Back In the Orchard

So here we are back in an orchard just like we'd never left, still on the plus side lots has changed like Pippin our dear Gypsy Vanner has finally been gelded. It was hard getting his owner to agree and pay to have him gelded but this summer he started to become very aggressive towards the other male equines, so his owner caved in the end, although Pippin is still chasing the other horses he isn't nearly as aggressive and I hope that given time he will calm down.

On another note my riding has been going very nicely this summer and Niko is working beautifully for me, above is a photo of him standing rather well for me in his new padded bridle. We've also found a great place to hack so I can try to keep things more interesting for Niko by going on hacks with him every now and then. He really is in good form this summer, I think it might be time to have a few more lessons, to help us both with some lateral movements that I am sure Niko would benefit greatly from performing.

Although these photos aren't of my most recent ride which was actually today they do let you see how his head carriage is coming along nicely and is becoming more consistent, after just a little bit of warm up he is getting very comfortable and going forward onto the bit for me.

And here is Niko above going forward onto the bit for me, you might just be able to see from the way my hand is actually slightly open on the rein how he is on a very soft contact at this point, normally I like to think I have good hands and it's important to remember to be soft with your hands when he is soft. It's nice to see him salivating a bit to.

Here we are again, I think this shot shows Niko off quite well, he is a little skinnier than I'd like but it seems to be a never ending battle to keep the weight on him, still he is 16 now which I believe makes him a veteran. We've got Tipper and Niko some Dodson & Horrell build up cubes which have been helping with the weight a bit. Just as well they aren't competing isn't it after Dodson & Horrell's muck up that I'm sure most of you horsey folks have heard of.

 

One last photo of Niko and I, well a bit of me anyway, as you can see reasonably clearly from this shot Niko is a little below/behind the vertical normally a bad thing, but to be honest it shouldn't really be of concern during schooling like this so long as you have sympathetic hands and aren't putting too much pressure on the horse in anyway, remember going below the vertical is still a form of stretch for a horse and although you shouldn't ask your horse to do this sometimes horses prefer to stretch more below the vertical than they do outwards, this said Niko isn't really stretching here he just sometimes slips below the vertical

 

These next two photos I wasn't sure about posting but in the end decided it would be nice to have a record of this on my blog. So here is Murphy and I, we've just started to do work under saddle and I'm really rather happy with him, he can be very cheeky but overall he is a good lad. Due to Murphy's small size I don't feel that I can ride him for long and of course never at a show, but I am still capable of  beginning his work under saddle and hopefully getting him off to a good start.

You can see here that I'm slightly uneven this is because I'm trying to give Murphy all the aids in as clear a way as I can so I am perhaps over doing it a little with my seat aids here by leaning to one side slightly. Also see how light I'm being with his reins, this is to let him get used to and comfortable with the bit, at this point in his training I won't ask him for a true contact.

And the very last photo of us, I'm riding without stirrups, due to the size of the saddle and length of my legs the stirrup leathers restricted my legs and made it hard to give good clear aids to such a small pony like Murphy, at this point I feel that very few but very precise aids with the legs will help Murphy to understand.

I just have to try and remember it's not about how good I look on him it's just important that he understands. Well that's it from me today, as always I hope your all having a great time with your equines.

Oil and Horses

  
We all know how good oil can be for our horse’s coats and overall condition, hence the reason a wide range of horse feeds contain high oil and why some horse owners choose to add oil straight into their horses feed. But feeding oils is not the only use for them, I recently noticed that some of the horses mouths were looking a little dry, having read some of Xenophon’s writings I was interested to see that he suggested the use of oil on the horses mouth, I felt that our horses and ponies wound benefit from it.

  
So as you can see here I’ve applied olive oil to Niko’s mouth, this can be beneficial in many ways it helps keep the skin moisturized and soft, nobody likes dry skin and horses are no different. The oils can also help one with improving their horse for riding by softening the mouth making it more comfortable for the horse and more responsive to the rider, a win win I would say. I now apply oil to all of the horses and ponies mouths, and I feel they’ve benefited greatly from it.   

Not only is applying oil to your horses mouth great for them and good for your riding, some horses or ponies will enjoy having it put on, Niko, Pip, and Murphy seem to really rather like it, the others not so much.

