Bad and brilliant!

[Sparklyoldwhizzbangcatpusswhee]

First the bad news. My Houdini of a Shetland, who refuses to stay in her small paddock and eat sensibly, has managed to get laminitis in bloody November! I've been struggling to keep her contained for a while and had been arranging more secure accommodation for her and my welsh a. Two days before the move, disaster! She's now on box rest and a diet, with bute and ACP!
And now the brilliant. Whilst the vet was visiting, I asked him to take a blood test from my welsh A. She is PREGNANT! it's taken two years of trying and she's finally in foal. I'm so pleased.
We have a lovely new paddock now, with a sensible amount of grass. Things are crap but looking up. Just had to share.

OOOH, congratulations Sparky!! Keep us posted!

Excited for you about the foal, hope these winter months fly by and we get to admire it soon. Feel broody just thinking about foals though!

Sorry about the laminitis, I did chuckle a bit. Hope naughty Shetland behaves and recovers soon.

Argh! we've just started letting our shetland stay in the big field all day as we thought she must be safe enough in November! (true, she's doubled in size but that' just fluff). Hope yours gets better soon.

Congratulations on the foal, how lovely

oooh a baby how lovely. wish i had time to buy a baby ( pony that is ) and bring on for dd2 as next pony but sadly have fulltiem job , and barely dd2 babrely gets to ride nutty noddy as it is. she is having lesson on him tomorrow with scarey instructor and she hasn't ridden for 2 weeks - i am so gogint o get it in the neck

Yeayyy foal -- booo laminitis!!

Pixel. Watch that Shetland. The grass is still growing here like mad. The vet said that thAt lamintis is an all year round problem nowadays!
Mummydoc, get rid of the scary instructor and get a new nice one! We have found a fab bloke. He is an Olympic level rider, a qualified vet and a real natural horsemanship advocate. He's marvellous and does us two lessons a week for £20 as DD is helping him by having lessons on his amazing newly broken youngster.

scary instructor just tooo fanatastic to get rid of, and surprisingly dd2 adores her lessons , she is not horrible to dd2 or even really to me , i just always feel a bit useless and inferior . you know - stirrups never quite right, girth never quite right, tack never quite clean enouhg ...she is our local pony club dc

Pony Club DC's are a specific type of breed.. and are all scary!

...I haven't met one yet that doesn't make you feel inferior!

We have a fatty Welsh A.. who wears a grazing muzzle all year round.. she can Houdini out of any restricted grazing to be with her mates so muzzle was best option,

Poor little native ponies. It's so sad that we have to restrict them. My welsh wore a muzzle for a while, but it rubbed her nose raw.

On the subject of scary instructors, ours has yet again upset the kids so much that they have made an effigiy (again!) out of a potato and tortured it with cocktail sticks, whilst shouting LEGS LEGS LEGS! YOU'RE JUST NOT TRYING! in a particularly evil way.

Do you think I should be worried, or change instructor?

Older, you need to ask the question?

That's so funny Older! Def time for a change I think. I nearly gave up riding when I was a child because of a really horrible instructor. I LOVED my riding lessons and she made me want to give up. (Thankfully she didn't stay at the riding school long - I think she had had too many complaints made about her.)

GD had a lesson on her pony tonight, on the yard where he lives, in the new indoor school (YIPEE!) with a lovely instructor whose horses live in next door stables to ours. Laughing, enjoying herself, and pony seemed to enjoy himself. GS having lesson on his pony tomorrow.

Mrs Potato, on the other-hand has been tortured again, microwaved, and fed to the chickens

I worry about those kids!

(sorry for thread hijack)

That's okay. DD had a good evening as well. She was put on the instructors 3 year old newly broken mare! She did really well. Even when the lights went out in the school and it all got a bit scary! Our instructor is amazing. Not only does he 'whisper' the horses, I'm sure he does it to DD as well! He only charges us £10 lesson too, as DD is helping him with the youngsters. Shes very good with the babies, has a very stable quiet seat and good hands, so she is learning loads. I'm so glad I took the time to speak to the quiet little Czech bloke sat by himself in the pub where I work! He's been a very lucky find! [dead chuffed emoticon]