Megs Blog - Our Life With Horses

I’ve been battling a migraine that just won’t shift for over a week now, with months where the pain is manageable to hours where only a dark room and my thoughts will do.

But in this time it’s given me space to think, to notice what creates anxiety in me when it wasn’t there a moment before and to wonder what could life be like without this constant pull in may directions.

We’re all busy, but the world now has a hold on us in a way that no other generation before has ever experienced. The pull of the external into our very internal space from notifications to, addictive scrolling. The flood of information pouring into our brains, most of which is pointless and not needed…I didn’t need to know that a persons car got broken into by a bear in Calgary, and the choice to ignore such information creates…

As I mentioned in my previous post another thing I knew I needed to check was the fit of Harribo's saddle.

Saddle fit in young horses is a challenge and in ponies it seems more as the varety of saddles made to that size is so limited, in the past whilst I've been waiting for thw rite moment to get a saddle fitted I've used childrens pads for the ponies, but Harribo really didn't like this, they are have such a close contact feel his overstimulated brain at the time couldn't cope with the intensity of feel of movement created by the rider and for him the pads were a real trigger point of tension.

So we found a little saddle that "would do" until his shape chnaged enough to fit a saddel to, but also more importantly I had a clearer yes and no.

What do I mean by…

Today I took Harribo to the vets for a scope to see if he had ulcers.

I’ve had this mental itch about ulcers and Harribo for a while, his way of “spooking” is very scooty where he puts his back end under tucks his belly up and shoots forwards.

This has developed into stopping with Olive riding, stretching to go to the toilet but not really going and most recently becoming girthy when he’s always been ok with his girth.

I had two main paths to look at

• saddle fit (he’s changed shape a lot and Olive has grown a lot)

• ulcers