Well I haven't posted here for a week, that's mainly because I have nothing to report except that my horse is now completely better.

Had to ease off the traing for a while to let the cut on his front leg heal. It was quite a bad one and need constant daily treatment. I was worried he might develop 'proud flesh' that mysterious affliction of horses that doesn't affect us, or any other mammal as far as I am aware. It is nasty when the proud flesh development goes into overdrive and starts building more tissues, and more...and more...and more...until there is a huge mountain of flesh where the wound used to be.

I applied Animlintex soaked in boing water and allowed to cool and bandaged it on. It did a good job of getting out any infection and leaving the wound clean enough to start the dry treatment. For that, i hosed his legs down and then towel dried them and applied sulphanilamide powder. Every horse owner should have those two items in their horse first aid. Oh and a Great Tip from my Mom. Apply every day, two times a day is also okay a solution of 50% hydrogen peroxide and 50% water. Use the every day stuff you can get from the chemist, it is sold for peroxiding hair, this is 3% solution and mix it 50/50 with water. Beleive me it is fabulous stuff and NO Germs will be able to live there EVER. It is really cheap too.
The chemical formula of it is H2O2 so it is exactly like water but with one extra molecule of oxygen. It really does work wonders.

Let me know anyone if you try my tip and tell me what you think
Cheers!

I have had a serious set back this week end to my ongoing training programme. I arrived at the stables on Saturday about 4.00pm just in time to see my horse going crazy. He was literally climbing the walls I kid you not. He was breathing fire and scrambling and climbing up the walls to try to get over to the other side. He was demonic as if we was possessed. I didn't know what to do. The sight of him in this uncontrollable wild state caused me deep anxiety. Already he had cut his legs by scraping them on the walls. I was desperate, what can I do? I called my mum and told her everything - she said right, move him NOW to another stable, one with four solid walls and a door. Put him in there and shut the door and leave him there. Give him nothing but bran mash this evening and for the next 3 days. Check his legs, if there are bad wounds I will come over and treat them now. If superficial put hydrogen peroxide on them and leave them. She said if he is not moved now he is in danger of killing himself.
I did everything she said and it worked. It took him an hour or so to settle once he was moved into the other stable.

I will write again tomorrow on his condition and tell you all a lot more. It is late now.

I have had a serious set back this week end to my ongoing training programme. I arrived at the stables on Saturday about 4.00pm just in time to see my horse going crazy. He was literally climbing the walls I kid you not. He was breathing fire and scrambling and climbing up the walls to try to get over to the other side. He was demonic as if we was possessed. I didn't know what to do. The sight of him in this uncontrollable wild state caused me deep anxiety. Already he had cut his legs by scraping them on the walls. I was desperate, what can I do? I called my mum and told her everything - she said right, move him NOW to another stable, one with four solid walls and a door. Put him in there and shut the door and leave him there. Give him nothing but bran mash this evening and for the next 3 days. Check his legs, if there are bad wounds I will come over and treat them now. If superficial put hydrogen peroxide on them and leave them. She said if he is not moved now he is in danger of killing himself.
I did everything she said and it worked. It took him an hour or so to settle once he was moved into the other stable.

I will write again tomorrow on his condition and tell you all a lot more. It is late now.

Well I decided to take my horse swimming over the week-end.
It is a 20 minute walk from the stables to the beach and the weather was nice, so I got my cozi one under my riding clothes and off we went. We ambled along nicely and his nose went up as soon as he could smell the sea air. The beach was deserted, only one or two people strolling along. Nobody seemed to take any notice of us which was good.
He went straight into the water and started swimming immediately. It felt like being on Pegasus, very surreal, a smooth almost flying sensation. It is so strange to sit up on top of a horse while he is swimming, his legs thrash out to the side in a really wide circular motion, and all the time he is bobbing his head up and down to keep his balance. I could tell, even with my tiny weight on him that he had to exert a little more effort to keep his head up and out of the water as well as keeping his balance.

He really loved it.

It is such a good exercising technique too, for it brings all the muscles into play. I am very fortunate to be so close to the sea.

We ambled home quite happily at sunset. What a wonderful day!
I will try and get some pictures posted.

