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Busy busy
We had Mike's family visiting over the weekend, so it's all been a bit busy. Still, it seemed to go well.
Bob did very well, once he'd settled down after people arrived. He's very noticeably more barky at men, especially if they have beards. Fortunately, the dog-phobic visitor found the combination of howling and wagging tail to be very amusing, and even brought herself to feed him a treat, so that was good. The kids made a huge fuss of him, which he seemed to enjoy tremendously (at least, he didn't get up and walk off after a few minutes, like Jo would have).
We did have a couple of odd Bob moments, both pub-related. One evening, before most of them arrived, we took Mike's mother to the pub for dinner. When we left the house, Bob was looking quite nervous, and didn't want to get into the car to drive there. In the pub, he was fine (even when the two pub dogs came over and yipped at him a little) until some people arrived to sit at the table next to us, when he started growling. Fortunately, the bill had arrived by then so I took him outside and then we headed for home. This was the first time we'd taken him out in the evening.
We also all went out for lunch at a different pub on another day. Bob was absolutely fine driving there and during the meal. Afterwards, we were all waiting in the carpark for someone to come out from the loo and he was visibly trembling and looking utterly terrified and wretched. I tried putting him in the back of the car, but he was still shaking. As soon as Mike took him off to walk home, his tail went up in the air and he was back to his usual bouncy self. All very odd, but consistent with the theory I've been putting together about the sort of household he used to be in, poor lad.
Having been entirely non-hoppity when the saddler came to check him a fortnight ago, Benny has gone steadily back down-hill and is now doing a lot of bouncing around again. Coincidentally, I had the Back Lady booked in for today. She was happy with everything on his back, but whilst having a feel around thought that one of his front feet felt hot. She got out a nifty gadget that shines a light on the horse and works out the skin temperature, and there was indeed a 4C difference from one leg to the other.
She wonders if there might be a foot problem, made worse by hard ground. This sort-of fits, as he was first doing it when everything was frozen, got better in the wet spring, and then got bad again when things started to get very dry. The day that the saddler came was also the day when we moved them to the other field, which involves him walking up and down the road every day. As it happens, the farrier's coming next week, so I'll see what he thinks and then maybe talk to the vet about x-rays. It's all still rather vague, but this is the first actual symptom that we've had, other than the hopping, so....
Before that, I'd ridden Benny in the school, just some dressage basics in walk. He was being a bit of an idiot about going into one corner, by the orchard, which makes me wonder if our grass snake is back. I'm very pleased if so, because it can help the little owl to keep the rodent population down:
(Ok, it's a bit Sammy The Brown Pixel, but he's quite shy so I took that from the house! Click to embiggen. Which is now a word!)
After I'd ridden, while we were waiting for the Back Lady, I shut the gates to the field and the road and left them by the school, where the grass is in need of a trim. When I went back half an hour later to get them, GB was mooching around in the school (he quite likes to have a little run around in there for old times' sake, and he *loves* to have a good roll on the nice big, flat, soft surface) and Benny was... standing in the middle of the field eating grass. I suppose, if he's going to jump the gate, it's better that he goes into the field rather than out of it...? (I'm reminded of the way he tried to jump into the field when we first got him.)
Other things? I've been saying for a good year that there's something wrong with a couple of keys on my Macbook keyboard, and a couple of weeks ago the spacebar started to go iffy as well, which is good timing as apparently they've now admitted that it's a Thing and will (hopefully, as this is the original and worst design) give me a new keyboard: handy, as I've now had this for long enough that the keycaps are wearing off!
My wrists are misbehaving. They were really bad a couple of weeks ago (I always struggle at this time of year, from weeding), but seemed to have improved. I am finding that my right hand is going numb whenever I drive or ride, which is annoying. I've been off the sewing, because of this (and visitors), but have done two swans so far.
My mother said the other day (from Greece) that my sister said that their lawn was all brown, because it had been so dry. I woke up today to the news that the moors are burning, so I guess it really has been dry there. Hope they manage to get it under control. I'm quite glad that my brother-in-law is retired from the fire service.
