Mud…

It’s been rain, rain and more rain for weeks now – and the field is a mud bath. The walkway is over the horses’ fetlocks and well up my shins, so I haven’t been criticising the herd’s decision to stay inside and guzzle hay more.

It has, however, been a bit tough on the barns! Poppy chased George through the (closed) door between the barns the other day, so before she chased him into the feed room as well Michelle and I have repurposed an old horsebox partition into a barrier between the horse barn and the small dairy shed – it’s working very well and even George isn’t likely to break it, given that it has a sturdy metal frame!

This does mean, though, that until I rebuild the door between the two horse barns, I can’t segregate Rhapsody from Poppy (the only one who seems to object to her) so Rhapsody has been living out rather than coming in. She liked being in and does a determined job of emotional blackmail over the field gate at me several times a day, but I’m being determined in ignoring that, too.

George also destroyed the electric fence the same day – I turned Rhapsody out and George saw her across two paddocks, whinnied cheerfully, started to come over and stopped when he reached the fence…. then did a mental ‘who gives one?’ and trotted straight through it.

It was the line of fence that had electric rope rather than wire, so not only did the rope come down but he’s uprooted two of the wooden posts as well as the plastic poles. I’ve removed the debris so they now have one big enclosure and only the fence keeping them out of Bog End is up, along with the perimeter fence. Rhapsody still has all the grass, though, in her stretch outside the perimeter!

Following on from all this, Odette came to trim hooves and in order to get everyone where I needed them for that, I shut George out in the field. That involved putting a head collar on him and leading him right along the outside of the fence before popping him through one of the paddock gateways; he led beautifully, was brave about wading through the thickest patch of docks and nettles after me and clearly enjoyed the change in routine. I took the head collar off once he was through the gateway and walked him back to talk to Rhapsody, in case he decided to come back through the fence after me!

Once all the horses were all in the proper places for hoof trimming, I went down to open the field gate so George could come round again if he wanted to. I had to go through the mud to unbolt the field gate, and then I thought I’d come back along the walkway before picking up the string to the gate from Rhapsody’s paddock and hauling the gate open that way.

So much for plans.

I unbolted the gate and started slogging back towards the yard – only for one of my boots to get stuck in the mud. At that precise moment, George noticed I was there and came to give the gate a hopeful shove. It swung open, of course, so he came through.

Highly motivated, I abandoned the boot in the middle of the walkway and legged it through the mud in my sock before George pushed the gate right over me.

We ended up with me clinging to the fence, standing in one welly with my mud-encrusted socked foot in the air, while George expressed his delight in finding me in his space by giving me a friendly nudge with his nose that nearly sent me flying!

My other welly was still stuck in the mud in the middle of the walkway.

I gave George the affection he wanted while standing on one leg, and then pushed his head round towards the yard and suggested he start walking and I’d catch up. He took a step that way, so I went to retrieve my boot. He turned back to check what I was doing. I turned him round again, then hauled the welly free. By then he’d come back to see if he could help, so I turned him round to face the yard again. That gave me time to put the welly on again and slog to the side of the walkway, where it’s not as muddy. George had returned to check I really was coming by then, so I led the way in and he followed – right up to the moment when Abe whinnied from ahead of us (he was tied on the other side of the yard fence) and George went past me to say hi.

Odette had her own mud story when she arrived – she’d washed her car that very morning, only to get it absolutely plastered in mud (‘clarted’, in local dialect) coming up my road past the Christmas tree plantation they’re harvesting! She trimmed all mine and Rhapsody, however, who hasn’t had a hoof trim since spring due to her tendon injury (she hasn’t been able to stand on three legs long enough for a proper trim). She did just about manage it for Odette, who gave her very frequent breaks and loads of encouragement, so she has 4 tidy neat hooves now.

Interestingly, Odette now has another client with a Suffolk, nearer Aberdeen – a 7 year old gelding, Holbeache Luke, which means he’s probably fairly closely related to George (whose sire is Holbeache Iggy) and who goes by the stable name of Orion! Odette put us in touch via messenger so we’ve traded photos and admired each other’s big boys now. I’d love to go and meet him one day.

George has been enjoying having me around more over the past few days and has developed a new behaviour – he likes leaning his forehead on my chest while I scratch round his ears! We’re both enjoying it immensely.