Thursday 29 September 2011

Great Excavations

I discovered that by pawing at the hedge bank between me and Jester, I could significantly reduce it in height, making socializing much easier.  I found it also made a handy hummock for me to stand on top of when I wished to attract Jester's attention. 

When She discovered my excavation, She seemed most displeased and muttered about the hedgebank being centuries old and designed to stop my field subsiding into Jester's.

Today a man with a truck came and went to look at it while She waved her arms and pointed at me.  I don't think they were admiring my handiwork.

Monday 26 September 2011

DNA Test

She has now received the sibling test results and is no wiser as to whether Hanuman has the right dad or not.  There are 4 anomolous markers, but when She quizzed the lab, it seems that the probability of Hanuman and Posy being half siblings is about 50/50.  It isn't a definitive result, but then what She didn't seem to think through is that if he is by the show jumper, then Posy and Hanuman share a little under 20% of their genes anyway, because Posy's mum has show jumping lines. 

She has now decided to register him and will wait to see if the registration is accepted or not.  She says She doesn't want an eventer and might sell him, but I've seen her brushing his hair and hugging him so I know for a fact that he's going nowhere.
So, who is my daddy?

Sunday 25 September 2011

Weekend of Dressage

Well, I've had a busy weekend.  On Saturday I went back into the motorised cabin to be carted off to another strange place.  It had a sand arena outside, and actually I recognised one of the horses from the Horsemanship Contest.  No sooner had I checked out the surroundings than I had to go into a big indoors place. I entered and went to introduce myself .  Someone should have told the judge not to leave her sandwiches within nose reach of competitors. 
I rather forgot about the going forward part as I was distracted first by the gallery at one side and then I thought I could see horses trotting about outside through the slatted walls.  Bizarre.  I had to go in there twice.  Apparently I wasn't very good but did try and got 6th place (out of 12) in both classes.  She was happy because She enjoyed her cheeseburger and tea and came away with some ribbons.
The video operator complained that the gallery was too close to the arena to get a good picture.  It transpired that she had the zoom on and all you can see is my eyeballs as I flash past.

Today I went to Lidwell with my chum Freddie for the SCADRA dressage.  The arena there looked quite familiar and I gather I showed a good rhythm, but still not forward enough to produce a good outline.  She was happy though because She enjoyed her tea and walnut cake and came away with another ribbon.  A pattern seems to be emerging in which I have to do all the work and She eats food and collects rosettes.

Sunday 11 September 2011

Crossing the Tamar

It is difficult to get to Devon from here because the River Tamar is in the way.  You can go over Horsebridge - a bridge especially designed for horses, obviously.  She has found that there is another way to cross the river - wading through it!  This is clearly a job only for the most courageous of horses, like me.  Here is a clip of me bravely wading across the River Tamar, with my chum Jester.  While I had my eyes fixed firmly on the opposite bank, Jester seemed to set out towards Plymouth.

Friday 9 September 2011

Riding Miss Posy

She has been sitting on and off Posy and strapping her into a saddle and bridle for weeks now, and decided that today would be the big day when Posy would take her very first trot steps under a rider.  It doesn't make for scintillating viewing, but She says that it is a historic moment and worth recording.  Posy says that it is very difficult to trot with someone wobbling about on your back, and thought that she had performed very well.




Little does Posy know that a it's a few minutes of trotting today but it will lead to hours of toil later on.

Thursday 8 September 2011

Trotting over poles

She has decided that I should learn to shorten and lengthen my strides and set out trotting poles in a fan shape.  I quickly realised that it was a lot less effort if I went through the centre,  but She insisted that I go close to the inside to shorten my strides and on the outside to lengthen them.  This made it much more work, but I bravely got through it - in the rain I might add.  You can almost see how I get on in this video clip, although it actually shows how much it was raining.  Nothing seems to put Her off.

Tuesday 6 September 2011

Tearing out hair

She has decided that She must know whether young Hanuman has been fathered by the dressage horse, or not.  Posy has been tested and is by the dressage stallion in question, so She has hit upon the idea of doing a sibling test using DNA from hair samples.

Posy was pretty sanguine about having her hair pulled out, but young Hanuman took great exception to having his hair torn out by the roots.  She foolishly tried to yank out a few tail hairs as he whizzed past and he gave Her a good kicking. 

I hid in my stable and tried to look invisible as She went past me, limping and cussing, stuffing wisps of hair into a plastic bag.  Luckily, She didn't seem to want to pull out any of my hair.