Swede on a Rope and Other News

I love feeding the horses and ponies be it hay, haylage or just giving them treats, so recently I made the ponies and Niko a Swede on a rope. Murphy loves a Swede so I knew it would be a success with him. I put two Swedes up for the ponies, one each, and one for Niko. Madeline and Tipper have not yet got rings to hang anything on in their boxes so they must wait for their Swede on a rope.

  
As you can see from this photo Niko wasn’t overly keen on his one, but the ponies ate both of their’s in one night, Niko still has the Swede in his box to nibble on if he wishes to.

In other news we’ve had some really nice weather here and the equines have all been out with no rugs. So everything has dried out a lot and Niko has had a good long holiday to give him time to heal any little strains or unseen injuries and to just generally relax and have some fun. But now that he has been rested and the ground is dry it may be time to start work again but that depends on how the ground is tomorrow as it did start to rain a little before we left today.

 Also now the weather is getting better I have started thinking about all the others and their work, I need to start some real work with Madeline and Tipper to let me see what discipline suits them best.

Anyway that is all for a later date, and for now I will content myself with fitting tie rings, and other trivial tasks. I hope everything is going well for you lot and that you too are enjoying better weather.

Niko Gets the Dentist

Niko had a visit from the equine dentist the other day, and I am pleased to say that everything is in good order. I was a little worried about his front teeth as he has worn them away lots from cribbing on his stable door but the dentist informs me that it’s nothing to worry about. You can take a look at the photo above to see what work the dentist did on Niko’s teeth.

So it all went rather well and I was very relieved, as Niko hadn’t had his teeth done in quite some time. Tipper also had the dentist’s help, I not sure if I’ve mentioned this on my blog before but Tipper had two baby teeth that were late to come out and we left them to see if they’d come out with a bit more time, one did and the other did not, so the dentist was kind enough to remove it for us free of charge.

So all in all very happy with the dentist and very happy that all Niko’s teeth were in good order.

Now before I go I’d like to say hello and thanks for following to my newest follower. I am just one off the 50 mark, not long now ;) sad I know.

Just an Update

  
All the snow here has melted and we’ve had a few day of dry weather so everywhere has dried out nicely, the horses are still enjoying their holiday and will probably do so for quite a lot longer, we had a spot of rain today but nothing too bad.

Also we found this sometime ago in our haylage, a golf ball, still I have heard that someone once got a pair of antlers in their haylage. Our recent haylage has been very dry almost like hay, so despite the fact that we are feeding the right amount of food for our horses, they are off work, they are getting two feeds a day, and the weather is very mild they aren’t even fat! And while I don’t really want them fat I would expect them to be and I am worried that Niko will get skinny when I start working him again.

  
Here’s an old shot of Murphy. I’ve been thinking about him and a show, I’m pretty sure that if we do ever go to a show that I want to show him in an in hand bridle because he gets very fast and it is easy to slow a horse/pony evenly in a bridle where as in a halter he often turns in on me when I try to slow him. Don’t know if any of that made sense.

I’ve also been thinking about Tipper’s coat, when I first bought him his coat was horrible with many bald patches and scars, now that we’ve had him sometime it has improved greatly, but it still is a bit patchy and it’s not as full and smooth as the others, which annoys me. So do any of you have some advise on getting his coat right?

Anyway as you can probably guess from all the rambling in my post there’s not a heck of a lot going on right now. Now before I go I’d like to say hello and thanks for following to my newest follower, also apologies to my fellow bloggers for the lack of comments I have been leaving. I do still read your blogs but it’s hard to find the time to read and comment on so many blogs, so a very big thanks to my commenters for finding the time :)

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day I hope you all have a lovely day.

  

Here are a few unrelated photos of the snow and frost it’s nearly all gone now.

Why Not it’s Free

  
We’ve had another layer of fluffy white snow here, and the horses are still all enjoying their long holiday. So not a lot going on really.

  
But in other news I have now created a Horse & Country profile which I couldn’t recommend more highly, it’s completely free and there’s over 300 hours of quality videos, from master class on dressage to training your dog.

