Olympics and Ingleton Caves

PROUD TO BE BRITISH

Wow, I am certainly one of those Brits that was fascinated by the opening ceremony for the Olympics London 2012. How different! The industrial revolution section was amazing!


I am also one of those that has watched most of the games and recorded many of them up to now. Particulary the equestrian dressage/eventing phase. Of course I have the whole equestrian games on record on the HD box but, I can not be any more proud to be British watching our British riders getting fabulous results in their opening eventing dressage phase. Brilliant! Tina Cook and Frolic were amazing to watch today doing their test in the pouring rain, what an amazing score for team GB.

Sadly, I have also been one of the first to moan with immediate effect. Being glued to my seat at home waiting for the first horse to go into the Greewich arena. I was sat there all excited waiting for it all to happen comfy with my brew. As it started, I was in awe of the whole arena, area and visual loveliness of it all. Already minutes into the first test , I was absolutely LIVID to see many many empty seats! As you may know by now, I have tried for a year to get a ticket for the equestrian games. Three times we've been let down, I only wanted two blooming tickets for me and my horse mad daughter, its not exactly a lot to ask, we didn't even ask for posh elite seats, any old seat would have done, in fact standing room would be more than I could ask for. So you can imagine, our three attempts at ticket buying for equestrian events was made even more horrendous to deal with as these games commenced, when you see so many empty seats. Blooming disrespectful for all the competitors and even more appalling, it shows how the ticket pallava has been a total shambles.

I was so angry about it, after watching the first test at home on my sofa, I tweeted my disgust, I put it on facebook, I put it on the official Team GB facebook page and also tweeted it to the BBC. I'm a twitter virgin but I didn't half get on twitter to show my disgust in the empty seats.

Equestrian Team Great Britain Facebook

As the day went on, I began to realise, many other people and reporters had picked up on the same with regards to many of the events taking place. Lots of empty seats all around the Olympics. Its not on! Its a disgrace!

I'm still on a big whinge today, Sunday the 29th July. Ive been watching the womens weightlifting this afternoon and was horrified to see how many seats were empty. Its a shambles. Many many people want to be there supporting the competitors, like me now (not my choice) I'm not bothered what event I would like to go and watch, I just want to be part of it and cheer the competitors on.

Ahhhhh well.........

On the horsey front, Ive been very very lazy and left them out grazing 24/7 a few days this past week. They seem to like these little holidays haha. We go on our little trip tomorrow morning so I'm not going to start proper horsey stuff until I come back. When I do come back I need to get my arse into gear. I have a lot to do with my young one and would love to hack out with my daughter each on our horses, I need to get cracking with his education when we return.

Caves at Ingleton
The hubby and I went on a random trip out yesterday to the white star caves at Ingleton (lancashire).  Due to our random freaky British weather not knowing what it wants to do, I did think for a moment would it be wise to go in Caves when there is heavy rain lashing down? But it was ok, very safe yesterday. Saying this, a couple of weeks earlier , our tour guide 'stuart' did say the cave did flood to a couple of feet deep. He did say they do flood and the water levels rise very quickly. Below you can see the sign for the flood levels in the cave.

Ingleton Caves website click here!


There were loads of holiday makers and day trippers at the caves, very surprising at the amount and the size of the groups. It was fascinating, its our second caves experience. Here are a few photos taken yesterday for you to nosy at;

I'm looking forward to my little trip tomorrow, not sure where I am going yet, its exciting. I do know we have to take the train , a waiting game now witwoo xxxx

Horse flies..please go away

On posting this I realised half of what I wrote had disappeared...Noooooooooo, it never sounds the same second time around. What I did say was, I know i've not been the only horsey person running around looking like i'm having a war with an invisible force of some kind. Yes, i look very silly when i'm wafting my arms around shouting at something that doesn't look visable to the human eye from a distance. Horse flies. That's what makes me look like a strange woman that seriously needs help of some sort. They have been that bad, I drowned myself in our home fly remedy just to bring the horses in from the field!

I brought the poor beasties in yesterday as the horse flies were plentiful and making their peaceful life hell, even though they were creamed, sprayed fly rugged, the poor souls were so desperate to come in and get away from them. If horses could talk in human lingo they would have been shouting " mum, let us in let us in". The weather has been perfect for horse flies this year, i'm sure they are more plentiful than last. Horrendous they are.

