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Post by name on Aug 25, 2005 17:26:37 GMT 1
Thanks, carolwilts, for explanation re zinc sulphate and Virkon. Of course, after rushing out in a panic and spending nearly £20 I haven't got (sorry, Mr Bank Manager) on the Hoof Disinfectant, I now realise I have most of a bottle of the purple NAF stuff hiding under the sink. (What is it doing there? I have no idea - see losing things above) Kofi will just have to have purple hooves when the expensive stuff is finished. How will I know when the WLD has gone? I think I'll have to keep up the treatment until he is next shod, won't I? Hell,another five weeks of grovelling around on a stable floor. re my photos, I am very happy in the first one as we did not have a single Holy **** moment over 15 miles, unlike the second photo where I am somewhat red-faced with the effort to do 13 miles at either of the two paces Kofi offered - jog or gallop, neither at all suitable for going up and down very steep slopes, usually with a burn and gully at the bottom before going straight back up a 1 in 10 through bracken. rosemary hannah - I can hardly wait to have a go at driving Jonesy - is he the little worrier? He's cute. What was the ECG for? I've had one and it was a bit disconcerting to have a handsome young man rubbing gel all over my front............ hazel - re feeding for hoof quality, this is the frustrating thing - as the farrier commented, he has great quality of horn on the outer wall and his feet usually grow faster than the shoes wear. I put him onto a feed balancer (used to be Blue Chip, now Top Spec) not long after I got him and this has kept them good, he just seems prone to picking up the dratted WLD. None of the other horses he's with this summer have it. Ann NF - go on, give us the insider's lowdown on saddles - I've got a Reactor Panel, courtesy of Mr Bank Manager again, and we love it. The principle seems sound to me and it certainly has done away with the "pressure bumps". I also find it more secure for the odd reason that, because I use a looser girth as well, when being boinged and swerved with over rough ground,if it slips to one side, it will just slip back into place if you put a bit of weight into the other stirrup. I think it's got a much shorter tree. Just as well I make no claims to be a literary person as none of you read the tripe I read. Shall I now confess that I have warped my mind over the years by reading yards and yards of crime/thriller tosh? Give me a gruesome serial killer or a feisty female Californian cop/PI and I'm happy. Not to mention the odd bit of chick-lit and aga-saga? Don't tell me you'd ALL rather have Heathcliff than the Man Who Made Husbands Jealous? So this new DG format will have come as a relief - no more imposters under your name on Bestseller threads......
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carolwilts
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"get busy living or get busy dying"
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Post by carolwilts on Aug 25, 2005 17:48:54 GMT 1
I now realise I have most of a bottle of the purple NAF stuff hiding under the sink. (What is it doing there? I have no idea - see losing things above) Kofi will just have to have purple hooves when the expensive stuff is finished. How will I know when the WLD has gone? I think I'll have to keep up the treatment until he is next shod, won't I? Hell,another five weeks of grovelling around on a stable floor. Trouble is you use a litre for soaking a pair of hooves.. and the NAF stuff comes in 1 litre bottles at around £7-8. Guess its cheaper than cleantrax. (I think this is a bit of a rip-off to be frank..... but thats maybe because Mara doesnt react to it at all) The basic zinc sulphate comes in10-20kg sacks (for about £15-25) and therefore at 10% solution makes an amount that you can soak hooves in for years (at about 10p a litre.. about 700x cheaper than NAF- who apparently source the stuff from shepfair anyway) Yes, guess you will not be able to see WLD with shoes on.. so soak till shoes next off! My solution to WLD is to pare back the outer wall as well, but you can't do that in shoes. Oh I am so pleased to hear that Kofi has his mad moments too. After this morning and the mad gallop without stirrups, I was wondering whether we were doing the right thing. Definately a "Peotry" moment. I had an ECG too.. problem was it was a comely wench rubbing gel over my chest.... Reading tripe? ? OH YES.. bring it on...
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Post by aberlemno on Aug 26, 2005 7:44:55 GMT 1
Morning all. Another lovely day here by the look of it, but since we had alternating sunshine and black clouds/heavy rain yesterday, anything could happen later!
