I think I may have found the reason for her name, and/or bargain basement price!
The revolting little madam decided yesterday that work was not really high on her to do list for the day and was rather reluctant to go out at all.
I really had to chase her out on the beach, and she made her displeasure with this abundantly and increasingly clear by progressing from small lifts of her arse initially, to full blown bucks and kicks by the time we were on the return trip.
I was initially a smidgeon amused, but told her off anyway, and by the time she managed to get enough of a kick in to catch her off hind on the dust sheet I was far from it.
I roared at her repeatedly, and totally ignored her when we came in.
She was rather confused and put out with the lack of after-work attention. She had not worked up any kind of sweat so she got no rub or wash down, no carrots, no praise, and was looking desperately for her head scratch, but I simply kept pushing her nose away firmly, sending her away, told her I was disgusted with her behaviour, and dumped her straight back in a yard with no further interaction.
I didn't have the hopples on as we were jogging, but I'll stick to hopples on and will also tie her tail for a while and see if that helps.
While like most women I am not necessarily that thrilled with my appearance, I'm not that keen on having her adjust my face with a steel shod hoof
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Cracks and crunches
Had 4 of my trotters', and a friends pacer's backs, hips, and necks corrected today. I'm not convinced it looks an awful lot prettier than the dentist to be honest.
I had him check both Kicks and Q while he was here, and they are both all good, which is great, both for them and my budget!
Writing the cheque for 5 of the buggers was painful enough...lol
All 4 manipulated today will get tomorrow off, which makes it almost a holiday for me, and means that Kicks will get almost 100% of my attention tomorrow.
It will be interesting to see whether she appreciates this or not.
I had him check both Kicks and Q while he was here, and they are both all good, which is great, both for them and my budget!
Writing the cheque for 5 of the buggers was painful enough...lol
All 4 manipulated today will get tomorrow off, which makes it almost a holiday for me, and means that Kicks will get almost 100% of my attention tomorrow.
It will be interesting to see whether she appreciates this or not.
Something wrong with this picture!....LOL
I took Kicks out on the lead this morning so that her mouth has a day or two's healing before having a bit back in it, and worked her behind Volare in the cart.
Jogging down the road to the beach Kicks is trotting along happily, and Volare, who is a trotter, with 100% trotting blood, no random pacers littering her pedigree, is slowly PACING along!
Once the speed increases Volare switches to a trot, but at low speed she always starts out pacing.
Kicks quite happily retains the trot, even as the speed increases, and actually looks to trot quite nicely, so just perhaps I have found my first 2 dual gaiters!....LOL
A friend mentioned to me yesterday that he once saw a horse line up twice on the same day, in different gaits.
I think that is VERY cool, and think I may just have to try and achieve that with something eventually :)
Jogging down the road to the beach Kicks is trotting along happily, and Volare, who is a trotter, with 100% trotting blood, no random pacers littering her pedigree, is slowly PACING along!
Once the speed increases Volare switches to a trot, but at low speed she always starts out pacing.
Kicks quite happily retains the trot, even as the speed increases, and actually looks to trot quite nicely, so just perhaps I have found my first 2 dual gaiters!....LOL
A friend mentioned to me yesterday that he once saw a horse line up twice on the same day, in different gaits.
I think that is VERY cool, and think I may just have to try and achieve that with something eventually :)
Monday, January 26, 2009
Hard as Nails!
The farrier arrived at 7am today and Kicks now has shoes on again.
She was good with the front feet but copped a bit of an attitude when he got to the hindfeet. Not too awful, but a pain for him nevertheless.
Martin, my dentist, arrived about 11ish and did three horses for me, Kicks first.
He removed wolf-teeth, floated the molars and sorted the bitseat for her, struggling somewhat with the wolf-teeth, which were quite large, well rooted, and quite difficult to budge.
Through all this, which is a relatively bloody, and lets face it probably bloody painful exercise she stood calmly, not too upset by it at all, and even he was surprised by how well she took it.
I'm rather pleased as the ability to tolerate and cope with a bit of discomfort is probably a fairly desirable trait in a racehorse.
She was good with the front feet but copped a bit of an attitude when he got to the hindfeet. Not too awful, but a pain for him nevertheless.
Martin, my dentist, arrived about 11ish and did three horses for me, Kicks first.
He removed wolf-teeth, floated the molars and sorted the bitseat for her, struggling somewhat with the wolf-teeth, which were quite large, well rooted, and quite difficult to budge.
Through all this, which is a relatively bloody, and lets face it probably bloody painful exercise she stood calmly, not too upset by it at all, and even he was surprised by how well she took it.
I'm rather pleased as the ability to tolerate and cope with a bit of discomfort is probably a fairly desirable trait in a racehorse.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
One of the girls
Kicks got her pink halter yesterday, making her obviously one of my girls.
I'm thinking I will have to sort green halters for Q and Darky, being boys.