I gave my horse a rest yesterday, poor thing can't be expected to work 7 days a week can he!
Instead I did a bit of modelling. I have been approached by a British lady in France who wants to market our side saddle riding habits. Apparently the revival of ladies riding side saddle has only just started to happen in France, and has not yet literally exploded like it has here in England. So someone saw an opportunity and got in touch with me. She seems a nice lady who is a journalist and sometimes writes for the Sunday Times and the Telegraph. She lives in France with her French husband and 5 children in the centre of Paris. She has ridden side saddle as a child and now wants her 12 year old daughter to take up the sport.
She is the editor of a French website portal called DIVENTO http://www.divento.com
so she will be featuring our habits there.

I am starting to get quite excited about it. I have been modelling the habits yesterday and having photos taken of them. I might need to go to France for a photo shoot.
If any of you would like to see some of the habits take a look here :-
http://www.classequestrian.com/rh_gal906.htm

and here
http://www.classequestrian.com/ftr_side_saddlegal.htm
(I'm the really skinny one!)

Take care all. And hope you get a chance to see my side saddle riding habits.

As you all know I only got my horse recently, and to put it mildy, he had not done a tap of work for years. He has just been lounging in the stable and meandering around the paddock in his former home. So you can probably realise that I have my work cut out to get him trained up for an endurance race in December!

I am not fazed. I started doing some gentle school work in the paddock, but because he has not been worked at all he started brushing his fetlocks at the trot and was in danger of hurting himself. I then did lungeing 3 times a week, and took it very steady with the school work. He has started to build up well and now I am taking him to the next phase. I am concentrating on slow work, which means walk, walk, walk. He gets walked for one hour in hand in the morning, then when I arrive in the afternoon I start more intense walking. I walk him to the beach and we do at least 2 hours walking every afternoon. Walking is the Best exercise to condition a horse. It is a 4 gait beat, and it improves everything, the heart, the muscles, the tendons. I cannot stress enough how beneficial walking is to condition and get a horse fit.
Of course we have our moments. He being an Arabian horse he exhibits the typical idiosynchrasities this breed is well known for. We are walking along the path and suddenly he sees a great chasm open up in front of him and of course he is going to fall down it or else monsters are going to rise up from it. I don't know what must be going through his mind but he is scared. You definitely need glue on your seat to ride an Arabian as they scatter off everywhere, not usually taking you with them!
Anyhow he is a good old boy and has no clue that he is old. He still thinks he is a spring chicken. Love him really!

Hi, Here is a photo of the new horse, I hope you all like him.

As you might be able to see he is a Pure Arabian. I know most people don't like Arabian horses but I have found them to be intelligent, honest always willing to please.
He is a stallion 13 years old. He was bred in the USA by Viking the well known racing stallion. My horses name is Atariq pronounced A'Taarek. He has very blue blood ie he has a very good pedigree and he was sold at auction in Dubai for a lot of money. I have now recently acquired him and I am very happy. He is a good prospect for endurance riding, as it is known that horses older than 10 years old fair very well in endurance and especially Arabian horses as they hold the record for the breed with the most stamina, and I can attest to that.
Well hope you all like him!

I Finally managed to get the farrier to come and shoe my horse today. Whoopee....it is so difficult to get a good farrier these days. The good ones are always too busy to come out to us, and when desperate I have to box him up and take him to the farrier.

Anyhow my horse has got really small feet, so I daren't start doing and trainging work yet as his feet will be wittled down to nothing as they are so small. Now he has shoes on I will be able to start a little road work with him. I am so glad/

It's in the blood.......I mean horses of course.
Thought I would introduce you all to my daughter. As you can see she is a horse lover too. This is her dressed up for her school dance, then a couple of days later she is out racing horses!

What have Manchester and Muscat got in common? Monsall-born Susan Jesson-Ward, who after a highly successful career breeding horses in the UK, became the manager of the Royal Stud Farm for His Majesty, the Sultan of Oman.
She has worked with Princesses Alia and Haya of Jordan, and many other famous names in the world of horse racing and show jumping. Her work has taken her on trips all over Oman, the Middle East and many other parts of the world, including the former Soviet Union.
She is now a freelance equine consultant for the Omani Royal Stables and other owners, and contributes to racing and show jumping magazines in many different countries. She still finds time to get back to Manchester and visit her favourite places.

Read more here : http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/mp/sjw.html