Friday 26 February 2010

Rafikis update

Hi All,
Rafiki here - just thought I would update everyone on my progress with my dodgy back leg. It is now just over a week since I had my steroid injections into the hock joint. I have been resting nicely in my stables - other than one day when the temptation of a bit of hay outside my door was too much and I ran off over the wheelbarrow to eat it and had a trot round the yard. No-one seems to understand how hungry I am! This diet nonsense is awful!
Anyway.... where was I..... Oh yes.... I got my injections just over a week ago and then Jason the farrier came on Thursday to put my graduated heel shoes on my back feet. Very fancy I say! - they're like pretty lady high heels, and everyone tells me that heels make you look taller and slimmer - so they're a great idea in my book.
Apparently they are helping a bit as I was resting my left hind leg all the time in the stable, but as soon as the new shoes went on I was putting weight on both legs evenly - I hadn't really noticed to be honest, but I guess a girl should make the most of her Jimmy Choos!
For everyone who is keeping up to date and wants to know the costs of what I've had done so far, I'll be posting about it early next week as I need a couple of days with my calculator to work out how much the shoes cost, how much the injections cost and how much all the extra time I get to spend with that nice man that everyone calls "vet" cost.
For now,
Rafiki

Monday 22 February 2010

Rafikis legs

Rafiki is having some trouble with her hind legs at the moment. We have decided to keep a running report on what Rafiki has done, with costs included to allow our members a chance to understand the type of work that goes into keeping a horse sound.
Rafikis problems began in September 2009 when she went lame behind. Once the vet had looked at her, we agreed that the best option was to turn her away to grass for three months and see if there was any improvement. She improved quite a bit over her time off and was brought back in the middle of February, with one of our staff taking her into work lightly. After a week of walk work, Rafiki went lame behind again.
We then had the vet out to look at her again and had x rays taken of her left hock (joint in her back leg). The x-rays showed that Rafiki had bone spavins in the hock (like athritis).
At this point we then have to discuss the matter at length with the vet as this diagnosis means Rafiki will never be able to do jumping work in the future.
Rafiki is also slightly more complicated than your average horse as she suffers from a serious problem with her weight - even out in the winter in the snow, she manages to get fat on air alone, so retiring her to no work at grass is not an option.
We have therefore decided to have the vet treat Rafiki with steroid injections into her hock, and follow it up with hand made shoes (graduated heels) from our farrier.
We are now at the difficult stage where we have to wait and see what improvement we can get from the treatment before deciding how to proceed with Rafiki.
We have always agreed that our school horses will be looked after to the end of their days at the farm, so although selling an unsound horse on for a relatively small sum of money to a dealer is a possibility, it is not one that we are willing to consider for Rafiki. We will hopefully get her sound enough that she can do light hacking and some slower school work with a member, which allows her to enter semi retirement without getting too fat. However we'll keep you posted.
We also intend to put photos up on the blog soon of her fancy shoes being hand made, so keep an eye out for it.

Monday 15 February 2010

Rafikis guide to falling off

Hi all,
Rafiki here - I'm laid up on box rest at the moment as my hocks (joints in back legs) are giving me grief with athritis, so Mr. Vet is a busy man taking photos of my hocks and coming to put something called "steroids" into them - Sid has been telling me that steroids will make me big and muscley - but I already am big and muscley!!
So anyway, I've been having a think about what I can add to the blog... and I've decided to do a piece on how to fall off! Us horses and ponies sometimes get a right old laugh at you lot lying on the ground when you're still meant to be on our backs, so we thought we'd give you some tips!
  • TRY TO STAY ON. This may seem obvious, but its important! If you feel you are losing your balance, try to concentrate on relaxing as much as possible and finding the middle of the saddle - the taller you sit, the more chances you have of staying on!

  • DON'T SCREAM OR SHOUT! If you are falling off - try to stay calm. The fall from trot is likely to be a nice gentle fall - if you start screaming you are likely to fall from a gallop - which hurts a lot. Us horses like nice calm people and if you suddenly scream you can frighten us.

  • DON'T TRY TO HANG ON TO US - If you fall off - protect yourself. Us horses are very good at looking after ourselves and in the indoor school, once loose we will normally wander happily over to the instructor or another horse. If you try to hang on to our reins once you have fallen off, you can hurt your arm - or our mouth!

  • ROLL OUT OF THE WAY - Don't try to use us to break your fall - we are moving machinery! We will continue moving and not notice you are in our way, so the best thing you can do is think about tucking yourself into a ball and rolling away.

  • GET BACK ON - The saying really is true - you need to get back on the horse! Obviously if you have hurt yourself, this is not sensible, but in most cases where you are unhurt, getting back on quickly is the best thing to do if the instructor advises it.

  • REMEMBER "THESE THINGS HAPPEN" - It is not anyones "fault" (particularly us horses!). Riding is a sport which involves you trying to learn to stay on us horses. This will inevitably result in you getting it wrong sometimes as you learn and parting company with us. It is the same as falling down skiing/missing a goal/playing a wrong note. It is even more difficult to learn to do as we are horses with a mind of our own!

Thats all for now.

