Maybe it's not all over!

Today I met an amazingly kind and patient lady who heard my call for help and came to the rescue. Merlin so obviously liked her, because he knew exactly where he stood with her. I feel very differently about the whole situation now, so maybe, just maybe it's not all lost!

For now!

It is with a hugely heavy heart, that I've decided to close this blog. For the time being Merlin will be staying with us, so to keep up with what's going on, you can check out my other blog, Oakmoon.

There have been many reasons for this decision, other than his recent behavior but that's all I'll say for now!


Thank you for visiting and leaving messages :)

Today - 14/03/08

As predicted, Merlin was far worse today than yesterday. He wasn't biting me though, oh no! He was throwing his weight at me as hard as he could. The sessions didn't go well and then I tore a chunk out of my finger somehow, maybe on the lead rope clasp. Anyway, I don't do blood, and there was lots!!! So I halted the lesson, fed the boys and fled home with several plasters holding the hole closed!

Feeling despondent again today now :(

Today - 13/03/08

Well, the little monster is on reprieve, for now. I can't be angry with him, it's his hormones. But I'm not making excuses, oh no, he came within a hair's breadth of being sold, but Andrew stepped in with a plea for clemency! I was just too despondent to deal with this latest blow. After all, I kept thinking, who the hell am I to be able to handle a stallion. Yes, I have over 20 years experience, but that was with geldings and mostly the same ones. It was a downward spiral, with more and more negative thoughts heaping on top of each other until all I wanted to do was either give up completely or buy a big,old nag that wouldn't say boo to a goose! I'm not sure what changed my mind, or maybe I'm just to darn stubborn, but anyway, I agreed to give Merlin a chance!

Last night I separated Merlin and Toffee for a bit so that I could fit some new tack on Toffee. They weren't happy, but soon settled.

Today, I separated them again for a short time and Merlin squinnied a lot, so I gave him some hay, and he quietened down a bit. I then took Toffee for a ride around the lane and although Merlin neighed a lot to start with, he soon settled down. The lane runs a complete circuit around our field and the ones beside us, so that when we reached the top, I could see over the hedge and down into Yarrow. Merlin was watching me and seemed pretty calm.

After letting Toffee loose on the grass as a reward for his terribly hard work (10 minutes!) I then put the Dually on Merlin and took him in the school for a 'lesson'.

Every time he tried to bite me, I halted and backed him up. At one point when I asked for 'over' he threw his entire weight on me to push ME over. I stuck my backside to his tummy and planted my feet, so he reared up! More 'back up', change direction, change rein and then asked again for 'over'. He backed up and tried to bite. Repeated the leading and direction change, asked for 'over' and he did it perfectly.

I continued with this for about 15mins until he was just too really tired to try and bite me. I couldn't have worked him for any longer because I think that would have been overkill. I think it was mental tiredness, as he was digesting the fact that biting equals hard work. When he did get it right, he got plenty of praise and a nice scratch on his neck, but again, I didn't overdo it, because I didn't want to overplay things too much.

I let him loose and he instantly ran up to me, so I squared my shoulders, raised my hands and made him back up. I don't want him invading my space without being invited, and besides, I think he was aiming to bite me on the butt! Just a hunch!

He seems to want to be in my space a lot and I'm not sure what his motives are. Is it a genuine need for a companion that won't beat him up the way Toffee does, or am I just fresh meat to play with and torment? After all, Toffee is pretty patient, but Merlin really does push his buttons. I'm keeping an open mind on the answer to that, but for now, today, I feel less despondent. Mind you, tomorrow I'm sure won't be so easy as Merlin will probably be expecting me to school him and my distractions may not be so effective. I'm going to buy some really nasty gel that's used to stop crib biters, and if the schooling hits a snag, then I'll put a smear of it on my gloves and see if that deters him.

Today - 10/03/08

Right, I said that this was an honest account of Merlin's life with us, and I meant it. No punches pulled here. Above is a picture of Merlin's replacement if he continues to play up.

On the whole Merlin has been a model pony, doing everything I asked and leading and backing up perfectly, in the school and out on the roads. Unfortunately his behavior today was unforgivable. He has been touchy because of the weather, but as he's been so attentive and even calling across the field to me, I let my guard drop. I was fooled into thinking he was behaving like Oliver, but he isn't Oliver, he's a little stallion with raging hormones.

As I was mucking out the field shelter Merlin made to grab at me a couple of times, even coming close to my face. I growled at him and he backed off. But then as my back was to him he grabbed my coat and unfortunately a chunk of my back and bit me damn hard. I shouted at him and threw a rubber glove right at him as he ran out of the shelter and hid round by the water butts.

The fact that he ran away and hid , gave me no satisfaction as he shouldn't have done it in the first place. I have an excellent book by a lady that keeps Arab stallions, and I've been in correspondence with her too. I agree with her statements that they don't think we are human shaped horses - they know we are different otherwise we would seriously be in the pooh! The trouble is, he now thinks I am 'his' and therefore he can boss me around and I'm not having it. I know that already his 'services' are in demand, as there are no others like him in the South, but that's not the point. If he does this again, I'm selling him, and someone else can have the problem.

What's upsetting me the most is that I've gone from my gentle giant who always protected me, regardless of his own safety, to this little ****. I'm not joking when I say I'd rather have another kitten!

Today - 04/03/08

How very odd! Merlin seems to have taken on several of Oliver's traits which has actually unnerved me a bit . Lets face it, he's a stallion, so he's going to be sharp enough to figure out if the electric fence is on or off. Oliver showed him how to listen to it ticking, but Merlin has worked out how to undo it with his teeth! What has surprised me is that Merlin has started to run to me when I whistle and he's taken on Oliver's habit of calling and chuntering when I appear with the buckets. So yesterday and this morning he was cantering around, watching me and neighing 'Look at me, are you looking?' and 'where's my bucket, is it ready yet?' Toffee as always, stands patiently knowing that I'll get there eventually and he'll never go hungry or without anything!

I've started my search for harness for them both, as this will be the year that Toffee is broken to cart and all going well, Merlin will be too. Although breaking Merlin to saddle will come first for him. A few shows for them both is on the cards too, although I may have to sweet talk Andrew into buying a trailer. Not sure how that one will go down, if at all! He may just laugh, a lot, and that will be the end of it!

Today - 03/03/08

What fickle weather we have in this country. And they say there's no such thing as global warming! Last week sunny and hot, the boys without their rugs, sweating as I brushed them free of their winter coats. Now today, sleety, snowy stuff!

Large buckets of feed, a bundle of haylage and a deep strawy bed. Next week a heatwave I expect!!!