I've gone on a bit about fly stuff below but for a mid change of subject, ive put a link in to photos and a small slideshow. Honestly, believe me when I say "My assignments did flow well in academic uni work" but rabbiting on about horses and my little life makes me go off many topics onto new ones in the same paragraph near enough haha, ah well, you all probably know my style by now. Going to do it again, I love watching my 12 neons swimming around together in a shoal around the tank. They dont do it in the day and just venture off willy nilly, but at night, they all, all 12, swim in a shoal together around the tank, they're so cute. If that's what you call fish haha.

Below is a link to a photo album I made today, have a nosy if you have time, lots of horsey animal life going on in it. Of course I have thousands more where they came from but its a start, there is also a basic slideshow of around 100 of the photos .... enjoy

 Large Photobucket album, click here

Slideshow example  ;

FLY PALLAVA: 

We use ; cold tea, vinegar, citronella oil.... you could also add a touch of teatree. I also use neem oil for tails and pinky areas. The neem oil comes in solid form so you would use rubber disposable gloves to apply it. Neem oil melts in your hand at room or air temperature. It's that stuff that smells horrid in childrens nit shampoo. It is used in Nit shampoos and anti biting products for animals. Of course, if you are trying neem oil for the first time on your horse or a fly remedy like ours, please use a tiny tester area on your horse first.  Neem oil is amazing stuff with super results, I can highly reccomend it for any horses that suffer from sweat itch. You can apply it to your horses mane and tail and you wont need a fly rug or boet for them sweet itch sufferers!! yes, it does work brilliantly as I've tried and tested it on a long term sweet itch suffering horse, but dont forget, some products dont work for some horses/people.

It was originally a product used by many in the Everglades type places Marshes/Swamps, to prevent people from midge bites. If you have tried everything in the 'horse product range' then why not try neem.

Click here for interesting neem facts Wikipedia

Click here for some basics on Neem Oil

RAGWORT:  WOW isn't that growing from nook and crannies every where you travel at the moment. The hubby and I did our ragworting this week, it feels a big task done but i'm sure this weather will bring more to the fields soon.  Thankfully we spot it in our checks so it never gets to seed. My own yard never had ragwort. It was pretty well maintained but this yard is near the motorway so seeds obvisouly spread to our field by that method as there is quite a bit of ragwort by the motorway verges near us. At least we can keep on top of it and hopefully its done for this year.

IF YOU SPOT ANY (please see google images link below) DIG IT UP AT THE ROOTS AND DISPOSE OF IT SAFELY AWAY FROM HORSE. RAGWORT IS POISONOUS DEAD OR ALIVE

RAGWORT GOOGLE IMAGES CLICK HERE

Wish I was going to the Olmpics, it all starts tomorrow 26th july 2012. I'm really excited about it. Of course, I would be more excited if I were actually there. Just think of the amazing buzz and atmosphere of many cultures coming together, brilliant!

First-horses-arrive-greenwich-park click here

My hubby has booked a little trip away, its a secret, but know its in the next couple of days. It will be in the UK as I haven't updated my passport yet, i'm excited but also sad I will miss my kids/family/zoo  haha, I miss them as soon as I leave home, i'm such a home bird. But it's so lovely to be with my hubby chops, us two just pottering around looking at buildings, walks, cups of tea like retired folk haha, we are so boring but we wouldn't change a thing. I'm one of those that would class being at home watching a movie with a brew with family close and my feet up, is just bliss x

Archived from my previous blog 'There goes his manhood'

Today was the day I had to whisper around Alfie. I didn't let him know what we were planning for him this afternoon. It was shameful. The whole idea, shameful. Boohoo. What a waste, that's all I keep saying to myself. Alfie was, see, there I go, past tense, WAS a big boy in the testicle department. In fact, the vet must have said he's a big lad about ten times during the proceedure. He said for standing castration they dont put stitches in, this way it allows for better healing. However, because our boy was so big and only two years old by the way lol, they had to put a stitch in each side! As the holes were bigger than they would like, due to getting the testes out. Ouch, poor Alfie.

