Legacy and Cloudy had the back man out last week. This is something that was well over due for them both. I typically like to get them checked every 8-12 weeks. This is because they are both idiots in the field. Thankfully it's just Cloudy who's an idiot after I've put him out in the morning, Legacy just walks straight over to the haylage and will have the odd roll now.

The man who I have out to have a look at them has been doing them since I first got to the yard I'm on now, this is the 4th year using him and I've never had any problems after having him out and he's only ever been great with the 2 horses. He checks them all over, all down the spine, checking the poll, hips, legs, feet.

Legacy was first up and she had a sore tail bone and a dropped left hip. This is the first time that she's ever had a sore tail bone but it's a regular thing for her to have a dropped left hip. This must be something she does while being an idiot in the field. This typically never effects her when being ridden or she never really shows any pain from this. She can be lazy with her hind legs so maybe this could be contributing to this. The main time you do know when she's got something wrong with her hip is when you try to pick her back feet up. She will very much let you know that it's painful and I know it's bad but due to this I tend to leave the picking out her feet hind feet when I can, thankfully she doesn't have hind shoes on. Due to her hip she had to have a few days off work for the pain to go.

Cloudy was pretty good with his check over as he only had his poll out. Typically he will have his left hip dropped like Legacy and his arthritis with be showing in his foot, but this time he wasn't too bad. Super flex must be going a great job for him during the winter. Due to him only having his poll out he was fine to be ridden after but my mum wanted to give him a day off for him to get back to normal again. He was defiantly feeling better when he went out after as he was running rings around the field stopping for the odd buck, rear or roll. He even went over to Legacy who just went over to the haylage to try and get her involved but she didn't both and then he carried on.

Although there wasn't much wrong with either of them and there were no major issues in terms of pain riding before hand I'm going to make sure I don't let them both go 6 months without being checked again. The 2 times I've been thrown off of Cloudy have been due to back pain which could've been avoided if they were checked more often and that's even when they were done every 8-12 weeks. 

Do you get your horses backs checks? How often do you do it?

The Trams Lines Exercise

Yes those lines in the image are poles, it was the best I could work up after forgetting to take a picture of the actual poles. Although this is something I might try doing in the future with pole work posts, then add in a picture of the actual poles too. If it came up to a more complicated exercise to explain I will be able to add in arrows etc to show which way we went.

What we did with the poles:

Throughout a circle that took up half of the arena we set out 3 pairs of poles. One in the middle of the arena (orange),  one by the entrance gate (blue) and the other in between them too (green). 

The exercise was to then go through the poles and around In a circle or oval depending on which two sets of poles we were going through. In this lesson I hadn't done any work with Legacy since the lesson the week before so on the rare occasion she was a little lively (she can normally go awhile without work and be fine when you get back on.) this toyed with my confidence a little and I'm going to be honest there was a few times I was ready to throw the towel in and say I wanted to get off.

Thankfully I had put my big girl breeches on that day and I fought through it. 

Before using the 2 outer sets of poles we did a few exercises between the blue and green sets of poles. At this point I was fine confidence wise with Legacy. 

Some of the exercises we did were:

- Go through the blue set of poles and then through the green set.

- Go through the blue set of poles and either go on the a inside or the outside of the set of green poles.

- Same as above but opposite way around. Going through the green set and either way around the blue set. 

These exercises were done on both reins. 

After that we started to incorporate the orange set of poles. Were we would do big circles from blue through orange and smaller ones in between of orange and green then blue and green.

It took us pretty much the whole lesson to get a nice rhythmic trot out of Legacy this day as she was very much running in her trot. My Instructor was very determined to get a nice trot out of her before the end of the lesson and to end the lesson on a nice trot aswell.

When we started to incorporate the orange poles was when Legacy started to heat up a little. I hadn't been this far down in the arena with her for a while as we'd been working in the top quarter to half in 20m circles and on a square/rectange that way I could always have a good amount of control of her.

The control when she starts to heat up is definitely a communication error rather than her needing another bit, something not fitting correctly, her not being happy etc. As when she does heat up my first Instinct is to stiffen and tense up and pull back on the reins slightly. Now I know that both of these are something I need to work on. In terms of the pulling on the reins this is also something we worked on in the lesson as the instructor told me to try intermittently slightly pull on each rein and that if she doesn't go off on me to send her into the arena fence a little by turning her head. I did manage to find some control of her by trying these out and maybe we'll get there when I stop stiffening up. 

The Funnel Exercise

During my last lesson on Legacy we used poles to switch it up a little. Although I pretty much understood what was wanted of us after a tester warm up round. It took me a while to translate it over to Legacy. 

What we did with the poles;

On a 20 circle I would either go on the inside, over or on the outside of the fan of poles. Then on the set of 2 poles I would go between the fence and poles, between the 2 poles or on a smaller circle between the fan of poles and the 2 poles. 