Rosemary - What a lovely little lad Jonesy is. It looks like he's taken to being driven like a duck to water. I was SO relieved when you found your purse. I knew it had to be in the house somewhere, but can sympathise as I regularly lose things too. Worst thing was losing my glasses for nearly a week (can't drive without them really, although my short-sightedness isn't too drastic) - finally found them on a windowledge outside the kitchen. Well - of course! When is the wedding Rosemary? I hope that all the sewing is finished in good time.
The bird flu panic is scary. Danny may have to give up his weekend job soon as that is working with chickens on a nearby smallholding - they have something like 1500 birds - free range at the moment, so that will probably change. Mind you, the Min. of Ag. was saying something about keeping all birds under cover was an "inappropriate reaction" . Oh really? Where DO they get these idiots from, that are in charge of our lives and insist we toe the line on ridiculous guidelines and laws, but on something really important they DON'T take the action they should. Ah, I've just remembered, it would have a FINANCIAL effect. That's it then . . . Instead, they were just telling morgues and what have you to expect 100's of thousands of bodies. Sorted. . . panic over.
Ann NF - That Kay Humphries course sounded wonderful. I would certainly liked to have heard the low-down on all the different makes of saddle on the market, as it's an absolute bloomin' minefield. Fortunately we're all suited here now, and Fahly's Saddle Co saddle suits us both down to the ground. Lynn Chapman's farmhouse sounds idyllic. I do miss the flint-walls of Hampshire, Sussex and Dorset (Wiltshire too I think).
Kofihorse - What a beautiful lad he is and I loved your ear to ear grin. Any photos of me on Fahly are sure to feature moi hunched up and with a fixed grimace (the result of trying to breath in to shrink my stomach and hide my double-D's!!!)
Hazelhorse - Back to the grind of Domestic Economy eh? Wonderful - NOT! I am resting on my laurels today, having had a blitz of the house before Jude and her husband visited on Tuesday. I hope that Rhona has mastered the art of staying upright on a bike without stabilisers. It must feel very insecure at first. I can remember when I first came back to riding, feeling that I needed a seat belt to keep me in place : )
Carolwilts - I was very interested to read about treating WLD (why did Seedy Toe sound so much more graphic?!) Itsy gets it on and off - hardly surprising since their field turns into a quagmire at the bottom each winter - and Fahly has had it once on his white hind hoof, but this is because he stands to eat his haynet with his white hoof in his "wet patch" so the ammonia gets into the wall of the hoof . . . I got some more Alpha-A yesterday as his hind feet are breaking off at the bottom. My fault entirely as I'd changed to Mollichaff for the summer, and hadn't realised what a difference the Alpha-A had been making to his feet - which were rock hard before then.
Off to let Himself out now, as his breakfast is now just a memory.
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Post by rosemaryhannah on Aug 26, 2005 8:47:26 GMT 1
I very strongly suspect that keeping domestic poultry under cover is an inappropriate response because …. for instance if the chicken Danny works with get it, it is not likely to be spreading from other chicken farms (and if it is, no keeping them indoors will do much good). It will be because the local wild birds have got it. That is to say, your wagtails, your sparrows, your finches. If mine get it will be because the local migratory geese, who come down in their thousands, have got it. Sure my chicken could be under cover (most would have to be culled, I don’t have that much cover) but that would not much protect me or anybody else living near by. We would catch it from the geese. You would catch it from the sparrows, the swallows, just as Danny’s chicken would. Once it has jumped into the human population, then keeping the chicken clear of it will not help stop the spread of the disease. Because we are fairly far from the origin of the disease, it is far more likely we will get it from the human population, from somebody flying in from Hong Kong, from Russia. Once it is in the country from a human source, that is how it will spread rapidly. Keeping the chicken clear of it is one tiny aspect of the problem. It might well be appropriate to ban the sale of chicken, as in chicken meat, because this thing infects the birds, and you will stand a much greater chance, ISTM, from catching it as you do salmonella (it is carried in the bowels, like salmonella), than you actually would from breathing in too deeply near a flock of grey wing geese. But the real danger is not its coming in from the chicken farms, but from the airports. However, preventing human travel is not a politically or financially possible thing to do in the modern world.
