far - so they had to be looked at and carefully checked and stepped over, until a timely tickle with the schooling whip gave her something else to think about - then it was the bikes which she decided where not so good after all, gentle reminder again - puddles are ongoing the small ones are now fine the big ones are bottomless pits which obviously if she walks through she is going to disappear - trying it on as napping not an option little madam :)

Once she settled daughter reported she is much more responsive and balanced, can't wait to get the harbridge on, it got lost in the post so waiting for a replacement to be delivered!
 
lovely weekend, Nuts has been put in with Tess & Gem and Acorn is now in with Charlie - the shetland [addocks are now freed up for riding - hopefully they will last now little feet are off it.

The Harbridge arrived, she was ridden in it , not tightened up but enough for her to feel the pressure and lower to release it - she handled it very well and by the end of the session was responding as we had hoped.

Sunday we tokk it up a hole encourage her down slightly - again a really pleasing session, she is showing more balance and we had a couple of lovely trots with her tracking up, she was taken for a short hack afterwards in it - no problems - she was tsken round the drainage.road works which have closed the road other than a small path through them full of barriers and signs - all in her stride. a pic from today - next wekkend we will take the aid up one again we want to encourage her outline sympathetically so it will only tighten once she is phyically and mentallly readyto do so - so far so good22491589_10214266019741781_5239890201634315050_n.jpg
 
Well the weekend was a very windy washout! We did manage to get the farrier on Saturday morning before the whole storm effect started, Tess, Nuts, Charlie and Acorn all done, Gem was fine as she was done last month, no issues to report.

With the gales and rain there was no chance of any meaningful work for Gem hopefully next weekend will be better.
 
We have field trashing going on big time now - looking back in previous years diary, this week is when we moved the Girls into the winter field full time, they have been in 3 weeks now but there is still no water in the pond despite the wetness of the fields - we are going to have to find a way at the weekend of getting water into the winter field to last until the pond does fill and get them off the bottom paddock otherwise there will be nothing left for the boys to move onto and their paddock is now minging near the gate , field shelter and fence line - not sure what is going on, the pond usually fills first:confused:
 
well we have had a very eventful weekend - we decided to put the girls full time into the winter field and lock out the middle paddocks so the boys could move up, in an effort to save the now trashed summer boys paddock - all seemed to go smoothly only for me to go to feed up on Sunday morning to find the fence down, Gem and Charlie in the boys field and Acorn ever the opportunist had gone over the wires on the floor into the girls field and was extremely happy about it.
Gem and Charlie seemed to get on fine - however they are both food orientated and all hell broke lose at the sight of the buckets - so fed Gem in bottom paddock, Charlie in his and Tess and the shetlands in the winter field , put ~Gem back in the winter field and left Charlie where he should be at this point I was bl**dy freezing so left Acorn in with girls and went home to report back to my daughter so the dilemma would be sorted when she came through to ride Gem.

We decided to take the plunge and put Charlie in the winter field as well and see what happened, the herd dynamics has taken a different direction, Acorn and Nuts have a strong bond and have taken it upon themselves to split and do their own thing, not one bit interested in what was happening with the others.
Tess is definitely the field boss, with the arrival of Charlie Gem has been demoted to third in command - Charlie is second in command and is teaching her where she stands, felt a bit sorry for her really as all she wants is to be friends with him and hes been a bit of a sh*t! Not sure she has been in this situation before so its a learning curve for her.

Daughter has just rung to say she got up to the field this morning they where the best of friends stood waiting at the fence, until she went with the buckets and then a repeat of yesterday, but when she left they had settled down again both following Tess around the field as she is obviously sorting them out.

Gem was off it a bit on Saturday , wet and cold and off her food, she ate up eventually but its not like her, daughter brushed her off took her for a 15 minute walk then put her no fill rug on. By night she was back to normal and gulped her food down and definitely fine Sunday with all the goings on over night where she broke the others out to freedom. Daughter rode her out on Sunday and she behaved beautifully.

So they are now settled until its time to move the girls into the 3 acre field probably December time and the boys will stay in the winter field mainly due to the amount of grazing in the other field.

The Summer paddocks will now be rested until spring and given time to recover.

~We have had frosts last few nights - winters a coming.
 
