An Advance Medium on the cards you heard me say….. Unfortunately not, well not for the time being.
A few months ago we noticed that a small lump on Stanleys jaw that he had had for a couple of years had decided that it was time to get bigger. The vet had come out, had a prod and a poke, did some x-rays and confirmed it was completely painless. It was decided that we would go to the Nationals and re-assess the situation afterwards. After the nationals we had some biopsies taken and unfortunately they came back inconclusive; positive in some respects but also frustrating and didn’t really combat the fact the lump was slowly increasing in size.
So we were referred on to the amazing Tom Hughes at Liphook Equine Hospital (or the Horse-pital as it became affectionately known!). Stanley had a CT scan on the Monday with the aim of using it to guide a more accurate biopsy. An anxious mornings wait for the results and Tom came to find us. The positive news was that the CT scan could be used to definitively confirm that the lump in his jaw was a fluid filled cyst, not a tumour, and no biopsies were needed. Great thought I. Until he went on….. The scan also showed that Stanley had significant sinusitis on the left side of his head. Tom wanted to keep him in and operate on both, the totally unrelated problems, the next day. All the vets agreed that I must have a horse with a heart of gold, to have been competing at the level he has, with the success he has whilst his sinus was full of fluid (probably causing a huge headache) is just amazing. He is a very special boy.
So our update isn’t very exciting this month. It all went successfully and after a week in the horse-pital he came home with strict nursing instructions. It is very much up in the air as to how much time he is going to need off at the moment, the cyst is so rare no one is really aware of how long it will take to heal and fill in. However he is very much enjoying his enforced holiday and is happily eating very sloppy Fibrebeet even with lots of medicine in it. I am so pleased that he looks as good as ever and hasn’t lost any condition at all, it really is his miracle feed! I am just pleased that my boy is home and the vets are extremely optimistic that the problems will never reoccur and our top hats and tails dream is hopefully still in sight, even if it’s slightly delayed….. please keep your fingers crossed.
Hannah & Stanley x
This has been a very historical month for us, Victorian to be precise. We had the honour of being asked to be part of a team of side saddle riders to take part in Victorian Side Saddle displays at Audley End and Witley Court, both English Heritage properties.
The displays mainly involved taking part in a musical ride and jumping, as well as saying hello to the public and letting them fuss the horses at the end of each show. This always seems to be Tillys favorite part of the show, especially if they produce some food for her. Tilly is always a big hit with the children as she is more than happy to have copious amounts of fuss and hugs.
This next month, we will be back to more “normal” activities, before another English Heritage display event in July.
Audley End Photos:-
Witley Court photos:-
First Busy Month in a long time….
This month we have been really busy with the broodmares, inseminating my 3 mares with 3 different stallions, hopefully we will have some good news soon on the scans.
Also this month we said good bye to Basil a Welsh Section D colt I bought at The Brightwells sale 2 years ago, he’s sold to Mollie Edwards from Wakefield, they intend on doing some in hand showing with him. He’s looking really good, she’s going to keep feeding him Fibre-beet.
I have also been really busy competing Rocky & Morris, we started of locally competing at Manor Grange with 2 wins. Then took both boys to Sheepgate for the Winter Music Qualifiers, Rocky did the novice music and won his class with over 68% and then the second day he won the test with over 74 %…. wow, big improvements in his test.
Morris he won both his tests too in The gold section of The elementary freestyle with over 69 %, which means both horses have qualified for the music at the regionals next year.
So its been a really good start to the dressage season for me, also got Jack home and he’s going really well, and his condition and muscle is coming on well.
Hope your all enjoying the sunshine, I know we are.
love Sarah & QD horses
So we’ve finally caved and taken on a new yardie this month – Having always done everything ourselves it’s great to have another pair of hands to help out! I was really excited to welcome Hannah to the team. She has been working Saturday mornings for us for a couple of months now and been training with me for around a year. We get on really well together, she has such a lovely manner with all of the individual horses and it’s great to have someone who can ride too! Hannah is a real worker and comes with an extended diploma in equine management, a degree in equine science and rehabilitation, her pony club B test and lunging test. I’m looking forward to helping progress to her furthering her qualifications and fulfil her aim of eventing her own horse whom she has recently purchased.
