Writing has been a little slow this year for a few reasons –
please accept my apologies. Firstly Henry died on January 16th
at 0400 and this has taken some time to get to grips with and I really
miss him very dearly. Also with a lack of competitions and my ponies
working their way through a series of injuries I have not had that
much to tell from the Twitchell’s side of the fence apart from the
ever growing first hand experience of vet situations (not that you
would believe this from the essay that follows J
)
But here is a catch up with all the news.
Dandy has had a very busy couple of months presenting me with all
kinds of challenges whilst we are supposed to be having an ‘Olympic’
style year !
Dandy managed to acquire a small punctured sole whilst I was out
hacking. Dandy is totally not safe in traffic and so has to be driven
in the lorry to the woods – which are fabulous – and lorried all
the way home also. Whilst I was out I just felt a flinch and thought
that doesn’t feel right. Sure enough Dandy had sliced across his
hind foot with a flint and had a very sore foot. We wheeled him off to
the vets the next day to make sure no structural damage had been done
to the pedal bone and we were all molly coddled at Scott Dunn’s by
Simon and his very able team – as they all know we need the soft
touch treatment J Treatment as ever
included a lot of tubbing, taping and general maintenance of my expert
level of keeping Dandy’s foot wrapped and clean 24 hours a day.
We took Dandy back a week later for a check up and trotted him up
for Simon and his trainee – who is someone I used to ride with when
I was about 12. Simon was giving Anna a suitably hard time and
questioning her about all three of the steeds we had with us – none
of whom had anything straightforward wrong with them at all and
declared that indeed Dandy was not lame behind on his slashed foot –
but in front. Oh No !!! So x rays followed and duly revealed that
Dandy had a fracture down the lateral wing of his pedal bone. His very
own David Beckham injury. This was not good.
Dandy has been on a recovery programme for the last three months.
This has involved work in straight lines for 6 weeks, interesting for
a horse who doesn’t go on the road. Lots of navilox (this thins the
blood so increasing blood flow to the injured area), bute (for pain
relief) and Equicap (full of all the good minerals and vitamins which
promote bone growth). Also, and extremely key, some exemplary shoeing
from Pierre our farrier. We have had Dandy fitted with some very flash
egg bar shoes and they are filled with silicon pads and webbing which
basically provide Dandy with his very own plaster cast. This has been
completed on both of his front feet to maintain balance. We have been
working him normally for the last 4 weeks, with an amount of
consideration, no extensive work on small circles and no galloping on
concrete. So far so good. He went for a check with Simon yesterday and
he was very pleased with the progress, so onwards and upwards.
We had a lesson with Emile last week and Dandy was absolutely
fabulous. I think he is great and I am very lucky to have an
opportunity to ride him. I am sure Dandy and I will get there;
eventually. The trot is starting to look really good and we were
working on getting the canter more "off the floor" with some
flexing exercises and improving the lateral work especially to the
right, which I think has become my weak area. Never mind. Dandy over
heard the news that we had booked in for 25 sessions with Emile and
since then has had the run of injuries listed above; I am starting to
ask myself if there is a possible connection ?
Watch out team GB I’ve heard the running is still pretty open for
Athens right now : )
Rhiannon has completed two Sponsored Rides with Charlie, Windsor
and Waddesdon, both of which were unfortunately a touch on the wet
side. Waddesdon did attain new levels of continuous mud walking but
the estate itself is absolutely stunning.
Rhiannon has been having lots of lessons with Charlie and putting
lots of practice time with lots of adventures to new places for them
two and a reminder to me as to why I loved eventing so much. It is a
sport of such a multitude of activities that the training doesn’t
get that boring, not that I am saying the dressage training does J
We have been to Deep Mill Farm to do some cross-country schooling,
Great Missenden Riding Club run some really good events from here
http://www.cognitum.co.uk/gmrc/location.htm
.Dandy was getting really uppity about the fact that he wasn’t
jumping – as if he wanted to- and was throwing himself around the
place like a spoiled 2 year old. This, by the way is the horse that
having completed the Burghley Young event horse competition and
evented at Pre-Novice, now refuses to jump over a pole on the ground,
let alone a jump. Charlie was just full steam ahead as usual, it was
definitely a new experience for Rhiannon to be holding onto Charlie
wishing he would go a little slower and consider for a small moment
both his and Rhiannon’s safety. Once Rhi had got the hang of the
"fly by the seat of your pants" approach Charlie likes they
were well away and I am sure are going to enjoy their season.
