16th December, 2017 Onwards and Upwards

Anyone who has lost a horse will know that after the initial shock there is a period of disbelief and loss. I say to all sorts of random people (the Chimney Sweep, volunteers in our local shop...), "I lost my horse last week." To them it hardly registers but to me it's feels as if I am measuring out my grief like a length of cloth.

To everything there is a season and it was poignant to attend the funeral of my friend and client, Anna's owner George, who was eighty-nine, and hear about all the things he had done and been in his life. Fitting that the young vet who took so much care of Petra last week and attended to my ponies on Monday is also called George and has his whole life ahead of him to do lots of great work in his field. I'm urging him to go on the Veterinary Large Animal Rescue Course for a start...he'd be excellent in that situation.

By nipping between one little herd and the other, Henrietta tries to cover up that one of us is missing.

I have been generally lost this week and just taking a little pleasure out of being with the horses even though there is a terrible space where Petra used to be.

Peechay does his best Petra impression

11th December, 2017 Rites of Passage

Having been overwhelmed with the support, love, hugs and even flowers that I received in respect of Petra, I now feel like the world's worst mother. I really had no choice about Petra and that made everything a lot easier and although I cried all day Saturday, I know that there was nothing else that I could have done. It felt at the time like the ultimate betrayal but it was also the ultimate kindness that I could do for her. Not so with having my ponies branded this morning.

A dry back helps things to go smoothly

For your average working Commoner, branding is one of those things that you take in your stride, part and parcel of keeping semi-feral ponies and really no big deal. Done properly, as it tends to be on the Forest, the brand takes less than three seconds to apply and many ponies hardly seem to flinch - Andrew the Agister always does a neat and efficient job. I don't accept that it doesn't hurt, either while it is applied or while it heals - and of course you can do very little to salve it because by definition it needs to leave a scar.

Peechay

For anyone who is entitled to depasture a pony on the Forest, hot-branding is a legal requirement and until there is a reliable way of identifying a pony from more than three feet away, it will always be a legal and practical requirement for ponies living in large mixed-ownership herds. If there was an alternative I would be the first to try it. Of course I recognise my ponies and they are partly friendly so come to a familiar call, but they have to be recognisable both to me and to everyone else as mine and not someone else's in case of accident, emergency, or welfare issues.

To add insult to injury Juma was also micro-chipped. Both ponies were sedated.

I am in two minds about when to turn them out on to the Forest. I need to re-acquaint Peechay and Juma with their environment urgently and yet make sure that all three don't drop in condition - especially as Nelly is still feeding Juma. The quietest time would be over Christmas when the traffic dies down a little. Hopefully they would come home to be fed. The safest would be April when the clocks have changed and the commuters are crossing the Forest in the daylight. However, they would be back in again within a month to avoid Nelly getting pregnant when the stallions go back out.

8th December, 2017 My Best Friends' Best Friend

If I am honest with myself I have been holding on to Petra's negative test results and the vet's optimism as some sort of talisman over the last few weeks. I noticed that Petra seemed introspective and sometimes separated herself from the other horses and their activities. She seemed rather plump but the vet felt that she wasn't fat and suspected either wind or that she might be miraculously in foal. I kept an eye on her and had the Winter check done as a precaution in order to rule out Cushings and worms. Nevertheless she continued to balloon even when the other horses were maintaining the same weight. On the vet's advice I added charcoal and live yoghurt to her feed and was reassured when she continued to eat and eat well. However, yesterday it became clear that she wasn't at all well as she had a swelling that extended from her front legs all the way back to her hinds. Am urgent call to the vets and her blood tests were repeated and she was examined internally. With nothing obvious to show as a result of either I took her to The Barn this morning for a series of tests including ultrasound and a peritoneal tap. Devastatingly this latter revealed that Petra had cancer and that it was all over for her. With the heaviest heart, which now feels as if it has been ripped from my body, I had to have her put to sleep.

My darling Petra was always my best friends' best friend, a great riding companion horse and of course Théoden's favourite wife. Only two months ago she was trying to run off with Tracey when we rode along one of her best galloping tracks. She was the start of my career in horsemanship and has seen me to the end. Her family have been in my family for forty-five years starting with her ex-racehorse granny, Bonnie.

I am feeling extremely sad at the moment but can take some comfort from the fact that she hadn't suffered for very long.

6th December, 2017 Test Cricket

When you keep your horses on minimum management, including living out full time, minimal rugging, and little or no hard feed most of the year round, it's reassuring to hear that they are all healthy. The test results for the horses in their late teens,  Jack, Petra, and Théoden, showed no signs of metabolic problems including Cushings. None of them needed worming either (we do poo-pick every day).  It makes the Winter Health Checks well worth it in terms of peace of mind. A different story for the younger horses who are always prone to worms and will need a wormer.

29th November, 2017 Hay Day

On our way to collect the hay this morning we saw a bit of wildlife and also Pie, who later came round for lunch. I'm keen to keep a close eye on him this winter and encourage him to call in whenever he is close-by. He's eighteen now and living in the Forest can be hard work for older bodies.

Juma is also benefitting from being in although I sometimes catch Nelly mouthing the words "Wean him!" at me. She's having plenty of food to make it easier to eat for two. It also means that I can put a head-collar on him every few days and use a gentle pressure on the scarf around his neck to ask him to move with me. This is happening very gradually and without any resistance. It's a nice way to work.

22nd November, 2017 Don't Look if You're Squeamish!

A bit of a bloody day in all senses of the word. Tracey and I felt very virtuous and organised as we waited to open various gates for our vet and had the horses lined up in the right order for their individual examinations. In an orange box in the shed we had already collected and labelled poo samples ready for their worm counts back at the surgery, and I'd even remembered the spare paint for Honour's plinth for Amy to take back. So far so good.

Credit: Russell Sach

The main purpose of the visit was to follow-up on Petra's recent introspectiveness and rotundness by getting her tested for Cushing's Disease and any other metabolic problem. Since my Jack (cresty neck, peachy bottom but protruding ribs) and Théoden are of a similar age they were due to be tested too. In the meantime Bella was being checked to see why she might not be gaining weight on exactly the same grass.

Credit: Russell Sach

When the other Jack started to chew on Amy's Landrover I chose to put him in another field, still next to the other horses, but this didn't find favour with him. He proceeded to break through two fences, which coupled with the howling wind, wound up all the other horses waiting their turn to see the vet. Chaos ensued and it was rather distracting when holding one horse while it was having its heart-rate monitored (inevitably racing!) while the other horses tore around the field wrecking the grass.

Credit: Tracey Parnell

Still, Amy is always game for a laugh, and we ended the day with her retrieving the roundworms that Juma had expelled following his first wormer out of the poo-pile.

Credit: Tracey Parnell

Sometimes I wonder why I like horses at all.

20th November, 2017 Group Hugs

We've noticed when working with Leo that he is more worried about life when there are more people around. As far as he is concerned, one person is a person, two or more is an ambush. When looking at some of the shenanigans that go on at various sales up and down the country, you do wonder if that's what he might have been through. In any event, we decided to work with him as a group, playing 'steal the pony' in order to help him over this and to get a better view of people.

As we were close by I took Julie up to the top of Magdalen Hill Down for lunch and to see the animals.

The view on the way out had not been so good with twenty bags of plant waste, fertiliser containers, and plastic gloves had been dumped on the Forest. I have reported this to NFDC this morning.