Merry Christmas!

Well, it's been far too long, again. So much has been happening I just haven't found time to thump out a post. My bad!

The last few weeks have been super busy and just a bit crazy. We had a quarter of our annual rainfall in less than a week, with dams overflowing and very soggy ponies. It was nuts, but you wouldn't even know it had happened now. We're back to rock hard ground, though at least the grass is green!

We took the decision to buy in some large round bales of meadow hay and I bought a big Gutzbusta haynet to go over it. The results were quite amazing. From wasting what seemed like about a fifth of a bale every time to them pissing and pooing and trampling on the hay, the remainder of a bale once eaten is less than half a small bale's worth. One of the best buys I've made in ages!

Work has been slow but steady on my arena over the last couple of months. The deluge of rain has slowed things considerably but at least now we've got the majority of the posts in place, holes filled in and ready to start attaching the rails.

Phoebe dog hard at work supervising

My super effort digging the holes out after the Dingo dug them, cutting the posts and putting them in

The idea is to keep the grass and really cultivate it like lawn, eventually putting some sand down just to provide some grip and support. The latest studies indicate that, for barefoot horses, grass with a thin sand application is the best surface to work on. Lucky it's cheap too!

Annie is coming along in leaps and bounds (not literally, thank god) and is really starting to do some good work. She's slowly getting some topline and working more consistently in a correct frame, and her transitions are improving all the time. Here she is a few weeks ago, she's even nicer looking now:

Annie's feet are just amazing. I'm absolutely impressed with how well she's transitioned from shoes to barefoot. Here is her nearside fore before the last trim:

And after:

Still a bit pointy at the toe but that will take a couple more trims to get the right shape. Interestingly, there was some bruising in that toe area which is apparently caused by having too long a toe.

And Rose is getting better and better too. She is quite different to ride in that she's so much chunkier with a shorter stride, but she's more supple and consistent than Annie. This is her (and me with my bloody eventer's elbows!):

Had a great clinic with Manu Mclean that ended a couple of days ago - that'll have to be a separate post methinks. Too long to put in one post!

So, the girls are on holiday for a few weeks and we're off to Western Australia for a week over Christmas. So excited! When we get back it'll be time for young Timmy to be started so there'll be some pics to come of that.

More pics in the next post. My laptop is dying, I think, and I'm having trouble transferring pics from my phone to it. Bastarding technology!

Have a happy and safe holiday and watch out for my post about the latest Manu clinic!