So it’s only been seven weeks since Dino & Poppy moved, but it’s rained for about five of those weeks the section of field we originally put them in has been looking extremely damp. Mud everywhere! And they have basically run out of grass. Today we made them much happier by moving them over to a new section of field! It took a couple of hours to rearrange all the fencing but they certainly seemed to appreciate it!
The before bit: this is where they’ve beenAnd after: the new section
Both ponies immediately went down for a roll so I think they had really been feeling annoyed in the old section.
An upside down pony
I’ll miss seeing them so much in the daylight now I’m going back to work tomorrow but the new office operates on a 10-6 basis so it might be that over the winter at least I can get up a couple of mornings during the week first thing and still see them in the light! Should have time for a quick clicker session those mornings so maybe we can start getting back to making some progress! We shall see.
Mostly it’s been pretty beautiful a the land this week though:
Been a while, huh? Sorry about that! Things have been a little hectic and I did not keep up with all Dino’s news!
The last time I remembered to update here he had just moved…and since then he’s moved again! The short version is: we had a great summer at Hunters Hall! The hacking was amazing, he and Poppy settled really well into the field and everything was great. So obviously what happens next is the lease gets bought out by developers and the farmer gives us all notice. Some horses were offered spaces at a different farm, operated by the same people, just down the road and initially we were told we were on the list to go. But after weeks and weeks of stress and people being difficult and not really telling us what was going on we found out that they weren’t willing to take us to the new yard as they didn’t want horses on 24/7 turnout all year round.
Bugger.
This was a really stressful thing to happen. There are very very few yards that will keep horses in work on grass livery in our area. It’s not really economic and although you can get grass livery for retired horses those setups don’t allow for horses coming in and out of the fields to be exercised. We have been extremely lucky however to get some space on some land only a few minutes walk (although a much longer drive!) from Hunters hall. We literally have a corner of a field sectioned off using electric fencing and a garden shed we put up in a field but it’s lovely!
The day they moved in
It’s been a challenge to settle them, and they’ve understandably got a lot of separation anxiety so we can’t easily take one out of the field and leave the other in at the moment . We can work to improve this but at the moment we’re taking them out together to do stuff and get the lay of the land. The weather being completely terrible hasn’t exactly helped so they’ve been taking it easy over this worst part of the winter.
Hacking out together!
We have made progress this week though and got them out for a hack together! They were so good. We were expecting they might be a bit stressed but actually once we’d got on them they were great. We also had the trimmer out this week. I was expecting this to be a challenge as well as they had to come up to the hard standing where we park the cars but they both stood patiently and were generally well behaved about handing their feet over when needed!
A Very Good Pony having his feet trimmed.
Agility and clicker training in general has taken a bit of a back seat but we’re hoping to get back to this very soon! I’m going to start trying to get him to relax and do some clicker outside the field to start to get them used to being temporarily separated.
So here’s hoping 2020 will be a more settled year for them, and they can be in this new home forever! It’s really beautiful. There’s lots of deer and rabbits and muntjac and all sorts of stuff and it’s still on the same hacking routes as Hunters so once we’ve got them used to being apart briefly we should be back to lots of hacking again!
So this year I did a project from the Happier podcast with Gretchin Rubin when I picked 19 things I wanted to do for 2019. I kept monthly updates…for the first half of the year but the second half of the year was a GIANT SHITSHOW and posting stuff kinda stopped.
But I did do things! Here’s my end of year progress report: 1.Have at least one holiday that involves a hot tub – DONE: September with some of the lovely gothic massive 2.Go walking in a National Park: DONE: On the same September holiday in the South Downs 3.Go to at least one cider festival: DONE: There was a super lovely chilled ‘sausage and cider’ festival in Walthamstow in September 4.Visit at least 3 museums: DONE: Wildlife photography with my sister, the Capitol Building in St Paul (which is sort of a similar if not quite a museum) and the Gormely at the RA (Ok so my definition of museum is a little loose) 5.Drink cocktails at least 6 times (in a cocktail bar): DONE I lost count actually 6.Do a come and sing Mozart Requiem (or Mass in C minor): Not done. I just didn’t get round to this, 7.Get to show 400 of Girls Gone WoW: DONE. 401 tonight. Show 400 was lovely 8.Go to Blizzcon: FUCKING DONE. IT WAS AMAZING 9.Finally get caught up with Arrow/Flash/Supergirl/LoT etc: No so much progress although I have made progress 10.Eat more healthily: MIXED: This started well but the more stressed I got the worse I ate. So fits and starts. 11.Regularly cycle to work (at least twice per week) EPIC FAIL: I literally didn’t cycle all year as work was just too far to comfortably make. BUT new job is 25 min cycle so I’m confident this year will have lots of cycling in it! 12.Read 20 books: DONE: I read 23. 13.Have Bibliogoth happen every month: DONE: You should join you know. 14.Either get a pay rise or get a new job: DONE: Start on 20 January. This was HUGE so I’m very pleased about it 15.Have a better mental health year: Ooof. I’m not sure what I was really thinking about with this but it wasn’t a great mental health year… This year should be better though! 16.Compete at prelim: Not done: Pony had a very different year from the one intended due to moving twice. 17.Compete in the online Horse Agility competition: Not done: But we did do quite a lot of agility practice stuff. 18.Jump a clear round: Not done: Just didn’t quite come together. 19.Go hacking at least once per month: DONE (sort of) The first half of the year was not great but after moving in July we hacked enough to make up for it I think!
Overall it was a mixed bag but I think the list did help me find fun things to do when I was lacking ideas which was helpful. Currently working on a 20 for 2020 list!
