The life and ramblings of a SilkyRaven Goddess ;o)

I’ve not updated for a couple of weeks! Things have been totally mad. The GBPRE show was a lot of fun but completely exhausting and work has been kicking my arse pretty seriously so there’s been limited pony time and no real capacity for me to learn new stuff with him at the moment. I just don’t have the brain power. So we’ve gone back to simple things which I would prefer not to use but can live with: for the past two weeks and the next while we’re using the pessoa three times a week for a short session. I’m still doing some ST work and smaller bits of CT but I just need to get him moving properly through that hip and build up some topline so the quick and dirty way to do that is to pessoa him.

As I don’t like this I’ve splashed some pretty serious cash on one of these: https://www.thehorsephysio.co.uk/QuickShop/equiband/. It’s got some proper research done by RVC that says it genuinely does help and it doesn’t have the link to the bit that bothers me about the pessoa. It may not arrive for a while though so until then we’re sticking with the pessoa. I really want to get hacking but it’s just not been possible for a number of reasons. Trying to keep things varied and work in the fields and bit and stuff but I really want to get up to the Forest.

I will try and have a bit more of a coherent plan in a few weeks but I feel like we just need to hang in there for a bit at the minute.

David our osteopath was out to see Dino today. It’s been six months as we missed a visit due to the Strangles epidemic so this was a long overdue untwangling for the pony! Good news is: neck, shoulders, chest, thorassic spine are all fine. Bad news: pelvis and lumbar spine are not great. This is a continuation of his usual issues but it’s a bit worse than usual due to the break and him having been stuck in with no movement basically for six weeks. His left pelvis is tipped up a bit, and that’s causing the lumbar spine to be stiff (or the right pelvis is dropped – it’s hard to say for sure) but David did some loosening work. We need to get moving more! Start and finish on the right rein, lots of serpentines starting on the right bend and don’t worry too much about canter for the moment is the plan. Overall though he just needs to move more.

He’s had a bit of a quiet week. Work has been difficult and an accident on the A406 meant I couldn’t even get to the yard on Monday evening! And it’s been raining. Hopefully this next week will clear up a bit. Good news though – our hacking buddy, Jake, is back in work so we should be able to go for a mooch tomorrow! YAY!

ION: Looks like Tony has a new flock of chicks for the summer –

I really wish things would calm down a bit but I have to say it’s not really looking very likely. Another warm week, not totally scorching but a bit warmer than Dino really likes. And randomly yesterday RJ (another horse at the yard) gave himself heatstroke! Silly poppet.

This is what Dino thinks of the warm:

So this week we have:

– done one ST session, working a bit more on the HI and SI and trying to get rid of that push

– had a couple of schooling sessions: transitions, building up some canter and doing a little lateral work.

– had a ride in the field yesterday which got a bit more forward canter from him.

Seems to be going ok. We can get a complete circuit of canter on both reins and walk-canter is ok. Rein back isn’t very straight though, so we need to do more of that between some poles I think. But he’s getting some fitness back.

This week I think the plan is:

Monday: CT/ST kinda session

Tuesday: Schooling – maybe in the field

Wednesday: day off

Thursday: Polework – want to start jumping again!

Friday: ?CT/ST

Saturday: Schooling

Sunday: Hack if I can

Really need to get some hacking buddies. We miss going out and Jake has been off work so our usual partner hasn’t been about. Would be great to get up to the Forest again soon!

I’ve been wanting to do some gin tasting stuff on here for a while as I thought some of you might enjoy it, but it’s taken a while to get round to it! I received this gin tasting selection a while ago and thought it might be a good place to start, so one Friday evening I rocked up at EJ’s house and we drank it all. For science, you understand….



First up….Macedonia…?

Not a part of the world known for it’s gin making, this was quite an interesting gin! It was extremely juniper-y. Really quite over-powering. There were also some slightly sweet notes, a bit of fruit somewhere over the top but mostly it was shouting really loudly about juniper. I mean, that’s a thing with gin, I get it…but clubbing you round the nose with it isn’t always a good thing. Even in gin.

Just over some ice it was very sweet, the floral notes came through a bit more. Still juniper there of course but some of the other flavour began to come through. Once you added some tonic though…all about the juniper. It was quite a light gin overall, probably one for the start of an evening.

Our recommendation: a 50:50 g&t with the Fevertree tonic, as the stronger flavour of the tonic will take some of edge off the juniper.

Next up… Bulgaria? Seriously?



Ok so maybe they have some kind of excess juniper problem is Eastern Europe that they can only solve by making gin? Not a terrible problem to have I guess, but perhaps make more gin with juniper in each batch? Seriously. This was more juniper-y than the first lot! Also some sort of spicy hints. Over ice it was a bit middle eastern really, no aftertaste but retained that slightly spicy overtone. It was nice to sip.

In tonic….er, where did the taste go? It just vanished. Extremely mild and we should have been using something that wasn’t Fevertree because honestly the whole gin aspect was (surprisingly to us!) overpowered by the tonic! How weird is that?

Our recommendation: sipping over ice.

Next up: The Netherlands.



So we’re back on more familiar turf now and the juniper issue has subsided drastically. This was a very bold gin on the nose, quite heavy. Over ice it had a sort of toffee flavour, slightly burned almost but a more rounded flavour than the previous two. With the tonic that toffee became more toffee apple! It was nice, quite light not too sweet.

I had feared it was going to be all a bit Jenever but happily it wasn’t. It was much smoother and pleasantly light. T Fevertree balanced it well though.

Our recommendation: 50:50 g&g with the Fevertree tonic.

Back to…Kosovo!