I did this exercise in trot on both reins and my instructor would say what she would want us to do with the next set of poles as we finished one set. For example I would go between the gate and the poles and then over the fan of poles. Sometimes she would leave it a little longer so I would have to react fast and get Legacy working quickly and effectively. We struggled with this a little in the beginning because it took a while to get Legacy into a nice rhythm, she would be running along in trot. When she's at this pace I never know to kick her on to keep her going or slow her down to steady her I'm fear she's going to think I'm asking her to canter or if she'll stall on me. I had to try get her into rhythm without showing her I'm worried about what she's going to do. 

Even when you think you've got Legacy working at a good speed you still have to be on the ball and concentrating on her at all times or she will just give up and go back to walk or even just stand there. There was a few times I lost my stirrups and took my concentration off of Legacy to sort these out during the trot and she was back to walk. 

So the stirrup situation is something I'm going to work on, through my position and possibly trying out the cheese grater stirrup grips so help with my losing stirrup problem.

At the end of the lesson we did a little canter on each rein, this is something that Legacy needs to work on a lot as she's not balanced at all, and I don't feel like she's balanced enough to get any benefit out of being cantered on the lunge. So in my sessions with her when I feel like I've got her in a good trot I will ask her for canter but only do a few strides then bring her back and continue doing this as she gains balance. Another thing she needs to learn is that when she comes back down from canter to trot is to keep working and not just die down back to walk.  

I really enjoyed doing this exercise with Legacy and it was nice to get her working over poles. This is something I would do again with her on my individual schooling sessions with her. 

Legacy's Take on Bedding

In the 3 winters I've had Legacy I have tried a variation of types of bedding. Most of them have worked well in the beginning and then have just majorly fallen down hill as I thought that plan and type of bedding was working. During the time she's been at the current livery yard she's been in 4 different stables. In these stables her stress levels have been different in each one, this has contributed to how messy each stable has been. Pretty much each variation has included shavings at some point and it even went to the point of trying out different types of shavings. 

All of the stables she's been in have had rubber matting in, so this has been a major help when it comes to putting down a bed for her. When I first had her she was on shavings, in a average stable size she would just poo where she was standing when eating her hay, the only problem with this would be that when she would walk around the stable, the poo would be walked into the shavings. 

Apart from this the main dilemma I've always had with her beddings is that she's very wet, this at times could be to the point there would be a slight puddle in the middle of the shavings if there wasn't a thick enough layer down. 

The bedding variations she's had are:

- Shavings with thick banks and thin bed layer

- Plenty of shavings all around, thick banks and bed layer

- Shavings banks with Megazorb in the middle

- Shavings banks with shavings and wood pellets mixed in

- Wood Pellet banks and bed

- Straw banks and shavings bed

- Shavings banks with straw bed
- We've also tried deep littering her on shavings

Before trying her out on what she's on now she was going through a bale of shavings a day if you were mucking her out properly she was that wet, so I knew I had to find a better alternative for her. She now has Straw all over for banks and bed with a sprinkle of shavings underneath in the middle. This seems to be working well for the time being, and she will probably be on this until she goes out for the summer which I'm hoping will be within the next few weeks if the weather sorts itself out. The shavings layer beneath the straw is enough to soak up the wee from the bedding to make it not so soggy or have wee running through the stable. 

She also seems to be very much less stressed while she's in this stable, she is now next door to Cloudy who she is very close with as their never separated now, being in both summer & winter fields together. He has really seemed to calm her down and it's really helped cut down on her separation anxiety. She still has a few stubborn moments trying to get her into the stable on her own, but with a little persuasion she's much more better and willing to be on her own. 

Here is a quick before & after picture of Legacy's stable. 

Balancers, Why Feed Them?

Balancers are a great way to give your horse all the recommended vitamins & minerals without having to feed multiple times a day or giving them a bucket full of feed. Depending on the choice of balancer you will be giving them no more than 2 cups of feed and that's for a 16hh+ horse.

It has always been a big no no to give your horses bigger feeds as it can increase the chance of colic among other things but giving your horse 2-4 feeds a day isn't always readily available for some people. The more times a day a feed is split up into the better as it keeps the digestive system working correctly as fit's with the way the horse has always eaten, little and often. Splitting the feed up is also a good way to help put weight onto your horse as it will give the system plenty of time to take up all the nutrients needed from each meal.  

Some of the benefits from feeding a feed balancer with ad-lib forage are:

• Better digestive efficiency
• Reduced risk of loose droppings 
• Reduced risk of colic 
• Reduced risk of laminitis
• Reduced risk of stereotypical behaviour (once called ‘vices’) 
• Reduced risk of ‘tying-up’ 
• Reduced severity of gastric ulcers
• Reduced risk of DOD (an umbrella term covering abnormal limb development) 
• More relaxed behaviour with improved focus 

Feed balancers can be fed alone like the Naf Optimum or can be added to a chaff to add a little bulk and more of the horse to eat.