Alice went to Shelford yesterday. Through no fault of her own, I haven’t been able to take Alice out for the past 9 months and we’ve done all of our schooling and prep work from home. (Her last event being HorseHeath last October!) She didn’t let me down and behaved well. Her dressage was a little tense which I expected it would be and we rolled 2 poles showjumping but she jumped a confident and speedy clear XC within the time around the BE100 open to finish 13th. Alice only stepped back up to 100’s at the very end of last season, so I was pleased that she picked straight back up where she left off. What made me even happier was that for the first time ever I was able to ride her down to the showjumping and XC collecting rings instead of leading her ….. without any silly behaviour! I’m looking forward to taking her to another event asap!
I’ve been cheering my girls on at a couple of our local shows. Fliss, who regularly grooms for me at events, took Oakley and Dora to dressage – it was great to be able to give her an opportunity to put on all her togs and be the rider for a change! My two liveries had great fun at the jumping show along with a few others that I teach with their own ponies and the two girls who share one of my little ponies, Connie. Connie hasn’t been to a party in years and she loved every second of it, she hasn’t lost her touch! It’s been good fun and it’s so nice to have such a strong team spirit and watch them all support each other! Today we’ve had a pony club yard day – I probably feel sleepier after a day with our crazy bunch of kids than I do after a day of riding …. but as always, we’ve had a day full of giggles!
Coral x
This month Rachel has been settling into her new job a Sussex Equestrian Sales and Spirit has now moved in. Spirit and Rachel had a lesson with Ashley Boyce and got some great results looking forward to getting out to some shows with the team at SES. This month has been a month for training sessions.
Katelyn and Darcy have been to Caroline Jeanne for another lesson on the grass, improving each time they return. They went to Coomblands for cross country training with the Pony Club. It didn’t go as hoped but they are returning soon for preparations to do an up and coming one day event. At the beginning of the month, the only competition they participated in was another dressage at Belmoredean. They did Prelim 19 scoring 68.86% coming 6th.
At the next Belmoredean dressage they are planning on doing the Novice 39 which will be Darcy’s third test and first Novice. Katelyn has been at work (Kirsty Mepham’s dressage yard) a few extra days during the half term helping out and riding more of the horses. At the very end of the month we made a new purchase – Balli (Ballinahown Diamond) is a 6 year old mare. She needs work but Katelyn is looking forward to the challenge. Lots to come in the coming months from Katelyn and Darcy. Whilst progress is happening with Balli.
Both Rachel and Katelyn are looking forward to competing at Hickstead next month.
Can’t believe I am saying this but I am finally free from all things uni!!!! Exams are over and dissertations are handed in and I can finally get back to playing ponies and concentrating on eventing for a little while.
Harry, however has some other ideas and is feeling very well at the moment. A little too well as it seems and has taken to thinking that cross country is no longer a test of accuracy, bravery and speed but just speed and nothing else… I think that this problem has arisen from him feeling very fit and well mid season and due to exams and other commitments he actually just hasn’t done enough to keep his brain occupied.
Unfortunately this has lead to a couple of mishaps across country. The first being a small tip up at Chatsworth which was desperately disappointing having been lying 10th overnight. And having to pull him up in the intermediate at Pontispool when I was having a rather horrible time trying to persuade an extremely keen Thoroughbred that you actually can’t gallop flat out into a bounce fence. Needless to say it was actually quite scary and so it’s back to the drawing board to re-evaluate the current braking system!
In other news I have a lovely new horse to ride who is going really well!!
Kenko has just started his eventing career and his first two events have gone rather well! He lead after the dressage in the 90 at eland lodge and just a baby moment at the step into water (very scary stuff) prevented him from a top 5 finish on his eventing debut.
We made the step up to 100 for the BE at Shelford where he did a good dressage (despite needing a new sat nav) and lovely classy double clear and a handful of time penalties for 7th place and his first points!
Rosie my little 4yo came to visit me at Hartpury in the week following my exams and was a little angel for most of the week. Tarnished only by a pretty traumatic experience involving a ditch and some cows – to cut a long story short the cows were far too scary and we ended up in the ditch. Thankfully she seems to be ok after the ordeal and is being as cute as ever!
I have a few events lined up for both Harry and Kenko so looking forward to getting them back out!
