New Shoes equals a New Horse

Mayfly had new shoes done, with a new slightly different shape to them. Thanks to this she is now better than ever :D

The shoes are very nice, handmade beautifully I must say!

They help Mayfly with how she places her hind legs so not to cause twisting or anything on her hocks, and well they seem to be doing wonders.
Fly is so happy and really going for it at the moment. Takes a lot of effort to hold her back when we trot bless her - she is off wanting to canter already!! She'll have to wait for that though.
It is very nice to be able to go on proper hacks and not be gone for absolutely years. lol.

Lovely Fly went out without a rug on for the first time today, and what did she go and do?!?
Find the muddiest spot in the field and roll of course. "I'm gonna roll here!"
:@ took me ages to brush all the thick mud that she was coated in, and I didn't even manage to get all of it off...ahh horses huh?

TROT :D

Today was the day of our first trot since she went lame.
It felt very good to be doing a bit more again (and I haven't forgotten how to rise haha!)

Yet again the deer were out and about again. They seem to be becoming tame - not scared of the horses and are no longer running far far away, which is far from a good thing the stupid creatures. So today one was just wondering along the track nice a slowly as Fly and I were about 2 meters away from it and it wasn't even bothered! ahh they really are going to cause an accident.

We went for our trot in a bit of set aside in a field, she was very happy to do it and seemed to being enjoying herself. So we will be taking it easy and popping in a little bit of trot into a few hacks from now on :o)

And even with this more excitement to the hack she still had to spook at a banging noise coming from a nearby house, naughty naughty and she grew by at least a hand. But, I made sure to get after her as well it is getting somewhat silly now!

Proper Hackidge

For the first time in a long time Fly and I have been able to do one of the proper hacks instead of little walks and having to turn around :)

It was such a lovely day, but gosh things take a while; firstly took us 45 minutes to groom and tack up due to the excessive amount of mud :O then in walk the hack seemed to take rather a while too, and Mayfly got a bit pissed off and bored towards the end - Silly Moo! I did try and explain to her that seeing as she had spent the whole day sunbathing that she really needed to do some exercise and well, she should stop being so lazy! haha. Also we are going to build up gradually to begin trotting, which shall be nice and I am sure she will be happier about too.

I took a bag of crisps for my lunch with me on the hack and the whole way round everytime I put my hand in the bag to get out some crisp Fly would slow down and put her ear on me as if to say, "excuse me, I am the one doing the work here where is my share??"

It was nice to know that we could make it around a hack in walk and she was still walking perfectly fine at the end, and that we can progress from here.

Good News :D

Today we went back to Cambirdge Equine Clinic for Mayfly's check-up.

She was far from impressed to be back there again, and kept her eye on us the whole time to make sure that we weren't about to leave her there again! haha.

Yet again the vets spent ages attempting to get Mayfly to stand square as she kept resting her legs or just standing like a numpty.

Then she woddled around whilst they all studied her movement, before lunging her when she decided to have a little bit of a fun canter...much to the vet's surprise!

They also did a flexion on her which was funny to watch as they struggled to hold up her legs. lol.

She was very happy to get back home as she had a bit of a worry in the lorry, too much for her leggies.

Then when we did finally get home she had to sqeeze her way into little Flea's rug as Ben had the one she wears on, and due to her being so incredibly fat I had to lengthen all the straps!!

So overall the vet said that she has improved a lot, and that she can now start to be trotted out on hacks and go for longer distances, still keeping it nice and easy on the old girl :o)

Pretty Snowdrops and Scary Birdscares

The snowdrops are out, prettyful :D

Been doing the usual walking with Fly but, we have now progressed on to walking for 45 minutes which is quite good as it means we can actually hack out properly a bit more.

