Well poor pony has had a boring week, although he should probably thank his stars he’s actually allowed out of his stable! Half the yard is literally confined to boxes. We’ve been lunging. A lot. And doing some ST. Not much else to do really. Can’t go into the arena and the field is very hard. But at least he’s keeping moving. The plan is for quarantine to remain until 9 May at which point the whole yard will have a blood test and ponies that test negative can go back out to play! *fingers crossed*

He’s only taking mouthfuls of the chamomile now, but still really into the dandelion. Takes bits and pieces of the nettle and cleavers. I’m glad he isn’t more into the chamomile now though – he seems to be taking this house arrest without too much stress.

His summer coat is very nearly through so we’re almost at my favourite colour of Dino:

So this is going to be a trying few weeks. We have a case of Strangles on the yard. Not in the bit that Dino’s in so no reason to think he’ll be infected and the staff are taking extreme precautions to make sure it doesn’t spread from the one affected pony….but bummer. Nightmare all round. All hacking plans on hold, obviously, and at the moment lunging in the field outside the box is permitted but not riding in the schools for us. Bum.

He had been moving pretty well! I feel like we’re making some progress on the ST front although he’s still very very nippy. But he was moving better under saddle and we were able to canter 20m circles and full laps of the school on both reins. This week I’ve been working a bit on halt – rein back and trot – halt – rein back and walk – canter. Sticky but he was getting there!!!

For my record his temp was 37.3 yesterday and 37.2 today. I shall keep an eye on this for the next week.

He’s still being offered his herbs and currently dandelion is his favourite. Not bothered for cleavers and actually turned the chamomile down a couple of days this week so hopefully that means he’s feeling better. No interest in meadow sweet and not as much nettle as previously so hopefully this means he’s feeling better.

Weather this week looks cooler and rainy so we’ll make the best we can of things. Have a slightly sulky pony pic:

Glorious week for weather! Having the lighter evenings and bit of sun kicking about is great and we’ve had a reasonably productive week. I’ve ridden three times and done three ST session so that’s pretty good. Hard to know if we’re making much actual progress but we’re cantering more in the school and cantering 20m circles so that’s all good. Need to restart polework and maybe get jumping. Such a hassle to move all the poles though!

Even managed to find some time to get the camera out:

I’m really hoping we can get back out overnight soon. I think he could do with the movement and I could do without all the mucking out, lol! Hoping to get up to the Forest next week for a hack, I’ve missed it!

It’s been a much better week! I feel like we’re making some real progress. I had a couple of fairly good rides, he’s still feeling a bit stiff and sluggish but once he gets moving he’s going better and it’s not taking so long to get him to move a bit. Yesterday he went straight into the horse walker with only a little bit of treat-based encouragement which is also a big step forward.

The BIG news is though that we managed to go hacking again today! Big thanks to Jamie, Karen and Gill for having a mooch with us. We just walked up the road to the golf course and then back again. He was pretty good on the road. Tense, and a bit upset by a lorry we saw on the way back but not too bad. It was a good day all in all!

We’re continuing with the herbs. He’s still taking chamomile, nettle, dandelion and rosehip. No oils wanted this week. I think he’s feeling a bit calmer in himself, he’s eating less of his bedding and hopefully he’ll be back into the big field overnight again in the next couple of weeks. So things are beginning to feel a bit better in time for summer!