Filly in now away on her holidays in Exmoor. She'll be away for at least 12 weeks which is a bit hard to bear. It's a 4 hour drive each way to visit her, but the area is very beautiful so we can make mini-breaks out of them.
Getting her to Rockley was challenging. I had decided that for this special journey I would give her some sedative to help her stay calm. But she hates having a syringe put in her mouth so administering it was going to be a problem. To get her used to syringes we tried filling them with apple sauce and apple sauce with mint and other tasty liquids. None of them worked. We finally found that she loved mashed banana and the problem was solved to the extent she was biting the syringe and didn't want to let it go.
So when the day came, last Monday, we mixed mashed banana with ACP and she ate it readily.
This did not have the expected result. She fought strongly against the sedation and became very agitated. I took her to the indoor school and she went nuts. Putting the travel boots on was not fun.
Trailer loading was actually pretty good and after a short time we were ready to go. Trailering was not good. We had picked a Monday lunchtime to depart to avoid traffic jams. We got stuck in 3 jams in the first hour. Two accidents and road works. During the road works a kind lady got out of her car two cars ahead of us to make she we new our trailer was rocking about. Sitting in a very rocky car we assured her we did know, but there was not a lot we could do about it. So long as we were moving Filly was actually ok, it was when we stopped we had trouble. We made the decision to not stop at all and arrived 4 hours 30 minutes later at Rockley farm with our legs firmly crossed. Not easy when you're driving !
She unloaded really calmly and slowly and was soon installed in a stable to let her settle for a whilst we had a visit to the loo and a cup of tea.
We then went back out to see her and Nic (the lady who owns the yard) took loads of photos of her feet in shoes. She then took close up slow motion video of how her feet contacted the ground as I walked Filly up and down the yard. This gives Nic a baseline to work from for Fillys' rehab work.
Then very very carefully Nic removed Fillys' shoes whilst I and Ritchie stood on horse fly swatting duty. I was very impressed with the calm attitude Nic had as Filly was pretty difficult and the shoes were effectively glued on by the residue of the gel pads we had tried on her.
With that done she had her tea, which included loads of mineral ingredients which Nic prescribes to re-hab horses and was put out on the first track area which is part of the rehab treatment. She had company of another re-hab horse and one of Nics own horses, both chosen for their calm manner. There was one minor altercation and then everything settled down really well.
With that done we left for the night to find the hotel we were going to stay in.
The following morning we arrived to find Filly still with her friends on the track area. She came over to say a brief hello and then went back to her friends and hid around the back of the barn in an area we could not see. We did not go into the area as we did not want to disturb the herd that was forming and so reluctantly left her and set off to go for a walk on Exmoor, followed by the long drive home.
If you wish to follow Filly's progress as Rockley then take a look at the Rockley farm blog that Nic writes to keep us all up to date with progress. Here is the link Rockley Farm blog
Getting her to Rockley was challenging. I had decided that for this special journey I would give her some sedative to help her stay calm. But she hates having a syringe put in her mouth so administering it was going to be a problem. To get her used to syringes we tried filling them with apple sauce and apple sauce with mint and other tasty liquids. None of them worked. We finally found that she loved mashed banana and the problem was solved to the extent she was biting the syringe and didn't want to let it go.
So when the day came, last Monday, we mixed mashed banana with ACP and she ate it readily.
This did not have the expected result. She fought strongly against the sedation and became very agitated. I took her to the indoor school and she went nuts. Putting the travel boots on was not fun.
Trailer loading was actually pretty good and after a short time we were ready to go. Trailering was not good. We had picked a Monday lunchtime to depart to avoid traffic jams. We got stuck in 3 jams in the first hour. Two accidents and road works. During the road works a kind lady got out of her car two cars ahead of us to make she we new our trailer was rocking about. Sitting in a very rocky car we assured her we did know, but there was not a lot we could do about it. So long as we were moving Filly was actually ok, it was when we stopped we had trouble. We made the decision to not stop at all and arrived 4 hours 30 minutes later at Rockley farm with our legs firmly crossed. Not easy when you're driving !
She unloaded really calmly and slowly and was soon installed in a stable to let her settle for a whilst we had a visit to the loo and a cup of tea.
We then went back out to see her and Nic (the lady who owns the yard) took loads of photos of her feet in shoes. She then took close up slow motion video of how her feet contacted the ground as I walked Filly up and down the yard. This gives Nic a baseline to work from for Fillys' rehab work.
Then very very carefully Nic removed Fillys' shoes whilst I and Ritchie stood on horse fly swatting duty. I was very impressed with the calm attitude Nic had as Filly was pretty difficult and the shoes were effectively glued on by the residue of the gel pads we had tried on her.
With that done she had her tea, which included loads of mineral ingredients which Nic prescribes to re-hab horses and was put out on the first track area which is part of the rehab treatment. She had company of another re-hab horse and one of Nics own horses, both chosen for their calm manner. There was one minor altercation and then everything settled down really well.
With that done we left for the night to find the hotel we were going to stay in.
The following morning we arrived to find Filly still with her friends on the track area. She came over to say a brief hello and then went back to her friends and hid around the back of the barn in an area we could not see. We did not go into the area as we did not want to disturb the herd that was forming and so reluctantly left her and set off to go for a walk on Exmoor, followed by the long drive home.
If you wish to follow Filly's progress as Rockley then take a look at the Rockley farm blog that Nic writes to keep us all up to date with progress. Here is the link Rockley Farm blog
1 comment:
Glad to hear that she is safely there! I'll be following their blog to see how she does :)
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