Goings on

Hi guys and girls, sorry for being a bad blogger; not visiting you and not letting you know what’s happening here. So, I thought I’d give you a quick update:

Spring has definitely sprung over here, which means lots of time has to be spent, mainly working, in the garden. Yesterday I’ve had the patio doors open all afternoon. It was lovely, sunny and warm and I’ve even sat on a bench in the sunshine and flipped through a gardening magazine while getting a much needed dose of vitamin D. Today it is much colder again, but hey… we’re definitely going to right way.

A couple of weeks ago Mara (from Weightymatters) spent a night here when she had to be in Groningen for Norwegian language lessons. I did meet Mara once before over at her place, and that was quite a hilarious event involving curtains and gardening. If you want a laugh you can read about that here. If you want to know what she thought about spending the night in our house, you can read about that here. She’s a lovely, fun person, who loves to talk, so hubs and I needed a day or so to recover from her visit, haha.

Uhm, let’s see, what else happened in those couple of weeks…

Ah yes, we’re carefully ‘breaking’ Evie. Riding her only for about ten minutes a time. She hasn’t put a foot wrong yet. So sweet. Still, I did manage to make a lovely butt-shaped indentation in the sand last Tuesday.
Since I don’t have any experience in riding/training a young horse, our trainer/friend who’s helping us with Evie, suggested we’d let a girl he knows and who often ‘breaks’ (if that is the correct term, because it sounds a bit harsh) young horses take the first couple of rides to see how Evie would react. So, with trainer lunging/longing and very nice girl carefully mounting and riding her the first four times, and Evie being very stoic and not reacting to all the weird things happening, we thought I could safely take over. And so I rode her twice, still ‘on the lunge’ with trainer in control, and it went very well. Walk, trot, canter even. She has a very nice, strong canter. The third time however, Evie did a sudden semi-turn, because something – who-knows-what – startled her, which caused me to completely lose my balance. I was well past the point of being able to hoist myself up again, so I just had to drop my butt in the sand. No harm was done to either horse or rider I’m glad to say. And yes, I know I said she hasn’t put a foot wrong yet, and she really hasn’t. She didn’t throw me off. And even when I was hanging by her side (too silly for words) she didn’t panic and try to get rid of me. But I was very disappointed that I left the saddle so easily. Naloma, Evie’s mother, does sudden semi-turns all the time, but I'm used to those and know how to deal with them. According to trainer I’m just too careful with Evie, not wanting to touch her mouth at all. So yesterday I mounted Evie again, still on the lunge mind you, and at one point she got a bit tense, but this time I knew what to do and I kept more pressure on the reigns, riding her more forward. She’s such a young horse still, but she has a strong, well-balanced body and she seems to enjoy the work. I’m going to ride her a couple of times again and then perhaps give her part of the summer off to grow and gain more strength. We’re not in a hurry. But since she’s such a strong (and strong-willed) horse, it does feel good to let her get used to what is expected from her in the future.

On a somewhat sadder note: Willem, hubs’ horse, the big grey one, has arthritis in both his knees. So we’re trying to find out what will help him, apart from regular light exercise, preferably in straight lines. The vet suggested we’d give him vitamin A and B12 to help him with his coordination. So we’re doing that. And I asked him if a supplement with chondroitin and/or glucosamine would help, but vet was doubtful. “No scientific proof it actually helps with horses”, he said. Even though he does prescribe it for our dogs who suffer from arthritic joints too. But then farrier visited and I discussed Willem’s problem with him, and he suggested Arthriaid. “I’ve seen miraculous improvement in horses who were given Arthriaid”, he said, so we ordered a bottle which came in the post yesterday. I hope it will work miracles with Willem too. He seems to be doing better already, now the weather has improved and he’s getting his vitamins and regular exercise. Tonight he’ll get his first dose of Arthriaid.

So… that’s what’s been happening here. I’ll try to be in blogworld at least once a week, weather, garden and horses permitting.

Now I’m off to see what’s been happening at your end of blogworld.