THe adventures of Angel The Dangel and Appley The Dapply

notpoodle

notpoodle

Well-Known Member
Jul 16, 2003
11,000
79
48
44
Brighton!
Visit site
until i get around to moving the rest of the diary over here, I might as well start a new up to date one for now :)

I'll post updates on my two lovely Exmoor ponies, Angel

Image0446.jpg


(aka Angel The Dangel) and Appley (aka Appley Dapply).

Image0444.jpg


Angel will be 19 this year, i've had her for 7 (i think!). Angel is a complete poppet and mostly lives up to her name (but can be strong and stubborn when she wants to be!) :) she suffers from severe sweet itch and is highly prone to laminitis - albeit, both of these issues have improved a great deal since we moved to a 40 acre stony hillside of a field with rough grazing and seaview! no lami episodes since we moved (2 years now!) and sweet itch is easily managed with just a rambo hoody :) at the moment our biggest problem is getting and keeping weight on her in the winter. albeit, since I put her on Vitex/agnus castus this has improved a great deal, but she is still on the skinny side.

angel also had her shoes removed recently, and I am hoping the transition to barefoot will go well for her :)

Angel and I like to ... hack! just as well - Angel is 100% in all manner of traffic, windproof, dogproof and whatnot (but hates umbrellas!) - AND we have access to the south downs :D

en-route-15-_640.jpg


IMG_2636.jpg


DSC006771.jpg


Lance20and20Angel1.jpg
 
Appley Dapply is nearly four now, I got her almost two years ago (on loan initially, but her breeder kindly let me buy her!) when she was two :D

The day she arrived in Brighton

DSC009571.jpg


... going up the big field with her new friends

DSC00435_JPG_640.jpg


more friends!

appleylance.jpg


DSC010461.jpg


soon after, we started going on walks together :) on and offroad, to make sure nothing would faze her when, one day, she'd be a ridden ponio :)

DSC010381.jpg


DSC010361.jpg
 
we also did some longreining ....

in the school

DSC012141.jpg


and out and about :D

Image0208.jpg


initially in her dually, eventually with a bit and bridle :)

we also went to some local shows and came last in everything :D

IMG_1519.jpg


IMG_1632.jpg


IMG_1809_2.jpg
 
at the end of last summer, i finally decided to get on board :)

Image0727.jpg


and because Appley is so clever, nobody had to lead us or hang on to her and she pootledn along like a pro :)

backing-apples-16-_640.jpg


we went on a few mini hacks

Image0781.jpg


... had a little canter

vlcsnap-2010-10-15-18h08m54s90.png


then she was turned away ....

other than a little ride in the snow :D (randomly decided it'd be fun to stick bridle on in the field, clamber on and follow the other ponies up the field for a little ride and was actually CONNED into having a canter by wellmeaning friend!)

appley is such a good sport!

julia-and-appley-7-_640.jpg


--

she came back into work the other week

IMG_0262.jpg


again, no trouble, hopped on in a backstreet and off we pottered.

so stay tuned for what appley will get up to this summer :)

we have a horse agility day lined up in april :D
 
... and today the OH rode on angel and i rode appley and we went for a hack :D angel took the michael somewhat (wouldnt stand still when asked and kept on stomping homewards), but appley was brilliant! we even had a tiny canter and gave lazy angel a lead!!

julia
x
 
thank you :) she's always been very confident, to be honest! first time I went to see her, I asked if we could walk her out through the village there (to see what she'd do). she had never really been out and about on the roads before, but was calm as anything and even decided to walk first, leaving her big brother tootling along behind. she's never really been nappy or unwilling to explore, bless her :)

(and she's a tiny bit bumhigh, here's hoping she'll scrape 12.2hh, haha)
 
today i longreined appley out and about a bit (school is boggy and slippery because it rained!) - she was very good and really worked well off my voice, walking on, halting, trotting on, back to walk, halting, backing up, serpentines :wub: we met a motorbike and two dogs, too and she was good as gold :wub:

then i took angel out for a spot of 'gorillas in the mist'. i hadn't fully appreciated just HOW foggy it was when we left the yard! luckily i had put her hi viz exercise sheet on! it really was very bad indeed! we met two other riders, who didn't have any hi viz at all - they were virtually invisible :frown: since i met them twice, they must have gone on the roads like that as well :frown: a terrifying thought indeed!!
 
