August/September Photo Dump

 Well, August and September happened.

Seven weeks after coming home

First things first: after ten days in hospital, more money than I spent renovating our house (yay for insurance!), and a whole lot of prayer, Magic is home and thriving. He was a skeleton when he got home on the 20th of August, with a boatload of medications and a very strict feeding schedule. The poor soul had really been through the wringer - he was about 3/10 (which is not bad actually, considering that he'd been starved for 6 full days), with terrible phlebitis and scrapes all over him from the night he'd thrown himself down in the stable in pain. He was so subdued, too. I had visited him five days before he came home, right in the middle of his hospital stay, and the fight had gone out of him. I was ready to put him to sleep them; it just seemed a better option to set him free. His lovely team of vets persuaded me to give him one more day, with the proviso that they would immediately put him to sleep if he had any more pain, and that night he finally took a turn for the better. Still, he had been through appalling suffering and it showed in his eyes and his soul. He just didn't have anything left in him. He felt so tired and not sure if he even wanted to be here.

The transformation since then has been amazing. When he first got home he was on seven small meals a day, with medications three times a day, and I did everything myself except his 9:30am feed when I was at work. I just felt like he needed me, or maybe I needed him to need me, or maybe we just needed each other a little bit. I was so burned out within a couple of weeks, but it was absolutely worth it. He finally went out on pasture during the day last week, and he was leaping and bucking and snorting and playing like he'd never had a sick day in his life. That was when we both finally felt like it had been worth it. Before then, I had been wondering if it had been selfish to put him through the hospitalization for as long as I did, but when I saw him gamboling around like an idiot I knew it was OK. He's now back to living his best spoiled life. Summertime will be easier on both of us because he can go on pasture 24/7 and never colics when he's on pasture, but in winter he has to be on a super strict feeding schedule:

6:15am - 300g Capstone Lifetime Balancer with a handful of lucerne pellets, all soupy, and a tablespoon of Epsom salts. 2kg teff in a slow feeder, dampened.

9:30am - 1kg lucerne pellets, 750g Capstone Cool Time, 1 tbsp Epsom salts, 1 tbsp zeolites, 10g Protexin (probiotic), soupy.

12:30pm - 2kg dampened teff in a slow feeder

3:30pm - same as 9:30am

6:30pm - same as 6:15am, but with 2 generous tablespoons of Epsom salts and a tablespoon of zeolite added to his balancer and lucerne pellets.

So he's a very high-maintenance little lawn ornament, added to which he has only one functioning jugular vein and his face tends to get pretty swollen after a day of grazing, but that doesn't affect his welfare at all. In fact, he is a happy dude who is currently roaming around the yard pretty freely to get all the juicy grass and making a general nuisance of himself.

The fruit trees' blossoms came and went, replaced by leaves. It is so good to see something green in the world again.

I think perhaps the combination of waiting for the rain, generally disliking winter, and having the beloved work away for the last three springs in a row have given me a touch of pseudo-SAD. My mental health was not great right up until the first rain. Since then I've been back to really happy.

We had many miserable, cold and cloudy days before the rain finally came. This was in late August, right after Magic came home. Two of my newer liveries went on their first long ride in this group, and they were all just perfect.

I had the two big girls in front to set the pace, so Lancey and I could hang out in the back, keep an eye on everyone, and enjoy the friendships growing between the kids. This is most of my SANESA team for next year and everyone is such good friends. I am super blessed to have a no-drama yard (and I stomp on drama the moment it looks like it wants to appear).

Lancey has stayed in consistent work. A lot of this has been lungeing and hacking, but we've made some progress on the schooling front too. When I had a couple of school ponies out of work for one reason or another he helped out by teaching some kids how to lunge and do Join-Up, which he is a little pro at (I have video of him doing beautiful Join-Up with a five-year-old, which is adorable).

Another reason why August/September are not my favourite time of the year. With the dry ground, the electric fences pretty much quit working. The beloved spent days trying to come up with solutions for why this particular young livery was climbing right through the fences even though the tester was showing that they were on.

I certainly enjoyed the view.

