I first met Ferdie at the end of October 2012. He was a twelve year old who had steeplechased a long time. Somewhere along the way he had badly damaged his pelvis, and his owner, Zoey, nursed him back to health. When I met him, he was so wonky he moved in three tracks, and could literially barely canter a circuit of the school.
I worked with him up until Friday 28th June 2013. We managed to get him cantering 20m circles, on the bit and balanced. Although still wonkey, he moved straighter and was infact lovely to ride. He had a fabulous jump, even if he always spooked the first time he went over a pole. When Ferdie spooked, he had the most gormless, goofy expression which was hilarious.
Ferdie and I also had a very scary accident, where a very dangerous tractor driver sped past us, and Ferdie span and bolted, and splipped on the road landing on top of me. We were very lucky, I had a broken nose and a fractured foot, but given half a tonne of horse landed on me on the road, I was grateful. Ferdie was sore and had cuts and grazes, but we were lucky.
Unfortunately, on Saturday 29th Jun, Ferdie had an accident in the field and badly damaged his back, and had to be put to sleep.
I had grown very fond of him, and very proud of what we had achieved. It was very hard going up there yesterday and purely mucking out his companion, seeing just one horse in the paddock. It was too quiet. RIP Ferdie, you will be missed.
In other news....with the hugely anticipated arrival of Lexi, (end of this week, now maybe early next week??? Oh come on!!), I have been given my own field for Lexi and Squirrel.
Now I love my yard, my yard owner is great and I have been there 8 years. However the fields have gone downhill a bit, due to overegrazing and lack of care. I am done waiting around, and I am going to tackle my fields and turn them into a paradise! Its not a huge area, but with careful maintenance I hope to turn it into something great!
Currently its split in 2. One half is part buttercup, part thistle and part grazed down grass. The other part is a jungle.
First things first I need to clean it up as its had 4 horses on it for a while with no poo picking. Eeeck. Squirrel is in there on his own at the moment (neighbours over the fence) and so I'm going to poo pick a wheelbarrow every morning and every evening to clean it up.
Over the weekend I am going to take a strimmer to the nettles, thistles and buttercups. I'm going to lime the soil to get rid of buttercups in future (thats safe to do with the horses in there) and fence off the buttercups I am going to strim down for a few days, as safe to eat dry but not wet.
Then I am going to spray the roots of the thistles and nettles in the parts which will be sectioned off. At one point I'm also going to fertlise it and lay down grass seeds. Not sure when its the right time of year to do that though.
Strimming will happen this weekend, and hopefully liming and weedkilling where I can. I am really excited about this project, it's my first time attempting anything like this and very curious to see how hard it is and whether I can get a decent grazing by the end.
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