Marcus is now 4 yrs old!!!

He had his birthday on Tuesday and unfortunately I spent a lot of the day trying to sort out Amanda the chook I'd rescued starving to death, she came through the moult and had a beautiful new coat of feathers but had gone off colour for about a week, having just lost Becky to having been off colour, I grabbed her out of one shelter and was instantly covered in mites, oh my god, it was gross she was COVERED in them! I doused her with sulphur powder and then some surface fly spray to top her off (she wasn't going to be grooming herself so figured that was safe) and put her in the dog crate on her own. A couple of hours later she was on her side. Mites were just everywhere! Syringed some food and water down her and a couple of hours later she died. Unfortunately stupid stupid me syringed her to damn hard and I drowned her, evidenced when she died and exhaled egg and water :o(

I had her inside with me by then and was just plugging in the bioptron (have heard green light helps with fleas etc) but never got a chance to test it.

So now I need to find out where the mites are!!! have the powder to treat the girls even though I've checked another 3 of them over and found nothing, maybe Amanda took them all with her!

So it was a very sad day for me my poor girl died by my hand after she'd come back from the edge already...

But Marcus loved his day anyway, had chocolate cake with candles in it, he hates cake but loved the candles part and Pete and I loved the cake so all good!

Smokey has another dressage competition next weekend, two level 1 tests to do this time so worked on his canter tonight, not too bad once he stopped being frisky LOL.

And lo and behold while collecting eggs today I found a dwarf chook!!! She must be about a year old now and it's the first time I've ever seen her! I asked the boss about her and he only saw her for the first time about a month ago so I asked if I could have her, her face is just so "pretty". Everything on her is just small, although some of the photo's of her trying to look out the top of the nesting box when I lifted the lid makes her neck look like a giraffe! Amazing how they can stretch!

So here is Pet, the newest addition to the mad chook lady's flock LOL

Busy busy... and it's nearly muster time again!!!

have a fair bit of work at the moment which is of course great, hopefully it will continue as May is the month I give 25% of all consults to the Kaimanawa Wild Horse Welfare Trust for use at muster time. The are taking the numbers down to 300 (from 500) and it was a big muster last year and this year 150 will be coming out to get it down to the 300. Unfortunately we're STILL in the middle of a drought and as of a few days ago they had only 11 horses placed and the muster is at the end of May, not looking good! The KWHWT is committed to saving ALL foals and yearlings at their own cost if necessary (will handle them and then find homes for then in the following months) but it basically means anything older than 1yr old will be going to the works and slaughtered....

So..... I know not all of you followers are Kiwi's but for those that are it is time to spread the word, these are GREAT ponies, most of them are worth their weight in gold once started.

Check out the KWHWT website for application details and more KWHWT inc or their FaceBook page Kai Trust on FaceBook

If you can't take a horse there are sponsorship deals where you can sponsor a horse, have naming rights, photo's etc, if you can't afford that then even $20 from 10-15 people each will save a horses life so PLEASE if you can help in ANY way, now is the time...

If you're thinking about a consult but have no spare money after that rest assured 25% of your consults booked in May will be going to these guys too :o)

Smokey's First Dressage Competition

aaaaaw another Smokey post! He is maturing mentally really well by the way, still asks for his "treats" when we get to the float (usually has all the gear in it so just tie up to that) but he's certainly no longer a baby, he's a really lovely young man now! Coming up the 2 yr anniversary of him being mustered from the wild too :o)

Anyway, we headed off to his first ridden show (he'd been to one inhand show about a year ago) and had only entered him in the morning's training test (no canter).

Was talking too much by the float and a little late getting on him so he only got 5 mins warm up! Naughty me! There was a dog show going on next door to the arena by a partly finished fence that was distracting for all, and stupid me learnt the wrong test so we got a course error pretty much as soon as it started!

BUT, apart from MY mistakes, he was lovely, did a reasonable test for 5 mins warmup, and did another 5 mins of work after we came out of the arena that was just LOVELY work, he stayed tied up to the float while I went and helped score some papers etc and was just impeccably behaved. My wee dude :o)

So, here he is!!! Starting from first hopped on (and some distracted tension) to the end of the test.... (we came 6th out of 10 even with our course error so happy with that!)