I drove Biki, and took Kicks and Whinney on the lead, all three in pink :)
The dentist finally arrives tomorrow morning, and I'll have her shod tomorrow when the farrier is there too, as she is a bit tender-hooved.
She is comfortably travelling the 8km to the creek and back now, so tomorrow after her shoes go on I'll stretch her out to 10km.
I'm thinking I will have to sort green halters for Q and Darky, being boys.
I drove Biki, and took Kicks and Whinney on the lead, all three in pink :)
The dentist finally arrives tomorrow morning, and I'll have her shod tomorrow when the farrier is there too, as she is a bit tender-hooved.
She is comfortably travelling the 8km to the creek and back now, so tomorrow after her shoes go on I'll stretch her out to 10km.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
You know what they say about the road to hell...
I had every intention of working everyone today, and giving them tomorrow off.
Instead I went to the races at Trentham, got mobbed by the drunken hat-and-frock brigade, sweated like a pig in the far-too-hot sun, and bought myself a nasty old Isuzu Bighorn while I was in the Hutt for good measure.
So it turns out that Kicks, and everyone else, will not be having Sunday off, as they got their lazy day today.
Instead I went to the races at Trentham, got mobbed by the drunken hat-and-frock brigade, sweated like a pig in the far-too-hot sun, and bought myself a nasty old Isuzu Bighorn while I was in the Hutt for good measure.
So it turns out that Kicks, and everyone else, will not be having Sunday off, as they got their lazy day today.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Hopples on!
As it happens I have never had to assemble hopples from scratch before, they have always come off a hook in a tack room, complete, adjusted for the horse, (although often not the one named on the tag I've noticed...lol), and ready to go.
New ones come out off the bag in pieces, and bearing only a passing resemblance to what ends up on the horse.
Luckily with careful examination the pieces do indeed look vaguely familiar, and assembly turns out to be less like rocket science, and more like origami.
So the hopples went on, the boots went on, and we waddled off in the direction of the beach.
At a slower pace the movement is very much somewhere between waddle and roll, and somewhat less graceful than the trotters, but I'm rather looking forward to the increased speed once she's ready for top speed.
Approximately 8km today, but this time at a slow pace instead of a trot.
Her new rug also fits well.
Over the weekend I'll attempt to get a short video of her in the cart on the beach to load here.
New ones come out off the bag in pieces, and bearing only a passing resemblance to what ends up on the horse.
Luckily with careful examination the pieces do indeed look vaguely familiar, and assembly turns out to be less like rocket science, and more like origami.
So the hopples went on, the boots went on, and we waddled off in the direction of the beach.
At a slower pace the movement is very much somewhere between waddle and roll, and somewhat less graceful than the trotters, but I'm rather looking forward to the increased speed once she's ready for top speed.
Approximately 8km today, but this time at a slow pace instead of a trot.
Her new rug also fits well.
Over the weekend I'll attempt to get a short video of her in the cart on the beach to load here.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Very scary lines :S
I've finally had her in the cart. We jogged 8km, most a true jog, but probably a couple of km in a slow free-leg pace.
It turns out the road markings were initially rather terrifying, and she felt the need to walk BETWEEN the diagonal lines on the judder bars, which was rather amusing.
If she genuinely thought they required her to go between them I'm not entirly sure what she thought was going to happen with me in the cart, it was never going to fit!....lol
She was rather wobbly on the way home, and had a bizarre mix of fascination and fear regarding the surf. She kept wandering down into the water as a wave receded then shying away as the next one came in. I also had to chase her up a bit at one point as I'm almost positive she was seriously contemplating lying down for a roll in the shallows!
All in all a good trip out for both of us, and it looks like she will be a bit of humour and fun.
It turns out the road markings were initially rather terrifying, and she felt the need to walk BETWEEN the diagonal lines on the judder bars, which was rather amusing.
If she genuinely thought they required her to go between them I'm not entirly sure what she thought was going to happen with me in the cart, it was never going to fit!....lol
She was rather wobbly on the way home, and had a bizarre mix of fascination and fear regarding the surf. She kept wandering down into the water as a wave receded then shying away as the next one came in. I also had to chase her up a bit at one point as I'm almost positive she was seriously contemplating lying down for a roll in the shallows!
All in all a good trip out for both of us, and it looks like she will be a bit of humour and fun.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Home at some thoroughly ungodly hour
We arrived home from the South Island this morning at about 5am, having caught the 11pm sailing. Kicks looks good, and as we are now more or less home for the duration, will get jogged today. I'm not sure how she is going to feel about the end of her holiday, but I feel sure she will let me know :)
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Quite palatable really
Some of the herbs are bloody horrible, and take liberal application of molasses to get some horses to eat them, but it turns out the combo for Kicks is actually quite appealing. My husband reckons it's rather tasty!....lol
I personally loathe licorice, and even the smell is almost enough to put me off entirely.
