Happy Monthaviersary!

Well it's been a month since John had the stressful trauma of moving home! I really am missing my yard but at the same time, I'm so, so happy with the progression John has made and cannot believe the change in him.

Since moving, John has put all his weight that he lost back on and his coat is looking shinier than I have ever seen it and I could not be more impressed with how good he is looking considering. I was definitely not expecting him to put his weight back on this quickly and I was even more shocked at the amount his condition has picked up, I think it's safe to say, he really is a lot more happier.

                           Before

                              After

As well as this, he has just become the sweetest, most perfect little pony at the moment! Maybe a little strong too but nothing silly and this is totally outweighed by the good. In the stable he is the most chilled out I have ever seen him and even let me muck out his whole bed around him the other day, little superstar that he is. I've also recently started working on getting him better with having his legs washed and he is a bugger for it and tends to figit and fight against being washed, so now that we have hot water at the new yard, I've started washing his legs off a couple times a week, twice so far. He's taken to it really well, with the help of some treats but this is still an improvement and he will get better over time so I cannot blame him for needed a little something extra.
However, the other week he was due to be wormed and was an idiot about it, so I just stuck it in his feed and he didn't even notice it so we will work on this next time as we're both still getting used to the new environment and he is not the worlds biggest fan of the tie up area but again this will come time.

          Mucking out around the pony

            Enjoying his field time lots!

                He does have socks!

His riding has also come on leaps and bounds. I haven't done much with him recently because of the weather and other commitments but he doesn't mind none the less. I mentioned my ride the other day and I feel this really does prove it.

But I think that has made this all worthwhile was tonight when my mum was watching him having a stroll around the school to stretch his legs while I mucked out as the yard manager had put him in early for us and my Mum turned to me and said "He seems so much more chilled out and happier, especially recently" so I know I'm not just imagining this, he really is getting better and seems a lot happier! I could not be more chuffed to see him happy again, I really couldn't ask for anything else.

He's also started to really show a very cute side, especially towards me. All he does is give kisses and cuddles and follows me round and does whatever he can to please me and make me happy, especially when I'm riding. He's just such a little star, I really am very lucky.

                Tonight, he's so pretty

That one day that owning a welsh actually was a good thing.

Bonjour mes amis! How are we all coping with this icky weather? I know I'm not coping well with it at all, I hate winter, bring on Spring where birthday, anniversaries and many things happen as well as some decent weather!
Anyway, here in sunny England we have been having a LOT of wind recently, and not even nice little breezes, no, full on gale force winds which I am not enjoying one bit.
Luckily, this is where having a hardy welsh pony (I say this with some certainty as John would not call himself hardy) comes in handy.
Now, Mr. Smith was born and bred on the Welsh cliffs, hence his name Rhondda John Smith, as he was born on the Rhondda cliffs and this fact is very nice to know on days when the weather is like this as when out in the field, he gives zero cares to the fact he could be blown over, he is eating and that's that, it does not bother him at all and to bring in and put out, he's the same, he does not care that I'm being blown into him and falling over at all.

So the other day I had a bit of an insane moment because John hasn't been ridden in two weeks, it was as I said before, gale force winds and he had not yet been turned out that morning and I decided it would be fun to try and ride him. Now I knew that he would be fine after having a bit of time off, he's pretty chilled like that. But, John is not the most bombproof so why I decided to try this I am unsure, but he sure as hell did not show me up because I got on him, he stood fine and then walked round as if it was any other day of the week. He wasn't tense in the neck, nothing, even when things were flapping around and making loud noises, nope, he was fine. Beff walked round with us at first but John was sort of like "why are you here, I'm big boy, go away pls" and so Beff left us and he was no different at all. Some cows mooed and again he did not care. Probably thought he was back in Wales in all honesty. We had a little trot around and again he did not change, he was fine, it felt like being back on my little Molly pony and not having a care in the world, I very much enjoyed it.
May I add, there was also another horse in the school with us, which he had a bit of a think about but other than that did not really mind as the other girl stayed a safe distance away and was very forgiving of how rubbish we were being lol, so thank you for that, I really do appreciate it!

All in all, he had one tiny spook at I don't know what, but I will take that considering he has such a baby brain and I have never ridden him in the smallest bit of wind, let alone that and the other factors. I only rode for around 10 minutes because I was happy enough with him, I was over the moon in fact. I just did not expect him to be so chilled about everything, he's such a star, I should really doubt him less.

He had lots of pats at the end and then went out to the field to graze and be a pony because he real enjoys that.

Have a cute photo as a gift.

A little something I forgot to mention....

Aren't you a lucky bunch getting more than one blog off me in a month? Am I feeling okay?! I mean I have started back at school and realised how awful I feel about that so maybe in fact I am not okay.

Anyway, I forgot to mention, on the 14th December, John moved house! 

This was not an easy decision, John was stressing, losing weight (fast!) and I was trying every which way to work out what was going wrong before I realised he just was not happy and I can honestly say seeing him losing the amount of weight he has in the space of time he has while being on a ton of hay a night alongside two feeds was extremely terrifying and very worrying. Of course as anyone else would, I put his health and well-being first no matter whether it meant I would be strapped for cash or my friends would just not get Christmas presents this year, this was a painful sacrifice I was willing to make (and if you know me, you know how much I love Christmas, so that was not easy). 

