{"id":1663,"date":"2012-03-03T09:20:31","date_gmt":"2012-03-03T09:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/?p=1663"},"modified":"2015-08-19T17:54:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T17:54:09","slug":"1663","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/1663\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in the Life of the Cotswold Horse Whisperers, 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 2011<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, we’ve been talking for ages about doing something about the field ornaments. Not to complete minimalist standards, but just to de-clutter a little. To this end, we’re delighted that Free Be and Asterix have found a home with an ex working pupil, even if it is likely to be only for a year. They seem very happy. And we’ve definitely noticed the difference when mucking out the dry-as-a-bone fields. But as is so often the way, we also found ourselves taking another horse in – but this time he’s a mini shetland who bucks the trend for his breed’s reputation by being a SAINT.\u00a0 Two 16hh chestnuts replaced by a 8hh-er. That is a good exchange. The kids love him, and he tolerates a lot. I think he might be set to be the fittest shetland ever.<\/p>\n

Well of course it hasn’t rained, and of course it’s causing concern about hay for next winter and so on. But at least the horses are almost all a reasonable weight, even if some do resemble hamsters: we’ve had a few cases of “grass glands” which the vet described a little vaguely as “a reaction to something or other, probably in the hedgerow, around this time of year.” Apparently\u00a0 a hot, dry Spring makes it worse, but it should go away soon. Offers to treat with steroids politely declined!<\/p>\n

Reducing the numbers has somehow given us more time to work with the horses, and for the first time ever, everyone is doing something – even Misty, who is being prepared as a child’s second pony. She won’t be needed for a few years, but I suspect we’ll need that time! Early work is going well, though, and she would make a spirited, exciting dressage horse if only she were more than 11 hands high! We\u0092ve also found ourselves with more time on our hands (and less money) due to the departure of a long term training horse who flew to the States last week. Export papers, DEFRA, and a last minute kick to the knee made for a tense time, but he’s landed safely and five days later is nearly at his new home.\u00a0 We just hope they showed suitable in-flight movies!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 2011 Well, we’ve been talking for ages about doing something about the field ornaments. Not to complete minimalist standards, but just to de-clutter a little. To this end, we’re delighted that Free Be and Asterix have found a home…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisperingback.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}