Big boy lol, before the proceedure 12th May 2011

12th May 2011

There were two vets, a lovely young lady I hadn't seen before with my regular vet, she arrived first in her car. I took her to Alfie and she said wow what a handsome lad, in the meantime she checked his passport etc. She did the pre-op checks and we waited for my regular vet to arrive, I asked her if she wanted me to move him to the bigger stable if there is going to be three of us in with him, so we waited for my regular vet he was right behind her coming in his car. We put Alfie in the corner stable, bet he thought that was odd and these two strangers! Then the nice young lady said she wanted to give him a sedative, she said our vet had told her how fabulous they are all with needles, then she said "probably jinxed us now". She was right, she put the needle in and up he reared and slammed forward at the same time,nearly knocking me over, awwwwwwwww, I said it's because he doesn't know why he's in this stable. Anyway, the other vet had arrived and began prepping his gear after telling me what to expect. Alfie's lips started to droop as the sedative started to kick in. The vet hibbiscrubbed the testicles and surrounding area then Alfie started figeting so they popped another bit of sedative in him, this made him wobbly on his feet. By now they had his sedatives and antibiotics in him. A few checks later and more prep for the atual castration, they had a feel around again, then Alfie was swishing his tail  a little alert so the vet had to give him another bit of sedative, that's three lots now lol, he must have known awww. This one really knocked him for six, his head was low, he was virtually snoring and he was now sweating to bits (normal) as the sedatives all kicked in, leaning heavily on me. The nice lady vet said "what do you wish to do with him, he's so pretty", I said "mainly fun stuff, showing etc" she said "oh yes he's so pretty", awwwww.

Emasculator

Out came the vets' kit for the proceedure, it was an OUCH kit lol, especially the big metal emasculator. What was more OUCH, was a teeny weeny blade like a mini stanley knife blade, I did feel for Alfie now, in fact, I felt for all Males everywhere lol. Now the sedatives had well and trully set in, the vet got a large syringe of local anaesthetic in both testicles and around them, yep, that needle was another big OUCH for males everywhere! We now waited for this to take effect whilst the vets scrubbed up. The vet then put a slit in one testicle sac, put his fingers in and pulled one of the testes out and removed it awwwww, OUCH again.  The emasculator is then clamped on to seal blood vessles, clamped in place for 2minutes. In fact, it was 120 Mississippi's until we found a watch. I'm telling you now, it isn't easy counting 120 Mississipi's without losing count, I had to concentrate pretty  hard and try not to get tongue tied showing myself up lol. This was done both sides. They didn't like the size of the holes so clamped a bit longer, an extra minute each side then put a couple of stitches in each side to close it up a touch. They like the wound open to aid healing and prevent swelling etc, so he still has an open wound, see photo below.  As soon as the vets had finished, Alfie started to come around a touch and wanted to move around. I had to make sure every drop of hay was out of the stable whilst he was still under sedation as the vets said dont give him any water or hay until it wears off. On the post - op papers, the sedative normally takes up to two hours to wear off. I watched Alfie for a little while whilst he was walking around the box, checking the drips of blood and generally keeping an eye on him. It is normal for drips of blood, drips that can be counted, not pouring, If it pours, you have to phone the vet again.

Alfie's you know what lol

Alfie is doing well. I went home for a break hence now me typing this out, whilst having up to the minute phone texts telling me how he is doing. I will be going back shortly to put water and hay in, he's bound to wonder what the hell he is doing in that stable, never mind why is he being starved, that's not right lol!! He will be dying for a drink too as they sweat loads whilst pumped with all the meds so I will rug him when I go back and wash his leg down so the blood doesn't attract flies.

