winter riding ... or not

We've done some more of the "follow my leader" work with Rosie and it's gone reasonably. But none of them have had any work over the festive break as the weather, health and festive activities conspired against us :(

I have yet to try my new webbers (Christmas present) on the new saddle - but they look very smart sitting there in their new stirrup covers.. Webbers are difficult to "run up" so another present was a pair of stirrup covers which then support the stirrups either side (as the covers are connected to each other by a strap. Keeps your saddle clean and keeps the stirrups from clonking around :)

fingers crossed for some better weather...

All the horses are quite itchy at the moment and the boys appear to be losing some coat. Last weekend I went to groom Red and found some scrapes on either side just in front of his stifle. They looked quite fresh but would have been hard to spot in the dark of the evening when he came in. We still have no idea how he got them. He wears a coat out and there was no sign of scraping etc on the coat. They're healing well though.

We were also worried that he was not finishing feeds. It's easier to maintain his weight than get him to put on on. THis year he has been managing the hay much better - last year we had added fibre into all feeds to compensate for the fact he wasn't really eating much hay. We think it had just got to the point of there being too much bulk/fibre for him to cope with. We've cut out/down the various hay substitutes he was getting and added in some micronised barley. He's still eating his hay and is attacking his food with renewed vigour :)