The Not-So-Secret Diary of Diva the Shetland Pony - Floof!
18/04/2024Diva (Melland Queen of Scots) usually gets her summer coat quite early compared to other horses and ponies, but this year she has been holding onto hers for a lot longer.
I can’t believe it has only been just over two weeks since Freya arrived!
She’s kept her calm temperament, although does have her cheeky moments with her being a baby, and now discovering what treats are (my own fault!). We’ve got the farrier coming next week and a saddle fitter on 8 April, so it’s full steam ahead to get her ready for some proper work. I’ve had a few sits on her to keep her remembering what a rider feels like, but they’ve been very short sessions and nothing strenuous. The first ride showed me she hadn’t really been taught as much as I had thought, as steering was a bit of an issue. I think at her previous home she just went round and round the outside of the field, as to ask her to turn/do a slightly smaller circle proved a challenge, but by ride three she has now started to understand more.
Lunging has been, er, interesting? She understands one rein fine, but with the other it’s like she has no clue what she has to do and just stands there looking at me. To combat this, I’ve started to use a roller with two lunge lines, with one going behind her, which has helped massively. She now even looks at me as if to say: “Ah, that’s what you want me to do.”
She has gained more weight since she arrived, which is great. I did worm count her, alongside my other two. Bob was 0, Autumn below 150, but sadly, Freya was quite high. So, I’ve wormed her and was a bit unhappy at the number that came out of her the day after (luckily, she is still separated from the other two)! It backed up my view that any new horses should, as a minimum, be worm counted on arrival as a general rule.
Bob’s been in the wars again. Well, I say in the wars – it’s self-inflicted, but he didn’t half give me a scare. A few weeks ago he raced into his stable one evening and slipped over, but luckily fell onto the rubber matting. Two weeks after that, he decided to charge out of his stable and turn very tightly, slipping again, but this time going down onto solid concrete! Luckily, he got straight up, but went into a bit of shock. I checked him over and couldn’t find any injuries. I put him out with the girls but, on checking him every few minutes, there was minimal eating and he was just standing there, so I gave him some bute as he was sore.
A short while later I saw him nip at his tummy, then later paw the ground. That was it – I was immediately on the phone to the vet, praying it wasn’t colic. After a ten-minute chat with me detailing every tiny movement/twitch to the vet, we created a plan of what to do, with the vet on standby should he show any further signs of colic (which luckily he didn’t) and me and the other half watching him like hawks. Much to my relief he started to graze and wander about slowly, although I did stay a further hour just watching him and only just made it back to start work.
Just over a week on and he’s still a bit sore on the hind leg. Lunging he is fine with, but when having me on board he is okay in walk but sore in trot, so I’m wondering if the saddle was sitting on a bruised area. I’m giving him the week off riding and will try some more lunging, then see how he is again and, if no better, I will consult the vet and physio. Why can’t horses listen to us sometimes when we try to stop them hurting themselves?
