I’ve been away from this blog for the last few months, which was a complete accident and I’ve been feeling horribly guilty about it. I got a new job which meant I was out of the house for at least 13 hours a day, then for the last month I’ve been on an internship, and as soon as that finishes in February I am coming back home to start another, more permanent job. This job is 100% surrounded by horses and I’ll be working in an educational environment so I’m definitely looking forward to it! This post is just a general update on Archie’s training and what I’ve got planned for the blog (plus an excuse to post some photos of him).
Archie’s Training Update
There isn’t actually much to report on this front, as my job meant I was out of the house during daylight hours and the weather has been terrible recently. Nonetheless, Archie has seen his first snow since coming to the UK (it’s quite possibly his first snow ever as he was born in April and was only about 4 months old when he left the Netherlands. We’ve had some seriously cold weather here over December so he’s had to get used to having a heavyweight rug on. I didn’t really want to use the heavyweight we have as it’s a couple of inches too big for him and is really a bit too heavy as well. But when it comes to him being warm and dry, I’d rather err on the side of caution as it’s gone down to -9 degrees C here on some nights and he’s still only a youngster. Even Honey, who’s about 28 and who’s never worn a rug in her life, has been wearing a rug this winter. We had nothing to fit her whatsoever so she was the first priority when it came to rug shopping. Archie is still growing and will just have to wait for a nicer rug.
Archie in the snow before Christmas, just before his rug went on.
Training-wise, the snow has melted and the mud is atrocious and, quite aside from trying to protect the field, it’s not worth risking Archie’s nerves or my neck trying to work with him on it. We’re in the process of planning some stabling and a proper yard area for the field this year and this should help massively when it comes to working with Archie when the weather gets bad. Until then, I’m waiting for the weather to dry out a bit.
We’re still working on his behaviour on the lead rope because this is a problem area with him. A lot of it is down to the fact I haven’t been doing much structured work with him but he does get very upset when his headcollar goes on. He’s completely fine without it and never strong when it is on, he just has a tendency to start rearing and spinning (I know it sounds crazy that he can rear and spin without being strong, but he absolutely refuses to put pressure on the rope). I’m wondering if he could be sensitive to the pressure it puts on his head, or if he’s just reacting to the fact that he can’t go wherever he wants to while it’s on, and as soon as I can get some time to work with him properly I’ll be addressing this (I’ll be building on my previous post about training).
General Blog Update
I keep having ideas for blog posts and then never have the time/energy to actually get around to writing them. I’ve got halfway through a number of drafts and even set up a survey to get some data on hooves and diet, which you can complete here. I’ve learned a number of things during the survey building and sharing process, not least that it’s harder than you’d think to get people to answer questions the way you want them to without being very specific with answer options. More to follow on that soon.
Archie looking mysterious in one of the cold snaps we had at the end of last year.
I often find it difficult to keep my blog both light and reader-friendly and also scientific and informative. Over the years this blog has existed it’s wavered one way or the other. It’s taken a few years and a lot of discarded blog posts but I’ve come to believe there can be a happy medium with this blog. The scientific journals are for cold hard factual accounts. This blog is free to be a little more relaxed, but please do comment and let me know if there’s anything about caring for horses that you don’t quite understand and want me to break down the sciencey explanation for.
General Me Update
Hopefully, this new job should give me more time with the horses as I’ll be on a split-shift pattern and home is only a 15 minute drive away. It’ll include riding lessons and training for some qualifications so my feelings of Imposter Syndrome when I talk about horses might start to dissipate a bit (or it’ll get worse, see the Dunning-Kruger Effect).
Less me-related but I have been trying to keep up-to-date with Archie’s Instagram (@archiethefriesian (I’m still figuring out how to link this one)) as a record of his growth and development. It’s not always easy to get out and take photos of him, especially as I’m away at the moment and the one day I’ve been home since the start of this internship it rained so much I couldn’t actually use my camera for fear it would drown.
I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get out with him in the next few months and do a few more photoshoots with him, he’s growing up so fast!
Archie and me back in October 2017, when it wasn’t quite so muddy in the field.
The Barefoot Horse 