The pregnant fairies gave me grey hairs. More accurately, Faith did - Arwen has been plugging on merrily, now at just over 270 days, with nothing but a minor scrape on her belly to complain about. Faith was the third in a very uncharacteristic string of colics (potentially to blame on a bad batch of hay) that I had. These have been my first non-Magic colics in easily five years. Anyway, I decided not to take any chances and had the vet out the moment I saw what was up, and she was fine by the next morning. The owner of her foal was angelic enough to pay her vet bill, which was extremely kind of him.

She lost a little weight, but nothing too bad - for which I'm very grateful as we're now entering the last stretch of her pregnancy. She is 303 days today, with Rene at 307 days. I have no idea what either of them will do, Faith being a maiden and Rene new to me, so I'll be on foal patrol in the next couple of weeks.

Our first few days of T-shirt weather finally arrived in early September, to my huge relief. It was still bitterly dry and gross outside, with unbelievable winds, and we were all waiting desperately for rain. We had a few days of oppressive, dry heat.

The kiddos rode at Gauteng Finals, where Jamaica's kid had a massively unlucky stop that cost her a place on the team, and Zorro's kid squeaked onto the team in her discipline. Thanks to some relaxations due to COVID I did manage to shove Jamaica's kid into nationals, so all ended well. We also got to visit Kyalami Corner for the first time, one of the yuppie upmarket malls in the heart of South African horse country. Everything was pricey, but at least they had pretty statues.

It was so, so dry. At least it was easier to keep Lancey clean.

I wanted to go for a ride with his long mane blowing romantically in the wind, but it ended up getting snarled up in my hands more than anything else. Another reason why he lives in plaits.

Just the beloved washing my jacket for me late one evening after work because I was having a little meltdown about how I was going to be a trainwreck at SA Champs. I was not a trainwreck, my jacket was clean, and my man is an actual superhero.

My favourite Friesian, who for blog purposes we will call Madam President because that's exactly who she believes she is, on the second day of SA Champs. I have never been so nervous in the days leading up to the show, but once I was in the warmup I was surprisingly OK. In fact, I was great - really focused, not too relaxed, but not panicking. I rode every stride and Madam President showed up to work the way she always does. We had run into some issues with the contact in the weeks before the show, but we pulled it together and had solid scores for a placing in the middle of the class in good company.

Beloved couldn't be there on the first day of the show, but he was there on the championship day, which helped me calm down quite a bit.

It was unforgettable. My first SA Champs ever, on probably the best dressage horse I have ever had the privilege of riding. Madam President will inevitably outgrow me and move on to the upper-level rider she deserves, but I'm bent on enjoying every ride while I've got it.

 The following week was a Friesian show at my favourite venue in Parys, which was amazing to experience as always. I didn't ride because Madam President had had enough pressure on her already, but Coach rode the stud stallion, who was a very good boy.

Erin came over to spend the day at the show with us, and posed beside the big fella for scale. He is just over 17.1 and all power, but he stood across the aisle from a mare at the show, and I lead him around the farm with a flat halter and no chain. Such an incredible creature.

It's so hard to believe that last year's foal crop has turned into yearlings already. This one is my personal favorite, the oldest of them, who just turned one last month. There's so much to like here.

The rain came in late September, and it was wonderful, wonderful rain - about 60mm in a week. It was nice and early, and the pastures have gotten a good start on growing. My garden woke up, too, even though we'd been watering it for weeks. There's just something about rainwater that no artificial means can beat. A continual reminder of how helpless we truly are, and how great the Lord's mercy really is. This phlox was a huge bush last year and reseeded itself; I didn't even know until it started blooming.

After another six weeks off for that check ligament injury, Thunder finally returned to work, having lost so much of his muscle tone and fitness. Between the check ligament and the biliary he had in the autumn, he's had three months off this year. And we started out so well. Anyway, I did two weeks of lungeing and continue to have him on a fairly strict lungeing schedule right now, hoping to build up a ton of fitness. It's always hard with him to balance fitness and freshness, but I also switched him to a super high-energy, high-protein feed, which seems to be working. He's even sassy sometimes now, which is great. As long as he has the energy, I can redirect it.