But all in all I am happy we tried this, it really has benefited our equines.

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.

Feeding in Winter

 As we all know a healthy diet is important for all horses and ponies if in work or otherwise, we are often trying our horses and ponies on different feed types to see what works best for them.

 

 

  
This is the newest addition to our feeds, Alfa-A Oil, it has replaced the HoneyChop during the winter months due to the fact that it is more suited to weight gain and maintaining weight, but still has the benefits of encouraging them to chew a bit more and generally slow down the rate that they consume their feeds.

During winter the water can become very cold and even freeze this can easily put some horses and ponies off drinking as much as they should, to help keep all our equines well hydrated we feed Trident SupaBeet. The beet comes in dried pellets and requires soaking before they can be safely fed. Trident SupaBeet has molasses so can have heating effects on some equines.

  
We also feed Dodson & Horrell Barley Rings to help with overall conditioning, the barley rings provide a wealth of vitamins to the horses and ponies such as vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin E. Also being a heavily oil based feed they help deliver that extra shine. Dodson & Horrell Barley Rings can be fed soaked, dry or made into a mash by adding warm water (not hot).

  
We also use Dodson & Horrell Pasture Cubes which are full of vitamins and minerals, quality protein and antioxidants, helping to keep our horses and ponies active. The pasture cubes also contain garlic and mint to make them more pleasant for horse or pony. Dodson & Horrell Pasture Cubes are a flexible feed that are suited to Pony Club ponies through to Event Horses.

After all these feeds have been added together in the appropriate amounts for the horse or pony we add Apples and Carrots.

 So there’s what we’re feeding this winter

The HoneyChop Horses

In the past I have mentioned that we use HoneyChop in the horses feed and how much they love it, well sometime ago I posted that I’d been trying the horses on HoneyChop plus Garlic, which went down very well. I also received a comment from HoneyChop asking if they might be able to use some of my photos, here’s the link to my post.

After HoneyChop had let me know what photos they wanted to use, I was happy to say yes, and as a token of their appreciation they gave me five free bags of HoneyChop and I was allowed to choose the type of HoneyChop as well, thank you very much HoneyChop.

Anyway the HoneyChop website has now received its full makeover complete with some of my photos and many more, the new website is great it’s very informative and helpful. Here is a link to the HoneyChop website, take a look around and you’ll probably spot Tipper and maybe some of my other photos.

Getting Ready For Winter

I have been feeling a bit under the weather lately, but I am now feeling pretty much better so it’s back to blogging So first off here is the newest addition to our horse’s forage, our feed supplier strongly advised we give our horses some straw to munch, considering he suppliers Her Majesties Royal Stud with straw and they too feed it we thought it couldn’t be such a bad idea, so here it is.

All our equines seem to really like it, Tipper and Madeline seem the most fond of it, at first Pip wasn’t too big on the idea of going from haylage to straw but he soon realized he was just having the straw as extra and was still having the same amount of haylage and was then happy to dig in, they are all really enjoying it and it will help to keep them warm when the weather starts to turn colder.

We have also added barley rings to the horses and ponies hard feed they seem to go down pretty well so that is good, the thoroughbreds are now having very big feeds so if we want to give them anymore we are probably going to have to split it into two feeds. Anyway that’s some of our preparation for the coming winter, and yes I know it’s still quite a long time till winter, but Niko ruined his condition by cribbing and while we have stopped him from cribbing he still needs to build up more condition before winter.

Next post I’ll be telling you some more about my training and how that is going, but for now that’s all.

It’s Worth the Smell

We have been feeding Honeychop for quite sometime now and it has never failed to please, we had been feeding the Honeychop plus Apple which all the equines loved. I do love to try new products and different feeds, so I thought it was time for a change, so I chose Honeychop plus Garlic it sure is smelly but it sure is good.

As well as being something different to Honeychop plus Apple for the horses and ponies to try Honeychop plus Garlic also contains a higher protein level, and is great for the summer as the garlic helps to repel flies.

As you can see the new feed goes down very nicely, all in all the Honeychop plus Garlic is a very good feed, it helps to keep your horse in good health, and keeps the flies away, if you are interested in feeding Honeychop click the link to visit their website.