Levi

[Feawen]

I feel your pain on the poop in the water feeder lol
My two love to aim into their water buckets.......and always when I do my last check at night - dark, cold etc. Indeed, why do we like them so much?!

He was very indignant that he had no clean water, he kept bobbing his head at the auto-waterer and looking at me pointedly. As though I were responsible.

Lots of people have that happen on adjustable saddles, if you go with one it's worth putting lock-tight on the screws once you have the right fit, makes them harder to get out to change the gullet but it's worth it IMO.

Thanks Jessey, I will look into that if I get another adjustable saddle! I wouldn’t trust this one again no matter what anyone did to it. Its twisted now, I don’t know if that’s related to the loose screw incident or not, but I’m pretty confident I would have noticed when I first looked at it as I checked it wasn’t uneven.

Here is Levi with his hot water bottle for a bit of light relief

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

He is a lucky boy. I hope he is soon better. In the meantime, enjoy the long reining. It's my favourite thing to do with a horse!

 

[Feawen]

He is a lucky boy. I hope he is soon better. In the meantime, enjoy the long reining. It's my favourite thing to do with a horse!

Thank you . He was a very good boy for his first go at long reining yesterday. Just very basic stuff, getting him used to the lines with my partner leading him, then introducing stop, start, turns. I remember doing this with D and it was a much more explosive experience!

We went out for an in-hand hack this morning, and I am off to borrow my mum’s horse for a ridden hack this afternoon.

 

[Trewsers]

Aw bless, that's a nice hot water bottle! I remember J needing one on the advice of the back lady. He didn't like his though!

 

[Feawen]

We had another visit from the physio on Saturday. She said that Levi’s back was much better, and she was able to do more work on him because he wasn’t so sore as last time.

We are going to spend another six weeks on ground work to try to build some muscle and help him be a bit more even before fitting a saddle to him. I have been given a few gentle lifting and stretching exercises to do with him, and he is to do plenty of long-reining, lunging in two lines, pole work, and continue his in-hand “hacks” until the physio/fitter comes back in January, to re asses and hopefully fit a saddle.

Although it will still be a while before I’m back on board, I’m so relieved that he has improved, and I’m looking forward to teaching him clever things from the ground.

Here is Levi totally rocking his second try at long-reining! We did starts, stops, turns and circles in the outdoor school, walked around the yard and a little 5min loop on a path, and then into the indoor school and around in both directions. Steering is a work-in-progress - he reliably turns when I ask now, but sometimes we over- or undershoot what I was aiming for! But he is picking it up so quickly and showed a big improvement in the session

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

OMG he is so handsome. And it looks as if he has a lovely l o o o n g walk

 

[Bodshi]

OMG he is so handsome. And it looks as if he has a lovely l o o o n g walk

Agreed - he's so lush.

Glad his back is on the mend and I'm sure the next six weeks will be a really good for getting to know each other. I'm really envious actually. I have 'new mum' envy lol.

 

[newforest]

Another fan of longreining. I still do it, mixed in with lunging.
For lunging on a circle I throw my outside line across her, it just works for her as it seems to get caught up in her tail.

 

[Feawen]

I haven’t been able to access this site for days - just keep getting an “oops” message. And now I’m online, I need to go out to the stables in a few minutes! Thank you for your comments and I will post an update soon

 

[Feawen]

Troublesome Levi!

Levi has escalated his automatic waterer pooping shenanigans. He did it every day for a week last week. He now has a water bucket in his stable, as we were worried about him going too long without clean water overnight. He did, once, poop in the bucket as well, but fortunately seems not to have repeated that experiment.

He also brought himself in from the field one day last week. All the horses had a mad moment cantering around, and Levi misjudged his stopping distance at the gate (which fortunately is only electric fencing with safety hooks) and slid right through it. He headed straight back to his stable, luckily.

I am hoping he didn’t really understand what opened the gate as he hasn’t tried (or at least succeeded!) again. Given that he can undo the bolts on stable doors, untie a quick release knot and turn taps on, though, I am worried he will eventually work out the gate as well.

He has been pretty good to handle generally. We have built on his long-reining to introduce lunging on two lines, which was the exercise most recommended by the physio. He has also been doing some pole-work, including walking over sets of raised poles. The first one I asked him to step over, he stopped in front of it, reached down with his nose, nudged the pole off its little stand and stepped over once it was flat on the floor. Much easier!

He has been a bit more on his toes in the wet and windy weather we’ve been having. He has a quick spook, but the nice thing is he spooks, stops and looks, rather than spooking and running away.

My old boy was very clever in the sense that he was trainable and responsive, learning new things with little repetition. But Levi is a different kind of clever – he solves problems by manipulating objects, and is very communicative. It took him seconds to learn how to use a treat ball, and his opening, undoing, pole shoving antics are all further examples. If he doesn’t want his rug on, he’ll reach around and use his nose to flip it off over his back before I do it up. He opens his grooming box looking for interesting things if I leave it near him, and takes all the brushes out to play with them.

Sometimes it’s hard to know where to draw the line between encouraging him to be confident and inquisitive, and reminding him to be mannerly.

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

The first one I asked him to step over, he stopped in front of it, reached down with his nose, nudged the pole off its little stand and stepped over once it was flat on the floor.

