Saturday 1 March 2014

Saturday Stills - Shedding Season

I hope to keep this relatively wordless as I don't have much news to share. I haven't managed to sit on a horse since Monday's hack in the woods. The girls have been full of beans when being turned out so I decided to loose lunge them this evening so they could run around to blow off some steam, they then both got some pampering/grooming to help with the shedding season.

Kika being her usual charming self and not letting Nancy by
- despite K being lazy & not wanting to move much

N get's to stretch some as K's lazyness wins out & her circle gets smaller ;-)

Alien-Flash-Ponies
I bought a new toy to help me cope with shedding season & I finally managed to remember to pick up some mane and tail spray - so the girls were royally spoiled (in my opinion) with their grooming this evening.








Yep - Nancy is the best at shedding


Kika top - Nancy bottom...
Round 2 of shedding grooming to Nancy
Earlier in the day I accompanied a yard friend and her horse to a vet clinic (Pferdeklinic St Georg Trier) just over the border in Germany where her horse will spend the next month receiving hydro-therapy treatment for a tendon injury... yes I have photos of the set up!
I hope to go back and see her horse availing of the hydro treatment - plus hopefully get photos or maybe even a little video. It is a new set up, the clinic itself is about a year old and the Hydro treatment section is a few months old. Another horse from my barn went last month and the Main Instructor at my yard's own horse is going there in two weeks for similar treatment for a tendon injury.

The set up (not very clear in photos below) is a walker-type system with water instead of sand underfoot; there is rubber matting everywhere to prevent slippage as best they can and the water levels themselves are never more than knee height. The treatment is more successful when the horse has to physically lift it's legs out of the water to walk vs swimming - more conducive for muscle-building without the tress of walking/exercising a tendon injury. My friend's horse has been being hand walked for three months and is now beginning to feel better enough in himself to act the maggot while walking, so i think this hydro-therapy will be a great distraction for his OTTB brain and hopefully prevent him doing himself further damage by messing while being lead.




All horses have their legs hosed before going into water-walker
& all wear "nappies" so that water doesn't get contaminated

All horses get some solarium action before
& after the water-walker
I think that about sums up my day - hopefully I can log some saddle time tomorrow & monday as I have a lovely la-la-long weekend!

6 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. It sure was, I hope i can go back and watch it being used some day!

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  2. Just catching up, finally got some time to have a read! Jealous of you getting out hacking, I had my first daylight weekday ride of the year on Thursday, and it was just starting to get dark when I finished up, so I think hacking is out for another week or two at least. :( The two ladies are looking great!

    (As an aside, s2s is back!! :D)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Ailbhe, I am delighted to hear that you got some weekday daylight to ride in...there really is no better feeling - a real promise of spring & summer to come!

      Thank you for your lovely comments on the girls and for the S2S heads up - Hope to have time to check back in during the week...if work allows, :p

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  3. The hydrotherapy set up is very interesting. I really hope to never need anything like it, though, but it sounds very useful to have nearby.

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    1. Agreed, fingers crossed we don't need it - I don't know price, but apparently easily eats a month salary! Eep

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