And I’ve also become an associate member of British Dressage, which is also free.

So why not they’re free!

Moorlands Totilas

If any of you keep up to date with dressage news you will most certainly know of Moorlands Totilas one of the world’s greatest dressage horses. For those of you that haven’t heard of him he is a Dutch Warmblood, nicknamed Toto, with a host of gold medals and many world records, here is a link to Moorlands Totilas’s Wikipedia page for more info.

Totilas experienced his great success along side dressage rider Edward Gal, together they made a truly stunning team, and here is a video of them.

WorldRecord Edward&Totilas-Olympia-London-English Comment from Anne Hesten on Vimeo.

 

As you can see for yourself they were very good at what they did, and you can see how happy Totilas is with himself after the performance.

Sadly Totilas’s owners sold him to the Germans, and the riding rights were handed over to German rider Matthias Alexander Rath. (read wikipedia page for further info on sale and ownership) here is a video of Totilas and his new rider Matthias Rath, please feel free to stop watching after a bit, you’ll probably want to.

Matthias Rath & Totilas at the Vechta Show from From Aachen on Vimeo.

 

I think it’s very sad to see this performance.

Snowy Days

As you can see it snowed and the whole orchard has got a good covering. I had hoped that it wouldn’t snow because the other times it has snowed since we had horses it has been horrible and has made looking after the equines very difficult, but thanks to having better facilities and by better facilities I mean a tap that doesn’t freeze, it’s been quite good fun.

This was our ride for the day down to the stables, it’s a Land Rover Defender 110 County TDI, and it is my father’s. We arrived with the feed already mixed so all the equines got a morning feed.

I try to give the horses and ponies as much turnout as I can and so they all went out in the snow, but before they got to their paddock they all had a play in the snow, here are a few photos.

Tipper rolling in the snow.

Niko heading off to explore the new snow covered surroundings.

Murphy going for a run in the snow.

Pip shaking himself down after a roll in the snow.

Here’s one of Madeline in the paddock, blowing off some steam. So as you can see they all had a lot of fun in the snow.

And finally to end the post my snow man of sorts, he is really rather dirty because all the snow came from our muddy paddock, he is possibly the ugliest snow man I have seen but it was fun making him.

I hope if any of you have snow fall you are enjoying it.

Now just before I go, hello and welcome to my newest follower and thanks for following.

Orchard Wildlife

  
As most of you will know we are keeping our equines in an old over grown orchard, there are two pieces of land that have been cleared, one where we kept our horses and ponies over summer and the other where they are currently stabled. The rest of the orchard is all over grown trees and weeds, which means there is a lot of wildlife around, the photo above has an animal in it but can you see him? (Click to enlarge) If not I’ll show you at the end of this post.

  
Here is a rather poor photo of a robin, there are lots of robins in the orchard, quite a few hang around near the muck heap, and most of the others near an old mound of mossy logs, all the robins are surprisingly comfortable near humans.

 

And here is just one of the many wild cats that hunt in the orchard, this one is one of the less feral and doesn’t run away too much, they all keep themselves in good condition and at the same time help deal with rodents.

  
This is a photo of a flock of fieldfare, but due to the dark winter days the camera can only make them out as silhouettes.

  
Here is one of the many bugs that inhabits the orchard I honestly haven’t the foggiest what it is. I took this photo last summer, when it was nice and sunny.

 And finally here is the first photo only with red markers to show you, it is a very well hidden grass snake, it may not be helped by the fact that blogger won’t let my photos be enlarged much.

Anyway I am done with my boring post about animals other than horses and ponies.

The Horrors of the Moustache

 Just a few photos today, but they really make me glad not all our equines have moustaches

 

 

Here’s Pip he looks quite sweet here, he’s just had a morning feed before he goes out with the others.

  
But the bad news is he saves some for later. Now I think we can all agree this is just unpleasant.

Anyway I will leave you with a far cuter photo here, it is Pip before he had grown his moustache as you can also see he’s younger.

Now before I go I’d like to say hello and thanks for following to my newer followers.