Alfie's wound awww

Alfie's stitches and open wound

Archived from my previous blog 'Core Muscles - Posture'

The easy to understand guide:
posture posture posture

Core muscles in general terms are the muslces that surround your back and abdomen (abdomen, below the chest and above the pelvis). Core strengthening is easy for riders. Riders sitting on board their horses , in alignment with the horse through posture, are immediatly prepared for core strengthening and stability. Each and every time the rider performs within any gait, they have to breathe harder and through natural respiration it enlists the diaphram (dome shaped muscle below the ribs) in contraction and relaxation. When it contracts your tummy muscles tighten and at the same time, the muscles in your back do too, wow, they support one another well! How easy is that? That's just sitting and naturally breathing on your horse. The deepest core muscles are transverse. Transverse means going across i.e:

from A ------------ to --------------  B 

picture these deep abdominal muscles wrapping you up in a mini blanket. These are the instant muscles that assist in movement and start the ball rolling. As a rider, your body is constantly performing and working these core strengthening muscles. This is because you are not sat at home on the settee or walking around your house, you are on something that moves and breathes underneath you.On board a horse they are always virtually switched on due to the unpredicatbility with horses and them moving around.

How do riders know if they have good core stability or not?

I set you a task:  Have a look at as many riders as possible on you tube doing basic arena work. How many have a little slouch forward? how many are on the forehand?  How many look puffed out?  These riders are out of neutral alignment due to lack of core stability. (Neutral alignment: stand yourself against a wall in your house, this, is neutral alignment, now try and walk like that, awkward eh! ). Slouchy head, bouncing around in trot, find it hard to do sitting trot? These are a few tell tale signs.There you go, you should ride tomorrow and set yourself a task in strengthening your core muscles. Rider tip: Find a position on board comfortable for you, then work with it, do not fix yourself into a forced instant text book posture, you have to train the muscles to give you that look, the main key here is to keep your lumbar region flexible (lower back). This will all create an achievement of working for 'centre of gravity' (Will go into in more detail on another blog day).To find out if you are achieving that lumbar flexibility, walk around the arena on your horse in your new found position and see if your hips and bottom are actually flowing with your horses natural four time movement in walk. If you are still pretty fixed and tense: count to yourself whilst walking around the arena, one, two , three, four, one , two, three, four and you will have instant relaxation and flowing movement in conjunction with your horse. This is all down to the psychology of riding, you are not thinking of the task now of finding that position, you are concentrating on the horses gait. Honestly it's that simple. All riders should ride like that on many sessions, just so they remember how to feel the horse. You will also be surprised at how natural in motion you both are if you can close your eyes with someone else being your eyes on the ground for you. Amazing how all the pressure of trying too hard just disappears like you have thrown a switch off, you will feel how quickly your horse relaxes and picks up the impulsion in his movement too! Try it, go on!! To help you upright ask your friend on the ground to keep shouting at you "puppet strings" , different eh!? You dont want learning to be boring do you? puppet strings is a good way for you and your helper to keep letting you know a slouch is happening, imagine your helper has you as a puppet and they want you upright. (this is great for teaching children too) .Another little tip: Get a spare schooling whip or something straight that will not cause any harm incase of an accident and place this behind your back under your arms. Its all posture gathering tips.
 
Dont forget your head!  Your head weighs loads, many riders have a habit of looking down or have a slight head tilt whilst riding, this is because it feels pretty natural , if you look at the neutral alignment of yourself following the exercise above, the position feels pretty weird and un - natural in a way. However, because of the weight of the riders head whilst riding you unknowingly can naturally encourage the horse to lean on its forehand , this will weaken the horses' neck muscles also when they are supposed to support your horse and work with your horses' back for optimum correct anatomical performance. Really a  slouchy riders head is due to a weak splenius muscle, the muscle that supports your head and keeps it upright, this can be altered by core stability exercises.When you see a horse working below the bit and on its forehand, your horse too, has weak splenius muscles. Have a look at a nice dressagy horse on you tube, see how its majestically working at the poll, and through it's back due to correct muscles use through it's back and neck, at the poll, in basic terms shows the anatomy of the horse working correctly,the splenius muscles contracts to support the weight of the head. look where you're going, and your body will follow.

