Florrie Update (New Forest Pony)

It's been another hectic week. I don't seem to have enough time in the day now , between working night shift , looking after Missy , going to the stables twice a day to see to Florrie, AND trying to find time in between to eat and sleep. Of course , just to make life a bit harder , I have to fit this all round the painkillers I have to take for my back , especially as every second dose knocks me out to sleep for a couple of hours . Anyway , it's now 2 weeks since I bought her but it feels like I've had her for a lot longer. She is really settling in well and starting to fill out a bit. She whickers to me every time I walk towards her stable , even if it's the 10th time that morning . She really enjoys being groomed , although I still have to take my time as she is still a little nervous when you first approach her. I've got a secret weapon to remove the caked on dung......... a mane thinning comb . I have been taking a little off every day as if I spend too long on it , she starts to fidget and get fed up. I can now handle her head whenever I want to. She was a little headshy , especially near her right ear. I can also now pick up and hold all of her feet . To begin with , she would let me run my hand down her leg then she would move her leg away. She would also let me pick up a hoof , but only for a couple of seconds before snatching it away , especially her hind ones. On Tuesday night , I took a diced apple and Missy's clicker to the stables. I let Florrie see the clicker then stood for a while just clicking it then rewarding her with some apple. ( Missy was with me too so I HAD to give her a bit apple too every time I clicked ) . The next day , I spent a little time working on picking up her feet. When I picked one up , I immediately clicked the clicker then put her foot down , told her she was good and gave her a treat. She adores Spillers Meadow Herb Treats and so very quickly got the idea that if she let me hold her foot , she would get a click then a treat . I only had to do this a couple of times with each foot for her to get the message . Now I can pick up every foot and hold it without her trying to pull away. On Wednesday , I turned her out into the field for the first time. I made sure I had plenty of time to stay and watch incase anything happened , ( bearing in mind she jumped out of the school on Friday , clearing a 4 foot fence !). Apart from a little trotting and cantering round with her tail up , she settled very quickly in the field. The other mares came over to meet her and they had a few squeals and made some half hearted threats , otherwise , they left her alone. Florrie did lean over the electric fencing once and got a fright when it "bit" her ,and now she's a bit scared of it ( well , it IS wired to the mains). I had a slight problem on Thursday night when I went to bring her in. Two of the other mares , a chestnut and a palomino , kept charging at her whenever I tried to get her through the gate. Twice , she got away from me and raced round the field with a lunge rein in tow. She was a bit worried about the lunge rein dragging behind her but didn't panic , and she stood still by me while I gathered it up again. I'm just glad I bought a red one and not white. If it had been a white lunge rein , she might have thought the electric fence was chasing her ang god knows what could have happened ! I had to get someone to help me in the end , just to keep the other horses away so I could get through the gate. She stayed in on Friday as the weather was rotten. She has a very fine coat and is not used to the horrible Scottish weather. It will take a while to get her used to wearing a rug so I thought it was kindest to keep her in. I did turn her out in the school for a little while though. She got out in the field again on Saturday for a few ( hours , and this time I had no problems bringing her in . Today ( Sunday) , I am going to try to wash her tail. She has dung caked onto that too and it will take months for it to come out on its own. Even if I can just soak her tail in a bucket for a wee while , it should soften the dung enough for me to brush it out. Right now though , it's solid . I've added a few pics of her on her first day in the field. I took a video too but I'll need to edit that before I can put it on here. It's not brilliant quality though but I will post it later on.

Florrie's first day out in the field.
.
.
.
.
.

aaww she is very pretty - sounds like its all going well - does missy like her ??

Hi Dani , Missy is a little bit scared of the great big horsey . I wouldn't ever force her to go closer than she feels comfortable , but it would be nice when Florrie is old enough to ride that Missy could run along beside us. There's plenty of fields and tracks around the stables so no need to go on the road. Florrie doesn't seem to mind dogs . Washing her tail went very well today . I started off with a wee drop water in a bucket and worked in the stable. I let her see what I had and while speaking to her , gradually moved closer to her tail. I picked up her tail and dipped the very end into the water , still speaking to her. She was good with that so I gave her tail a good soaking in the bucket. Then I put some horse shampoo on my hand and worked it into her tail. I had to do that a few times to make any impression on the dirt. When it was time to rinse , I took her outside and tied her up. Again , it took several rinses to get all the dirty shampoo out of her tail. After that , I got a towel and scrunched it up in my hands to let her see it. When she was ready , I slowly rubbed the towel down her neck , along her back and down her hindquarters. I used the towel to soak up the excess water from her tail , ( usually , you swing the horses tail round to get the water off , but not with a young horse unless you want to be booted into outer space ). Then I carefully wiped down her hind legs to dry them off slightly. After being so good , Florrie got some treats , an apple and lots of fuss. I put some mane and tail conditioner on her tail just to finish off , that will stop her tail from getting too tangled and hopefully loosen off more of the dried dung. Her tail will need another wash or two before it is completely clean , but I'm delighted that she was so good about the whole thing. I then put her out in the field for the rest of the day.

Lovely pics xxdk