Keeping chicken under cover is OK in a country with a large indoor poultry industry, it makes financial sense. Small loss, potential gain. It makes little sense in a country with a large out door poultry industry, where the potential loss is huge. Also, for once to some degree the sea is a helpful barrier. It is harder for a really sick bird to fly over the channel, or to make long range migrations.
Yes, I too would like to hear more of the Kay Humphries.
I too like whodunits – I don’t actually make enough time for reading of any kind – but I have recently discovered a couple of new threads to mine, including, oh, drat forgotten her name, the series about the female pathologist?
I suspect the best endurance horses do have this streak of lunacy in them.
Oh I remember the learning to ride without stabilisers. Beatrice taking ages, and George cracking it before his legs were really long enough to reach the ground!
I had rather a disquieting moment yesterday. I was cleaning for a male customer- just has an hour a week, has a small flat. He is usually out, he works shifts, but yesterday was in and wanting to chat. He established where I lived – oh yes, that is near where there is a very eccentric family… description followed of chicken all over the place, of ponies, until I felt I had to say they were me. He was put out, but I was more so, to be honest. We then established that my husband had left for Liz Doig – ‘goodness you would have to be desperate to pick her!’ which I did not actually feel was a helpful comment either. I was glad to arrive back and find my friend had established herself. She is off walking later – it is a showery but not unpleasant day.
ECG because at my scan it was found my BP was 160/90 – I imagine at ECG it was a great deal higher. I also imagine a pulse rate such as I must have had would make any potential problems show up with astonishing clarity. At least they don’t put humans down!
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kofihorse
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Post by kofihorse on Aug 26, 2005 11:51:32 GMT 1
rosemary hannah - would that be Kay Scarpetta? I also like the "Alphabet" series by Sue Grafton about Kinsey something-or-other. This bird thing is a bit alarming, isn't it? I've been fervently anticipating the disappearance of all the swallows to winter homes as the little so-and-so's spend all day long squirting and splatting excrement onto everything I leave lying about in the tack room at the yard - including my hat which I had helpfully left lying upside down. But of course that means the arrival, as you say, of all the birds from colder climes - do they come from as far away as China? Or would it get here by being passed along by the avian equivalent of passengers on the Trans-Siberian railway? carolwilts - Kofi has his mad moments too? ? ROFLMAO!!! I would put it the other way around - mad is his default setting,sometimes he has sane moments! I like the expression on Mara's face in your photo - a mare on a mission, I'd say. Weather here most definitely heading winter-wards. It's very cold, wet and windy. I'm going to Edinburgh for the day tomorrow and supposedly taking Mum but she has decided that she will only go if the weather is not too bad so I expect to have hourly phone calls all evening as she swithers about going or not-going and should she wear her thermal vest. I'm going to try and work out an outfit that will cover everything - hot train,windy wet Princes Street,possible unexpected heatwave (well, this is Scotland in August), freezing train and so on. Mum will be getting parked at the National Gallery with her flask of tea while favourite niece Emily and I go to see "Tomfoolery". This is a show based on the songs of Tom Lehrer which Emily,her mother(my sister)and I have always loved. Dillie Keane (ex-Fascinating Aida - anyone ever see them?) is in it and I am expecting to be rolling in the aisle. My family have always enjoyed the slightly odd and unusual in songs,especially. I clearly remember my Dad singing us to sleep as little'uns with songs such as "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" (bet that gets edited out) and "The Wild Colonial Boy". And my Mum used to read us poetry - our favourite was one about the poor dog Tray, had us sobbing and begging to hear it again. And they were surprised when we all grew up a bit peculiar............
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Post by aberlemno on Aug 26, 2005 13:36:56 GMT 1
Just catching up on posts before I go and muck out.
Rosemary - I know it would get here with migratory birds, and could then be passed on to the indigenous bird population, thus infecting domestic poultry. However, if you don't restrict poultry to barns and inside accommodation, every bird in the country would presumably have to be slaughtered. Mind you, after the way they dealt with F&M in recent years, this would probably happen anyway. I shall have to look out my recipes for cakes using vinegar instead of eggs I guess and take chicken off the menu.
