All natural horse care in the west of Ireland

1. Back to Basics
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...ted by the ponies. This saturday, same routine: warm up and then out for a short hack. This week though he decided that he wanted to stop and sniff horse poo on the road, lean orver and try and nibble...

2. Chronic Founder I
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...ght foot down differently. In fact she has been placing it heel first and sliding. I emailed Dermot and he decided to come down to attend to her straight away. Whilst the first trim was an effort to j...

3. Pony Power Rocks!
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... too safe in the car. So I tacked up Polly, including Rhythm Beads with jingle bells to help calm her, and decided to attempt it on horseback!!  Polly was a little apprehensive at first but soon ...

4. Sarcoids and Warts
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...edy.  Saturday, I coated Polly's sarcoids and Harley's warts. Meanwhile, I done a bit of research and decided on trying a combination of Thuja cream, Global herbs Sarc-ex and Restore.  While...

5. Bute v Herbal Substitute
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... hosing down I noticed her lower back legs appeared to be filling up. I took this as lack of movement so I decided to leave the stable door open so she had access to the sand arena for a bit of exerci...

6. Positive Pony Power
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...e right equipment for the job, just a bridle and a roller, but as she took to it like a duck to water so I decided I might just get some secondhand equipment and have a go. I managed to get a c...

7. Fun with a Western Saddle
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...ions and equipment from European mounted military styles. The 16 inch saddle arrived on Friday so I decided to try it out on Saturday with Polly. After messing with the latigos and the c...

8. Inconsiderate Motorists
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.... As Magpie was being a little unpredictable, and the car coming up behind us didn't seem to be slowing, I decided to move out into the centre of the road. More so he could see us and hopefully slow d...

9. Solo Around the Block
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We decided to take Harley out on his first solo walk around the block today. Previously, he has only gone solo up to the end of the road or around the block with auny Polly following behind. In prepar

10. Magpie Laid Down
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Today was freezing so I didn't spend too much time outside with the horses. Late this afternoon I decided I would go out to play with them for half an hour. Magpie was lying down when I went into the

11. Know When to Stop
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Today I decided to try practise the figure eight pattern around two barrels with Polly, Magpie and Harley. I started with Harley and it was slow going but we were making progress. Harle

12. If a Horse Leads, It Will Load
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...g traffic and be under pressure to load them quickly. When we got down to the field this morning we decided it would be safer if we didn't walk down the slippy roads. The trailer was brought to...

13. Harley the Brave
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Two weeks ago I decided it was time to start walking Harley outside of the safety of his home turf. Harley is now 2 years and 6 months old and although quite young he is very brave and is alw

14. Baby's Story
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...ny and lame. They were using all the energy from what food they got to stay alive. In early 2007 he decided that he would move the two mares confirmed in foal to a neighbour of mine who had sta...

15. PH Clinic May 2009
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...ill get the planning underway. We have 2 votes so far for Pony Power but the course content will be decided according to the majority interest. You can bring along your own horse or we c...

16. Feeding Whole Oats
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...big cresty neck. After reading this and several other articles condoning feeding whole oats, I have decided to change my horses diet back to Whole Oats, Beet and Hay for this winter. Who...

17. Pedestal
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...he tyre if the horse stands slightly off centre the tyre gives lightly to one side. We have decided that if the ply were trimmed slightly smaller than the circumferance of the tyre the...

18. My First Demo
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...a very difficult horse to get close to first of all and I had her adverstised to sell three times before I decided to stick with it. I am so glad I did. Now we are best buddies! I have gone through t...

19. Make The Right Thing Easy
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...o she was heading back in the direction I wanted to go. Eventually after about 20 minutes we got going. I decided to halt for a minute to call my friend to let her know we were running late. Bad move...

20. Polly the Plough Horse
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...ush around but they are quite pricey and it would still be a hard job. Got back this morning and we decided to try Polly at pulling a pallet across the arena to try and grade it out a bit. It w...

21. Right Brain Left Brain
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...or a quick bareback ride on Magpie and Polly. Annalice (my young friend) is helping me out this week so we decided to take the horses out for a short hack before she and I started work.  Just us,...

22. Walking Harley
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After putting Magpie back in the field this morning I decided to take Harley out for his walk. I put his mum's Bitless bridle on instead of his rope halter this morning. Only because I was being lazy

23. Practising Bareback
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I have decided that I am going to ride at least once a week bareback. I really enjoy it and the horses seem to as well. I took Polly out last Thursday and Magpie this morning just with their Dr Cookes

24. Eventful Day Out
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...harlotte would go on for hours and hours if she had her way and we would never get home. Anyway, we decided to head home via the village adding another 45 minutes to an hour to the ride. ...

25. Its not about the Trailer
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A neighbour of ours who is a cattle man has decided to start breeding horses and I volunteered to help him out if he needed any help. Well anyway, he needed help to trailer load his mare and foal on

26. Squeeze Game - Harley
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...On Thursday, we set out on our walk and an oil tanker turned up at the house to deliver our heating oil. I decided to bring him up to the lorry to see how he would react. He was looking at the l...

27. Magpie in Bare boots
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...t swaps done for different sizes. I did try the size ones on Magpie but they seemed a bit neat and I decided to take her out in the size twos. I can understand why people love these boots when I...

28. Tommy has Gone
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...ut but it shattered my confidence. After trying to build a relationship with him for seven months I decided I couldn't carry on anymore and last Saturday he went back to the people who sold him...

29. Torsion Endurance Saddle
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...e or the way I ride. I am now using my old Wintec GP on Magpie and a Bates saddle on Tommy. Haven't decided yet what saddle to use on Harley. Don't need to think about that yet as we have a cou...

30. About Me
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...you!! I would never go within 20 yards of a horse. About 15 years ago whilst on holiday in Tunisia I decided to try and do something to overcome this phobia. The hotel where we stayed had riding...