And here we are again in juniper country being clobbered round the nose with the juniper bat. People. Yes, gin has juniper in it. That is indeed a key part of the definition. But seriously, it doesn’t need that much juniper. Weirdly this one also had some overtones that reminded us of diesel. Yes, diesel. It was a bit odd.

Over ice some lavender turned up, which was a nice surprise and it was quite sweet. Happily the diesel fucked off so no idea what that was about. With tonic it was quite complex, a fair bit of lavender but still a hint of an industrial feel. We wished we had some plainer tonic for it (like the Sainsbury’s or Waitrose own brands which don’t have a strong taste but also, importantly, don’t contain sweeteners!)

Our recommendation: a long g&t with a lighter flavoured tonic.

Last up: Italy.



This was really floral. Like a fucking bouquet of flowers floral. It was quite hard to pick which flowers exactly but it was quite green smelling. I liked it. Over ice the juniper came through, which balanced it up nicely but this one really worked with tonic. Some wonderful creamy, vanilla notes came out but it was a bit over-powered by the Fevertree so a lighter tonic is called for.

Our recommendation: a good afternoon g&t, with cake and a lighter gin.

I hope you enjoyed this! We certainly did. If you want us to do more of this, and bring in other seasoned gin drinks of the one and only #ginsquad then comment here and say nice things.

What a week. London hit about 34 degrees this week which is too hot for me or the pony! Half Spanish he may be but he was born in Kent and really doesn’t cope with temperature over about 25 degrees. Poor thing. He came out in hives!!!! They’ve gone now but it was a bit worrying in the middle of the week. I think it just a heat reaction and he wasn’t much bothered fortunately.

So we haven’t done much actual training this week. We did have a go at some Connection Training work though, targetting a cone and sending to it and coming away. He enjoys his clicker sessions. Here’s some rubbish video:

I did also get the SLR out again and take some summer photos. He really is my favourite of all his colours at the moment. He’s mostly a sort of deep mahogany to look at but in bright sunlight he goes quite orange!

Yesterday it was cool enough to get the saddle out and have our third ride since April! He was really good. It’s still pretty warm but we got some reasonable transitions and a few steps of both shoulder-in and haunches-in on both reins. I feel like we’re getting back to things. Need to arrange to do some hacking though!

Ok plan for this week is a bit of clicker stuff mostly and getting him looser:

Handling stuff:

– grooming without nipping or leg waving

– being saddled without angry faces (in stages, so just saddle pad, then saddle but no girth, then saddle with loose girth and finally properly girthed – but this should be done over a few sessions)

Schooling: short sessions focussing on attitude as much as anything else.

Monday – In hand: walking, teaching ‘out’ & ‘back’

Tuesday – In hand: as Monday

Wednesday – Lunging: poles

Thursday – day off

Friday – Lunging: physio band

Saturday -day off

Sunday – Lunging: poles

I’ve just got back from a wonderful week in Venice with Peter, my first proper holiday in some time. It was really good to get away from work and all the Dino stress and just chill out in the warm. The photos from the trip are here: (click through to Flickr)

We didn’t do the big ticket items: we didn’t go into the Basilica or the Doge’s Palace for example as the queues were too long. Instead we did smaller churches and generally wandered around some of the less populated areas. We started the week with a walking tour which was really good and took us round a less tourist filled area and then just wandered really. It was great.

First off: greetings to possible new readers over on Dreamwidth! Sorry for adding some older posts with the wrong dates – I was testing out this cross-posting thing and apparently it works! I probably won’t cross post all the old entries, but if you come over to http://www.silkyraven.co.uk/ you can see Dino’s whole story from the day we first went to meet him!

So things in pony-land are still stressful. Dino’s temperature has been pretty stable around the 37.1 – 37.5 mark all week, even after he had the last of the anti-biotics and Bute on Wednesday morning. He also has none of the other symptoms, the discharge or the lumps so it looks like he escaped the full blown illness. There is a risk he could still be carrying it though and pass it onto other horses so on Friday my vet came to see him and do a guttural pouch wash. This turns out to be a fairly tricky thing! Basically the guttural pouches are a space inside the back of the nose where Strangles bacteria quite like to hide out so you pass an endoscope up the nose, fiddle about a lot until you get a tube into the pouches, put some saline in to catch some bacteria and then pull this now bacteria laden saline back out. The bacteria is then sent to be DNA-tested to see if it’s Strangles. I’m really *really* hoping it is not. If it is it’s another 6 weeks in quarantine and then we have to do the whole thing *again* to see if he’s still carrying it.

Dino was heavily sedated but still wildly unhappy about the whole thing. Hopefully we won’t have to do it again! Vet confirmed that his lymph nodes are normal and agreed with me that the very very slight discharge he has is likely from dry hay so that was a relief and means the grill has come off his stable door and he can put his head out to see other ponies again! Yay! He’s still confined to his stable though until we get the results.

I need to start thinking about how I’m going to get him back into work. He’ll need a programme to loosen him up after being confined for so long and I suspect his hips will be very stiff. If he does end up being confined for another 6 weeks we’ll need to do a bit more of something in his stable to keep in occupied.

What a fucking nightmare this is. I’m shattered. I’ve been to the yard every morning this week and every evening. Livery haven’t touched Dino. He’s mostly fine, couple of spikes in temperature but we’ve kept going with the antibiotics and it’s an even 37.1 for the last day. He has a small amount of discharge but I think that might just be the hay and straw he’s exposed to.

We will find out on Friday. Goncalo says the only way to be sure if it is Strangles is to do a guttural pouch wash so he’s coming out on Friday afternoon. With any luck I’ll get the results before I go on holiday and with a bit more luck it won’t be strangles. Not really holding out much hope though….

Meanwhile he’s in pony prison… *sadness*