Oops!

My little girl is getting fat!!! The barefoot trimmer came yesterday. I had to go to work but she left a report. Good thing too. Although I was starting to think B was a little on the porky side, Sarah sees her every 6 weeks and boy did she notice lol.

So B is on a diet. I have halved her hard feed although I was doing that already, she now get just a handful of high fibre cubes, a handful of alfalfa chaff and a carrot. I have mixed her haylage 50/50 with straw and unfortunately I have had to buy her a grazing muzzle. Last Spring/Summer Sandra had to start using a muzzle on Bert and it was very hard on her. So now I get to feel unhappy because it's our turn. We have had the hottest, driest spring on record so the grass has grown rapidly when we have had rain. The last few weeks we have had some great thunder and lightening rainstorms so I guess this has helped to make B fat. I am really trying hard not to feel guilty and beat myself up about it, consoling myself that she may be getting fat but I am doing something about it NOW.

B and I had the most fantastic play in the arena last night. She was energetic and playful and I was provocative and very interesting to her. We did a lot of falling leaf, stick to me, all sort of mirroring each other and trot and canter. Change of direction is canter was fantastic! Such fun, I cannot tell you! I think, secretly, I am fitter than B sometimes lol. She was worn out and panting but it was very humid so perhaps she was at a disadvantage in a fur coat! I took the 45' but we spent most of our play on the 22'. 

This morning the arena was full of riders so we went in tentatively just to see what horse had turned up. I didn't even use the 45'. B seemed happy on the 22' but upset by some of the energy from the others. We soon left and got saddled up. Sandra had taken Bert online in the woods which gave B and I a lot of time to just hang. We moseyed around the yard, stood on the pedestal and moseyed some more until Sandra and Bert were ready.  We left the yard together and I did say to Sandra I bet I have to get off and walk over. But after one little threshold B walked across the road happily.

We got into the woods and B got upset because a couple of the riders from our arena session this morning were just leaving the woods. One of these horses upsets B greatly and she couldn't stand still or move in a straight line. I managed to help her gather her thoughts and we trotted off to find Bert and Sandra who weren't far away.

It was a bit windy again today but the horses didn't seem too bothered. We trotted the whole of the mile and 1/4 and the horses ate whenever they felt like it. Bert had a couple of spooks which didn't scare B too much. But I did notice it takes her a while to relax when she does tense up.She took the lead for some of the way around the old woods, skidding to an emergency stop almost at the top. I think she can smell the pigs from across the road but I will never know. I ended up grabbing her neck to stop me going too far forward and maybe falling off! Bert had to take the lead after that! 

We met a couple of cyclists by the pink house which sent Bert scrabbling around and heading off back the way we came. B stood her ground and just watched them as we waited for Sandra and Bert to rejoin us and I chatted to the cyclists. 

We got back to the yard in no time and B and I stood on the pedestal again before I got off. B needed a cuddle and some scratches before I left her munching happily to go and buy the grazing muzzle, sigh.