And just cos I love him

First hack!

Fraser AKA Spider Pig

Fraser makes a strange snorting sound, so because of his long legs and this snorting he has somehow become affectionately known as Spider Pig. :D

Sunday – the big day has finally arrived! Everything is now in place for Mac’s first hack out, which happened today. With Nina on Toffee, they met up with another village rider and her horse Pete and went out for an hour or so. I would love to be a fly on the wall when Mac goes back to work and stiffens up. Tee hee!

So here we have pre-flight checks, the great ascent, Little and Large, 'Oooh I love my owner', and 'Oooh I love my horse'.

What a week!

Monday – visit from the vet to vaccinate, rasp teeth and microchip. Fraser is, it turns out, fine with needles and dental procedures. We sadly do not know how he is with microchipping, as the vet had the wrong gun with him and couldn’t do it. So that treat is in store, which may not be a bad thing as apparently it often requires sedation as it can be painful. Strange, as it isn’t in dogs and the chip is the same size. We shall see...

Tuesday – Fraser has moved on to straw bedding (his stress when left behind when Toffee went for a hack made him churn up his shavings bed), so cue much snorting and detailed examination when he entered his stable.

Thursday – farrier came and replaced the lost shoe. Hurrah! Fraser is fine with the farrier. Farrier didn’t actually say anything rude about him, which means he must like him. Which is nice.

Ok - we'll compromise then...

...and call it 16.3hh. Better? :D

Head Over the Stable Door

Well, that's one way of doing it. This shows the Berlin Plank in situ.

East-West relations salvaged

Yesterday evening Mac installed a very miniature version of the Berlin Wall. It is made of wood, it at about my shoulder height and runs between the post in front of the stables, and the stable wall - so about a foot long and four inches tall. Just enough to stop the horses swinging their heads at each other, which they do when food is around. The result? The most hilarious spectacle I have seen for a long time - funnier even than Robert Webb's Flashdance routine. Toffee saw Nina walk into the yard with the feeds, went to swing her head at Fraser and pull a face only to find her way blocked with a piece of wood! You could almost see the question mark coming out of her head. She nearly collided with the wood, which would of course not have been funny. Not at all. So, lucky she didn't. This morning the stable wall had suffered no further teeth attacks from Master Catchphrase, so it looks as if the problem is solved. Hurrah!

And the number of the swede is 666

More photos! (Click to enlarge). Mac really did not want to get off. I'm not sure if that is because he was enjoying himself, or was suffering a touch of vertigo. Did I mention we are all shortarses...?

Last night the horses each had a swede. Nina asked whose was whose, and I jokingly said 'weigh them, the biggest is for Fraser'. She did, and Toffee's weighed 666 grams! Who would have thought?

Ha ha hardy ha - 16.2hh my arse!

Lovely Martin Wilkinson came out this morning to fit Fraser's saddle, and measured him at 17hh. Well fancy that... :p The credit card is feeling a bit faint, but Fraser now has a very smart Harry Dabbs saddle (secondhand), some non-stretch leathers and some flexi-stirrups. We just need to get a browband, some longer reins and a horseshoe and we are good to go! Mac rode him a few hundred yards up the track to test the saddle, and Fraser was as good as gold. It is a beautiful day here, and if it wasn't for the missing shoe they could have gone for a hack. Ah well... Will get his teeth checked first in any case. These photos were taken this morning, and illustrate the love-hate relationship with Toffee (note stable battering), the Dwayne Dibley haircut and his general gorgeousness. :)

Gurning and Goggles

Sadly the saddler cannot come until tomorrow, which is a shame. The farrier cannot come until a week on Thursday, which is even worse! So Fraser still has three wheels on his wagon and not a stitch of his own to wear. Apart from a rather natty purple and turquoise headcollar. Hmmm... Well, I like it! He can borrow one of Toffee's Old Mac boots if the saddler finds him a saddle. Toffee may have met her match when it comes to pre-meal gurning and gnashing - she pulled one too many faces at Fraser last night and he nipped her nose! This morning the wooden wall between their stable is beginning to look a bit...war-torn. If this carries on, we shall have to protect it with something while they sort themselves out. Or build a dividing fortification.