Charlies' Splenius muslce

Here is Pearls'  Splenius muscle

Have a good pal or instructor assist you on the lunge, work stirrup less safely with a helper, it is so rewarding. If you want to work from home, buy yourself an exercise ball for strengthening them core muscles to give you that dream posture, this is a great way and can quite easily simulate riding because it actually moves all over the place and you have to teach it to behave using your body!! Its all fun, others might think you look odd but I bet they would have a sneaky go at it. If you would like a basic exercise plan for using a core / yoga ball , send me a message. FOR EXAMPLE OF CORE BALLS AVAILABLE CLICK HERE  

(If you do not wish to purchase a ball as a moving object, you can use a simple dining chair at home, search the net for easy to understand videos to suit your style of learning in core strength exercise / pilates / yoga)

Ok, so you have a goal now when you get to the yard, you will be working hard to acheive it, you will be sore a couple of days after, ouccccccccccchhhh them tummy muscles, you might even feel like you have a bad back too. If you are feeling the pain for your hard work your'e doing good! Pain in muscles 24hrs - 72 ish hours later has it's own name Delayed Onset Muscles Soreness (DOMS) but I'll talk about that next time!!

Good luck xxx  I dont half rabbit on when I pick a topic! xxx

Slouch, Aligned, Tranverse line, Alignment with slight head tilt

THEORY : ON LINE CORE STRENGTHENING LESSON TO FOLLOW

Archived from my previous blog 'Centre of Gravity in the Horse Rider'

How many times have you heard 'Centre of gravity' mentioned when it comes to riding? Does your instructor hallow it at times in your lesson?  You have heard of it but aren't sure what it really means in easy to understand terms?

What is it?

It's all a matter of balance!!Seriously, it is just a balancing act x

Here I will define it for you........

A good example of balance in canter

The centre of gravity regarding horse riders is describing the mass and the force of gravity. How they work together and how they act together  mmmm, what does that mean exactly? Picture your bottom on the deepest (middle) part of the saddle as the mass, then, picture your horses' back and movement as the gravity pull underneath. They work along side one another to create that centre of gravity. This is the downwards force of your seat and the upwards force of the horses' movement. The horse too has to find their centre of gravity to deal with your mass. Think of a magnet pulling one another close, its an upward and downward force. (your bottom and the horses back). Harmony and balance aaaaahhhhhh what a nice picture.

Have you ever heard instructors shout "sticky bum or glue your bum to the saddle or even, sit deep" etc?

This is so you keep your balance in the deepest (middle) part of the saddle to maintain your balance and posture to encourage the correct gravity mass and force working aligned.

Where, anatomically are they talking about when it comes to 'Centre of gravity'?

This is simply your lower waist area. Anatomically the centre of gravity focuses between your 5th Lumbar Vertabrae and 1st Sacral Vetebrae areas of your lower waist/ hips area.

Back muscles have to work harder in horse riding and deal with more shocks, but luckily, due to our vertebrae , intevertabrae discs , facet joint , in general, how our spine is made,we have quite a bit of flexibility to aid us in this area. This is the part of your body your instructor is relating to when they shout anything to do with balance and centre of gravity talk lol.

The balancing act here depends on your seat bones. Its all a matter of maintaining the position through your weight bearing hips working with your horses' movement and keeping the flexibility in your hips.

Picture yourself in an anterior view (this is frontal). Our body anatomically is described in planes when discussing weight bearing and balancing regarding posture for riders. We need to be looking at a 'Sagital' Plane in some lessons. This means we draw one straight line from head to the ground down the middle of your body, as if splitting it in half.


Sagital Plane below ; this allows an instructor or practitioner to see an alignment of balance for a good centre of gravity achievement. Your left now split from your right. An instructor will be able to see easily how your weight is distributing on your seat bones looking at you under saddle in this way. Weight on your seat bones may be distributed un -evenly so that in turn disturbs your centre of gravity.

An example of an Anterior (front) Sagital plane (split) view

Have you ever heard that saying  “learning postures is easy, changing them is hard” 

If health permits

Before you go for your lesson; here is a little exercise to help the correct muscle alignment. Please warm your muscles up first. Lie down on a flat surface at home, pull your knees up towards your chin as far as they will go,hold for a few seconds then lay your body flat on the floor. Pull your left knee up heading towards your chin and rotate across your hip to the right, hold again then lay flat again, do the same with your other knee. Now stand tall raise both your arms above your head with your hands and wrists facing one another as if going to clap above your head. Hold your arms there a few seconds then lower, do these a few times. This will help align your muscles for balance work.

