Saturday 14 June 2008

Made it through the night:)

I half expected both muzzles to be off when I arrived this morning,I was convinced Polo's was at one point cos he was head down grazing and certainly didnt rush over to me,AliG did mind:))
Im really pleased they looked noticeable less bloated than usual after a night on the grass. Mr OTT Polo who I was expecting to be tramatised by the whole event was completely chilled out AND the best bit his legs were cooler and tighter than they've been in ages!
I poo picked while they tucked into some soaked hay then rode AliG first in the school for 35mins.He was being a wet lettuce about the foal,the same one Polo was silly about (must be some foal),so I did some ground work first as I could feel my patience wearing thin.I then got on and did lots of trot work with a bit of canter,didnt see the point in working on anything else till he was settled and listening.Towards the end I spend some time working on his walk which I think is his worst pace as he grinds to a halt at times. I concentrated on not nagging him but as soon as he started to drop back I gave him a sharp tap with the leg then the whip if he didnt respond quickly once we had some nice forward free walk on both reins I called it a day.

I then rode Polo up the lane with the dogs he was much more settled today which was a good job as Buster had a long chase of a rabbit in the fields which is always accompanied by lots of excitement and yapping from the dogs.Buster was hyper after that so I had to watch and check him quite a bit after that as he kept trying to take off looking for more so Polo was an after thought really:)
Did a very short trot he felt ok ,when he's been out of work he struggles to shorten and steady his trot so I literally did half a dozen strides,didnt want to risk more of his big long trot on the hard tarmac.

Left them in for the day then turned them back out teatime they were pretty accepting of the muzzles going on.
AliG made me laugh he managed to get a larger plant through the hole and wouldnt let go but was obviously struggling to bite through it.He came over to me and we had a tug of war trying to snap it,I gave up in the end cos he wasnt letting go he eventually bit through it and the root dropped out.
They were off grazing in the longer grass when I left,I'll be there early tomorrow morning to put them in for the day as im off to Kelso,Scottish borders for a dog show all three entered :)

4 comments:

cptrayes said...

Jazz's muzzle was off yesterday with two broken spars on the basket it. I fixed it with wire and one of them was broken again when I got home today .... I'm warning ZIppy, he gets one on too if this becomes a habit. I'm glad they're working for your pair.

C

Jean said...

No need of muzzles here. My grass is far too limited. Funny story about Ali and the weed, though. Just goes to show you what a determined fellow he is.

Love the Buster and the rabbit story too. What would he do if he caught it? Not too sure I like that image....

Have fun at the show!

Claire said...

hope it all went well today, nicola!

Claire said...

how did the show go? and did you get the video to work?