howling gales

put paid to yesterday

and today i wrenched my left shoulder again, falling UP the stairs? only me..... happily, it's subsided i think, but not what i needed!

physio tomorrow ... that'll be fun!

i probably did too much

but painkillers when I got home put me ahead of the game, I hope....

mucked out. bedded up. hay (did that in two nets). barrow new bag of feed into feed room. there's feed still in the car, and will stay there (local stockist stocking what i wanted, at last, and honouring manufacturer's 1/2 price to end of November deal!).

morning turnout Allison helped with; might be more interesting tomorrow if this wind keeps up!

oh, clipped as well ... now WHY did i wear a fleece when i knew i would be clipping more hair off the Monf?

and am shattered as had a bad night last night (mostly, i have to say, through drinking too much tea during the day!)

and for some perspective on the Cuban Saddle:

morning turnout

i'll be doing tomorrow... think the arms are ok, and partners going to come with me (amazing her wanting to be up that time! but wants to drop the car off for a service at 8, so can help me do the horses first!).

hopefully all will be fine..

from Cuba

interesting to see what you all make of this.....

it's a good bit of leatherwork and i'm very pleased with this present.

no sooner asked

than bought. i was very impressed, actually - requested new chair yesterday, gave details via hyperlink to the precise chair, it was bought by lunchtime and will be delivered wednesday, apparently. that is impressive. there are, i know, other aspects to look at, but that's the first step.

in the meantime, i drove myself to work today, first time i've driven since going to hospital saturday night/sunday morning. was fine to work; was NOT so fine driving to yard afterwards, too many bends. Monfils was, i think, pleased to see me.

then to Gaynor's, she's been doing a sterling job. showed her my current situation (can't lift right arm without physically pushing it up!) so she's going to carry on doing the sterling job

and if we can (rather, if SHE can) we'll improve Monfil's clip Saturday. he currently has belly and half neck/face. frankly, he needs a trace.

RI has been in touch, she saw my post on EE forum - lesson due Sunday - we've agreed she'll work the horse and i'll just stand and watch ...

new office chair

i have asked for one. i incline to the view that the upper body issues i've been having this year HAVE to be to do with ergonomics....

and in the meantime, i'm crossing fingers that my left shoulder doesn't go off again....ggrrhhhh

i'm going to rattle for england at this rate! painkillers....

stopped screaming in pain

which is good. couldn't get my socks on, bad. went to work, asked Janet to come get me, which she kindly did (not far away!) and made great use of wheeled office chairs as trolley and as walking assistance, LOL. feeling better again this evening... but of course, all that trying to keep myself upright yesterday and keep the weight off the bad leg has not done a lot for the left shoulder or hip .. but they'll settle, hopefully...

Monfils in Gaynor's capable hands.

if i can get socks on tomorrow, then i shall drive myself....and if still good in the evening will go down to yard.... gently gently, i know!

Sciatica

Seriously painful. No idea why unless it was the bag os sugar beet. But was at the out of hours gp at 0100 and can barely move my left leg.  Totally fed up

one year ago today

Monfils ran his last race at Market Rasen and i'd never heard of him! He came 4th out of 5.

He was fully clipped and a lean mean racing machine, LOL

Tonight, he's got a full winter coat, is muddy, and is munching hay in his stable having spent the day in the field.


He's not a lean mean racing machine but is a chilled lad.

tomorrow, all being well weather wise, he'll get clipped, but not a full clip of course, just enough so he's comfortable and i can keep him rugged against the mud, LOL

clip at the weekend

that'll be us. he'd overheated overnight! Cannot be doing with this, so clippers will be coming out...

in other news, the right wrist that took me to hospital in October, started twinging and swelling again - rather think that carrying shopping on Sunday didn't do it a huge amount of good!

more progress

on the learning to lunge front - M was much more willing to keep going forward today, despite distractions from the mares in the field next to the arena - i wasn't going to get trot, but walking, either direction, was happening.....

slow but steady, i guess, by the end of the winter we might have got somewhere!

YHL was ok - not the shopping bargains that people had said one could normally get - did get ONE bargain, for Gaynor's eldest (nice winter jacket for £5!); bought a new saddlecloth, but it is longer than the current one, and too long, i think, for the saddle, so that's depressing. heather Moffett's new book (she's rewritten Enlightened Equitation totally, with a load of new pics) and saw her new saddle, looks rather good; came home with money left over.

