Aaargh Grazing

A wee while ago, I wrote about the opportunity to move to new grazing. I went and looked at it yesterday and was highly disappointed. I mean I had seen it over winter as that is where Smurf went for a while and is was okay back then. But now Spring has arrived and bugger all grass has arrived just a butt load of weeds. Not to mention it is still soggy in some places when even the soggy paddocks where Fox is now have dried out. but I'm hating it out where I am.

Here is my carefully thought out pro and con list.

New Grazing

Pros:
-Close to house which saves time and fuel and I don't need to feel guilty about going out twice a day if I need to.
-Somewhere to store my stuff. I could finally move my stuff out of the garage and into a container they have there.
-Close to local equestrian park. The all weather arena is locked but I have access to everything else.
-Other horses near by. I don't really want Fox on his own though sometimes it does seem easier. - Shade

Cons
- Grass is rubbish
- The fencing is not really suitable for horses. There's a bit of post and rail but that also has wires running in the gaps, the rest is deer fencing - bad and tensioned 7 strand fences - bad.
- Fireworks. Houses all round have fireworks at Guy Fawkes and probably at New Years too. He would either have to get used to them, (me too), but it's not really the safest place for that or I would have to move him in and out of town.
- Location. The paddock is surrounded by three houses and one boundary is next to a relatively busy road. Not peaceful to say the least.
- Wet and soggy underfoot still. I was glad to see the last of the mud and I don't really want any more.

Current Grazing
Pros
- Location. It is up a quiet valley road, plenty of orchards riding and quiet road riding easily accessible.
- Grass, lots of it and good horse grass too mostly
- No fireworks!
- Fencing is two sometimes three strand low tension wire. Good posts apart from a couple of warrants.
- Two of the paddocks are a hill, good because it gives him a workout

Cons
- The arena is always closed and now I'm wanting to get lessons, it is going to be a pain in the butt
- The owner, still weird.
- Fox keeps stressing out whenever the one other horse that is there leaves. I turn up and he's covered in sweat and the skid marks he leaves are rather alarming.
- Two of the paddocks are a hill, bad cause the sight of him running full tilt down said hill is enough to give me heart palpitations
- Distance, it takes time and petrol to get there. Though if I start biking it'll just take time.
- Nowhere to put my stuff which means if I bike I have to ride bareback
- Good shade in only one of the paddocks, the other two have piddly sometime shade

To me, it kind of looks like out there is better for Fox, apart from his tendencies to nut out when he is left behind, and in town is better for me. Really, I should put Fox first. But is leaving him out there to charge at fences really the safest thing? I have no idea, I am so confused. What are your thoughts?

October Rehab Plan

Well September flew by.

Apart from getting Fox cleared for riding, I really haven't achieved much due to absolutely horrendous weather. A storm the size of Australia battered New Zealand and caused havoc. We got off lightly in the top of the South and we had snow, hail and icy cold gale force winds for two weeks. Not fun. Southland had intense snowfall and freezing temperatures. My thoughts go out to all the stock that lost their new lives, 500,000 lambs. Up North, many places lost power and had roofs blowing off. And the last few days, there has been more hardcore rain and flooding in the local area.

But in saying that, I have been for a grand total of 3 glorious rides. Fox is pretty stoked about them too. He'll barely stand still for me to hop on.

The rehab plan for this month is a not as structured as my last ones have been but I'm aiming to do pole work 2 days a week, stretches and massage two days a week and the rest of the time just hacking building up length and adding some trot work and transitions in.

I'm also keen to get a lesson every few weeks to try and get Fox working his body properly. Poles will help and so should the transitions but I'm pretty inexperienced in that area since I'm more of a hop on and go kind of rider so an experienced eye will make the difference I think.