Today some of our horses competed in the dressage competition at Solihull Riding Club. Alice rode Coco, Jasmine rode Toby and George rode Apollo. The horses did well in their tests Coco came fourth and Apollo came fifth and both qualified for the championships in April. Toby did very well as it was his first ever test and his score of 61% was very good for his first time.

As Indy has injured her leg playing in the field she is unable to be used for riding at Summerfield although she is not in any pain from the leg and she can be ridden as a light hack. As she does not box we were finding it difficult to retire her as we are unable to travel her to and from grazing and we do not have enough grazing at the home field. As we heard a friend of ours needed a companion for her horse we arranged for Indy to stay with her on loan to keep her Mare company. Indy travelled to her new home and settled straight away. We should have some photos soon to show how she is settling in

Today the two new ponies arrived at our stables. Bella and Tiffany have arrived from a riding school in Ashby and will join us at the stables to fit in with our horses and help with the riding work and the NVQ study. We hope that Tiffany will become a steady pony for our younger riders and bella will be suitable for beginners as a leadrein and lunge pony as well as a pony for competitions for our older riders and NVQ students.

Bella and Tiffany getting ready to travel to Summerfield in our trailer. They travelled well and were very happy to arrive and settle down into their new stables.

Having heard from a friend that two ponies were in need of a loving permanent home we travelled to Ashby to see two ponies called Bella and Crumpet. As we had just lost Ted and were arranging for Indy to go to a loan home as a companion we had space for two more ponies. These ponies looked very suitable for our activities so we decided it would be best if they joined us at the stables.

 

Today was a very busy day as it was the Saturday morning activities as usual. Also Mini  went to a Macmillan Coffee morning at Amelias house to help with the fundraising activities. He was very well behaved and the morning was a great success. In the afternoon we went to ride the horses at the Chase as part of the training for the horses. They did well and Toby started canter work for the first time which was a great step up in his training as he has had difficulties in this area.

Today we were shocked to find Ted very ill in the field when we came to put the ponies in at the end of the day. Although he had looked well when we had turned the horses out in the morning we found he was struggling to breathe. We called the vet immediately but when she arrived she found his heart was very weak and his lungs had filled with fluid. Unfortunatley there was nothing she could do and he had to be put to sleep. It was decided that it was best not to do a post mortem as this would not bring Ted back to us but the vet thought it would have been an attack of COPD or a tumor in his lungs,