On top of all of these stressful factors, John is not in any way, shape or form easy to load. I knew this before we bought him and so this was always in the back of my mind but he could not carry on losing the condition he was, it was just not fair to him and at one point I actually came to a choice where by I had to find him a new yard, or sell him because he simply was just not happy and it was not fair to keep him where he was whether that was hard for me or not.

In the end, I decided to hire out a 3.5 ton lorry to move him and this was after the hectic job of finding a yard in the first place! 

Safe to say, it was not an easy task. People asked me constantly running up to moving day if I was 'excited', I am going to honestly say, no, no I was not, I wanted to hide in a corner and let someone else deal with all of that and come out when John had settled and everything was fine. Unfortunately, horses don't work that way and if you know my pony at all, you will know he will put his heart into everything for me but will not trust anyone else at all whether he knows them well or not. 

All in all, it took us an hour and a half to load him and I know it may sound incredibly stuck up, when I say us, I mean mainly me with some assistance from Beff holding a feed bucket. 

Moving day was the most terrifying experience of my life, I won't lie. Once John was on, and this was after the massive amount of tantrums we had and tears followed by cuddles, he absolutley freaked out that he could not get off and frankly so did I watching him stress. I burst into tears and had to run off in the opposite direction and I can honestly say my Mum has never hugged me like that before, it was horrible. While I was pulling myself together, Emma was attempting to calm John down, but like I said, he knows he is my pony and so I told myself to grow a pair and go and help my horse who was clearly having a worse time than I was. 

As I expected, once I stood on the other side of the partition, in the back of the lorry and started talking to him, he settled and we managed to set off with one very exhausted owner and one very stressed pony. 

The little sod traveled perfectly. He chilled out incredibly quickly and just munched on his hay for the most part while I sat in the back thinking "Why did I buy this pony?! Oh yeah! Because we are the exact same, unfortunately." while being eternally grateful to have a pony on a box and going to a place. By the time we had got 5 minutes down the road I was able to check my phone to see I had messages from friends which were sent around half an hour to an hour before asking if he had settled... the answer definitely was a big fat no. 

Once we got there, he dragged me off the box but I knew that was going to happen no matter what and he was still better than when he was delivered where he had sedalin as well. So that was a proud moment for me. He was a pain to try and change his rug and take his wraps off but I cannot blame him because he was very confused and very stressed. He then walked down the field fine, a little on edge and a little bouncy but there were lots of new friends to meet so I can understand that. He went out and had a small trot around, met the locals, saw the sights and then just ate and ate and ate. I've never seen a pony so happy about a field of grass before, it was just so relieving to see him in a field again. 

Since his first night, he's been fab overall. Things are still a little scary but he's getting there and he has the brain of a 4 year old so I forgive him for most things. He will get there with time but I can proudly say he is now feeling better than ever, has put all his weight back on (but some more still to go until he's where I would like him to be) and was moved to his home using no aids, no calmers or sedatives but a good old feed bucket and a ton of praise.

Here's to the (hopefully less stressful) future!

Will share some pictures soon as may have some super duper exciting however top secret news to share!

2015, let's be havin' ya!

So, all I can say about this year is wow.
I started it with no pony, and thinks looked a bit sad for me equine wise but I had some awesome friends and a wonderful bunch of ponies around me who really did help me through and I ended up actually riding a lot more than I thought I would and turned out that I actually hadn't forgot what rising trot was despite the fear that I may have!

This year has a hell of a lot to live up to after 2014 which had its moments but so does every year and well I do think 2015 can easily top 2014 with the amount of things I have set for John and I but at the same time 2014 has been a pretty cracking year all in all, I mean I found out that this whole time I have had the world's two best friends a girl could ever ask for alongside me for more years than I thought! I also realised that as one door closes, it opens a fantastic new one and although saying goodbye to someone is never easy, it gets better. Little Ronald stepped into my life and what a romance we have. I can honestly say I adore that little pony to the moon and back.
And of course on top of all of that, I found the absolute pony of a lifetime which has proved to me that sometimes the best things come out of the most ridiculous decisions.

*WARNING GAY ALERT PLEASE LOOK AWAY IF YOU HAVE A NERVOUS DISPOSITION NOW*
Before I go on to say about my goals for next year, I just want to say a bloody big thank you to Emma and Beff because despite how annoying I can be they've stuck by me, found me Little John, supported me through the toughest of times and continue to give the kick up the backside I need every now and again. I don't think you guys honestly realise how grateful I am to have you in my life, you pair truly are pretty awesome and me and John want to say a massive big thank you for everything you've done and continue to do for us, because without you, well I probably wouldn't be the same person I am today. I honestly do love you guys and your awesome bunch of ponies and here's to the many more years to come!

Anyway, back to normality, I didn't make any goals last year because as far as I was concerned I wasn't getting another pony for another 2 years or so and then when John came along I just didn't think about it at all.

So this year, my goals are:

• Get John to jump a fence, correctly, no matter what height this may be.
• See Ron at a place.
• Get John's loading somewhat there.
• Have John in a consistent outline in at least one pace.
• Canter Sunny.
• Have a jumping lesson and build some confidence back up.
• Ride John bareback at at least a trot.
• Get John's confidence up hacking on his own.
• Sort out John's behaviour bathing.
• Go hunting at least once.

So Happy New Year kiddos, and here's to it being a good one!

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