Bob did very well, once he'd settled down after people arrived. He's very noticeably more barky at men, especially if they have beards. Fortunately, the dog-phobic visitor found the combination of howling and wagging tail to be very amusing, and even brought herself to feed him a treat, so that was good. The kids made a huge fuss of him, which he seemed to enjoy tremendously (at least, he didn't get up and walk off after a few minutes, like Jo would have).
We did have a couple of odd Bob moments, both pub-related. One evening, before most of them arrived, we took Mike's mother to the pub for dinner. When we left the house, Bob was looking quite nervous, and didn't want to get into the car to drive there. In the pub, he was fine (even when the two pub dogs came over and yipped at him a little) until some people arrived to sit at the table next to us, when he started growling. Fortunately, the bill had arrived by then so I took him outside and then we headed for home. This was the first time we'd taken him out in the evening.
We also all went out for lunch at a different pub on another day. Bob was absolutely fine driving there and during the meal. Afterwards, we were all waiting in the carpark for someone to come out from the loo and he was visibly trembling and looking utterly terrified and wretched. I tried putting him in the back of the car, but he was still shaking. As soon as Mike took him off to walk home, his tail went up in the air and he was back to his usual bouncy self. All very odd, but consistent with the theory I've been putting together about the sort of household he used to be in, poor lad.
Having been entirely non-hoppity when the saddler came to check him a fortnight ago, Benny has gone steadily back down-hill and is now doing a lot of bouncing around again. Coincidentally, I had the Back Lady booked in for today. She was happy with everything on his back, but whilst having a feel around thought that one of his front feet felt hot. She got out a nifty gadget that shines a light on the horse and works out the skin temperature, and there was indeed a 4C difference from one leg to the other.
She wonders if there might be a foot problem, made worse by hard ground. This sort-of fits, as he was first doing it when everything was frozen, got better in the wet spring, and then got bad again when things started to get very dry. The day that the saddler came was also the day when we moved them to the other field, which involves him walking up and down the road every day. As it happens, the farrier's coming next week, so I'll see what he thinks and then maybe talk to the vet about x-rays. It's all still rather vague, but this is the first actual symptom that we've had, other than the hopping, so....
Before that, I'd ridden Benny in the school, just some dressage basics in walk. He was being a bit of an idiot about going into one corner, by the orchard, which makes me wonder if our grass snake is back. I'm very pleased if so, because it can help the little owl to keep the rodent population down:
(Ok, it's a bit Sammy The Brown Pixel, but he's quite shy so I took that from the house! Click to embiggen. Which is now a word!)
After I'd ridden, while we were waiting for the Back Lady, I shut the gates to the field and the road and left them by the school, where the grass is in need of a trim. When I went back half an hour later to get them, GB was mooching around in the school (he quite likes to have a little run around in there for old times' sake, and he *loves* to have a good roll on the nice big, flat, soft surface) and Benny was... standing in the middle of the field eating grass. I suppose, if he's going to jump the gate, it's better that he goes into the field rather than out of it...? (I'm reminded of the way he tried to jump into the field when we first got him.)
Other things? I've been saying for a good year that there's something wrong with a couple of keys on my Macbook keyboard, and a couple of weeks ago the spacebar started to go iffy as well, which is good timing as apparently they've now admitted that it's a Thing and will (hopefully, as this is the original and worst design) give me a new keyboard: handy, as I've now had this for long enough that the keycaps are wearing off!
My wrists are misbehaving. They were really bad a couple of weeks ago (I always struggle at this time of year, from weeding), but seemed to have improved. I am finding that my right hand is going numb whenever I drive or ride, which is annoying. I've been off the sewing, because of this (and visitors), but have done two swans so far.
My mother said the other day (from Greece) that my sister said that their lawn was all brown, because it had been so dry. I woke up today to the news that the moors are burning, so I guess it really has been dry there. Hope they manage to get it under control. I'm quite glad that my brother-in-law is retired from the fire service.
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Ok, looks like your options are on the big sofa, probably with other people on the floor, or out in the back room: sorry!
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