For more in depth technical stuff, you can also try looking up kineosiology this will give you a better depth of knowledge through the mechanics of movement if this is a topic you are keen on, good luck all.

Enjoy your next lesson!!

Archived from my previous blog 'Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness'

My son has inspired me to write this topic today, though I did mention earlier in my 'Core Stability' blog that I would mention DOMS at a later date, I have chosen now because of my sons new found hobby ... The Gym ...

Click here for the core stability blog


My son has been going to the gym recently with a few of his mates, they are now so 'into' it that they are going a few times a week. Their first couple of days, me as their taxi driver, the sports therapy in me was giving them some sporting tips along the way, lots of do's and dont's and why, lots of advice regarding muscles, oh and, don't go lifting heavy duty weights to show off how hard you all are, muscle tears, scar tissue blah blah lol , as well as the the "don't you dare accept any drugs off anyone" talk!!  (sorry to all you gym owners, no reflection on you but drugs and gyms!!), of course my son wanted to hide and dig himself into a hole, but how could he? he was sat in the front seat of the car lol,oh my gosh, so unfair a teenage lad couldn't escape his mothers embarassing moments lol. A car full of 14 year olds are hilarious, you could just see their 'Kevin and Perry' faces lol. Anyway, that all done with, each taxi driving session meant another bit of advice on which muscle groups to work and so on, oh no, dont listen to mum she's a weirdo lol, but how great did I feel when ALL the boys were suffering and suffering for days later. In fact, my son couldn't move a muscle lol. This brings me on to DOMS!!

Who hasn't experienced this weird feeling of muscle soreness? You don't have to do gym based workouts to feel it. You could be working in the home and feel it a couple of days later. Horse riding is a great example if you have worked particulary hard in a lesson, swimming is another, if you haven't been swimming for quite sometime and do a good few lengths, you will most probably pay for it aching all over for up to at least 72 hours later.

What equestrians dont seem to realise is ....... horses suffer it too. You may feel the horse lame and start to panic but most horse owners never think MUSCLES!  I can never quite understand why not? Isn't it bizarre how your horses' lameness all of a sudden disappears after a few days and comes right?!  Muscle soreness depending on severity can be absolutely agonising pain, so much so, you could even think you had a slight fracture in a bone it can be that much agony. So why don't many horsey people ever think of muscles when it comes to horse lameness? Though generally it is believed lactic acid was the main culprit for these painful muscles with regards to horses 'tying up'  AZOTURIA as a good example. In humans they have come to the conclusion it is the actual damage to the muscles through tears as one of the big reasons for DOMS. Why not book yourself in for a massage if you are a sufferer and push yourself too quickly, or if you regulary compete your horse or pony and you think they can benefit from an equine massage, (horses love a good massage), I have two therapists on my website list :

Buster having a little massage after work, he used to love them!

He also liked a massage with a rubber massager

CLICK HERE FOR EQUINE MASSAGE THERAPIST 

or here:

CLICK HERE FOR EQUINE SPORTS THERAPY MASSAGE

If your horse is a hard worker, why not book him in for a massage!! (photo:buster chops)

 

Scientists have discovered the biological blood relating to lactic acid returns to normal pretty quickly, this is how lactic acid build up, has been eliminated in the scientific research behind it. DOMS is still quite a phenomenom as those that study it in detail, still to this day have not find conclusive answers on why it happens.

I have advised my son to have an energy drink within a safe limit for electorlytes sodium / patassium / calcium as they all play a vital role in contraction of muscles and muscle growth, these will maintain the celluler activity within his muscles and the reduction in metabolic waste product accumulation. I have also told him to have a seperate bottle for water. With gym based work, the lads were performing eccentric contractions of their muscles as in bicep curls etc, a shortening of muscle groups, these exercises require less oxygen, eccentric contractions are opposite as in lengthening, this style of muscle use requires more energy to lengthen. In some of his gym based exercise he will be using isometric contraction where the muscle is held in a position but its really an equal force so not putting too much strain on muscles, i.e. carrying your shopping for example. For more examples of sodium and potassium elements for bodybuilders look up amino acids and intramuscular activity etc on the net .