Have been finding little hacks (which happen to mean a bit of offtrack hacking) that are nice and easy, so me and Fly have been enjoying that.
Fly has also been enjoying making a big deal out of literally EVERYTHING! naughty mare. Today it was the metal, shiny, windmill bird scarer thing that seem to be in the middle of a lot of fields at the moment. She wouldn't walk anywhere near it to start with the eventually she decided to do a really bouncy joggy number past it, with me sat on top trying my hardest to get her to walk and relax! haha.

She has been going out in the field, much to her hate. And everyday when I arrive she is sleeping in the middle of it standing up rest her back leg, then when I go to get her in she just stands there and looks at me as if to say "I am not going to co-operate with you when I get chucked out in the rubbish!"
She is such a spoilt horse, and never fails to make me laugh!

Lovely Weather..At last!

Finally some nice weather, warmer with sun in the sky and nearly all the snow has melted! :o)

Mayfly was sunbathing in the field when I arrived, happy to see me but, not too bothered on moving. Bless her.

Eventually we went out on a lovely hack, apart from the yucky mud that has accumulated everywhere now the snow has melted! Yum...
Mayfly was rather well behaved compared to her recent behavior when hacking, I guess I shouldn't speak too soon!

Fly now has even more supplements to add to her already extremely expensive dinner! Hopefully they are doing wonders, have to be very careful not to spill any. haha.

Herding Deer Through a River

Ok, so maybe it wasn't quite like the title but, all will be explained!

Mayfly has these new strips with a magnet in that velcro up, which go around her fetlocks on her hind legs. They are supposed to help with her arthritis, she looks like a bit of a idiot bless her. She has to have them on all the time (or as much as possible). hehe.

Hacked yesterday but, wasn't much to write about as it was cold and very very wet!

Went up again today, Mayfly was in a bit of a grump as she had been stuck in her stable all day doing nothing...she even went to bite me :O she felt my arm and moved so fast in the other direction as she knew that what she had done meant BIG TROUBLE!
Then to add to her annoying behavior she decided that she would make her self super fat meaning that it was close to impossible to get her girth on, and she is getting fat anyway with only walking and being stuck in eating haylage! oh deary me!

Eventually we went on our hack...it was a rather adventurous one, everything was flooded. There were mini waterfalls, and I was basically walking through rivers...it was crazy!
To add to the excitement things were all rather scary and spooky for poor Fly. The birds, deer on the track, some blue tarp floating on the "river" and she walked my leg into a twig which snapped and sent her flying but, I managed to control her quickly.

Then we went into a field which was full of deer and we seemed to be herding them, wherever we went the ran in the other direction...haha they are such stupid creatures!

Sweeet Mayfly :o)

:O Found out that Mayfly has a full brother, 170cm, Bay and will be 21 this year. But, that isn't the exciting bit...He was a Grade A Show Jumper!

Bless Mayfly :D

Went for another little hack in the snow again today, although is was much more eventful than our usual hacks!
The deer were out and about charging around today, so Mayfly took the chance to spook and spin around the jog her way out of the field. naughty mare, I think she is getting a little bored - she added a bit of excitement to her walks. I think I need to have some more stern words with her. haha.

Afterwards, I thought it would be nice to take her for a walk around and graze (on what grass she could uncover) she began quite enthusiastically wiggling her nose around in the snow for grass but, did get the hang of it and started digging with her front leg. She also had a nice big scratch on a tree, the whole things woobled I thought that she was going to push it over with the force of her fat hefty self and bum! Then I think she got a bit tired, she decided to have a nap in the sun (it was quite a pleasant day, pretty with the snow and sun) she looked so funny! Cheeky mare I take her out for a stretch and she falls asleep whist I have to stand with her, I must admit I took advantage and got some cute photo's. hehe.

Overall Fly had a very good day - spoilt muchly!

Snow Stilts

My 3rd snow day of this week :D

Went up in the morning as per usual. Did some mucking out, and luckily one of the taps was working however the hose was frozen up. But, it did mean I had less distance to haul the buckets of water to and throw.