Sometimes it’s hard to know where to draw the line between encouraging him to be confident and inquisitive, and reminding him to be mannerly.

He sounds absolutely wonderful, and I hope you go on letting him find outlets for his creativity. If all else fails you can train him to be a circus horse!

I laughed like a drain at the pole....

 

[Feawen]

He sounds absolutely wonderful, and I hope you go on letting him find outlets for his creativity. If all else fails you can train him to be a circus horse!

I laughed like a drain at the pole....

He is great fun to have around! Luckily I didn’t want a show jumper.

Starting to get the idea of changes of flexion on the long reins. This is session 3:

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

Oh very nice position!

 

[newforest]

Mine unties herself, easily fixed that. I never worried about her opening gates, she just used to plough right through them!

 

[OwnedbyChanter]

Oh he looks fab. I had the same with my adjustable hacking saddle I noticed the screw had gone yesterday not sure when it went. But pretty sure it was after I removed it to bring home fir cleaning. Luckily it is not a saddle I use a lot.

 

[Feawen]

I am really surprised how common the issue with the screw on adjustable saddles seems to be. Also that it has significantly damaged my horse when lots of others seem to get away with it (though I’m glad others have t had the same trouble of course!). The saddle I have looks twisted to me when it definitely didn’t when I first got it, so maybe there is something else going on with it. Since it won’t be used again I’m quite tempted to dissect it!

I have posted in the care section about Levi’s filled hind legs, but I’ll mention it here for my reference. They were maybe slightly puffy on Sunday and apparently a bit worse Monday and then huge yesterday so of course I called the vet. Then they went down dramatically while he was out in the field this morning.

The vet seemed to think it was mostly likely due to him standing still too much. However, the swelling didn’t go down with turnout on Monday or lots of hand walking yesterday, so I’m not quite convinced yet, even though they did go down while he was out today. He has also always lived in - he gets much, much more turnout now than in his previous home, though he doesn’t go out every day. If it’s related to being stabled it’s odd that it has happened now.

Anyway, the vet has taken some blood samples to test for a few other options, including infection and low protein levels.

If turnout is the solution then I have another problem! Remember I said he had accidentally popped the gate of his field open but I didn’t think he knew how he’d done it?

He now brings himself in from the field when he’s had enough. Just goes straight through the gateway. I now owe several of those springy electric fence closures that he has broken.

Had a chat with the yard manager and owner today, who have been very kind and helpful considering the behaviour of my demon-horse, and have agreed he can go out for part of every day in a different field with a 5 bar gate on it.

Hopefully daily but not-all-day turnout will be better for his legs than sometimes going out and sometimes not, and also help him settle in the field better. Though he hates being out in bad weather.

Oh he looks fab.

Don’t be taken in by his adorable face! So far his only clear benefit is that he gives nice whiskery kisses. The cons list is getting ever longer

 

[OwnedbyChanter]

My TB's legs fill when in over night so he has theramatex leg wraps on every night and they really help. If someone is helping me out by bringing in or turning out the wraps don't get put on and you can see the filling straight away. He is turned out from 6-6 everyday after an hour or so out they are back to normal.

I hope they don't find anything to bad and it is just lack of protein even through I have never heard of that before.

 

[Feawen]

Levi’s legs were fine tonight, but then they have been bandaged except while he was out. YM’s bandaging is a thing of beauty! Mine are adequate, I get the tension alright etc, but hers matched to the millimetre with the Velcro perfectly positioned.

Levi did 25mins lovely schooling on two lines, looking absolutely sound and moving well. I wish I had some photos as he looked super (might be biased!).

 

[Feawen]

My TB's legs fill when in over night so he has theramatex leg wraps on every night and they really help. If someone is helping me out by bringing in or turning out the wraps don't get put on and you can see the filling straight away. He is turned out from 6-6 everyday after an hour or so out they are back to normal.

I hope they don't find anything to bad and it is just lack of protein even through I have never heard of that before.

I will try some wraps I think - I’m a bit wary of bandaging as it can do harm if not done correctly. At the moment I think he needs the support but hopefully something a bit quicker and easier to put on will do the job later!

 

[Feawen]

Hello and Merry Christmas! Had a quick call from the vet on Christmas Eve to say Levi has high inflammatory factors including raised liver enzymes. She has prescribed anti-inflammatories and a liver tonic.

We don’t know for certain what caused these issues, the vet said it could have been a virus but we don’t know for sure, or which one, given that he’s had no other specific symptoms. I understand the idea is to support him and help reduce inflammation while he continues fighting off whatever is going on. He’ll have another blood test in a couple of weeks to check things are improving.

I’m a bit surprised as he seems very well in himself, but in a way I’m glad something has come up, as I felt that there was more to it than stocking up. It was the vet’s most likely answer, but it didn’t really add up with what I know of his history and current management.

I’m continuing to work him from the ground, which he seems happy to do, and I don’t want to stop the programme of work the physio recommended for his back unless I absolutely have to.

Here he is lunging on two lines:

Left trot:



left canter:



a half halt and release:




stretching down:



We did some right canter as well but I don’t have a picture that isn’t impossibly blurry, so haven’t posted. I’m really pleased with how much he has learnt in the course of a few weeks.