Oh dear I fell off Billy again. That's the 3rd time in 13 months. It was nothing major, I think the body protector took the impact as I went splat on the drive.
But the traffic/confidence training has come sooner than I expected. The people with the fields right next to the yard are having a flood defence put in, as they got flooded a few years ago. My yard owner told me a couple of weeks ago that they were starting sometime in January, but no date. So I got to the yard yesterday morning and there's about 10 blokes dressed top to toe in hi-viz jackets, trousers and hard hats. The boys had grown god knows how many feet. Their rabbit in the lights, eyes on stalks said it all. Why the boys should act like that considering I were a hi-viz jacket all the time at the yard.
I was going to the yard to hack anyway but when I was told that they were bringing in equipment jcbs, porter cabin, site office etc, I thought its a good job i'm hacking out so there both more chilled in the field to watch at a distance as its all brought in. I have visions of Billy jumping the fence. I know it would be a lot for Billy's young mind to cope with, Chunky would be fine he's seen it all.
I had to hack the boys yesterday past all these blokes. The yard track runs right down the side of the field were all the works going on. At that stage no equipment. Billy was cautious about these blokes but otherwise fine.
This morning there's a site office appeared, I hear them started up generator as i'm tacking up. This is all put metres away from where we are about to hack past. There's also harris fencing in a pile waiting to go up. So I get on and start plodding down track get to just before the pile of harris fencing, Billy just sticks the brakes on and then just spins. I just went splat. He didn't tank off as I had hold of reins still, but he was good as he just stood as I got to me feet. I then decided that I would walk him down the rest of the track past it all. I had to be firm and lead him in hand telling him 'walk on' as he froze as he got to each obstacle. At the bottom of the track we have two large diggers parked in the road. Fortunately the engines weren't running so I walked him up to them and let him have a sniff. Once we got back to the yard the digger had its engine running and although he looked, tried to move away from it, he did walk past on stiff legs. As I rode him up the track I stopped and let him have a good look at each object, fortunately he did nothing silly. Role on tomorrows hack. I don't really have time to hack out during the weekday at the moment but I am going to use this as a golden opportunity to train him with the diggers and lorries etc. Its going to be for at least 4 weeks.
I hope that he is far enough away in his field to watch and that he doesn't decide to clear any fences. I did notice that there were a lot of additional skid marks in the field this morning and there were some very sloppy poos when I poo picked, which one generally associates with a horses that to put it mildly 'crapped himself'. Hopefully after 4 weeks I will have a better horse for it all.
But the traffic/confidence training has come sooner than I expected. The people with the fields right next to the yard are having a flood defence put in, as they got flooded a few years ago. My yard owner told me a couple of weeks ago that they were starting sometime in January, but no date. So I got to the yard yesterday morning and there's about 10 blokes dressed top to toe in hi-viz jackets, trousers and hard hats. The boys had grown god knows how many feet. Their rabbit in the lights, eyes on stalks said it all. Why the boys should act like that considering I were a hi-viz jacket all the time at the yard.
I was going to the yard to hack anyway but when I was told that they were bringing in equipment jcbs, porter cabin, site office etc, I thought its a good job i'm hacking out so there both more chilled in the field to watch at a distance as its all brought in. I have visions of Billy jumping the fence. I know it would be a lot for Billy's young mind to cope with, Chunky would be fine he's seen it all.
I had to hack the boys yesterday past all these blokes. The yard track runs right down the side of the field were all the works going on. At that stage no equipment. Billy was cautious about these blokes but otherwise fine.
This morning there's a site office appeared, I hear them started up generator as i'm tacking up. This is all put metres away from where we are about to hack past. There's also harris fencing in a pile waiting to go up. So I get on and start plodding down track get to just before the pile of harris fencing, Billy just sticks the brakes on and then just spins. I just went splat. He didn't tank off as I had hold of reins still, but he was good as he just stood as I got to me feet. I then decided that I would walk him down the rest of the track past it all. I had to be firm and lead him in hand telling him 'walk on' as he froze as he got to each obstacle. At the bottom of the track we have two large diggers parked in the road. Fortunately the engines weren't running so I walked him up to them and let him have a sniff. Once we got back to the yard the digger had its engine running and although he looked, tried to move away from it, he did walk past on stiff legs. As I rode him up the track I stopped and let him have a good look at each object, fortunately he did nothing silly. Role on tomorrows hack. I don't really have time to hack out during the weekday at the moment but I am going to use this as a golden opportunity to train him with the diggers and lorries etc. Its going to be for at least 4 weeks.
I hope that he is far enough away in his field to watch and that he doesn't decide to clear any fences. I did notice that there were a lot of additional skid marks in the field this morning and there were some very sloppy poos when I poo picked, which one generally associates with a horses that to put it mildly 'crapped himself'. Hopefully after 4 weeks I will have a better horse for it all.