The Physio came and had a little look at Mayfly which, Mayfly very much enjoyed, all this pampering I don't know! Of course she could not stop to shovel down the haylage at the same time. haha.

It was a bit slippy - ice with a layer of snow on top - so chose not to ride until later.

Went shopping instead, got Smartie a new numnah (tiniest thing I think I have ever seen) bless him.

When I did ride, with Ben too, we found that due to the snow being very sticky and wet the poor horses were struggling to cope with huge "snow stilts" that were appearing under their hooves. When I got off Mayfly had grown by a hand from when i got on her! haha.

Sunshine and Snow!

Another snow day!
I am enjoying this, riding in the snow and today it was even better with the added extra of the sun (but it made it start to melt, and caused slight "snow blindness!" haha)

Walked there again today, but I didn't leave anywhere near as early.

We went for a little hack with Ben who was not too keen on the white stuff, Mayfly kept sighing at him. ahh dear.
We had a little break and of course Mayfly took her chance to wiggle the snow off the grass with her nose and begin munching. She kept doing that thing where she rest her front foot, which is slightly unbalancing when your on top of her! I think this caused her too get a cold nosey :P

Smartie and Flea went out again today, a little happier as it wasn't actually snowing. Although at one point we thought they had done a runner...Smarite digging his way out of the field?! haha.

Bought some new posh bandages for the Fly as well today. They don't need a gamgee, so hopefully will be a lot quicker to do. Also they will be very good for when the weather gets hotter as the keep the legs cool. Good purchase all round hopefully, just have to wait until we use them.

SNOW DAY!

Such a pretty day, like being in Narnia!

I got up and walked across the fields to the yard a 8:30 this morning, yes I was keen! and was there till gone 4, must say not outside the whole time though. Horses we not too impressed by the weather and yet again we had no running water in the barn.

We turned out Flea and Smartie as Flea would of just got very bored and become annoying if he stayed in all day.

Flea was loving it, playing with the snow - rearing at it haha. However, Smartie was far from keen poor boy. So we did give them some haylage to make them happy but, I am thinking that Smartie's coat is like a artic sleeping bag!

Did some mucking out and then decided that as Mayfly can't go without having a walk in the day that I should brave it and go on a little hack.

To start our hack, her boots had frozen rock solid so had to find some others. On the other hand, luckily it stopped snowing for the time I was out :)

She was a cheeky little marey, took any chance of me bending down under the snow covered branches to jump into trot, ahh dear. It was really enjoyable though as well we don't experience this much snow often and it was all so perfect (until we went trudging through it!) Met some deer enjoying the weather too, but when don't we meet deer on our travels!

She isn't looking to bad huh? not too fat ...

She was quite content to spend her day in her stable, listening to Radio 2 and shoveling haylage into her mouth whilst be able to watch the snow, and me being an idiot making snowmen and snowangels! Lazy Mayfly!

Lip Muscle Work-out Day

Haaa. Well from the moment I arrived in the morning Mayfly was perfecting her art of open her stable door using her lip along with wiggling it as she wanted food.
She was being rather sneaking, and I think she most definitely wanted to get out.

So once she was ready we went out for a hack, with Catherine and Benjamin. It is so muddy and yuck at the moment, therefore we attempted to find a way round the mud. This meant we crossed a couple of footbridges haha, and found some lovely fields, which Mayfly was determined to tell me were great for a gallop..hmmm.
After this joyousness we only had to turn round and go back through the yummy mud again. lol Then as a finishing point she had a major fit over someone walking there dog, mixed with her wanted to get back home, silly mare supposed to be taking it easy not jogging sideways. tutut.

When I turned her out with Bonnie (who was already in the field) she ran sideways with her bum towards her. argg she is such a moody cow!
But later on she was very friendly when I went to say bye to her in the field, and surprisingly she did not have a grump in being out in the mini snow storm either.

If it does articly snow tonight like the weather thinks and school is shut, then I am going to walk over to see her tomorrow :D