Ten minute ride

And its weeks since i did ride due to my various injuries - but i was pleased, as it was ten minutes of a relatively forward walk, on both reins, with several changes of rein - and no stops, not even when he would have preferred to speak to one of the mares.

busy day! with some success....

firstly, the plumber to mend my upstairs loo (thank goodness we have two!)

then, back to the yard to wait for bedding delivery - that was an interesting job, it was palletised, should have been easy, but there was a slight fault with the wagon's tailgate upon which the pallet is put to be lifted up and down, and ALSO he said no can't put it in the allocated space indoors due to unlevel surface - but anyway, had to handball half the bags off before he could get the pallet off his tailgate, otherwise it would have all tipped over...

than after lunch, got M in early, got the mud off and into the arena to see how far we could get towards lunging..... as it goes, he was happy to walk on out away from me on both reins, but occasionally allowed himself to be distracted by the mares....

a great improvement on previously so i think on balance we are starting to get there, and he's certainly thinking about what I'm asking more than he used to .....

muddy horse...

I've given up on the rugging for now.... last night, sweating again. it's no good, i'd rather have a muddy horse than a horse wet with sweat, he clearly has a thick coat and that will have to do him for now.

and who said TB's were wimps?

so he went out rugless this morning, and was nicely warm this evening.

I don't want to clip at all if i can help it, but rather think I'll have to indulge in a belly/neck clip - from the girth area forward and up the neck

in the meantime, the shoulders seem to be improving apace (touching wood and crossing everything) so all being well I'm going to your Horse Live either Saturday or Sunday, haven't decided yet.. whilst partner's away, a good place to go even though I'll have to go down on my own....

heather moffett's bringing out a new saddle, with a leather tree, that i want to investigate, and i'm told it's very good for shopping, and there's demo's by various people (whether i want to see them is another matter...) and i know that people i know will be going...

rugging is an art

which i haven't yet cracked for monfils...

for the last week it's been unseasonably warm and i bought the thinnest rain sheet i could find (very thin) which he had on on Sunday; nonetheless, came in sweaty having been running about as a result of a hot air balloon....

this morning, below freezing - the thin rug from yesterday was still drying out from the sweat getting in to the very thin lining, so he had the slightly heavier thin green one ... and i'm not totally sure he won't be overheating overnight....

anyway, rattly bottles.... last lesson, RI used an empty small plastic drinks bottle with some gravel in it to rattle and thus send him away

good idea, worked.

doesn't work now - because he's been de spooked to it, i reckon! so that's what that was about, Trudi!

despooked....

to the rattly bottle, i think that what's happened...

high energy, yes, but it didn't work....

he knows, you know.....

I did get some walk at first, even managed to get him going again after he was distracted by the mares coming over to see what was happening, but eventually, nothing was working again...

tchah.

and my shoulders? the painkillers are helping a lot, and I can move them pretty well now, just need to be a shade careful....and at least can start self physio'ing with the exercises the physio gave me... (the relevant movement is, in essence, the same as groom horse/tack up horse, so don't need to build extra time into the day to do this, LOL)

both shoulders seized up

by wednesday evening hence lack of posting....

gah.

easing up now, with loads of paracetamol and added codeine, which means i can then start physio exercises again...

lord knows what this is about ,but my money is on something ergonomic, it's just a case of working out what...

on his own...

for about 5 minutes, apparently was NOT happy.... when paul took his two out of the field, monf, apparently, didn't lift his head from teh grass - paul then heard him kick off .... had i had his mobile number, i would have texted him to wait until i got there... but i didn't... hey ho. unlikely to happen again! one of those things... and now we know.

so 1 1/2 hours later i could give him his tea, he'd got a bit hot!

i wasn't going to clip, but i might just do from the girth forward and up the neck ....

in the meantime, I've now fried my left neck/shoulder, was waiting outside the GP's surgery for it to open this morning, and got appointment for 09.35, that was good. Paracetamol 2, 4 times a day, hopefully it'll kick in soon..

oddly, it's better moving than not, so sitting in the office is bad, mucking out was ok. Weird, or what?