Home Made Jump

We have finally got around to making our first jump, here it is, and yes it is quite small, but it will do for now. It is a sturdy little jump, and I think it looks ok, it was quite easy to make, but obviously we did need a drill to put the holes in, and we used screws to fixes the wood together. The two supports for the pole are made out of an old pallet, and the stands for them are just made out of some unwanted wood that someone we know gave us, the pole itself is made out of a left over fence post with the end cut off. As for the cups to hold the pole we just bought them from a shop.

And then it was time to try the new jump out. Oh no it wasn’t it was time to get soaked, sadly I was unable to try the new jump that day, because there was such hard rain, and Niko got really wet so I couldn’t put his tack on, he had to be rugged up unlike this little chap who is quite all right with a bit of rain.

Anyway as you can see I got to try out the jump today, and I am very happy with it, it is just a shame that it is so small. Niko was very good about jumping it, he normally won’t pick his feet up with little jumps, but he did with this one, so that is good, but he did stamp on a trotting pole and break a bit off it, oh well the trotting pole did survive so that’s ok.

And here is a another one of Niko and I going over the jump, I just have to be careful not to over use the same jump, Niko can get bored of the same jump very easily, and then he just doesn’t try, and will knock poles off nearly every time.

Thanks for the comments on my last post.

Sherri, yep old leather is so lot nicer, the new stuff on my saddle is so stiff, it’s quite hard to use, still I would rather have stiff tack then no tack. I hope Blogger starts working for you soon.

Abby, sadly the saddle is not very comfy, but it fits Niko well so that is all that matters, it came with Niko for a extra price, so we knew it wound fit. Bold Hawk should be delivered on the 3rd of June it is very exciting.

Allhorsestuff, yes it sure is good to have stirrups back, but what I am probably happiest about is not having to sit on Niko’s bony back. Nope I just had new girth straps, looking forward to your next post.

Debi, yeah he really is a nice looking horse, thanks.

New Tack Old Tack

I have now got my saddle back. It is a bit of a tatty old thing as you can see in the photo, you can also probable see it is VERY dirty! But I am still happy to have it back, I have been doing a lot of cantering, because I was not doing so much when I was riding bareback, and I think its got to be my favourite pace on Niko, I prefer trot on Madeline, but anyway I am getting off track or should I say off tack.

So here is the next piece of tack, this is a great new bridle, it has a padded nose band, and a padded brow band, so hopefully it will be more comfortable than Niko’s old bridle, well even if it isn’t he can’t have his old bridle back, because it met a sad end, at the hooves of Madeline.

At least my favourite reins were not destroyed with the other tack, and here they are my favourite plaited reins, they are great and not as big as lots of other reins, so are very easy to use. Plus I really like the way they look, they are a bit tatty on the inside, but they were very cheap, so I am very happy with them, and they have served me well so far.

Thank you all very much for all of your comments on my last post,

Sherri, let’s hope Bold Hawk sees it the same way, I would like him too enjoy his time with us, after all a happy horse is a well behaved horse.

Abby, I love quotes and here is one for Spotty and Bold Hawk, “You don’t throw a whole life away just ‘cause he’s banged up a little”, ( Chris Cooper ) from the movie Seabiscuit, I think this is right just because Spotty has arthritis and Bold Hawk dishes, doesn’t mean they can’t be great.

Allhorsestuff, thanks for telling me about the blog I took a look at it, and I am now following it, it’s a very interesting blog and has some lovely horses, so thanks again.

Connie, yep let’s hope, but even if he doesn’t have much talent at least we can get him looking good, with a nice shine and hopefully build up his confidence a bit while he is with us.

Bold Hawk

Well you guessed it, yes he is going to be my new horse. I have been looking for a project horse for quite some time now, his name is Bold Hawk, and he is straight off the race track, he is five years old, he also dishes, and has quite a lot of scars. So hearing all that you are probably wondering why I am buying him, well he has a look to him like he has never been loved, he is kept in ok condition, but he is just used they clearly don’t care about him. Niko used to be a race horse, and I love him very much, and Niko has a lot of talent, and so I am hopeing that Bold Hawk’s talents will come out, with a lot of love and a lot of training, and to be honest even if he has no talents at least he will be loved. Sorry about just the one photo, but it is the only photo I have of him.

