Pendlewitch

Even the vet is not sure what's going on with Wanda, she is only 1/10th lame so he says to ride her out starting with 10 mins BUT her saddle constantly slips back. He's certainly not convinced she needs to retire yet, just need to get her various bits right but each wrong bit bounces of another. Vet wants to have the extentions removed on her back feet and I'm sure he's right on this one, I've never been keen on them and tit could be what is making her back end wrong and causing some of the saddle problems but saddle slip is more often caused by front limb lameness. Arrrrrgh! Wanda is not good to diagnose, she will not react to hoof testers or will scream in horror if they are even shown to her, her back can be checked over with no triggers evident and next minute she will leap into the air as if she is being stung. Her reactions are never the same two minutes together, I think she just likes to keep me guessing.

Wanda has the vet tomorrow for her weird soggy hoof and Jack dog goes for his surgery on suspicious lump. Not going to be a good day!

Yup, on second thoughts I'll go for James, he is good and unusual, Jahmene and Ella will do very well, win or lose. I would like to hear Jahmene sing something gospel but without too many ad libs.

Rylan was a bit of a hoot but had an awful singing voice. I want the baby boy band out next, they are dire! Chris to win!!!!! Not really but wouldn't it just be hilarious if he did? The word is that Simon Cowell is getting a tad worried about this, the middle aged/granny vote is proving powerful. I do NOT count myself in this bracket. I love Jahmene's voice but his diction needs some work, what on earth is a nangel and I'm beginning to find him a bit sort of sickly sweet. Now I'm left with James, um maybe not! CHRIS TO WIN!!!!! :biggrin:

Don't know who is which this year as i got a bit bored with it. The good looking girlie in the pink made my jaw drop last night, she has no sense of rhythm at all, it was painful to watch her. I thought she would be fantastic but she was wooden! Out with her!

Beautiful sunny day here, how unusual! Back to normal tomorrow with high winds and yes more rain, the only horses in the fields are the ornaments, babies and shets, non of which are hard to bring in as they are waiting at the gate at 4pm. If it's really bad all come in at lunch time, that includes the horses in the winter turnouts, I think the horses are just as sick of the weather as we are! It only takes a small rain shower to have pools showing on the land, there is nowhere for the water to go anymore. I have chosen a good time for my knee to blow up like a balloon and prevented me from doing much more than sit on the sofa with an ice pack and moan, not good for YO Sam as my three increase her workload even though non are rideable!

Clumper is just a greedy oik! I have to admit that Lilli eats Monty's spit balls. He is unable to eat haylage but does like to suck it, he then ejects neatly rounded lumps of soggy haylage. for Lilli to collect. We have some very odd animals on our yard!

Jack dog has had a lump high up on his back leg for a year or more, vet was sure it was a lipoma but to watch it. During the past week it's grown a fair bit and has become hard, whipped him into the vets this morning and vet is not happy with it at all, he has to have it taken off next Tuesday, cue total panic!

Sounds like a normal show day CP, nothing ever goes right! Good result though with so much trauma and a rush to get ready, good boy Milo. Wanda continues to chuck new things at me, she is now lame because of a soft foot and has to stay in for a few days! She's borrowed Clumper's stable during the day so she can see the shetlands and hopefully not weave so she confined herself to trashing the stable by dragging all her haylage out and peeing on it, pinging the top out of Clump's hay bar then made a small hole in the back of the stable much bigger by kissing Obe through the gap. I thought she was going to push the panel to the next stable down with her scratching her big butt on it. Naughty horse! Clumper has no shame, he picked all the wet manky haylage up and ate it before I could get him mucked out!

I won't get another horse CRB, I'm 65 and have arthritic problems myself, Wanda and I can discuss symptoms! I'll just turn into a batty old lady (Turn? Tee hee, I'm already there), with a zimmer frame and a fat shetland on a lead rope. Oh poop I already have the fat shetlands, I'll pop out for the zimmer later on!

Good boy Milo, you stay in your field and you won't get zapped! I have some serious concerns about Wanda, after her being pretty amazing and bonkers she has crashed big style and is very lethargic. Her muscle tone is awful, she no top line, she has hollows at each side of her withers, her bum has disappeared and she stands with her back legs out behind and her feet at ten to two. She's always screwed her back feet but this has got to the stage where her shoes become knife thin on the outside. She looks like a scrapper from a poor quality horse auction! The saddle fitter was not at all happy with her and suggested the physio which had already been booked for next Tuesday. So I have a horse with arthritic hocks, pasterns and neck, she is always aneamic, has quite severe pollen allergies, is prone to viruses and now cushings. This latest crash has happened suddenly but it's what Wanda does and it makes me wonder if she has had cushings for some time although at 85 her ACTH levels are not that high. My gut feeling is to retire her, Sam said she was dire to hack out yesterday, just totally dead, this along with all the other problems is telling me it's time to stop. Although apart from the cushing she does not have life threatening problems she has lots of problems and it's becoming a management issue rather than a fixing her issue. Wanda is 17 so not a great age but is a big lanky horse and I've always thought she would not age well, this is proving so true. I'll see what the physio says but I don't think it will be a very positive outcome. Wanda deserves her retirement, she owes me nothing, I owe her everything.