thank you :D hacking makes up for the fact i used to keep angel in london where there was VERY little hacking indeed, which could be very frustrating (neither angel nor me like schooling very much!) :frown:

oooh and I have booked a saddler for the end of the month so young appleh will be fitted with her very first saddle (currently borrowing a friend's little maxam jobbie) :smile: maybe treeless (like angel!) in the future, but for now i'll go with a well fitted treed saddle for her.
 
tonight kerrazy old me decided it would be interesting to tack up appley, lead her across the road, hop on board and ride her down a back street. in galeforce wind. bear in mind, this is me who didn't even want to ride in traffic a few years ago, let alone on a just backed youngster :unsure:

albeit, it went very well! bit of a wobbly when a spaniel jumped out of a hedge suddenly (somehow I managed not to freak out, but quietly pushed her on and pretended there was nothing wrong at all!) and she thought she might swiftly spin around and head for home, but easily sorted (this longreining malarky really is paying off tenfold it seems!!!) :)

can't wait for the saddler to come now - friends saddle isnt a great fit (even with the big sheepskin underneath!) and has terribly long flaps which makes girthing a bit of a procedure ....

meanwhile back in the paddock, angel consumed her own bodyweight in hay :)
 
a busy day!!

angel

.... managed to get a stone in her hoof. i managed to get said stone out but it actually left a HOLE (about a quarter of an inch each way!). will keep a close eye, fingers crossed it will not morph into an abscess!

took angel out for a little ride without her booties on. she is doing quite well again, but is usually slow coming out of the yard, over the road etc (but rather keen on the way home). rode past the field over the road ... horsey lady by the gate ... with the 'look of concern' i know so well and hate so much (sometimes I think maybe i should not take angel out in public at all! she doesnt even look that bad, just a little bit underweight but you cant actually see her ribs or anything! vet and chiro tell me to exercise and ride her ....) and proceeds to quiz me about angel's age etc. i gave a brief explanation, but could tell she didnt believe me anyway. i have had these conversations too many times now and quite frankly , i had enough of them! angel is nobody's business but mine/the vet's, she is FINE. tempted to just give them my vets number next time and tell them where to stick it!

we then went on a very pleasant little ride :D

appley ...

I HATE PINWORM!! we spent best part of last summer battling this (vet involved etc. tried all sorts of wormers/dosages/applications) and now its bl*y back! already spoke to vet a week ago when i first spied them ... did the triple ivermectin and paint-on dectomax ... so far so good, but last night she'd rubbed a big patch of hair off her bum and today she rubbed her whole bottom bare and i dont know what to do next :frown: i almost burst into tears, because i dont know what else to do. the vet is already involved. none of the other horses have it (other than the odd one in their poo, but nobody butchers themselves like appley did!), im doing everyhting i can and now she has a bald bum and im too scared to take her anywhere. we're booked to go to a horse agility day in 2 weeks time, her bum will probably look worse then and I dont know if i want to go any more because I'm so scared i'll get flack again (sorry, since a horrible incident at a show with angel last summer, i am terrified of something like this happening again) :frown: it looks awful and i feel so sorry for her because it must itch like hell :(


.... on the plus side, we went on our first PROPER little solo hack on the bridleways today and even had a canter :wub: and met mountainbikers and she was very very good :wub:

other than on the way home when i was leading her down the pavement and she thought she might try to have a little roll (she only got as far as stopping and bending her little legs luckily! i very swiftly informed her that we do NOT roll on the road and we certainly do NOT roll or lie down with tack on!!) .... bless her, she's very hairy and it was quite sunny today so she got a tiny bit sweaty. back home, she had the biggest roll ever in the paddock and then had a big snooze :D

julia
x
 
i hope so too!!

this is what happened last year, despite vet involvement etc

:(

strangeitch.jpg


it wasnt quite this bad earlier, but I would imagine by tomorrow it will be :( sudocream etc doesnt help either it seems. it took all summer to grow back last year ... just as well i dont really do showing, but I was hoping to get her to a few little local outings anyways - not so sure about that now, it looks horrendous :(
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back