Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Much better tonight

Had a hack out again last night and Lutine's behaviour was much better. We only had one spot of napping and that was because of a field of cows (albiet the cows were 100m away LOL) Luckily, my hubby was with us so he just got off his bicycle and came over and led her past them. She bounced a bit but it was no big drama and then we were able to carry on. We even had a practice at standing nicely at the top of the lane waiting for hubby to get up the hill and then again in the village as we stopped to say hello to a neighbour. Don't know what might have caused her to turn over a new leaf but she'd been on Top Spec Calmer for 2 days and also the roaring breeze had tuned down to a much more gentle level.

8 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Fantastic updates! Lovely news to come back to after a long weekend away.

Naughty, clever, SOUND Lutine... there is much to rejoice over.

Hats off to you Wendy

6:48 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

PS just looking at those pictures again. She has a bit of an Amicus wild eye look on her!!!

Plus, I am liking the pelham, but am surprised -- thought you only rode in rope arrangement? Why the pelham and how are you finding it?

I ride in one and love it... or should I say the horse loves it...

6:53 PM  
Blogger Lulu's friend said...

Hi there, I started to ride her in the pelham because she dives on to and leans on the rope halter and the snaffle and I wanted to avoid her overloading her forehand as that won't help the toe first landing. I find with the pelham and two reins (and it has an elastic curb too) I can ask her to soften her jaw and come up off the bit. It's intermittent - we still get her pulling and running through a little when trotting long lines. If we were in a school it would be easier to deal with because I could use circles to stop her diving or pulling. But we do try small amounts of lateral work out on hacks too. She's just so green!

11:33 AM  
Blogger Neets Human said...

Hi Wendy.. have found your blog .. (I'm zuzan from IHDG) Wonderful progress with Lutine.. sounds like you have her pretty much sorted.. It's kind of nice to know they have it them to play up a bit... ;) Well done you.

10:21 AM  
Blogger Lulu's friend said...

Hi Zuzan, lovely to see you here! I still have work to do with Lutine - her frogs are an endless source of mank, which is why she's still wearing boots for being ridden. But she's had some major challenges to her health and still has the immune-mediated uveitis, which has damaged her eyes though she still seems to have reasonable sight. It might be one of the reasons why she's a bit spooky and nappy out hacking, so I try to give her the benefit of the doubt on that. I do think that it's affected her system somehow and that's why she's not yet putting out the best frog material. But we'll get there!

I'm going to get Chris Day the holistic vet properly on her case. He was supposed to come out to us on the 27th but had to cancel owing to the illness of a family member. But he will prescribe homeopathically by post and it's really helped one of my other horses with the uveitis. (The uveitis is a long and horrible story - I don't know if you remember it from the IHDG?) Lutine's uveitis has always been milder and less aggressive than my other horses so I'm hoping that I'm getting close enough knowing to what it takes to slow it right down or stop it and that way we can preserve her sight and have her go on to become a ripe old age. It'd be wonderful (touch wood) to celebrate her becoming a veteran.

But one thing Lutine's taught me is to be grateful for every day, every ride out, every session of fun. That's a pretty important life lesson!

10:32 AM  
Blogger Neets Human said...

I couldn't forget your struggles with the uevitis.. am just very glad Lutine and you seem to found a way of combating it.. I think Chris Day does my sister's horses.. (not uevitis just general) he's very well known... have or are you still moving???

11:42 AM  
Blogger Lulu's friend said...

Hi Zuzan, no we're in France and we're staying put for the foreseeable future. Maybe we'll move from this house one day but we'll probably stay in the same region.

11:47 AM  
Blogger Claire said...

wow. loong time since I've dropped by here, very impressed at lutine's progress....congratulations!

3:51 PM  

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