26th December, 2017 Bubble and Squeak Day

There are some people who put so much time and effort into Christmas - weeks of preparation getting everything just right. These same people forsake all of the calories on Christmas Day itself, never over-indulge, and are more excited on Boxing Day than Christmas Eve. These are the (mad?) people who take part in the New Forest Point to Point. The three mile course (1 1/2 mile for children) is kept secret until the day of the races and riders can choose their own route to the finish. The overnight rain had rendered an already challenging course even more muddy.

Well known sires: Farriers Fingerprint and Sway Mister Blue Sky marshalling for the day

Inevitably the children of long established Commoners are starting to come through on their ponies, the Lovell brothers coming first and second in their class, no doubt heralding many years of fiercely contested races.

22nd December, 2017 Fun Break

The weather might be a bit dreary but the horses are in fine form. Pie has taken to coming home for lunch which saves me from worrying about him losing weight over the winter.

The British Horse Society always recommend putting out one additional pile of hay in order to avoid confrontation. This enabled Juma to have a comfortable morning while Peechay ate all around him

Time to get up and a nice stretch...

Henrietta thought I ought to spend my break keeping her entertained. She was keen to practise her cross-country jumping.

She was a little taken aback at the donkey braying across the road - she had never heard such an awful racket.

Juma catching up on his own hay intake...

...and has anyone seen Peechay?

21st December, 2017 Pluses and Minuses

Good news that since the clocks changed there have been half the number of collisions with animals than the same period the year before. Good news also that there have been less animal fatalities than the year before. However, the message is still not getting across as it should be and the overall figure for animals being HIT by VEHICLES is appalling. People come up with all sorts of impossibly expensive, and often impractical solutions (from fencing to speed bumps) given the sheer number of roads that wind their way between villages in the Forest. The most inexpensive one of all, the one that would cost nothing, would be for drivers to change their attitudes and drive with less speed and greater regard for the animals. The Forest is one of the few remaining truly wild places in England and without the animals it would need to be managed entirely mechanically and would lose its unique character. Surely everyone has a vested interest in keeping the Forest as it is?

I accept that there may be the occasional genuine accident but I don't buy the often used excuse, especially when there are no witnesses, that an animals suddenly shot across the road. Quite apart from anything else, drivers need to be aware that animals may suddenly shoot across the road, but I travel the B3078 every day and I rarely see animals shoot across the road. If the pony that was standing like a statue right next to the road suddenly wakes up and decides to cross the road then the driver should have been aware of that 'statue'. It's sad that drivers slow down more to stare at a dead pony than they do a live one.

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.