Friday 31 August 2012

Water, water everywhere

Crazy weather! Half our car park washed away last week in the monsoon conditions on the Saturday. We are ready to get the holes in the road filled in, but we need a dry day to do it, which is easier said than done!
Its been a busy few weeks at the club - we have been trying to fit everyone in for lessons as they return from their summer holidays. It is often difficult at this time of year, as a few children who have reached secondary age can no longer manage 4p.m. lessons, so we need to do a bit of reorganising to fit everyone in! This is why we tend to do the assessments just prior to the summer holidays, so that we can organise lesson moves easier when everyone comes back after hols - its a lot easier if someone has been recently assessed.
Reggie now has his 4 expensive shoes on and is sound and well after his antics with the drill and his artery. I have told him that he needs to do at least 2 lessons per week average to keep himself in credit, as he's proving to be rather an expensive beast at the moment! I'm sure he'll soon outfox us by pulling a shoe off the day before a jumping lesson.
Things are getting busier for the ponies with RDA returning after their summer break and RGU due to return at the end of September. RDA is a great piece of work for the ponies, as its all mainly walk work and the ponies enjoy getting out of their stables for a  walk round the farm/indoor school. RGU work is slightly harder for them, but there is nornally quite a good mix of standards so that the horses get plenty of variety.
We are also organising a few educational evenings for our members - there is one tonight (30th August) at 6.30 p.m with Martin, titled " how to do basic lateral work and what the point is". There will be a riding school horse and member demonstrating the lower level stuff (turn on the 4hand/leg yielding) and then a more advanced livery horse doing some of the fancier stuff.
Hannah is also running an eduational evening on Sunday 23rd September @ 6.30p.m, titled "conformation and how it affects the horses way of going". Both evenings are free for ARC members, and you just need to add your name to the list in reception - there is no charge for either evening as we are keen to promote further training/knowledge within our membership.

Sally is also running a British Horse Society training evening on Friday 28th September at 7.30p.m. The evening will demonstrate all types of groundwork/handling that you can do with a horse and how to deal with behavioural issues in some horses. It will include youngsters, horses that don't catch and horses that can be difficult to tack up. We will also be demonstrating how to loose school and the benefits to this type of work - if you'd like to come along to this, it is open to both BHS members and non-members, and a donation will be taken on the evening (all proceeds to Grampian BHS).

Lastly, Murphy is sadly still lame. He is comfortable in the field with Henry and Reggie, but has not come completely sound after his fracture. We are happy to give him plenty of time as long as he is comfortable, but it looks at the moment as though he is heading for retirement rather than coming back into work. We're sure even in retirement he will keep everyone on their toes, especially the staff and he will be a good field companion!

Thats all for now!

Sunday 5 August 2012

Haylage, x-rays, arteries and umbrellas.

Yes, this could be the weirdest blog title ever, but kind of explains our month - a bit weird, and definitely very hectic!!!!
Firstly the haylage:
Last year, we got 370 bales of haylage from our first cut (3rd week of June). Unfortunately, this year, due to the monsoon season type weather, we are around 7 weeks behind with our haylage, and have only just taken the first cut during the last fortnight. As normal, we split the first cut (take a few fields, and leave a few) - this kind or reduces our odds of losing the whole crop - particularly this year, when the weather has been so dreadful. When the grass is cut, we need at least 2 days of warm, dry weather - easier said than done this July! So we got 200 bales off the first section, then nervously waited last week once it was cut for our dry weather. The sun arrived Thurs/Fri so cue frantic activity on the farm with 4 farmers turning, baling and wrapping constantly. The good news is we now have 400 bales of haylage, which is great going considering what a dreadful summer its been. The bad news is that we have decided not to try to take a 2nd cut - we are too far behind, and just won't get the daylight hours in Sep/Oct to make it worth our while to try to get it to grow. This will leave us around 50 - 100 bales short, which we will need to buy in, but at least we have the majority of our stock!
Onto x-rays- we had the next group of school horses front feet x-rayed and hocks flexion tested last week. Reggie (surprise surprise) had changes to the joints in his front feet, and positive flexion tests so he will now have his fancy plastic shoes put on his front feet (as well as his back ones) and have his hocks medicated. Blaze, Charlie and Scrufty were also tested and are fine.
Onto arteries - and Reggie again. Our very kind farrier agreed to come in on Friday afternoon to replace one of his plastic hind shoes which he had lost. The plastic shoes require small holes to be made in Reggies feet to "glue" the shoe onto . Good old Reggie decided to jump just as the hole was being made, only to put the drill straight through his artery in his foot. Many dressings and a vet visit later, and Reggie is none the worse for wear, enjoying a few days in his stable before he gets another shoe on in a week.
Umbrellas have been causing a bit of a nightmare on the yard - unfortunately, many of our parents have no idea how terrifying they look for the ponies! We have had a couple of near misses where someone has put an umbrella up and a pony has shot off across the yard - so please, if you're reading this, try to put your umbrella down before coming onto the main yard!
And finally, a sad goodbye. We had Belinda put to sleep last Friday - which had been planned for this summer, as she was looking stiff in the field last winter. Whilst it is always a sad decision to make, it is nice to ensure that the horses are looked after right to the end, and Belinda gave us 2 lovely foals, although sadly we lost the younger one Melody earlier this year. So thanks for all your hard work Belly - you were a pleasure to own, even though you were a little "strong minded" at times.