Well the herd dynamics took some resolving but we left it to Tess who knows what to do better than us, Gem was ridden out on Sunday, on her toes and full of energy but a good girl!
we have had plenty of frost and one day of torrential rain which means the ponds have started filling up in the Winter field, we are still filling the buckets up but noticed yesterday they are starting to prefer drinking from the Pond rather than the buckets, now they have settled we have delayed moving the girls over to the big field to give the herd a chance to settle even more, Charlie ended up on his final warning on Thursday following him cornering and trying to kick seven bells out of Gem and we were going to split him out of if he continued to be a pain but as signs where showing that Tess was dealing with them we left them to it - by Friday night calm was showing through and by Sunday all well. We need to be able to mix them in any manner at any given time, we split the boys from the girls in summer as in Season Mares and Charlie are not a good combination, Acorn does not really give a flying fig as long as there is food, but usually him and Nuts run to together no problem at all, but Winter is much better if we can put them together for a few months - would be all winter if we could risk the boys being on the big field but so much grazing has held us back so far, their weight is looking good, helped in part by the playing and running around involved with the younger members of the herd.
 
Charlie sign.jpg Daughters Birthday today and she has just sent me this, hubby designed and made it for her! She has a personalised Craft business as well as working fulltime and running her hubbies online business - suggested maybe they should think of adding this to their lines.........
 
Gem is getting a bit of a name for her self and not in a good way, fence trasher! we have a mound of broken poles and she is on an asbo! we have taken the boys out again and they are merrily trashing their summer paddock, Charlie had a bit of a crest following the warmer weather and a grass spurt last week which removing him has now sorted - he and Acorn are back on the hay, leaving the girls in the winter field - another week eating it down will hopefully mean the boys can move back on - we hopefully have sorted the fence issue regarding the electric side however she has now started on the permanent wire fencing between the winter field and the large field we use as that has nice long grass in - we managed to sort a small section by running electric 6 foot off it on a small section but need to get more fencing now to do the rest! of course the mound of broken poles means she has removed our stock - bless her - Tess and Nuts just keep out of it although I am sure if she manages to gain access they will take full advantage of the situation, just hoping it holds up until the weekend when we can do something with it. No riding at the weekend for various reasons, large ammounts of poo picking due to dark nights during the week - I do hate Winter~!
 
feet done on Saturday, all okay.

We walked the big field on Saturday to find the fence down in one corner, so have double Electrified it until FO can repair it, renewed some of the perimeter electric at the same time as a feed for it so no breaks one long run now so should give a good strong belt if they touch it, Tess I am sure will not be a problem, Gem on the other hand is still on her ASBO (added to for behaviour with Farrier) and if trouble to be found she no doubt will attract it.

The boys and Nuts are running together in the winter paddock which has been well eaten down, should be enough in though for them now till spring, we can move Nuts over to the Girls if needs be.

Taken some Hay up so when frosty mornings we can give them some in the winter field, shouldn't be needed for Tess and Gem unless an extended bad period.
 
Well today is the day of the 1st shoot of the season, the boys, Tess and Nuts are all used to this and no longer bat an eyelid at it, for Gem as far as we know this a first - she is in the big field with Tess and can get away from but watch all the action from the far end of the field, fingers crossed all will go smoothly............
 
Frosty mornings, icy roads, frozen water,fingers and noses- but glorious sunny days - managed to defrost the hosepipe to be spŕayed in freeing water from a burst
- Gem has her new rug on for 16 hours during which she has customised it to suit her-legstraps now gone.
 
No frost this morning, wet and windy and 7 degrees, for one day only evidently then back to freezing, wind and poss. snow.

daughter rang to say she had a tumble in the Mud this morning - a first for a while, evidently Staff Nurse Charlie was on hand and ran over and stood with her until he was sure she was okay - bless him, for all his bravado he really is a luvvy - Shetlands ignored the whole event, too busy stuffing faces.
 
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normal service resumes, bloody cold and frozen up :) set for the foreseeable now according to weather forecast.

Went up last night, all okay - Acorn decided to come through the electric fence discovered lack of green and promptly went back to the gate for me to let him back through, silly sod! hopefully now out of his system.

Hate these dark nights - roll on New year and a return to be able to see what I am doing without juggling the torch.
 
~Well first morning with no ice for a week - the snow was deep, crisp and horrendous to walk in, last Thursday night was the worst, feeding up in the dark in a blizzard, couldn't see 3" in front of me had to stand at the fence shout and wait for a horse to appear then decide who is was and which bucket to give - must admit for the first time in a long while I stood thinking WTF am I doing at 64 do I need this! then you see there little faces and I remember why :)
tomorrow we have injections for the boys and Nuts, so they are having a trip up to the yard, where they will be checked, feet done and wormed at the same time, this happens to coincide with a strengthening wind and the second shoot day of the season, the Shetlands won't give a toss but Charlie might not be too compliant with all that going on, new lady vet as well as the usual one has changed practice.
 
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