I am just Oh So Proud of my wee Kaimanawa

I could rave about him all day every day!!!! No doubt everyone everywhere would get sick of hearing it but he is just so wonderful!!!! We did a lot of canter work at our lesson on Friday, we even went overtime to try to get the breakthrough but he was just too tired and it was too much. So he's had a couple of days off and jumped on him today, a nice gentle warm up working all the cricks out of muscles for him and then into canter, about 15 seconds into that first canter and wham bam thank you ma'am he softened, rounded and his balance was 100% better than it has been. Did another 3 canters in total and finished, what a short but great ride :o)

I don't think he ever wanted to be a wee dressage horse but he's shaping up nicely :o)

Mac on the other hand is as frustrating as hell, it's like a roller coaster ride with him. He was so great on Wednesday I could have jumped on him, today he didn't even want me catching him! So FRUSTRATING! Still, he did get caught, and we did get some ground work done and he certainly earned that feed he got! Brat!

Chooks are still alive and kicking, one of the scrawny girls got stuck (upside down I might add) between one of the dog shelters and the fence (they are in the unused dogs pen!) Was fun and games to get her out, but she hadn't been there long and was OK :o) All the older girls are pretty good with them, not going out of their way to harass them which is great (and expected! I tell all the new comers my girls are lovely, gentle girls, I expect them to live up to that!)

Don't forget to check out FaceBook page - Talk To Your Animals for discussions, communication tips and all those quick day to day updates :o)

Love Hearing Good Feedback!

Who doesn't?! But it's so rewarding to hear of the animals who having shared what they needed to share, then modify their behaviour after it's explained to them why it would be preferred if they did. They are smart little guys who know they've been heard and know they can relax again.

Unfortunately there are those around who even if the message has been passed they know the situation won't change and it's a little harder to convince them they should still alter their behaviour, particularly if they feel what they are warning their family about is dangerous :o( I feel for them because they put an awful lot of stress on themselves trying to pass these warnings on...

On a more personal note tried to rescue another couple of sick chooks a week ago but they only lasted 1 day max, but died peacefully in their sleep without being pecked to death so I'm OK with that. Unfortunately I lost one of my girls too a couple of days later. She was into her moult and had been "off" for weeks and not eating much, but she had just given up and got too weak and died unharassed too and had lots of cuddles before she went (probably hated that but couldn't really complain LOL)

Have 4 more here today as one of the other sheds "goes" next Saturday. Two are girls I would have removed from the shed anyway as they'd have been dead by tomorrow the way the others were ripping into them, both skin and bone, but both still have a spark in the eye so hopefully will pull through. A bigger girl who has no tail and was just terrified of any other chook (all the "no tails" are picked on something chronic!) She was so terrified of being hurt she tried to take a chunk out of me after I nabbed her and then tried to escaped the box every time it was opened! Silly chook, still she was straight into the free range thing when we got home and happy to be ignored for the most part by my girls.

Lastly is Angel who made herself known to me yesterday and was just identifiable enough that I thought I should be OK trying to find her again today. Got the eggs done, got the 3 other girls sorted and went back into the shed for a quick look to see if I could find her. Within 4 steps into the shed there she was spotted and she turned to the feeder and started eating (permission for me to grab her without her stressing about it) and no room in the box so she was carried home.

She is a big healthy girl, lots of meat on her so she's done well at the farm, but is gentle enough (not a bully) and gentle with me and when put down in with my girls it was like she'd never been anywhere else. Just getting dark now so I'll zip out and make sure they're all in bed somewhere :o) (there weren't all sorted but are now, Angel has found her way straight to the nesting boxes and the other 3 are huddled in the same place as a photo I took a couple of hours earlier will show.

Mac is getting ready to be ridden again, touch wood, no pain issues for a while now, no trying to avoid being touched, and he is now watching me intently every time I ride Smokey, so a lesson booked for him just over a week away and Smokey's first dressage next weekend, can't wait, I am just soooooooo proud of the wee dude! Here he is at our lesson with Saskia a couple of days ago, just about to breakthrough with his canter work and then it'll be full steam ahead!


It was a hard lesson for both of us, both absolutely SOAKED with sweat (it was a hot day!) and he sure thought he deserved Saskia's lunch she was about to start!