Some balancers come in a pelleted form like the Naf Optimum or they will come in a powder form. From experience I've learnt that the powdered ones will be the ones you come across in a small tub such as the Equine Answers 365 Balancer starting at 1Kg (I've done a review on this product, which you can read here), but the Naf Optimum also comes in a smaller bag starting at 3.7Kg. 

There are now many different types of balancers each suited to your horses needs:

- Performance

- Lo-Cal/Lite for laminitis prone or the fat

- Conditioning

- Weight maintenance

-  Joint

- Hoof

- Veteran/Senior

- Stud

- Donkey

What's great about balancers as well is that they will be low in starch & sugar meaning they won't heat up or fizz up for horse. 

The 2 balancers that have worked really well for Legacy are the Naf Optimum & Equine Answers 365 Complete 

Do you feed a balancer to your horse?

*Images are from this article

*Italicized list is from this article

Light Evenings Can Only Mean One Thing

It's now creeped to that time of year where I can start to ride after work. The evenings now don't get dark until 6 O'Clock. When I do the early shift in work I finish for 4, this gives me 20-30mins to get to the yard and Legacy will be in her stable ready for the night. This is also great for me as I don't have a stressy Legacy to tack up, like she can be when she's on her own.

This time of evening is great to ride on the yard as everyone has been and done their daily riding by this point, which means the school will be free for me.

As Legacy has recently had 2 months off work I'm only doing short schooling sessions with her until she gains some fitness back up, saying that she wasn't full of fitness before. Now's the time to start building her up, for some summer activities hopefully. So the sort time allowed with the darkness is great for me at the moment.

Have you managed to get some late evening riding in now that the evenings are getting lighter and longer?

Our First Year Together!

I've had this monster for a year today! Can't believe how fast it's gone, and through everything that's happened I wouldn't change it for the world. So glad I never took any easy routes when times got though and never let her go. Hope to have many more years with this madam!

Learning to love to school...

Since finally having a school arena readily available to work Legacy in I find out she pretty much hates being in there and finds watching the clouds go by or the sheep in 2 fields over being herded. Either this would happen or she would jet off into a fast canter/gallop around the school like she was back on a racecourse. 

So after reading the Q & A section about a horse napping in the latest Horse & Rider issue they suggested about loose schooling and showing the school can be a fun place.

Since reading this I've only taken her in the school the once, she wasn't in there for long but she was able to sniff around, eat the grass on the sides of the school and have a roll (collapsing into a roll in the picture) all of these things I don't let her do while in the school. The article suggested letting her do this, making her work a little then giving her a treat for the work, so that's what I did and during that session it was working well. 
Tomorrow hopefully weather depending she will be going in there again, once a week is all I currently have time for at the moment due to not driving which sucks but I'm getting there and will be driving around in my own little car soon, and with spring/summer on their way hopefully I will be able to get some riding sessions in before/after work.

That's all for now, will update on how this is working when I've done it another couple of times.  Have any of you had this problem before? What was your approach and how did you overcome it? The help would be appreciated.

    

Starting a New Blog...

As I already have a beauty and fashion blog, the idea of this blog is something that I've been thinking about since I got Legacy in August. The other night I thought to hell with it and decided to start one up. Before I go into any other details about Legacy or myself, I'm not and will not be claiming I know everything. My main experience with horses has been a 2 year BTEC Level 3 course, yes the college life was sheltered to the real world with horses but there was some out of the ordinary experiences I had while I was there. Before that I had only been taught to ride when I was little, Having a horse is always something I've wanted but never been able to afford and the time has finally come where I can have one.

So this blog is going to be about my life, struggles and accomplishments since having Legacy. She's my first horse and I understand people will say why have a thoroughbred as your first horse never mind an ex racehorse. We had one in college and I fell in love with her, When I was out looking for a horse this type was not what I was looking for but neither was a cob that will do everything I say and want. I wanted a project but not something to break in as at the time of buying I was still planning on going to Americamp for the summer of 2015, that soon went when I got Legacy. As I say I don't have a lot of experience I have 2 people helping me along the way to do have the experience which I can ask for help when needed.

Writing this blog will help give me time to reflect on anything that's happened, in a way to reflect on things and when I'm writing I might think of other ways to approach a situation and help me and Legacy come out the other side.

To anyone that reads this I will be grateful for any comments of help or advice when I come across any problem or struggles and likewise if you need any help I will also be happy to help and give advice with my little experience.

P.s Yes that is her up in the header :)