Myself, far right, offering sports massage to all World fitness Participants at Winter Gardens Blackpool 2001

A little summary;  Always always, warm up prior to exercise , this is for your horses too, always always cool down (warm down) after exercise ,yep, this relates to you horsey people, dont forget to warm up and cool down your horse!!! Drink a bottle of water or energy drink prior to hard exercise if possible  if you are starting out on a new found exercise regime or body building venture, have something like Lucozade and drink a bottle of water after hard exercise. Eat a banana when you can. After a little warm up, have a stretch, this relates to you riders and your horses too. Dont go too beyond your pain barrier if you haven't trained your muscles to do so. Take your time, you can't be a beef cake over night or become super fit in a week. Like training to do the splits, you will get there in time! Steady steady steady is the way to go , one step at a time. Horse fitness too, is a superb subject to study including that of banned substances i.e. stimulants can make the difference and increase performance, even by 1% can mean a difference between winning and losing in equine competition bringing us on to:

Diuretics are known as performance-enhancing drugs, in some terms the biochemistry of these drugs increase glucose and free fatty acids to muscles. Other stimulants and banned substances. Bute and others, for and against! Interesting controversial topic to see here soon! also  Fatigue in horses.

 

 

On a different note: Are any of you looking forward to the equestrian games at London Olympics 2012? I'm starting to pay attention now and eye up tickets!!   

LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS CLICK HERE!

Archived from my previous blog Great Eccleston Agricultural Show July 2011

Firstly, it is my youngest childs birthday today, my son is now 15, wow, I dont know where the time goes.

The Great Eccleston Agriculture Show
Though the weather was pretty over cast yesterday we still decided to go and support our local agriculture show. The Great Ecc show attracts many thousands of visitors every year. We enjoyed the show but of course, my blog wouldn't be my blog without a little whinge- here goes; The entry price you pay was £10 each to get in, yes, it is a good day out fee and what you normally pay at events like these, however, you would think with entry fees like that, you would think you get the programme of events too? Oh no, if you want a programme you have to pay £3 extra for each copy. Imagine taking many family members. The other whinge moment; The extortionate price I had to pay for two small lots of chips in the small polystyrene tubs you get them in , FIVE POUNDS! Five pounds for two lots of chips! How can they justify ripping people off like that? I was stood next to a man that got two burgers from the same place and his total came to £7.50 !Thank god only me and my daughter went this time. I do miss the Royal Lancs Show.

Grt Ecc 2011

We got to see all the Shire classes of the day as well as the Champion of them all,win ,which qualified to go through to the Horse of The Year Show. Them Shire horses are absolutely magnificant. Looking at them in all their attire maticulously prepared by their grooms and owners is something to be in awe of, they were beautiful beautiful gentle giants to watch. We saw many of them in hand, many foals,  ridden, in carriage, the stallions in their show attire, just beautiful.

Shire Stallion 17th July 2011 Grt Ecc

The handlers and grooms were all at hand with their grooming kits and buckets full of cleaning goodies, tubs of baby talc,water, sprays, cloths, brushes, you name it, getting these horses to sparkle, their whites and feather to gleam so bright, was an all day job. Saturday was a very very long day for all the shire owners and exhibitors as they had many classes to enter.

Whiter than white 16th July 2011

SLIDESHOW:


Like you would expect from me, I took lots of photos, in fact, I took around 200. Remember, creating memories, that's my excuse for picture overload lol. I have put them in a photo bucket album to share with you, as well as a little slideshow. Please find time to capture the atmosphere of the show by looking through the photo section.

Inside the prep tent

Two youngsters

Grt Ecc prize winners

Cow being milked

PHOTO ALBUM With many more photos:
Great Eccleston Album


My daughter and I have been sending texts backwards and forwards From England to Italy. She has been making me very jealous. She said the people over there dont sunbathe as it's too hot in the day and their culture is much different to ours, so that's Bex and no sunbathing lol, shocker. She said they slept on the balcony the first night they were there at her friends familys' house as it was 40 degrees, too hot to sleep! She keeps saying there isn't a cloud in the sky. Tonight, they are having a family birthday party for my daughters best friend.This means she will experience a true Italian birthday party. Wow. Nope, you are seeing things, what do you mean i'm turning green. I keep saying to her "have you met a gorgeous Italian guy yet " lol. She is staying in the heel of the Italian map if you are wondering what area of Italy she is in, she will also be going to Milan for a few days.