Kicks is also another "talker", so now having had none a month or so back, I have 3, and get a chorus of nickers and general chatter when I walk out my back door.
They have even converted a couple of my non-vocal girls.
Kicks is free-leg pacing on the lunge, even on the tightish circle, which looks awkward to say the least.
I personally loathe licorice, and even the smell is almost enough to put me off entirely.
Kicks is also another "talker", so now having had none a month or so back, I have 3, and get a chorus of nickers and general chatter when I walk out my back door.
They have even converted a couple of my non-vocal girls.
Kicks is free-leg pacing on the lunge, even on the tightish circle, which looks awkward to say the least.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Fine tuning the feed
With Kicks being only 3 therefore a "baby" still growing we will keep the protein levels a bit higher than the mature racehorses, and add some extras for any specific issues that crop up, like the cough in the immediate.
At this stage she will get:
Crushed Barley
Extruded Maize
Sugar Beet
Anandale Lucerne Forage
Vegetable Oil
Molasses
A mix of oil seeds fresh ground daily (Linseed, Pumpkin seed, sunflower)
Equilibrium B (vitamin and mineral premix high in B vitamins and magnesium)
Added to breakfast will be:
Apple cider vinegar
Manuka Honey
and an infusion of Peppermint, echinacea, licorice, fennel, and aniseed (a cup of tea with breakfast anyone?)
I still need to source a couple of extras yet.
Until she starts into some serious work I will feed her at approximately 75 MJ per day, with 25-30MJ of that coming from roughage.
This will increase to almost double once she is in full work.
She is "hanging out" with Snow White, my pinto pacer broodmare as I want to keep her away from my racehorses until I have a handle on what's going on with the cough, but I prefer she has company, (so does she).
At this stage there is absolutely no sign of any nasal discharge, the cough is dry, and she seems otherwise healthy, so I'll wait a few days before I panic and get the vet in. Sometimes the dust in the sand here throws them a bit when they first arrive.
Martin, the dentist is away in the SI for a week or so more, so she will have to wait for him to get home for dentistry.
At this stage she will get:
Crushed Barley
Extruded Maize
Sugar Beet
Anandale Lucerne Forage
Vegetable Oil
Molasses
A mix of oil seeds fresh ground daily (Linseed, Pumpkin seed, sunflower)
Equilibrium B (vitamin and mineral premix high in B vitamins and magnesium)
Added to breakfast will be:
Apple cider vinegar
Manuka Honey
and an infusion of Peppermint, echinacea, licorice, fennel, and aniseed (a cup of tea with breakfast anyone?)
I still need to source a couple of extras yet.
Until she starts into some serious work I will feed her at approximately 75 MJ per day, with 25-30MJ of that coming from roughage.
This will increase to almost double once she is in full work.
She is "hanging out" with Snow White, my pinto pacer broodmare as I want to keep her away from my racehorses until I have a handle on what's going on with the cough, but I prefer she has company, (so does she).
At this stage there is absolutely no sign of any nasal discharge, the cough is dry, and she seems otherwise healthy, so I'll wait a few days before I panic and get the vet in. Sometimes the dust in the sand here throws them a bit when they first arrive.
Martin, the dentist is away in the SI for a week or so more, so she will have to wait for him to get home for dentistry.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
First Impressions
Kicks for Fun
http://infohorse.hrnz.co.nz/cgi-bin/fglccgi.exe/@MTAuMTM1LjAuMjY6NjM5NA==/wa/sua/181432108/1
Kicks arrived while we were away over New Year racing Poppy, so had a few days to settle before we got home.
She is a nice looking filly, well grown, and friendly enough.
She has arrived in good weight, although seems to have a little bit of a cough.
She has been wormed, Ken will pull her 3 remaining shoes this week, and I'll organise with Martin to check her teeth, and do any work neccessary there.
Until she is ready for track work shoes will probably not be necessary, and it's fairly important that her teeth are right for the bit/work.
I've moved her away from the racing stock just in case re the cough, and am adding garlic, and echinacea to her feed.
I had a short lunging lesson yesterday afternoon with her, and look forward to getting her in the cart.
http://infohorse.hrnz.co.nz/cgi-bin/fglccgi.exe/@MTAuMTM1LjAuMjY6NjM5NA==/wa/sua/181432108/1
Kicks arrived while we were away over New Year racing Poppy, so had a few days to settle before we got home.
She is a nice looking filly, well grown, and friendly enough.
She has arrived in good weight, although seems to have a little bit of a cough.
She has been wormed, Ken will pull her 3 remaining shoes this week, and I'll organise with Martin to check her teeth, and do any work neccessary there.
Until she is ready for track work shoes will probably not be necessary, and it's fairly important that her teeth are right for the bit/work.
I've moved her away from the racing stock just in case re the cough, and am adding garlic, and echinacea to her feed.
I had a short lunging lesson yesterday afternoon with her, and look forward to getting her in the cart.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)