A couple more photos by Sam at Escamps

Pipo and the Girls

Well Pipo went to the vet for his Transfusion of Tildren which hopefully will stop the bone growing on his knee and in time help it diminish - He was HORRIBLE about loading to come home from the Vet - Truly awful, so he is going to Aunty Jo for some intensive loading work - www.bondwithyourhorse.com.

Jo has helped me with both Maissa and LaLa and they both now load like really good kids :D

Maissa and LaLa are on holiday this week and begin work again on Monday - Yipppeeeee!

Escamps

Escamps - 60 km - 21/03/10

The girls did so well, and behaved beautifully, it was a training ride for LaLa's 90km early April and Maissa's 160 km early May.

We did it at about 15km/h and Maissa won the Amater Class with a heart rate of 36 and LaLa was 5th in the Pro Class with a heart rate of 40.

Meet Agioual Aneth - aka Mini Ha Ha

Mini - Is my 7 year old arab mare and the reason she is such a funny shape is that she is 9 months pregnant - Foal is due mid-May.

She was covered by Shanazar

http://www.hands-on-horses.com/Hands_on_Horses_-_Green/Shanazar_at_Stud.html

who is a very beautiful boy and we can't wait to see the results.

As we are going to be competing at 2 events far from home in May - Mini is going to stay with Emma Alexander http://haras-de-garem.weebly.com/ who has great facilities as I would hate her to have it alone while I was away.

I'm hoping for a little filly, so fingers crossed :D

Pipo - Up-date

Well all seems to be not lost - We are going to try him on course of Tildren.

The results of his x-rays were a nightmare. He suffered acute trauma to all the bones in his knee when he fell with the result that there has been massive bony growth, however the Tildren should slow this down and hopefully he will get better.

Meet Pipo de Taff

This is my beautiful boy Pipo a 7 year old Arab gelding, he came to me on the first Wednesday in November 2009 he stayed in my holding box and was due to go into a field on the Saturday.

We were expecting some bad weather so on the Friday morning I went to rug him up, not being sure if he had been introduced to rugs, I took it slowly and quietly watching his reaction every step of the way, all was going well untill I went to do up the leg straps, my jacket brushed against the side of his rug and he exploded.

He broke away from me, tried to jump out of the stable then just went through the door, galloped across the holding paddoc, broke through the fence and went galloping up the road with only the chest straps of his rug done up.

To cut a long story short we eventually found him if a field completely battered and broken and in shock, our fantastic vet Dr. Noel came as quickly as he could, while Valerie and I tried to keep Pipo on his feet, all he wanted to do was lie down and we knew if he did we would never get him up again.

In his panic he had fallen over the edge of an old quarry, his injuries started at his nose and ended at the back of his hocks, the two nightmare ones were his knee which was open to the bone, and his elbow on the same side which was also open to the bone. Both wounds were the size of my fist and neither were stitchable because they were such big wounds and there was such trauma to the surrounding flesh.

We were able to get Pipo home and Dr. Noel was very woried about the elbow injury as he could feel bits of bone in it, he came back on the Monday morning to x-ray the elbow and to check on the knee injury again - Fortunatly it turned out that the point of elbow bone was scraped and nothing was broken. Pipo was then put on Box Rest for 3 months and his wounds have healed, his elbow is perfect but we are still very worried about his knee which is still swollen, an x-ray done last month shows that he is growing bone on the injury and there is not much we can do until this process stops.

Our Equine Osteopath or Etiopath as they are called here in France Philippe Ertzer was on his regular visit last week to check over the working girls and to have a look at Pipo. Philippe spent an hour and a half working on Pipo's knee, elbow and back and the difference he has made to my little horse is amazing.

Yesterday for the first time in 4 months Pipo has been able to lie down and roll, and boy has he been making up for lost time - He is covered with sand from head to toe and I couldn't be happier to see my little horse being able to lie down and snooze in the sun.

Pipo is due to have another batch of x-rays tomorrow, and I have no idea what the future might bring regarding his endurance career, I'm not sure he will ever compete, but he is now a happy healthy horse, and at the end of the day what more can a horse owner ask for.

To be continued

Competition Calendar

Here is our proposed Competition Calendar, this being if all goes according to plan, and we all know with horses, it doesn't always.

March
Maissa and Lala - Escamps - 60km

April
LaLa - Puy l'Eveque - 90km

May
Maissa - Sommant - 160km CEI***
Lala - Castelsagrat - 90km CEI*

June
Both girls resting

July
LaLa - Negrepelisse - 130km CEI**

August
Maissa - Lindiviseau - 160km CEI*** But only if she didn't qualify at Sommant in May

September
LaLa - Monpazier - 130km CEI** But only if she didn't qualify at Negrepelisse

October
Maissa - Deux Jours de Montquc - CEI*** 2 days - 90km/day

December
LaLa - Santa Suzanna - Barcelona - CEI*** 2 days - 90km/day

Well that's my competitive wish list - It will be interesting to see how this year pans out.

Meet Ladila de la Mole

This is Ladila aka LaLa to her friends, she belongs to Sashi Davies and is with me for training and competing.

LaLa is 10 and did her first set speed 90km last year as well as a 40km and a 60km with me.

We have great plans for her this year starting off with her second set speed 90km in April and then her first CEI* 90km in May, if all goes well we will try for her CEI** 130km at Negrepelisse in July and then her CEI*** at Santa Suzanna in Spain in December

Meet Maissa du Pech

Maissa is my 10 year old Arab mare by Regal de Khan and Saria. In 2009 she successfully competed in a CEI* 100 km at Negrepelisse and a CEI** 120km at Chanac we also did the CEI*** Deux Jours de Montcuq where we were eliminated on the 2nd day at the second to last vet gate.

This year we plan to compete at Sommant in a CEI*** 160km in May, and if we don't succeed there we will try again a Lindiviseau in August and we hope to have another go at the Deux Jours de Montcuq.

Hello and Welcome

Welcome to blog - This is where you will find my aims and ambitions for the 2010 season and the training involved in my quest to achieve these goals.