Wednesday 19 March 2014

Hanuman's first riding lesson

Following an enjoyable evening watching the film 'Buck' with her chums, She has been inspired to do Her own colt starting.  She has decided that there is no need to chase Hanuman round a pen nor flap ropes or flags or any such thing.  Instead, She thought She'd manage with lead ropes attached to a headcollar and a couple of peppermints, since this worked for Posy and I.   Hanuman was a bit perplexed at first because She stayed in the same place whether he went forward, back or sideways, but a peppermint or two allayed his fears.
She put the video camera on the gate to record events in case of an accident, since the ambulance crew might find it helpful to see what happened.  So we do have a video of Hanuman's first riding lesson, albeit with apologies for the poor quality.

Monday 17 March 2014

Things are looking up

We have emerged blinking out of the mizzle and into - sunlight!  Yes the rain has stopped falling for several days and the sun has come out.  I am feeling particularly happy after recovering from my third foot abscess in six weeks.  I have come to enjoy the attentions of the vet and everyone saying how brave I am.

She has just finished a marathon stint hosting the riding club's horse agility event. Of course, I had to test it first, and feeling full of the joys of spring I leapt over the little jump, pranced up and down on the tarpaulin and then did a full celebration with bucking, prancing and standing on my hind legs waving my forelegs up and down.  She was very impressed, or at least I think that's what She was saying.  Later on, I had to go back into the ring to Set a Good Example for a timid Arab, but wasn't allowed to prance, which was boring.


One of the horse agility contestants.  
Note the unfamiliar ball of yellow light on the right.
The others have been deemed to be making progress as well.  Hanuman has got used to Her sitting on his back in the stable and Posy made a decent stab at a dressage test, coming third out of eleven.  It wasn't brilliant but it was Posy's best effort so far and she managed to resist the temptation to gawp at her surroundings.  Meanwhile I have a play date with my chum Freddie to look forward to, so things are looking up.

Sunday 2 March 2014

Music Extravaganza

Yesterday morning I had my legs shampooed and I knew straight away that I would be going to some kind of party.  Hanuman, by contrast, felt that he had been subjected to unjust water torture and wasn't going to take that lying down.  To add insult to injury, once enough mud had been hosed off, his legs were wrapped in stiff boots so that he couldn't walk.
Then, the motorised cabin arrived and I set a good example by going straight in, followed by Hanuman.  Then we had a contest to see who could make the most noise banging on the partition.  I won.

It was a short journey and once we'd arrived, I provided reassurance and showed Hanuman how to behave at parties.  Naturally, I was the star of the show and enthusiastically performed my musical riches-to-rags story to great applause.  Tragically, She gave the video camera to another and failed to tell the novice operator how to work it.  All there is to show for my sparkling performance is a grainy still and a glitzy burgundy and silver rosette.  

She subsequently explained to the video operator which button operated the video, so Hanuman's effort is captured in full.  She bravely attempted to do his first public performance at liberty.  This was brave because the weather has been awful for months, so he has had little training.  The first half of the performance involved Hanuman wandering off to greet the onlookers and then getting quite excited at the thought of trotting round.  Then he did settle down and the second half was much better.


Everyone agreed that he had done very well considering his youth. 

There were some other people there too, and here is a video of some highlights of this informal music party.  It's not much of a video, of course, since my performance is missing.  Our chum Ariel's performance is also missing because he disgraced himself.  We'll say no more on the subject.
I have been asked to point out that the last horse has a bitless bridle, is blind in one eye and the rider has Special Needs, so they did really well.