Hanuman's Birthday

Hanuman is five years old today.  He was presented with a new food bowl to replace the old one which had mysteriously developed a hole in it.  The finger of suspicion had been pointed at me, but there is no way that my playful gnawings could have made such a hole.

He had a 'lesson' this morning which is when someone comes to help and encourages him to make wobbly shapes in the arena.  They say he is not fully grown up since his back end is still higher than the front and he has yet to sprout any withers.  He also has a lot of trouble co-ordinating his legs.

Hanuman tries to organise his legs to impress the instructor

Afterwards he got carrots and treats as it was his birthday.

One today!

It is my very first birthday today!  My first year seems to have gone by so fast.  I have become accustomed to my environment, showing myself to be braver than Hanuman and more sensible than Posy.  My achievements include being good for both the vet and the farrier.  I have endured a lot of weather without complaining and had only one accident of note which has left just a small dent in my forehead.

What will the next year bring I wonder?

Dazed and confused

I was standing behind Hanuman peacefully picking up stray bits of haylage, when he suddenly shot backwards and struck me a terrible blow on the head.  I staggered round the yard seeing stars and She rushed out to see me with a large dent in my skull, blood coming out of my nose and acting demented.  The vet was summoned immediately.
The vet is used to pacifying hysterical people and explained that the dent in my skull was over my sinuses and wasn't likely to have caused brain damage, and he knew of lots of healthy adult horses going around with dents in their skulls.  Inevitably where vets are concerned, I received a number of injections but was very brave.  I had a splitting headache for a few days I can tell you.

In the yard, still suffering from concussion

The blood coming down my nose shows how bad my injury was

 Posy blamed Hanuman and gave him a severe biting.  He was banished into the field, partly for his own protection and partly so that he couldn't do anything else clumsy while I was still poorly.

Posy blamed Hanuman for my accident

Hanuman blamed the cement mixer for starting up suddenly and giving him a fright

I am pleased to report that I have survived the nasty medicine and am now feeling as right as rain.  Funnily enough, the dent in my skull has rebounded and it looks as though I shan't be scarred for life after all..

Weather update

One thing I have learned in my 10+ months is that there is a lot of 'weather'.  For much of the time it has been mild, wet and windy.  Now I hear that there is to be 'sudden stratospheric warming'.  Mysteriously, this means that it will be cold in the UK.  Now, it is cold, wet and windy.  To illustrate the point, below is a brief video of mummy's ill-fated attempt to run through a dressage test for tomorrow.



They quickly gave up.  Luckily, I was allowed to stay snug in my stable.

Blowing in the wind

We have been getting used to inclement weather.  When it rains hard for a long time, we refuse to leave our stables and neigh loudly whenever She is seen, in the hope that She will bring us food so that we don't have to venture out and find it for ourselves.
Today, however, was the record for the windiest day.  It was so windy that She put my purple outfit on me because She thought that the wind would penetrate the fluff in my coat and make me cold.  It also stopped the hailstones stinging so much.
When it wasn't actually hailing, we did venture out, but it made our hair stand on end.

Hanuman has a very short neck and he managed to keep his ears out of the wind under his rug's neck cover.  My outfit has no neck cover so my hair was looking very tousled.

Looking like an orphan

It has been very wet recently.  She mended my stylish purple raincoat, but it turns out that it has a major design flaw.  In heavy rain, the water runs under the belly wrap and makes it very soggy, so that although my back is dry, my tummy is very wet.
She fished around in her tack room and produced an alternative costume.

I was not impressed with this tatty hand-me-down.  The shame of it.  I did not want to be seen in public wearing such a thing, so I went back in the stable in high dudgeon.

It is long at the back but tight round the shoulders and makes me look like an orphan.

I hid from public view until She finally conceded that it did not fit me well and removed the offending outfit.

My First Pedicure

I have seen the farrier come and go a number of times.  I've inspected his work and chewed his tool box, but this time he headed purposefully towards me carrying a large metal implement.  It turns out that this is for scraping your hoof.  The actual hoof scraping didn't hurt at all, but I did a bit of wriggling anyway, just to show that I am not a push over.
In the end my feet had been filed into a nice shape.  Apparently this is a kind of beauty treatment that I am to have every month to make sure that my toes stay in tip top condition.

My neatly manicured toes