At least Lancey still looks like something. We have been chipping away at the gait quality again. He is much better off my leg, and we've been able to take his big, rushy trot and turn it into a more engaged, rhythmic trot. The canter is another story. He still won't let my rein aids go through him in the canter. I identified a problem in his response to the left rein and worked very hard on that with a ton of renvers/travers, which does seem to be helping. I honestly really look forward to having BabyDragon and training it properly (or at least, as a dressage horse) from day one - I love my two repurposed beasts, but I remain aware that Lancey could have been Elementary-Medium or Medium by now if I hadn't spent all this time fixing his man-made problems with the contact.

I rode this super cute green bean livery for his mother while she was on holiday. He is accident-prone but adorable. The rain had already brought a flush of green to the veld in the background here; it feels like the earth is alive again. As soon as the green came, my spirits just lifted, and the horses are obviously much happier to have something succulent to nibble on.

Without constant dust hanging in the air, we can see all the way past Bloekomspruit almost to the Vaal Dam again.

The wind still hasn't quite stopped, though, which hopefully means that we'll have good rain this season. I'm not sure if the thought that a cold winter and a windy spring bring a wet summer is entirely based in scientific theory, but I'm clinging to it anyway. These kiddos enjoyed a nice long ride on the last day of school before spring break. The one on the right has been riding with me since she was three years old, which feels like a ridiculously long time.

Having a lunge between lessons. I am so happy to see summer coats returning, too.

On a perfect, wet Friday at work after a beautifully stormy night, an angel spread its wings in the sky. Africa's summer skies are just something else. The horse in this photo is my second favourite Friesian, who had been off with an injury for months, but is finally back into full work now. He is a huge pleasure to ride and we get along really well - we actually make really good progress together. We'll give him the blog name of Shy Boy.

We went away on holiday together for the first time since we moved into our cottage in 2019. There just never seemed to be a point in going away while the beloved was still living and working three hours away for five months of the year - we spent too much time away from home anyway. This weekend was very, very sweet, and just a much-needed break from everything. It finally managed to set my inner dial back to "happy" after a hard spring.

I'm aware of just how honoured I am to have my very best friend as my constant companion. He is a tremendous blessing. My lighthouse.

We came home to perfect skies. Old Skye herself gave us a bit of a fright while Magic was in hospital when she spiked a low-grade fever and had some diarrhea, but she shook it off herself and carried on with her life. She seems to be enjoying her privacy and I think perhaps her days of running around in a herd are over. She was the best old lead mare for so many years - I think she's ready to just hang out with companions over the fence, and not have anyone in the field with her to try to play or push her around.

Of course one of the best Friesian mares waited until I was away to suddenly pop out an early baby with no prior warning, as maidens do. Mom and baby are both healthy and happy, and the little guy might look very small next to his enormous mother, but he's destined to reach over 17 hands himself.

Foals are the best. He's a very bold little man, always exploring and definitely a fan of wither scratches. I've gotten to spend a lot of time with him because his mom has rather too much milk and it tends to squirt all over his face, which then needs to be washed. There is a line of people eager to do this tedious chore but I managed to nab it for a few days before the grooms were onto me and started doing it early in the mornings before I got there. He certainly isn't starved for attention.

This was his first day outside. His dam has been an absolute rock star even though she's a maiden, taking really great care of him and letting us do what we need to do, too.

I had my first carriage driving lesson! It was pretty amazing, and actually not that difficult once my seat realized that it wasn't on a dressage horse and my foot realized that it wasn't in a car, and my hands realized that it was OK to pull to slow down. This very tolerant mare is a fantastic old schoolmistress and helped me out. I hope to drive Madam President someday.

There are so many things I love about summer, but perhaps my favorite is the longer days. Instead of shuddering out into the cold just after six in the morning, I can head out early, before the world gets going, and lunge my horses in the golden quiet.

This summer is going to be simply beautiful. I have lots of plans for it, but ultimately I'm just glad to be here where God put me. God is good!