Charlie had two cortisone injections a few months ago to try and
help his arthritis in both of his hocks. These injections are quite
painful but are supposed to help, although once you show Charlie a
jump, or anything that may be considered jumpable he is absolutely
fine, the problem mainly seems to be when you are asking him to go in
a steady trot on the bit around a twenty metre circle. Maybe Charlie’s
problem is osteoarthritis aggravated by dressage arenas; that well
know medical condition. Horse and Hound had a very good article on the
genuine medical condition. You can read more here :-
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/care/article.php?aid=48133&cid=402
The only real hurdle to overcome now is to get Rhiannon behind the
wheel of the lorry ! Rhiannon has driven the lorry twice now, both
times finishing in the dark, and the last time actually driving into
our drive, which in itself is a feat. Rhiannon is going to be the
Yorkie Bar Girl of 2004 at this rate and be heading off with Charlie
to shows in no time.
Annie is well and keeping everyone busy as we have all been looking
after her whilst Glynis went away to Australia to complete an Iron
Man. Fantastic news is that Glynis completed in the time of 14 hours
and 13 minutes which was 17 minutes ahead of the time within which we
were allowed to celebrate and that Glynis promised to be pleased.
Keith, her husband also did extremely well by completing in a time of
12 hours and a minute. As with most people who are involved with
horses Glynis is mad and so is setting herself another Iron Man for
later this year, one completion not quite reaching the mark J
Ash has returned from her loan home. Things weren’t quite working
out so she has come home and Jade as come with her J
Jade is the girl who was riding Ash and it has been decided that
everyone would be in a better position if Ash came back to Twitchell’s
and Jade cam on the weekends to ride and learn more about ponies. So
we have a new weekend team member in Jade – who is very welcome and
has been working extraordinarily hard not just on her riding but also
in the yard scrubbing, cleaning , sweeping and generally joining in.
So all has worked out really rather well.
Woody the only other pony who I haven’t really mentioned is fine,
still has the largest fan club on the yard and demands carrots all
day. The fact that the carrot season is now closed for 6 weeks (so Mr
Carrot Man tells me) means that shares in McVities will be rising as
Woody’s penchant for carrots will be replaced by his Chocolate
Digestive Habit.
The other members of Twitchells are an ever expanding group. The
rat population seems to be happy in our hay stack – much to my
disgust. I am sure Jed is in cahoots with them under some bargaining
arrangement – probably similar to Mr Blair and Mr Bush – denying
any underhand activities to the rest of the world. Enough politics,
just tell me how to suppress the rats in an acceptable fashion.
We have also acquired three new cats. One, now know as "Not so
Feral Jerry" who arrived as a feral desperate for a home and now
is asleep next to the teddy on the spare bed – quite some distance
from the feed room and hay stack she was supposed to be living in !
The other kitties arrived yesterday, two, 8 week old kittens desperate
for a home coming from the wrong side of the tracks and looking for a
chance in life. So Kit & Kat are now the newst Twitchell’s
residents.
Rachel Torrome and Good Golly Miss Molly are teetering on the edge
of joining us lot in the "competing at medium gang" – of
whom I believe I am the longest serving member! They have been out
practising successfully at unaffiliated competitions whilst still
competing affiliated at elementary level. They are nearly qualified
for the elementary regionals but with a change of rules this year in
terms of percentages it really is quite a stiff goal. To Qualify for a
regional championships you now not only have to win either two
qualifiers or a qualifier and an non qualifier but you also have to do
this at 65% or more. The idea of this being that they want to make the
National Championships the ultimate goal with Area Festivals being the
first level. To qualify for an Area Festival you have to have two
tests from the last twelve months at 58% or more.
Molly and Rachel came 6th at the Medium Chiltern Rider
Championships at Addington and their scores are ever improving - Molly
the wonder pony! Molly has done especially well when you take into
consideration that she had to have an operation on her leg as she had
cut herself in the field and the recovery was not as straight forward
as it should have been and ended up needing an operation to get back
on track, and thankfully everything has worked out.
Sacha has been busy looking for new staff and in doing so has found
a rather good website called
http://www.yardandgroom.com
which I would recommend to anyone looking for staff. You make a one
off payment and you can either put your job up for viewing and people
come to you, or you can search the applicants or both. Sacha is also
looking for a new horse and has been jetting to Holland and Germany to
see what is available. It has turned into an extensive search and
really enlightened me as to the new world that is horse purchasing. It
has been about 7 years since I bought a horse, not counting Charlie
who seemed to find me and then acquire "squatters rights"
and hasn’t the environment changed. I reckon I could afford a pit
pony and then I would have to make sure by buying from A I wasn’t
upsetting B : )
Finally the Big News is that Charlotte has got engaged : )
Congratulations
Until next time
Zoë
Zoë
