Winter woes....

 Well this is a short catch up on what myself & the boys have been up to since Cu Chulainn went on holidays. Cu Chulainn has been busy getting fat & dirty & being a horse! He is loving life, getting the best of both worlds, out every day and in at night getting fed and being dry & warm indoors.


I've decided to use this time to introduce him to oats again. It didn't go very well the first time as he'd a burst of energy and was full of beans. I'm hoping that he'll get used to it now and once he's ridden it won't have a huge effect on him. Oats are a great source of calories and have other benefits as well as being cheap! So it'd be great to get him on them.


I rode Pena for a few weeks before he went back to his owners. What a little legend he was!! It had been a long time since I rode a pony and he was just lovely to ride, no boldness, just a bit green, but lots of fun.

Then the main man came back to work. Fred got his injections for the arthritis and got new shoes. It took him a little longer to shake the lameness as he was confined to a small paddock area and was getting as much exercise as normal. But he's in top form now.


I was riding in the mornings as much as I could force myself out of bed. It's a wonderful way to start your day, but I'm allergic to getting out of bed before I really have to, so it was tough and it didn't happen as often as it should have.

Mornings with Pena

Fred's back baby!!

Watching the sun rise

 I mixed the morning hacks with evenings in the equestrian centre over the road. It felt weird in the evenings just sitting down & watching tv. Having hours to myself. Managing to actually see Groom In Training. Of course mucking out and feeding took out some of the time, but still it was nice to relax a bit.

The length of his neck in comparison!

Weekends are spent eating apples

The absolute  joy of an indoor!!

Mornings are getting darker

Morning walks with Rusty

Living the life!!

 At the weekends myself & Fred would hack out, working on our flatwork on the hacks. Our main aim is to get the stretchy trot down, and basically get his head down willingly in it.........As well as that he's made a return to jumping. Nothing too big, but just popping a few small courses, and of course he's loving it! It's important to change it up, he loves his flatwork and showing off, but he does like to mix it up too.

Kisses for Fred

I treated myself!! Haas brushes!!

I only did one side of him......

 I got myself some more Haas brushes. I was so excited I went over early to the equestrian centre to give Fred a proper groom (on one side). They are fab and a post will come in the new year, but those brushes aren't going anywhere near him until the horse gets a bath. He obviously gave himself a nice mud bath a few days this week. So much so that it's gone in under his rug a bit, so only 1/3rd of him is actually clean!!

Not impressed with the snow......

Magical scenery

Snackage

Fred goes so dark in the winter that you can't see him in the stable!

Unfortunately the turbo went in my jeep two weeks ago, which was a disaster. The days have shrunk and I almost need a torch in the mornings to get the horses out, which means riding is out and the evening is an absolute no. So we had been travelling over the road to the great indoor arena there to practice and get some exercise in. That was now out. So at this time of writing I have ridden once in two weeks and am slowly going crazy. I only got out once last weekend as we had our work Xmas party on Saturday and that was a 12 hour bonanza, which meant I was just about able to muck out on Sunday. I am hoping that the jeep will be ready today and that I'll get out of work early so that the two combined will allow me to go horse riding this evening!! Fingers & toes crossed folks!!

One week after the snow.....

Fred's haul for the year.....

Cu Chulainn's haul for the year!