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Post by aberlemno on Aug 26, 2005 13:48:39 GMT 1
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carol
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Post by carol on Aug 27, 2005 8:24:33 GMT 1
Morning everybody. I'm starting to get a vague hint of that nesting in for winter feeling, having said that according to the weather forecast we're due for a bit of hot weather again next week in the south. The neds are definatly showing signs of fluffing up, especially Tess, who's going to be like a woolly bear, a panda perhaps?, by October if she carries on growing her coat. She managed to get through the fence into the haystore yesterday, when I got to the field all I could see what a black and white bottom sticking out from under the green flappy tarpaulin, so no problems with scary plastic there then, the little fiend. I'm finding it hard to do the balancing act between horses and dogs at the moment, well horses and Timber, He needs SO much excercise, at least a two hour run in the morning, and the same in the afternoon, to the point where I'm too knackered to ride. At least I can get out this weekend with OH being off work. Actually I didn't too much fancy riding Rups this week, the spell of wind and rain sent him quite la-la, he was careering round the field like the devil was after him, he nearly mowed me down twice when I was in the field. Twit. He really does need some work. Talking of which I haven't let go of the idea of a mega long distance ride next year. Trawled the 'net and found a route of sorts, Lands End to John 'O Groats, that someone did for the Countryside Alliance a couple of years ago.
Lovely lovely photos Carol and Kofihorse by the way......
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tl
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Post by tl on Aug 27, 2005 9:30:25 GMT 1
Kofihorse what a glorious head shot that is.Magnificent! Long combs and thermal vest weather here, plus over trousers,storm coat and sowester..!
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carolwilts
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"get busy living or get busy dying"
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Post by carolwilts on Aug 27, 2005 10:37:29 GMT 1
A very quick one from me.. as i'm about to go an explore a new route now Mara's cough is better. I'm just waiting for my mobile phone to charge up.. forgot to put it on charge, so have to wait. I'm off down the ridgeway to the west and then across bridleways to a village called aldbourne, where there is a lovely pub..... and then a 5 mile grass bridleway - think its called sugar hill... which goes over old tumuli...nearly all the way home. I'm playing with my new OS maps on the computer.. I can plot routes and measure them. Now all I need from santa is the gps!
Carol.... know the feeling.. am walking miles with my two to get my new rescue dog to settle in. Fortunatley not 2hr 2x a day though. Could you not ride out with them? I am plotting th at at the moment with my two. Just have to make sure my new dog Ellie is obedient enough first (though she seems fairly good).
Look forward to hearing more about the routes! I did have a rather circuitous route from the ridgeway up to scotland, whihc used to be on the ride Uk website- supposedly a series of linked bridleways created with millenium money, and due to be completley open by around now or next year. . However that website seems to be seriously out of date - finding it difficult to find out quite which bits are open, or when they are scheduled to open.
Kof.. LOVELY pics! the head shot is beautiful. Was that a professional one as well? He's very photogenic.
Tl.. sorry to hear about your weather (again!) I'm afraid to say its nice here still and due to have sunny periods... though definately the first hints of autumn in the air.. the beginning of the leaves turning red on our maples and the slightly cripy feeling that means the first log fires are not too far away.
I'm also plotting what we might have to do with our chooks (now stopped feather pecking BTW! Looking a lot happier and now not far off the first egg). Hope they don't insist all have to be indoors.... wonder if we could roof their run if the worst came to the worst. .....
ah weel.. time to go for a ride. Phone must have some charge in it now.
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kofihorse
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Oh,such a perfect day, I'm glad I spent it with you
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Post by kofihorse on Aug 27, 2005 23:31:50 GMT 1
yes, carol, that's a professional one, too. He is a little poser, loves the camera, sees it before I do - the photographer saw him posing as we cantered up and said that I should stop for a "head and shoulders" - so we did. That's his "butter wouldn't melt" expression, BTW - just wish I could make it SMALLER for my signature - how do I do that,someone? carolwilts???
I'm very interested in the idea of the long distance ride. What time of year would we be going through the south of Scotland? There are various ways we could do it, east coast and borders have much better access over farmland but southwest has miles of forestry track which is not very exciting but better for wet weather. Once past central belt, we'll have to call in other Scottish DG'rs.