Thank you all for your comments on my last post.

A Long Drive

Yesterday we went on a very long and very boring drive, but for a very good reason, here are some photos I took on the way to our destination, it was a way of not going to sleep as like I said it was a very long and boring drive.

I had been trying to get a photo of one of these for a lot of the journey, it is quite hard not to get a blurry photo, when you are in a car moving at 70mph.

Every post needs horses right, this photo hasn’t got many coloured horses, but I was surprised how many coloured horses we saw on our journey, they seem to be a lot more popular then they were.

And here is some monument, I really have no idea what it is a monument to, but it looked nice so I thought I would take a photo of it.

And here we are, but what is this all about? I guess you will just have to read my next post, to find out what’s going on.

Thanks for the comments on my last post.

Sherri, yes it’s always left to Madeline to stop the ponies fighting, well its normally left to Madeline to stop any of the horses from messing about.

Abby, Madeline is normally very motherly with the ponies it is quite nice really, but of course she is never their mother when it comes to food, Madeline does love her food.

Debi, my saddle has now been taken to be fixed, so hopefully I will have it back tomorrow.

Play Time

It seems that Murphy and Pip are the best of buddies. Today they have been play
fighting, it looks a bit rough but no ponies were harmed in the making of this post. I’ve got to say I have never seen Pip pull a face like that, he looks very goofy.

And then it was time for a bit of wrestling, Murphy didn’t really stand a chance wrestling with Pip. Pip is about the same size as Murphy but he is a lot chunkier then Murphy, as you can see here Murphy is doing pretty well.

Oh it pays to be BIG, as you can see Pip just squished poor Murphy, it surprising how rough they are, they both ended up on their knees trying to wresle one another, but they were soon up again.

Murphy then decided to stick to what he was good at BITEING! But they were both quite gentle with their bites, so luckily no bald patches.

Wait there might be food. There was no food this was Murphys’ feed bucket from his morning feed, but he stopped play fighting just to make sure he had eaten all of it. Pip waited patiently for Murphy to finish.

As soon as Murphy had finished it was back to it, I think Pip would make a very good guard pony, as he normally aims for the neck, funny little chap.

But poor Pip had just about had enough, who wouldn’t run from Murphy in a fight, he might be small but he is a vicious pony!

And then all the play was over, when they got too close to Madeline she told them off, and that was that play time over.

Thank you all for the comments on my last post.

Michelle, I would probably have left a wasp, but I quite like bees they can be sort of sweet looking, in an odd way, especially bumble bees.

Connie, let’s just hope there will be no need for any more bee saves.

Abby, don’t worry your comment was not rambling, it was very interesting. The bee was very good about having its’ photo taken, good that you liked the photos. I think that the field of young horses is probably very likely to have been what set him off, Murphy is always starting trouble with Niko and Madeline by messing about.

Sherri, glad you like the photos, and I hope your husband likes them too.

One Little Bee

Today Niko had the day off, and got to do Niko stuff all day long, which was mostly eat, eat, and eat some more, but I think that suited him just fine, and he seemed to enjoy his day off so that’s good.

But of course this left me with nothing to do but poo picking, as I poo picked the paddock I checked how much water was left in the water buckets, and then I spotted a bee in one, but I wasn’t going to just take it out of the bucket with my bare hand.

So I used the sleeve of my wax coat, over my hand to get it out of the bucket, and here it is looking a bit bedraggled but alive, it quickly started to climb up near to my face, so it was time to take my coat off I think, I left my coat on the ground with the bee on it.

And then all sorts of little critters started to get on my coat, this is just one of them that I got a non blurry photo of, my other photos were to blurry to use, I much preferred the bee it was a lot easier to take photos of.

But in the end I got my coat back, and the little bee made a full recovery. I know that this post hasn’t been very equine focused, but I had a lot of fun photographing this bee so I thought I would do I post about it.

Thanks very much for all of the comments on my last post.

allhorsestuff, sorry to hear about your mares pastern hope she gets better soon. A ride on the beach sounds like a great way to celebrate getting your new saddle, hope you have fun.

Connie, I have ridden Niko bareback in his head collar with lead ropes for reins , and yep it is a lot of fun, you are right riding bareback really does help with balance, it is always nice to spend some time riding bareback, but I still can’t wait till I get may saddle back.

