It’s corona time…

Hi everyone! Sorry my blog is a bit late, had some ..stuff to deal with, you know, like the whole country being on lockdown! Ha! I honestly never expected to be in this position today when I wrote my last blog! Thankfully I am still able to see Gerry, I know some yards have closed down to liveries completely, and if you’re on one of those my heart really goes out to you. Our horses are so good for not only our physical health but for our mental health too. If you’re one of those people, just try and make your driving force the day that you see your horse again – although that date is still to be confirmed, it will be a great one for you when it comes! I’m also grateful that I still have a job at this time and that I can work from home, I know many have not been as fortunate. We do however have some restrictions in place at the yard, to minimise the amount of people there at one time. Each courtyard has a timetable in place, so there’s only 1 person from each court yard there at a time, meaning usually 2 but a maximum of 3 people are there at once. With a DIY yard of 40 odd horses this was no mean feat to arrange but everyone seems to have managed to come together and its (mostly) working now! I’ve got some of Gerry’s feeds, a hoof pick, headcollar, gloves and treats in the boot of my car, just in case I need to see to him by his field gate without actually going on to the yard at any point.

Gerry is living out at nights again and he is absolutley loving it! I thought he might hang around at the gate a bit for the first wee while, expecting to get in to his bed, but I popped him back into the field the first evening and off he went to the grass – and never looked back! Every day for the next week or so – he didn’t come when I shouted, he made me walk to get him!! He is usually so good about coming to call, and sometimes comes at speed! However since he’s been living out he’s been blatantly ignoring me and enjoying the grass. Its great – I much prefer for him to be outside and moving around, being a horse!

The weather has been lovely and mild, spring is off to a promising start, I’ve had to dig out Gerry’s fly rugs and fly spray. Thankfully I still have some fly spray left from last year. I just make my own using an old recipe – I love the smell of it and it really seems to work, plus I know exactly whats in it, no harsh chemicals! Its made with cold tea, citronella oil, eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil, vinegar and water. I make it up in a big empty fabric softener bottle and decant into my smaller spray bottle when needed. This saves me a lot of money too – lotions and potions for horses are so expensive!

Since its been nice weather I’ve been getting lots of jobs done around the house and garden too, one huge task that I took on was painting the garden fence, which, in hindsight I may have underestimated slightly!! We have a whole load of fencing, and the paint needs 2 coats too. So its no small task! However – no time like the present, with nothing better to do with my time in the evenings!

So although I had been back on Gerry 5/6 times for 10 minute walk hacks, I had to put a halt to that when he got a bit of heat in his leg again. Interestingly, in a slightly difference place than before. He had some heat in the area where he had his surgery at the beginning of December (just on the suspensory), but also some in his fetlock on the same leg. Now I do know from all his antics last year and x-ray of almost every angle of every blinking leg… that he has arthritis in his rear fetlocks. So I will absolutley not be surprised if this turns out to be arthritis in the front fetlocks too! So far its only the one leg, but it is the one that’s had all the trauma over the last year so it wouldn’t come as a shock if that ends up being the problem. He’s on some anti-inflammatory and I’m just monitoring him for the next month or so to see how he is with help from the vet.  

Who knows where we’ll be for next month’s blog update – I really hope we’ll be slowly but surely coming out of lockdown – but we just don’t know. I hope you all stay safe, and if you are able, give your horses a huge hug!

Take care! Grace & Gerry x