I am back from Edinburgh to a pair of thoroughly over-excited dogs who only had their young dogwalker's attention today while I was out laughing myself silly and being overcome with a wave of nostalgia for the days when I lived and worked in Edinburgh. I do not like this getting old business - favourite niece is 30 now but just settling into her first bought flat with what seems to be the permanent OH. They are still living a bit like students, tenement flat 3 flights up,large bed, widescreen TV and sound system first major purchases. I remember Festivals careering round the city in my Ford Anglia,seeing four shows a night,drinking till dawn but somehow still managing to go to work next day,charming our way into the Festival Club to see the rave cabarets,mad romances with actors and chorus boys - the high seemed to last most of the year. Was it Bernard Shaw who said "youth is too good to be wasted on the young"?
Cosmetic surgery is beginning to be something I would consider...............maybe the eyebags and a touch of collagen in the upper lip? A bit of Botox in the scowl lines, perhaps? Must see if I've got a picture in the attic that might be of use in a barter situation,hmm?
I think we should start a DG Inventor's Club. I'm going to kick off the brain-storming by suggesting some kind of doggie treadmill wired into the power supply - my Tarka is well capable of running a large factory. Between her and Timber, I should think we could practically keep Britain going. Or harnessing them to one of those saddle chariots - can we do the Great British Ride on them some of the time? I fancy that!
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carol
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Post by carol on Aug 28, 2005 6:56:28 GMT 1
Just touching base very quickly as I'm off for a lovely early morning ride (I hope!). I've left OH and the Hounds of Bath all snoring upstairs together on the bed in a rather sweet and unhygenic sort of way.....mmmm lovely.....
I'd love to go to the Edinburgh festival one of these years, We have the Bath festival in June, the Fringe part of it is good but all the gigs are flippin' expensive. I see a woman has won the Perrier award,,yea..go girl.
DG inventors club, I love the idea of a doggy treadmill, Timber could power all of Bath no problem. I've invented, and had made up, a wheelbarrow especially for mucking out shavings stables. It needs a bit of tweaking before I attempt to market it. I've had a few friends borrow it in the interests of market research and they all love it. I don't think I'm allowed to describe it precisely on here as it would interfere with the patent, but I'm going to approach Robinsons or Derby House and see if they'll buy the idea from me. Did I ever show you the shoes that I trialled for a farrier? I used them on my Epic Ride...Easywalkers....darn good invention from Sweden, I'll try and do a piccy of them.
Scotland...hmmm....I reckon set off at the end of May and hit Scotland about the end of June. Talking of which I must go riding. speak later. C x
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carol
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Post by carol on Aug 28, 2005 7:01:55 GMT 1
Easywalker shoes.
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kofihorse
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Oh,such a perfect day, I'm glad I spent it with you
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Post by kofihorse on Aug 28, 2005 17:25:04 GMT 1
Those look interesting - are they metal covered with rubber? What did you think of them and why are they "eggbar" shqped? I take it that the back bit is just rubber?
re shavings barrow - I am trying to invent a lightweight, collapsible trolley/barrow, all terrain that you could attach to the side of a trailer. Also some way of attaching an electric fence kit to the side of a trailer. My only fairly successful idea for travelling so far is to use a wheelie bin in place of a tack box inside the trailer but I'm not in favour of putting anything inside the front of a trailer as it makes it so difficult for the human to get in and out,especially in an emergency.
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carol
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Post by carol on Aug 28, 2005 20:28:18 GMT 1
The website for Easywalker is www.easywalker.at , they can explain it all a lot better than me !! I was really pleased with them, they helped reduced the concussion on Rups legs, and he was really walking out in them , I think the reduction in concussion helped to free up his shoulder a lot. Rups thought he was the Linford Christie of the horse world of course.....!! I had a lovely ride this morning, I had to get off to tow Rups past some roadworks but apart from that it was glorious. We went up the hill away from Bath and the sun began to burn through the mist. As we turned for home the view was amazing, the whol;e of the Bath valley was a sea of mist, and the wooded hills rose out of it like islands, rose coloured from the rising sun. Just beautiful. I went metal detecting later, and found a Victorian halfpenny and a Victorian farthing, both came out of the ground totally clean and in lovely condition. re the electric fence kit, what sort of size are you thinking of, weight, etc? I'll have a think. How about a box on the front of trailer above the tow hitch? Too small?
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