Vet came to check Bonny, he gave her a pelvic exam, no problems there. She didn't do so well on the flexion test, she fell on to her bum and almost flipped backwards, good job I'd got a firm grip on the rope! The conclusion was to have her on bute for the next 2 weeks, then check her again. Maybe that she has to be on bute long term...

spent some undemanding time with Bonny this evening, found lots of itchy spots :0) She ate all the bute up no problem, mixed it up with lots of apple and apple sauce.

Bonny got down again today for a roll and couldn't get up again!!! I wasn't out there but Donna was, she came in to tell me when Bonny was struggling. We called the vet out but managed to get her up with the help of a towel under her bum long before he would have got there. The vet suggested putting her on bute for a week, which Donna is going to give her while I'm away. But I'm so worried that she will get stuck when nobody is around.

Had a short play today with Bonny, stick to me at walk and trot. Then a little bit of liberty, which was lovely, stick to me again and weave around the cones. When I asked her to do figure 8 she lost confidence again and trotted back to the gate, but when I walked towards her she came back to me with a lovely soft look on her face.

I was helping Donna with circle game with Rocky, she asked me to show her how to defend her space when Rocky came in from behind, so I sent him out, expecting him to be a little bit freaky as it was me not Donna, but he just walked the circle lovely, not coming in at all!!! lol

While I was out poo picking yesterday I saw Bonny get down to roll, but when she tried to get back up she couldn't... she was probably down for a few minutes, each time she failed to get up she had to lie back down to free her tail. It broke my heart to see her keep looking at her back legs, trying to work out why they wouldn't work. After about 8-10 attempts she used her front legs to spin around so she was facing down hill and finally managed to rise. I'd seen her struggling to get up on Sunday too! Oh god is this the beginning of the end? I so hope she gets to enjoy some retirement.

Not feeling it today

When I went to check on the horses this morning, they weren't far away, I stood at the gate and waited.... Bonny looked at me and wandered over :o) she's never done that before! But she soon put me in my place when I went to spend some undemanding time with her, staying half way down the field and turning her bum to me. oh hum, I left her alone because I didn't feel like I could deal with her today. Watched Donna play with Bella instead.

uumm how interesting!

Separated Bonny again this morning, catching her was a little difficult with 3 of them running around and always managing to keep Bonny at the back so I couldn't get to her...that was fun!
Did some undemanding time with her before we played, she stayed about 8ft away. I took that as a good sign. We only played for about half hour, but it was good, figure 8 at walk was fantastic, I didn't need to move my feet at all. 2 front feet in the turtle which has water in at the moment. Finished there on a good note. I would have liked to ride but as we're trying to re-build the relationship I decided not to, maybe tomorrow.
I put her back in the field on her own, we then separated Rocky and Bella as well for an hour. They were all really cool. All 3 back together again now and Rocky seems much calmer, not using Bonny as his security blanket.

So much for holidays!

Well after a week off Bonny hates me! or it seems like it, she won't come anywhere near me and her bubble is enormous! I've stopped flushing her mouth out because she definitely won't let me near her if I've got that syringe in my hand.
Talking this over with Cathy there could be a couple of reasons for this,
1, she doesn't need me anymore since coming home.
2, Rocky isn't giving her any peace, driving her around and using her as a shield from Bella, so she could be in pain, hence the grumpy old woman look.
So I've put Bonny in the next field and upped her supplement. She seems quite happy, just grazing on her own. Rocky, on the other hand looks miserable and Bella couldn't give a toss ;o) I'll let her join the others over night and see how she is in the morning.

Sunny Saturday

Glorious sunshine again.
Bonny and I have had a few days off after the course, today was much the same, but I wanted to wash her legs because they were almost black from the rubber in the arena. But Bonny and Bella had other ideas, so the catching game was on! It didn't take long they only went to the bottom of the field and waited for us. It was lovely to see Bella trot up to Donna to be caught, then Bonny walked to me, really nice. I washed her legs, cleaned her ears and put her fly mask on, then turned her out again.
I'm still mulling through all the info from the course, deciding what to work on first.

Last day

The last day and the sun was shining.
Only 4 of us could make it for the hack out, so the pressure was off, thankfully.
We started loading, Bonny was quite relaxed which surprised me after the eventful trip here. The other 2 people left before us which helped me focus on what Bonny needed to get her into the lorry. Cathy helped get her in when we ran out of time, which was great. We took it very slowly to the car park, pulling in whenever we could to allow the traffic to pass. I was so relieved to find Bonny still standing when we got there, although she had rubbed her tail raw in one spot! first aid spray and vet wrap sorted that out. Margo lent me her tail wrap for the journey home. Bonny was a little sweaty when we got her off, but that's not so bad. She was quite rb fixating on some cows in the next field. It probably took me 1/2 hour to get her calm enough to tack up. There was no way I was getting on her at that time, so Cathy and I started off on-line. It was so hot walking up hill... I was quite relieved when Cathy stopped us all so the others could go for a trot and canter. Bonny was fine when Evie and Mickey went, because Aero was with us, but when Evie and Aero went she was not happy at all! Lots and lots of disengaging and I had to ask a couple of walkers to wait while I calmed her down before they tried to pass us. Bonny didn't calm down till her friends were on their way back! We then started back for our picnic, Bonny was really rb wanting to go as quickly as possible... Cathy had to take her and she soon backed off and relaxed. uuummmm how interesting! Cathy said that was the real emotion coming out that she had been holding in! Once we got off the hill she was calm again but her walk is really fast, I have trouble keeping up with her.
We stopped for lunch in a nice spot, the horses were allowed to graze on the lush grass, Bonny was trying to eat my sandwiches as well! After lunch Cathy suggested I get on Bonny and just do nothing. But Bonny had other ideas, as soon as I got on she was off, thankfully only walking but still not acceptable. Lateral flexion was really difficult it was trying to bend a plank of wood, but I managed to bend her enough that she was doing small cicles then she would put her head down to graze, then she would pick her head up and walk, with purpose, off again, lateral flexion doing small circles and down went her head again, this went on for a few minutes before I decided that was enough and jumped off. I think if I'd stayed on any longer my confidence would have been shattered again, it's taken so long to get this far. I know that Bonny is confident in me as her leader in the field but she obviously isn't when we're out in the big wide world! oh hum still lots of work to do.
Margo and Jane went off for a ride while Cathy and I just enjoyed the sun at the picnic spot. Back to the car park and started loading again. This time I managed to load Bonny mostly on my own with just a little bit of coaching from Cathy. Yay!
Bonny arrived home again still standing, she must be getting the hang of balancing herself, plus Cathys very careful driving.
I can't say I enjoyed the hack but I did learn a lot!!!!

Day 4

Fabulous day today even though it rained for most of it. Got a ride in the arena in the morning, squeeze between barrels, L-shape and weave. Cathy told me a different way to do the weave by asking for sideways between the cones, got to work on that.
In the afternoon we played hacking games, leapfrog and there and back again. Bonny was fine at leapfrog but there and back again was challenging for her especially when Evie walked or trotted away, I had to disengage her a lot to stop her following. She got quite emotional when there was a lot of noise from the other group and the saddle was slipping, or should I say we both got emotional! I jumped off sorted the saddle out and calmed down before getting back on again. There and back again was great when it was our turn to ride away from the others, Bonny walked then trotted straight to the gate at the other side of the arena.
We then went into the wood to play on-line while the other group had their turn in the arena. Lots of squeezes and dogs barking. Great fun! I took some pictures today with Cathys camera so just got to wait for her to send them to me and I'll post them here. Really looking forward to the hack tomorrow :o)