Anyway, Nina hacked Toffee on her own this morning, and she was a different horse. Well sadly not really *ducks*, but much more relaxed and back to her old self. Phew! Fraser got a bit worked up in her absence (as expected), but hopefully his anxiety will settle once he has been here for a while, and realises she will eventually come back. I do think it was a long half hour for him though!

The main drawback to owning a horse who is a) clearly actually 18hh and b) loyally committed to rolling in the mud, is a condition called mud-in-your-eye. Thus, from now on Mac and I can be seen sporting very natty ski goggles at grooming time! Fraser pretends we are not with him...

Toffee or chips?

Fraser was still eating his breakfast this morning when Nina was ready to turn Toffee out. After his previous distress at being abandoned we were in two minds as to whether the anxiety would put him off his food, and to wait until he had finished. Erm...we needn't have worried. He lifted his head, saw Toffee going out, looked at his food and the food won. :D

Who would have thought?!

Mac just came home and said Fraser was in the field shelter looking out, and Toffee was standing opposite him and they were grooming each others' necks! Am amazed!! Toffee and Beano never groomed each other once, not in the entire three years he was here. Fraser has been here less than two days. Blimey!

11th March 2009

This is the story of how we came to own Master Catchphrase, known to us as Fraser. In an unbelievably short space of time he has made his way into all our hearts, and this will log his time here with me, Mac and Nina.

Anyone who has followed our journey with Beano will know that things didn’t turn out as planned, and anyone who has encountered Beano will know that he is not an easy horse! He is very bright and likes to keep himself entertained… Anyway, my friend Louise very kindly put me in touch with Ben Verning, one of the partners at MB Equestrian, who provides a selling livery service. He and Mark (other partner) worked wonders with Beano, getting him going nicely again and finding him a lovely home with an experienced showing person who is used to opinionated Section D’s. Ben asked what our requirements were for our next horse (Toffee, like all horses, needs companionship), and I jokingly said ‘between 12 and 15 years old, between 14.2hh and 15.2hh, gelding and a total sofa’. I told him our rather modest budget, and thought no more of it, because Ben deals (mainly) in competition horses. Last week I received a text from him saying ‘potential sofa arriving within next few days’, and the rest is history.

On Sunday we met Ben and Mark at their friend John Whinnet’s immaculate and picturesque yard and were introduced to Fraser. Our initial reaction was horror – he is HUGE! A ‘good 16.2’, according to Ben. Hmmm. We were swayed though by his gentleness and his beauty – he has the kindest eye I have ever seen on a horse. He is 10, and has spent the last five years in a riding school, which has sadly fallen victim to the current economic climate, like so many before it.

Nina rode him, in the school and down the road, where Mark revved his car past him tooting the horn. No reaction. Mac then rode Fraser in the school, and despite saying en route to the yard that he wouldn’t even ride him, he walked, trotted and cantered. We agreed to buy him, and to collect him at the end of the week. The next day John rang to say the vet had been to look over him; he was fine and he offered to bring him over as it was too windy to tow. So, less than 24 hours after first clapping eyes on him, he was here!

Not knowing anything about his past we are finding out about him as we go, but he does seem ultra-sensitive and anxious at times. Generally though he is very mellow and cuddly. He and Toffee talked over the fence for a while, then we turned them into the same field. Toffee was determined to show him she is the boss, which he accepted with no argument. The next morning (yesterday), when Nina turned Toffee out, he got very upset – I think he thought she was abandoning him. It was a very worrying two minutes for him, before he went out to join her. Last night he was more relaxed, and lay down in his stable. This morning he was a lot quieter on the way to the field, although he still panicked a little bit when Toffee went out.

I am hoping to get some decent photos at the weekend. He lost a shoe in the field yesterday, so if that gets put back on, and the saddler can equip him when he comes out on Saturday, Mac is planning to hack him on Sunday. For now, these photos will have to do.

He is registered with Sport Horse Breeding of Great Britain, only nobody has told him that his great-grandfather was Northern Dancer and his great-great-great-grandfather was War Admiral! He is very laid back...

We have no specific plans for his future other than to enjoy his company and some fun outings.