Rafiki

Monday 8 February 2010

Hello from "Sir Charlie Fox"

Hello everyone - Sir Charlie Fox here. I'm getting to write a blog as I'm the new chap on the yard and as I'm in isolation at the moment, I've got a bit of spare time to be writing stuff. I came up from Carlisle on Thursday and spent my first three days in the field with Aero just recovering from my trip and getting lots of nice food to eat. The staff tried to catch me in yesterday but I wasn't having any of that - I ran off round the field! So they went up today with lots of feed and I caught quite happily then - I just wanted some treats!
I got ridden today in walk/trot and canter and Sally says I'm a nice chap. I'm well schooled and happy to do most things on both reins. I'm a little bit unfit because I need to put weight on and get some muscle, but apparently that will get better as the staff take me into work.
They've told me all about Pumba, who apparently was a brilliant school horse, and it seems I'm meant to replace her. I'm a bit nervous about replacing her as she was so popular with the staff and customers, but I'll try my hardest!
So you'll need to look out for me soon appearing in a lesson!
Thats all I've got to say for today.
"Sir Charlie Fox".

Sunday 7 February 2010

Whos the foal?


Hi all - Miro here. Just thought I'd let you in on a little secret. Lots of people were wondering who the cute little foal on our blog is - quite a few people thought it was Aria, but no it's me! The photo was me as a foal just after I was born and long before my mum Sally came and bought me. I'm a bit bigger now though so you may not have recognised me! Here I am on the left now as a big grown up - not quite so little and cute, but I'm hoping that I'm working the "handsome" look.

Friday 5 February 2010

Welcome "Sir Charlie Fox"

Us horses and ponies got a new pal yesterday - his name is "Sir Charlie Fox" no less! We've already decided that he's going to have to get used to getting called Charlie as there is no way us lot can manage that mouthful! We suspect he may be a bit posh before someone has given him that great long name - but we'll soon sort that out when he joins us all in the field!
He's living in a field at the back of the farm just now with good old Aero, just in case he has any bugs with him that we don't want the other horses catching - this is standard practice when we take a new horse onto the yard.
He is a 16h.h. 12 yr old coloured gelding who has previously done a bit of everything in a private home and we are hoping he will be a fitting replacement for our beloved Pumba who we lost at the start of the year to colic. He has enormous shoes to fit if he is going to be as good as Pumba, but he has a lovely nature which is a good start. He'll come in to be ridden by a member of staff tomorrow and then start a bit more intensive work towards going into lessons once he recovers from his trip up here and puts on a little bit of weight. Aero is showing him how to behave by standing at the hay bale with him and making sure he doesn't go hungry!

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Equine language

Hi Everyone. Sid here.
I have to confess, it gets a bit boring being a horse and not being able to speak English to people. I'm a very wise old chap and have seen a lot of people learn to ride so I thought I'd go through a few common statements that the instructors make, to be sure that you guys are all clear on what they actually mean.

"Shorten up your reins" - this normally means that the reins (one of the ways you tell us horses what to do) are too long. Liken this to trying to drive without holding your steering wheel - slightly scary for both you and the instructor! Steering obviously works better if you can actually tell us horses what you want.

"Put your leg on" - Dont' worry - this doesn't mean your leg has fallen off. It means to put your leg against our side. Leg that is - not heel. A kick from a heel is uncomfortable and will put us horses in a bad mood - even if it is a nice new expensive heeled boot that you are very proud of and feel that you should "wear in" to look a bit more horsey.

"Sit up.... Sit up..... SIT UP....!!!" This cry from an instructor often comes when they sense you may be in danger. This may be from a) Us horses going slightly faster than you intended, often round a corner. b) Your bottom being a considerable distance away from its desired location - the saddle or c) Any situation where your face is too close to the horses ears/head.

"Why don't you try Daisy, rather than Ferrari" - this may well be the instructors polite way of keeping you safe. Whilst Ferrari may be a beautiful, black, enormous, snorting powerful looking horse, you may need to realise that quiet, hairy, sweet (if a little lethargic) Daisy is more suited to your current ability and coordination.

"OOOhhhhh.... that wasn't a very big jump was it?" - this is normally mumbled quietly from the red faced, slightly-out-of-breath instructor who is giving you a leg up onto your horse. A leg up is as described.... Jump on the count of three. Hanging there, waiting for some kind of power lift to the saddle can result in a fairly tired instructor.

"Sid prefers the left rein" - this one is saved especially for me. It means that I am a fly old thing. Whilst I am the patron saint of all riding school horses, I do Riding for the Disabled, I do beginner lessons and I star in the panto each year... I am not shy to take the mickey. I do indeed prefer the left rein and if you ride me with long reins and not much direction whilst travelling right, I will just turn left when the opportunity arises. This can result in a rather embarrassing moment if you are lead file and then suddenly find yourself looking round at the rest of the riders that you are meant to be leading round the school.

Right, I think thats enough for you humans just now..... I'll be back soon with some more tips and translations.
Wow! Isn't this exciting! A new blog....... specially for us horses and ponies! This blog will be updated regularly so you'll need to keep checking back to see whats happening at ARC in the future. Us horses and ponies are going to write the blog... none of that nonsense written by the staff as we know much better whats going on at the stables.
The blog will be a combination of things - funny stories that have happened to us, news about whats coming up, notices to members and photos.
So we're going to start with some exciting news - we have a new horse friend arriving tomorrow! Although we don't know what his name is yet! He is black and white, 16h.h., 12 yr old and is a boy. He has done lots of unaffiliated competing and has been in the same home since he was a 5 yr old, so when he arrives he will be isolated at the back of the farm to make sure he doesn't have any diseases he could pass onto us lovely horses and ponies, and will then start training with the staff and joining lessons.
We're also saying goodbye to Noah this week as he leaves to move onto pastures new. Noah has been with us since he was a yearling and is now a big strapping four year old. He is a bit too sharp to join the riding school when he is older, so he'll go on to a private competititve home now to make room for the new boy.
We'll update with the new horses name once we've all gotten to know him and let you guys know a bit more about what he's like.
Thats all for now!
ARC horses and ponies.