Abby, yes it is very hard to stay in good form when Niko goes fast, oh well I haven’t fallen off him yet, but I will be happy to have my saddle back. As I have never met your friends horse it is difficult to get an idea why he did it, but I have some ideas. First of all was it somewhere he is normally ridden? If not that could be why, he may have just been scared by the new surroundings. Or it could have been the other horse, is he normally ridden with other horses or with that horse? But what I really think it was all about is simply the horses eye, horses see things much quicker then people and from a lot further away, I think that he must of spotted something and it scared him, or he heard something the same applies it scared him. This sounds a lot like a problem I had with Niko at an old yard, when I tried to take him out to the paddock he would get scared of something, and would behave in a similar way to your friends’ horse. But the reason the horse will then be happy to be caught is because he is scared of something else not his handler or rider. Horses as you well know are flight animals and so when you hold on to them when they are scared it can sometimes do more harm than good, because the horse will try to run then the handler or rider stops them and then they misbehave to try and get away from danger. But that is just what I think wow don’t I go on this has got to be my longest reply ever!

Saddle Is KIA

I have been riding bare back nearly two weeks now, and I have to wait until the 26th before my saddle can be fixed. I don’t think I have ever done quite so much walk and trot, I haven’t been cantering much because Niko is so uncomfortable to ride bare back. I have been doing more lunging then I would normally as well.

Anyway I can’t wait till my saddle is fixed, so in the meantime I will be doing a lot of lunging. I never liked my saddle before but now I really do miss it, I have great respect to my follower (all horse stuff) for going as long as they have without a saddle, anyway I will stop boring you all with my wows now.

Thank you all for your comments on my last post.

Abby, please feel free to ramble on as much as you like, I really didn’t think that you did. I some how missed your comment on messy moulting, so I will reply now, I think that bays are the easiest to keep clean and not make a mess of yourself at the same time, so it’s a good job Niko is bay. If a drawer is left open in this house any clothes in it get covered in white hairs, because we have a very hairy black and white cat that loves to sleep on clothes. Let’s hope your friends horse behaves himself, I am sure he had a good reason for what he did.

Sherri, yep it sure is a lot better then using shears, no more aching backs from leaning down to cut weeds.

Hannah, yes it’s a pain the way the weeds just keep growing, we too have the same problem with the weeds growing up and touching the fence, I wish the grass would grow as much as the weeds. Murphy is a real pig as well so I guess it’s a good job we don’t have to much grass.

C and C Antiques and Animals, it is nice to have a clean paddock, and it makes it a lot better for riding in as well.

A Clear Paddock

I have just recently finished clearing the big paddock of weeds, and as you can see the horses and ponies have eaten most of the weeds I cut down, but now you can see just how little grass there is, oh well at least they have plenty of haylage.

Here is what we are using to clear the weeds now as the shears are quite slow, so we use this now it is pretty good at cutting down the stinging nettles, but it does sometimes have a bit of trouble with older nettles, and the cow parsley.

Still it is great for clearing the weeds near and under the fence, it comes with a pack of little plastic blades, you attach just one on to the strimmer and you are good to go, sadly it’s only meant for use on grass so the blades can break easily if they hit a thick stalk.

It doesn’t have a very long charge so I can only do a little bit every day, because we have no where to charge it where the horses and ponies are, anyway I am quite happy with it and it is making clearing the paddocks much quicker, so that is always good.

Thank you for your comments on my last post.

Sherri, yes most of the fur goes quite quickly, there are so many birds here that we don’t have to worry about the fur laying around.

Messy Moulting

Not to long ago I bought this shedding blade, it does look quite harsh, but if used carefully it is very good at getting out old winter coats. I don’t really use it on the thoroughbreds much, because their coats are to thin still it is very useful for the ponies.

I know, I know what a mess Pip’s coat is, I had no idea that white/grey equines got stained quite so easily, anyway I have been using this shedding blade on he’s winter coat.

As you can see it is very good at getting the hair out, but it does make a mess I was covered in white hair after grooming Pip,

And here is a photo of Murphy, it really does look bad he seems to be going bald in some places, but I am not too worried about it because it looks like it is just how he moults.

This is a photo of Murphy’s hind leg, it looks fine and it is and this is why I am not worried, because not too long ago it was bald just like the photo above, but now all the fur has grown back as a nice summer coat, so hopefully he will do the same with the rest of his coat.

