Apart from gale force winds and mud so thick you have to walk like a penguin, everything went smoothly with the vet this morning. Chancer, Blue and Theoden all had their teeth done. Theoden hasn't has his touched since 2008 and it was no surprise to find that he had massive hooks on his upper molars resulting in some very nasty ulceration of his cheeks. Hopefully he will be much more smiley from now on. I was just praising Amy for her efficiency when we got her landrover stuck in the mud and eventually had to ask Guy to come up to assist us in getting it out. As I am probably too embarassed to face him again I may have to find another farrier but she may find it harder to find another husband!
It was good to see the Forestry Commission are attacking some of the gorse again this year. The ponies will have more grass available to them. I'm amazed at how many people park on the grass outside my forest gate even though there is a whacking great car park on the opposite side of the road. I want to go up and say, "Please don't park on my ponies' dinner!" It's been a very hard winter for the wild ponies, especially those that have received no supplemental feeding, and many of them are now too triangular in shape. There's hardly any grass yet and many are surviving on gorse. It's would be no better to insist that the commoners take them home to their holdings when I doubt any of them have any grass there either and hay is running out fast. I hope spring arrives soon.
I put on my second clean pair of trousers of the day and my cleanest walking boots to go and see a little Arabian horse this afternoon. I love these gifted children. This one hasn't had much handling at all but on the other hand he hasn't been got at either. He is a little wary of humans but even when there was a horse being schooled next door and his mate had wandered out of sight, all he did was grow very tall indeed. He was so light to move around and wanted to co-operate; he was like a mirror. Once he knows he can trust people it should all get a lot easier for him. I got his owner working on a slow seductive touch in a massagey sort of way so that he can start to see the value of touch. It's the ears that do it - absolutely exquisite.
"Thanks so much for coming today. It really is amazing how quickly horses can start to learn things. I though S-Arab did wonderfully well. Thanks for all the info you sent. I shall read and inwardly digest - it is all so interesting." SH