MS Lady Erin

 All the way back in 2016, I made my second foray into breeding horses. I had just bought the sweetest thoroughbred I've ever sat on - Magic Lady (now belonging to K), expressly for the purpose of breeding something both kind and athletic. Milady came off the track quiet enough to hack around in a halter, and I was smitten.

Milady in her racing days

Milady's first beau turned out to be the first and last warmblood I ever owned - an exquisite jumping-bred colt by the name of Exavior. Exavior ended up with me through an unexpected little twist of either fate or Providence; he would ordinarily have been worth more money than I could really even conceive at that point. His sire Esaro W and damsire Rivale d'Or had both been and produced A-grade jumping horses (if I remember correctly), and his dam, Cointreau d'Or, had herself jumped up to about 1.20m before retiring to stud.

Exavior was exorbitantly too much for me from the start, however, even after I gelded him once Milady was pregnant. I eventually realized this and sold him - one of the smarter decisions of my teenage years, honestly - and he went on to jump up to the 1.20m before he sadly passed away while he was still quite young. He was being produced by an Open rider at the time and I'm pretty sure he would have jumped the big grades if he'd lived long enough.

The result of this match was born at a quarter past four in the afternoon on October 21st, 2016, with a gaggle of adoring riding school teens staring in awe. 

The foal was a tall and precocious little filly who was on her feet before she was an hour old. I named her Lady Erin after my best-best-best-best-best friend, who was suitably flattered. We had to give her a little help suckling, but overall, it was absolutely textbook... until it wasn't. 

Ladybug, as she eventually became known, was only five days old when I noticed that Milady had swollen lymph nodes and a slight temperature. The vet was out pronto and pronounced that she had strangles... and that she would likely be the first of many. I was nineteen years old, had not yet passed my stable manager's exam, and had only a measly few months of experience when I was plunged into the unbelievable disaster that is managing an outbreak of a massively contagious disease in a herd of horses living out. The one consolation was that strangles is not typically fatal... except in the very old, the immunocompromised, and the very young. At five days, Ladybug certainly fell into that category.

Three very intense weeks followed. Milady took a long time to recover fully from the strangles and lost an unbelievable amount of weight. Ladybug, however, soldiered on with the type of cheerful sassiness that can only come from a few-day-old baby chestnut mare. She didn't have a single day of sickness and by the time it was all over, she was so used to being hugged and cuddled and kissed and carefully inspected that she was ready for the flood of riding school kiddos to fawn over her. She became the darling of the whole yard and had all the attention she could ever want.

When Ladybug reached weanling age, the yard hit a major financial pothole. I had started out with rather more ambition than sense, and between schoolies, resale projects, and my ever-growing herd of own horse, things were getting ridiculous. I had to put her on the market, and she was quickly snapped up by a lovely, experienced home hours away on the southern coast.

I thought that that was the last time I'd ever see Ladybug. Erin and I were both doing some serious social media stalking, but there's not a whole lot that most people post about 1, 2, or 3-year-old babies growing up in the field.

Then, in January, Erin stumbled on a sales ad. A horse matching Ladybug's description was being sold for a song. We got in touch with the owner, who was heartbroken to let Ladybug go, but didn't have a choice; circumstances had grown hard, as they did for so many people at that time. I started putting out feelers, hoping desperately that someone would buy her and offering a year's free livery and schooling to anyone that would. I couldn't bear for that lovely sweet filly to have anything other than a soft landing.

Of course, my stableyard is filled with the most wonderful people. Within a day, two people had stepped forward offering to buy Ladybug even though neither of them were really shopping for horses at the time. In the end, it was Erin herself, Ladybug's namesake, who bought her. We had her shipped up to my place and the moment she stepped off the truck it was as though she knew. She looked around, sighed deeply, and seemed contented to be home.

I'm so delighted that Ladybug is here with me again. She ended up a little small - about 15.1 or 15.2 - but that's not an issue for Erin. In hindsight, I don't think I'll sell a weanling again. They're just too fragile at that age to have their lives shaken up like that.

Starting to look like something!