Ah here is a photo of Niko as you can see he has some moulting left to do, he has these funny looking patches of winter fur on the sides of his tummy, and he’s got some left on his bottom jaw and upper neck as well, so let’s hope that all goes soon.

Here is Madeline she is pretty much fine, and doesn’t really have a winter coat
anymore, but there is still a little bit left to come out, still I am sure most of that will come out by its self.

Thank you all very much for the comments on my last post,

Sherri, thanks I was very pleased with the photos, so I am glad that you liked them.

Hannah @ BubbleBay, yep I was really surprised when I learnt that they have the biggest eyes, with there being so many huge mammals.

Abby, I absolutely agree with you, and you are just about spot on, both the ponies have a lot of mischief in their eyes Murphy more then Pip, but I think Pip has kinder eyes then Murphy. I have always said that Niko has a very kind face but I do sometimes think that he looks quite sad. Madeline does have kind eyes but with a little bit of mischief some times, but I don’t think I have seen a horse with wicked eyes yet. Thanks for asking about my finger, and yes it is completely healed now with just a little scar.

Eye of the Horse

Don’t horses have such big, loving eyes? Well yes they do have big eyes maybe not loving but BIG! So big that the horse has the largest eyes of all land mammals. The horse’s eyes are set on the sides of its head this allows it about a 350 degree range of vision, with something like 65 of that being binocular vision and the rest being monocular vision, all this provides the horse with a good chance of spotting predators.

Horses have a high proportion of rods to cones in their eyes, they also have a tapetum lucidum, the tapetum lucidum is a layer of tissue that lies behind or in the retina, it reflects light back through the retina, this gives the photoreceptors more light, and improves low-light vision to the horse. But horses are not as adjustable to sudden changes in light, such as going from the paddock in to a dark stable.

Most horses have dark brown eyes, but that doesn’t mean they all have to have them, the most recognized different colour is normally blue, but horses can have hazel, amber, or even green eyes. Anyway that’ll about do it on horse eyes for now, maybe a bit more sometime later.

Thank you all for the comments on my last post.

Sherri, thanks for the link I am now following that blog, and yes they do some crazy things with their lips but it sure is funny to see.

Abby, that is why horses are great because they will almost always get on in the end, and yes it really is nice to see Pip and Murphy sharing with one another.

Autumn Mist, it’s good for Pip that they are all so good with him, when Murphy was put in with Niko and Madeline for the first time Madeline kicked Murphy, and knocked him on his side he couldn’t get up for a bit because she had winded him.

Making New Friends

Pip is starting to settle in with the herd, Murphy has stopped chasing him, and Niko has stopped biting him, well stopped biting him as much, and mostly all is well he is still at the bottom of the herd, and that means that if anyone feels like taking his food they do.

But it seems that Murphy is happy to share with him, and to think just a couple of days ago Murphy was chasing him around the paddock, and now they get on pretty well, Murphy will still take his food sometimes but things are a lot better for Pip now.

And Pip isn’t being coltish at all, so that is a plus and he is a lot better behaved with us now as well. Before we put him in with the others we thought that we might have to have him gelded, because he was being so badly behaved with us, but I guess he just wanted some company.

Thanks for the comments on my last post.

Abby, thanks for telling me about what was going on with Blogger. Horses and ponies do pull some very funny faces after having had a mint, glad you liked the photos.

Funny Faces

Today it is time for some horse photo, as I think my last posts haven’t had quite as much equine content, they have been more about the paddock and stuff. So here is Murphy looking a bit mad.

Here is Niko having one of his many meals of the day. Ah goofy but sweet.

And here is Murphy again, let’s hope the wind doesn’t change.

This one is of Madeline after having had a mint, she loves them but she does pull some funny faces after eating one.

Here is anther one of Murphy he is very photogenic, is that a bad taste in his mouth.

And finally here is Pip, I am not sure if this is a sweet face or an ugly face, but it looks funny to me.

I have been having some trouble signing in with Blogger any one else? I have finally got to sign in and it has deleted my last post, so what is that all about? I really hate Blogger sometimes.

Thank you all for your comments on my last post I don’t know who left comments because it is all deleted, and I check my comments when I do a new post, now I will have to do that post again but maybe later.