Here's a donkey CP! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-19179085

Banner is in disgrace and her International Superstar status has been reduced to Star for the time being. She tried to barge out on YO Sam and when prevented she reared and boxed at her. Sam was so surprised that Banner nipped past and trotted off down the building, to compound her bad behaviour she then presented her bum and threatened to kick. Once nabbed Sam did some backing up hand halts with her, cue Banner becoming all sweetnesss and light! What a naughtly pony!

He's gorgeous! Love the forelock and mane, who is he?

Here's Banner's video, it's a bit wobbly because the wind was howling! One of my scary weave objects collapsed in a heap but it was still scary! http://youtu.be/10gj8hgne14

WTG Milo! He certainly looked to be enjoying that! My little Banner has come second in October's agility competition, she is a little superstar!

That was a fairly good and calm test, well done! A few comments: Carry the hand and keep them still and soften the arms, I'd like your lower leg back a tad. Ride the corners, keep the outside rein and put the inside leg on to push him into the corner. Slow the walk a little, he was getting on to his forehand and scuttling. A softer hand will allow him to lengthen his frame which will create a more pleasing outline. Very nice forward free walk but it's on a long rein not a loose rein. As Gooster said, ensure the halt is established before the salute, the halt can be progressive but don't creep up on it, ride it forward. That was a very good start to his dressage career, I think you both could produce some nice work as he develops his paces. I like his attitude and willingness to work, what a good boy. Please feel free to smack me with a wet fish for the comments.

I wouldn't leave it Clare, did the vet proble the wound to see how deep it was? Even what appears to be a small scratch can be deeper than it look s and you don't want to risk infection, I'd be having his back out.

Good luck with the dressage CP, don't forget to ride your corners, it's so easy to to cut them short. We need a vid or pictures! Poor little Banner got a bit cold the other day and was shaking from her head to her tiny little feet. I was a bit cross as it was kind of poo pooed and ther were she will warm up coments all over the place. She would not have warmed up outside, she would have just got colder and colder so she put her turnout rug on over her waffle rug after lunging and made it clear that was how she should stay. I'm a protective of her, she's so tiny and was so unhappy, poor little pony. Wanda gets more and more crazy as time goes on, she has started her meds and I think they have gone to her head. She always did put a good buck in when she was happy but she has taken it to new levels and has included a leap off the floor first then the back end goes way up in the air with a massive power buck, it's highly entertaining in the arena but not so much out on the roads!

Clare, I forgot to say what a superb picture that was! YO Sam is sporting a black eye, bruised cheekbone and had quite a bad concussion after Wanda saw a ghost and did a star jump whilst being clipped and kneed Sam in the eye. Can't believe that she carried on clipping after the stars faded a bit and put up with the headache and dizziness for three days! Wanda bought her a bottle of wine and some flowers as an apology!

Banner has gone for the full clip! Her coat was 2.5 inches long already, that is because of the cushings, she looks awesome!. There is effective treatment for the cushings but no cure, I just have to see the vet to sort out drug therapy, the cost will be a bit eeeeek but they are both very much worth it.

CP apart from all the usual riding advice, keep your head up and remember to breathe! Well I've just had some gobsmaking news, both Banner and Wanda have cushings! We had 5 tested, 3 of YO Sam's and my two. Sam's were fine and I scored a bullseye with both of them. Banner at 12 is young to have it but she presents a fairly classic picture, Wanda's symptoms are less clear but I've thought for a while she was not just right. Having said that at the moment she is totally bonkers and goes most places at passage! So with Little Lilli having 'very special needs' it would seem I now have two more specials!

Re towing, one point is your trailer weight is always taken as the max so even if you only have one lightweight pony on board if you have the capacity to tow 2 16.2 horses then you will be illegal if you have exceeded your kerbside weight. See this, it makes my brain hurt! The plated MAM of the trailer must not be more than unladen or kerb weight of the towing vehicle The plated MAM of the trailer and the GVW of the towing vehicle when added together must not add up to more than 3500 kgs The braked towing weight capacity listed for the towing vehicle must not be exceeded when the trailer is loaded with the horse (horse plus empty weight of trailer must not add up to more than the towing capacity of the vehicle) When loaded with the horse, the plated MAM of the trailer must not be exceeded

Ead def take the BHS or something else, you really do need 3rd party and a rider insurance of some sort. What a nice horse Phoebe is!

If you drop his value do check the level of vet cover you get, I dropped Wanda to 2k, any less and her vet cover would have gone down to 3k. It's easy to get to 3k these days, YO's horse had a tiny wound on his hock, turned out it was a puncture and he was in horspital for days, had to have surgery to flush out the hock and ran up a huge bill, he has arthritic hocks but the external visible injury was still covered. Good point Clare, a 5 year old on the yard had crippling arthritis in the upper hock joints,every possible treatment had been carried out with no success, insurance would not pay out as they said he could be a field ornament on bute! Loss of use is shockingly expensive, fortunately I had it on Dobbin and it paid for her funeral.