MOLLY'S BACK!!!!

Well, after a tense couple of days, Molly is now back at Nelson Park Riding Stables!

We are now oficially poor and will be forever, but it's worth it to have helped save this lovely animal!

We actually went down to see Molly and her owner Pat on Monday. The stables is like some little old Victorian place - sort of thing you'd see in the old Black Beauty progs!!! It was all a bit odd, as the owner there was VERY defensive, and didn't want to accept at all that any of Molly's probs are anything to do with her or her stables!!!!

Molly was so pleased to see us, esp. Antoinette - the excitement was obvious!

All the stuff we'd heard about bad backs, kicking down stable doors - not just the door but the whole surround too! Hating other horses so much and kicking out all the time; we'd been wondering what on earth we were going to see! But she just looked like Molly! A very sad and stressed Molly it has to be said though.

The staff wouldn't let anyone ride her, not even her owner!

She also had thrush in her rear feet. Our stable owner advises that that's really only caught by too much standing in the acidity of urine/faeces and not having the hooves picked out - which ties up with what Molly's owner says, that the staff wouldn't even pick out her feet. So sad.

They took Molly out of her stable and lunged her and she looked fine! She accepted the saddle with no probs at all (we'd been told she was unrideable!).

Back in her stable, we spent some more time with her, then mum and Pat started walking off to the car. As soon as Pat went, Molly's whole demeanour changed. Her ears went back, she'd turn her back on us, then turn round and nuzzle Antoinette with her ears forward again for a minute, then do exactly the same again. This happened several times, then we had to go. It was horrid leaving her knowing she was so unhappy.

(Mum actually picked up that Molly was much happier out of the stable...we were too busy just watching how she moved! We just found out from Pat yesterday, that just before Molly went to the new stables, the stable owner's horse had actually been ill and then died - was put down - in that stable. That could explain a lot if Molly was picking that up!)

Anyway, the vets didn't manage to comunicate on Monday, so we spent another whole day on Tuesday waiting for a 'phone call. Finally on Tuesday evening Pat texted to say Molly was coming home on Wednesday!!

We were on our way down to Sussex by 7am Tuesday morning! When we got there, Molly had just been loaded! She was so good that she had just walked straight on!!! She doesn't like the horse box by any means, but I'm guessing she felt anything was better than staying where she was!!

So by lunchtime she was back! She was turned out into the big cross-country field. She didn't rush off to have a big gallop as we'd expected she would...where she'd been the field she was turned out into would have been barely big enough for a canter, and was all up and down and on the side of a hill!

After an hour or so, she was taken into the outdoor school, having been groomed and tacked up, and a senior member of staff got on her - nothing happened! No probs at all!!! She walked her around, trotted, cantered...one little buck which was to sort out her legs, not to get the rider off! Then she even tried jumping her over some little 2' jumps - Molly jumped hUUUUUge!!! She was a little hesitant over the jumps, but as nobody had ridden her for about 9 weeks, and I'm guessing even then she wasn't jumped, that's not surprising!! Her back legs look a little stiff, but again, that's not surprising!

She's obviously pretty unfit now! We weren't expecting to be able to ride her for 2 weeks or so, but they said Antoinette could ride her if she came up today! So we all went up; Antoinette went to get her out of the field she was in, groomed her, tacked her up. Then a staff member rode her again just to make sure she was still behaving (she was!) so then Antoinette got on!!

Perfect! Her back legs do look stiff, and I was a bit worried as the foot with the worst thrush in wasn't picking up as much as the other, so they will check that in canter tomorrow. Today the big tractor was taking all the massive bales of hay down the yard and to the barn, and Molly hated that thing when she was here before! That hasn't changed, but even though she was obviously very frightened, she behaved really very well! Antoinette reassured her, and she coped! No kicking or anything!

The main problem is she's not liking her back feet picked out. When the senior member of staff did it yesterday, she sad Molly was shaking as if she was really scared. Whether this is because of the thrush making the feet sore, or the way it's been done elsewhere, we don't know, but the staff will have to persevere with that, as it's a bit too much for Antoinette to be able to handle at the moment. She's just too strong putting her foot down for Antoinette!!

So, although we're obviously going to be starting a new relationship with pasta and baked potatoes, lol, as we will be officially poor forever now, it's totally worth it to have helped Molly!

Now I'm trying to catch up with all my CT work! I've been unable to sleep, eat, concentrate this last week or so, and have felt almost permanently sick!! Hopefully things will get back to normal again now!!

I'll be back tomorrow with details of a new kit from Lauren of Rustic Charm Creations - and don't forget her Speed Scrap at Scrap It Sassy tomorrow!!

Bernie x