# Adventures with Scully



## chrisnscully (Apr 19, 2010)

Today we arranged to go on a nice hack up to the woods with Jo and Lady. 
So 7.30 sees us mounted and setting off up the drive. Halfway up there and we meet Mo in her car coming down - quick chat and we set off again, out of the gates and onto the bridleway - good as gold so far. 
She was looking all over at people in the distance and coping with no problem when cyclists came by, had a good sniff at a couple of piles of poo and even trundled up alongside Lady - I thought "this is going well" - lol - she stopped about 1/2 mile out - roughly where we had encountered the pony & trap before - and wouldn't go on. 
We went backwards, we went sideways, we turned in circles, we danced, and eventually I decided to get off and lead her past the spot on foot. Should have taken a lead rope - she was trying to hide behind me and was very spooky. 

I was determined to not turn back so we did a loop, coming back along the road. She was still very spooky so I decided not to remount, she is more confident with me in front and I want to build her confidence, not test it!
I led her through some concrete blocks on the bridleway, leaving her the wider of the two gaps, but no, she insisted on coming through the same gap as me!
So, not a huge success but at least she has been somewhere new.
Even my little cam gave up on me - the batts went flat after a few minutes so not much of a video - but at least I was riding her for it!
hack23610.avi - YouTube
After over a year of not much to report and several months of not riding because of her foot problems, I decided today was the day to saddle her up and do some groundwork with her to remind her that she needs to bring the saddle to me on the mounting block and stand still patiently while I faff about! 

Eventually happy that she was ready for me to climb on, we went into the school and I got on, fully expecting her to take off before I was ready and generally be a bit stoopid








Nope, good as gold, walked on when I asked, didn't spook at the digger parked outside, mostly stayed on the track, changed reins and stood nicely when asked to! 










Today we made it up to the top of the lane - tried to stop at all the field gates on the way up and stopped to have a very good look at a couple of cyclists passing the other side of the hedge but no real problems at all.

Steering was a bit awry, but got better on the way back when I remembered to breathe! 
She was pretty chilled out - way more than I was!

The yard hossies were wormed last night and stayed in for today, so after lunch I took Scully out for a walk.

Lady came too, so we go along the track and thru the gate she doesn't like, all OK! 

Down past the scary tree and scary fields into the woods then about 100 yards ahead a fisherman with his rods in a case crosses the track. 

Lady spins and trots past us, Scully grows to 19hh but we go on, good girl. 

Lady rejoins us, then halfway back a bit of green netting that was OK before tries to eat scully -cue much dancing and snorting! 

Almost back to the yard we pass a man and big dog - the dog goes for Lady, Lady goes sideways into scully, so a bit exciting!

But we got back all in one piece, Scully was actually quite damp when we got back! 

Today (friday) I got her in as normal picked her feet out and noticed a lack of gut sounds ( she is normally quite noisy!) but they were there faintly. Put her in stable and she ate her dinner and had her usual poo and wee. Then she started kicking & pawing so I whisked her out of the stable and marched her up and down while calling vet. 

Vet said give her 2 bute and keep walking, ring back in an hour. So an hour later she was standing quietly and vet said put her in stable and leave her - but she immediately started to collapse and kick again so vet told to come see her.

After 40 mins the vet arrives and examines her - heart rate OK, breathing up a bit, temp OK. He sedated her and examined internally - normal poos, coming through OK, bit of gas, no twists or obstructions. 

Well, this morning apart from being grumpy that I had put her breakfast away so she didn't get it before I came down, she appears to be fine!

Not tender on the sides, normal amount of poo in the stable, but little wee??

She is out in the field nomming away next to her mate Jack .











Scully has two water buckets in her field - I wondered why one had bits of grass floating in it and didn't go down much and the other had no grass but went down a lot.
Then I caught her! She wandered over and washed her mouth out in the first bucket, then moved over and drank from the second








It's been very foggy here over the last few days , made worse by the fact we are in a valley with a river running through it, so the horses have been going out together in adjacent fields so they can see each other - little vid from yesterday - 
Scully in the mist - YouTube
We are now on winter turn out hours - no more than 5 hours in the field - so yesterday I put her out at 8.30 and at 1.30 I went to get her in - it was blowing hard and she was running up and down the fence line, totally not interested in the polo mints in my hand or being caught.
She stopped and pawed the ground, went on her knees as if to roll but decided against it, ran up and down, had a drink and nibbled a bit of grass under the fence, then did it all again - after about 15 minutes of this she came over for the polos and hooked on quietly. Then planted solid! Another 15 minutes saw us through the gate (only 20 yards away) and superspooking at the tape round the badger sett.
Scary tape -








Then she started grazing like there is no tomorrow - really stuffing it in as fast as she can! I am a bit concerned that the grass in her field is contaminated in some way cos she is only eating from one tiny corner and reaching under the fence for grass. Either that or the gate end is so scary in the wind that she doesn't want to go there. So I let her graze her way back to the stable - all the way along the path from the tape to the end, another 30 mins.
So in all it took a whole hour to get her in! 
A few pics of her feet from today - overall I am very pleased with them - we finally seem to have got on top of the infection problems by using a dilute Hibiscrub solution on them at picking out times (twice a day) - the frogs don't smell and the heels are firm and healthy. The rear heels are nicely developed but the fronts still have a way to go. The growth rings on the fronts are very shallow - more colour variations than anything, they look far worse in the picture - the rears have nothing much in the way of rings at all, so I guess the diet is about right.
Fronts








Rears








Near front








Off front










Near rear










Off rear










Lovely sunny days so Scully has been out in the day naked, she much prefers not having a rug on -

marching down the field with me









going down for a roll









oohhhh - that's better!









look Dad - no mud!!










Well, intrigued by a link on another thread, I had a look at horse agility - le trec in hand - I think that might be a way to make the school more interesting for her so we tried some very simple pole work, just walking over a pole and between two poles.

I think we may have some way to go ....

pole - YouTube

Well, Ideal came over and visited yesterday, we took Scully in the school where I had laid out a tarpaulin , a U shape of poles and some posts in a line to weave through.

Scully spotted the tarpaulin and snorted like fury at it so I worked her through the U poles a couple of times and let her loose to explore - she started to weave the posts all on her own, I went off to get her mat and we did some stand on the mat clicker training, ignoring the tarpaulin. By the end of the session she was getting to within a few feet of the tarpaulin so I called it a day and we went back to her stable for some grooming.I think Ideal quite liked her and the set up at the yard - she was able to meet all the hossies in the barn as they were all in due to the fields being too wet.Today she went out in the field as normal so getting her in about 2 pm I decided to just put the tarpaulin down again and she how she coped - this was the result -

Horse Agility training - YouTube


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