Hello! So as promised in my last blog, with a spot of good weather came Classy’s little bundle of joy and at 1.30am on 5 May a little skewbald filly was born.
We were there to witness it all and, although it seemed like forever, it was a text book birth and Classy has taken to motherhood like a duck to water. Matilda, as the foal is now named, is currently learning the art of leading… something she isn’t that impressed about! She is such a little madam, ahem, I mean character, and I can’t help but smile just from simply looking at her!
On the other hand, our first homebred Oakley has given me no reason to smile recently. If you have read my previous blogs you will know that Oakley is far from a straightforward chap. His behaviour, temperament and general demeanour has been rapidly declining over the past couple of months and I decided to follow my gut and start investigating why – I didn’t believe he was simply being naughty, as some of his behaviour, especially while tacking up, was too extreme.
I had saddle, back, teeth etc all checked to find all was well, and on the same day as Matilda was born the vet came out to scope him. Sure enough, much to my relief I will say, he was found to have several grade three stomach ulcers which, in the vets words, ‘looked pretty nasty’. He is currently on a four-week course of treatment, however as yet there is little to no improvement. He is in very steady, light work, and I’m trying to keep everything easy and fun so he realises he isn’t sore anymore, but unfortunately any competition plans are currently firmly on hold for now. I will keep you updated with his progress, but something tells me there will be a long, slow and frustrating road ahead.
Monty Brown is still away at boarding school with Boogie Machin but I cant wait for him to come home. He is doing well by all accounts and is mainly concentrating on dressage for now – not his strongest forte, he feels he must find things to spook at to liven things up!
Nevertheless, in his last outing he came second with only one collective mark off of joint first! On the same day at Arena UK, there was some clear-round showjumping on, and I hopped on for the first time in a couple of months to have a spin round the course! It was great to be back on, and he will hopefully come home sometime in July.
As I am away for two weeks on my honeymoon soon (I know, its okay for some!) it makes no sense to bring him home now, for him to have two weeks off and potentially go backwards, so his boarding school adventure will last a little longer and he will most likely start doing some BS in the next month or so.
Patch has had another very busy month, as you will see in my video! Her next outing is at Stone Lodge Equestrian to do some ‘stressage’ on Sunday 29 May, along with a friends horse who I will attempt to pilot round the boards!
Of course, I found this on Equo Events, although I was spoilt for choice this weekend for what to enter! This will be my last day of competing before I get married, as next weekend I am stewarding at Messingham Show (also on Equo – and what a great schedule it is!) then it is the big day!
I’m only just starting to feel a little bit nervous but its mainly excitement, and I look forward to sharing some of my day in my next blog.
Team Taylor
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