Pink stuff

Well, I have succumbed to Jessicas' way of thinking and gone pink! Noooooo, what a waste of money,grrr, ah well, she did go on to say she would love to spoil her pony so I have helped her along the way.  I am waiting for his new bridle to arrive, it is a dark brown leather bridle with pink lined nose and browband with swarovski  style fancy browband and reins to match. Nope, there is nothing wrong with the gorgeous tan jaguar leather clip bridle he currently wears. She just wants a change of colour and my god, I cant believe I am going a long with it. Not sure if you know, but I have lovely stuff for the neds so to change items for colour purposes is a massive extreme. Someone slap me across the face to stop me lol. She now has the feed and water buckets, a headcollar that says 'hooligan' , of course that suits him lol, haynet, pink whip, even a pink shovel ! That is going a bit far and other pink things. So what do we do with all the other items he owns that isn't pink, wasted and stored away!!!! She doesn't get much else really so it's ok to spend on her pony now and again, after all, most of us horsey types are the same, we just own too many horsey things.

16th July 2011

16th July 2011

 Horse & Rider Magazine Jan 1984 ..............70p

I have been finding the old magazines very interesting, though not as glam inside as the magazines we read today. They are very interesting and more informal. I can remember these magazines from the good old days though I mainly bought PONY at the time, in the late eighties I began to get Horse and Rider as understood them a bit more (I was an 80's horsey girl), so I'm loving these.

An article of interest was titled 'Is competition cruel'?

IThis topic was regarding a tv programme that was due to be aired. Stating; 

The film touches some nerves; after all how many riders want to question whether, let alone admit that they push their horses too far? Despite this, producer Peter Williams managed to get opinions from top riders on age-old controversial questions like the use or abuse of Phenybutazone (bute), at the same time revealing the heartaches that competition can cause. Lucinder Green explained,"If you love horses, then sometimes you ask yourself why you are doing something whicih can conceivably cause them injury". jane Holderness-Roddam rememvers the horrors of team events-when you had to keep going for the sake of the team-and the feeling that you were abusing a good relationship in asking your horse to continue round the course, when you knew he should be pulled up. Obviously, competitions do not always cause such moral problems-few would be willing to compete if they did! Nethertheless, the dangers of going to extreme lenghts in order to win, exist;it doesn't hurt to be aware of them. It goes on to say the film is certainly thought-provoking and stimulating.

Other topics were: Chronic cough, Mud Fever, Clicking noise, Bone spavin and is she too old, these were in the Horse File section. Health; Equine Herpes and Arthiritis. Double page of BHS 'so you want to work with horses'. Riding; dont flap your elbows you're not John Wayne. Double page of long distance riding.Show jumpers viewpoint; through the grades re flatwork.Jennie Lorriston-Clarke has her section of horse and family life.Double page of 'Horses and the Law' which is of very interesting read and I am sure it would be of current answers today. Double page on Footnotes focussing on Laminitis.Small section on managing the eventer, hunter and show jumper. Double page section on how to build a menage in good detail. From rags to riches stort, can you remember them? Four page section-on the lunge. Diary section of a horsewomans account of every day rider. Double page; wintering out. Double page; Teaching the half pass.Single page; Road Sense and this is towing a trailer. The magazine contains much much more. I would say, the older magazines really did give value for money where as today, alot of pages are adverts with many riding lessons? but maybe i'm old fahsioned lol.

Here is a picture collection of our lot taken this past week, a couple are of the second lot of swallows born at the stables this year, these ones live in my hay shed at present:

July 2011

July 2011

One of our hens posing July 2011

R.I.P  Poppy I would also like to mention my friend in todays blog. She suffered the loss of her dear aged pony Poppy who lost her life this past week. Poppy was a big fighter who struggled with cushings and numerous over complaints. With the love of my friend, Poppy managed to live a good seven years as part of my friends daily life until Poppys' age and conditions caught up with her.

July 2011

July 2011

July 2011

July 2011