Anyway, so Ladybug and I have been getting along famously. I've grown very used to my super sweet Friesians - they are definitely very different from the other breeds I've worked with - so I was a little worried about working with this young warmblood. But honestly, despite the fact that her training schedule is more patchy than the Friesians' thanks to my hectic life, Ladybug has been one of the easiest youngsters I've ever had the pleasure of working with. She definitely has a sassy streak in her, but she's hugely willing and kind and surprisingly unreactive for her breed. True to being a warmblood, too, she doesn't muscle up as easily as the Friesians, but she does hold her cardio fitness a lot better.

Also, her canter is absolutely incredible. Little short in the neck in this moment, but soooo balanced and engaged for her age and fitness

Accordingly, when Erin came over Sunday two weeks ago (dang I'm so behind), she could have a little sit on the Ladybug.

First I did a spot of groundwork, doing a five-minute lunge like I always do just to check in with her brain and body and give her a little bit of exercise - her actual ridden work won't be real exercise for a couple of months yet. (Am I the slowest young horse starter in existence? Yes. Do my horses learn in a low-stress way, both in mind and body? Also yes. I'll go with slow).

Like she always does, Ladybug came out focused, relaxed, and ready for work. After a brief lunge, we went on to a little bit of turn on the forehand from the ground. I usually like my babies to have shoulder-in on the ground as well before jumping on, but Ladybug's in-hand work has come on just a touch slower than my Friesians because she's less food-driven than they are. In other words, she won't turn herself inside out for a bit of carrot, LOL. We're still getting there.

After rewarding each effort, I always give the horse a couple of moments at liberty for chewing time and thinking time, and also to check in with her mental state. Liberty - whether it's full-on join-up or just dropping the contact for a few strides - is always a great check-in. Ladybug is very happy to be connected to me, and stayed locked onto me even after moments of tension while she was figuring out her work.

Once we'd worked on those a little, it was time to head over to the mounting block. Normally I prefer to do the first few rides in the ring, but she's so chill that I didn't mind riding in the big arena. I'd sat on her a time or two before this and she was as relaxed as could be.

I started with some of my usual mounting block work. She really doesn't mind standing still while I'm on the block beside her, so I flapped the stirrups,

 

then flapped the saddle flap,

then leaned over and patted her loudly all over. As you can see, she tipped back an ear to listen to what I was doing over there, but wasn't worried about a thing.

Finally, I gave her a little treat on the off side - preparation to reward her for standing at the mounting block.

I do my preparation work carefully so that I can gently drag my toe all the way over her butt when I go to sit for the first few times. That way, if she gets an accidental toe-poke later on, there's no freaking out to be done.

Her expression here is just perfect. She's listening and paying attention to what's happening on her back, but she's not afraid at all.

Of course, she didn't worry one bit about me being up there. She flicked back her ears while I got on, just to listen to what was going on and to focus while she kept her balance, and then she got a treat and was perfectly happy.

Every time I sit on a young horse those first few times, it's a moment that feels so precious it's almost sacred. There is so much at stake in those moments. You could ruin so much if you did it wrong, and gain so much if you do it right. More than that, it's a glorious thrill of venturing into a place where no one in the world has ever been before; that secret plane inhabited by horse and rider, spine to spine. That feeling is a thousand times more special when the horse is one that you bred. And while her previous owner did sit on her a little, so I wasn't the first one up there, it was still a really wonderful moment. I watched this little mare take her very first steps, and now here we are.

She got a little bored of me just sitting there and petting her, so she turned around and went to chew the mounting block. I don't get after babies for moving in a relaxed manner the first few times I'm on board, so I just went with her and kept on petting her. After a few moments I hopped off - it was Erin's turn.

Ladybug didn't even tip her ears back this time as Erin got on. I kept a finger on her nose to hold her still while I stepped back to take a picture.

Erin was extremely chuffed.

We took the opportunity for me to walk a circle or two - not holding her, but joined-up - and she happily followed me around the arena with Erin on her back, not worried in the slightest. They look so great together even now - I can't wait to see a schooled Ladybug being ridden by her doting mom.

This little horse and this lovely person are both intensely special to me.

And I'm so grateful for the wonderful plan of God, Who brought our precious Ladybug back into our lives at just the right moment.

He is so good!