Winter Moon

I had intended for this blog just to be about all the daft stuff Moon does. As he’s still the only horse I’ve met who picks up dandy brushes and brushes the floor with them and holds letter in his mouth.

Moon The Post Pony

However I have come to realise that this will mean posts only occur once in a blue moon. (No pun intended) So I am afraid I will move away slightly from my beginnings and move towards keeping everyone updated and include the Moon antics as they happen.

In that vein I have to say it’s been way too long since the last update. Winter is a ridiculously busy time and I have to say getting up at 5.30am and finishing work at 7pm and maybe squeezing in a ride after does not leave much room for blogging! I have 6 horses that do day shift / night shift in my four stables. And ‘changeover’ and mucking out twice a day really does take its time. I have to assert however that I wouldn’t have it any other way. No matter how muddy, wet or dog tired I get I would never give up my horses. And all that hard work and perseverance is worth it when we get good results, as is becoming our habit!

After his holiday Moon started jumping properly having weekly lessons with James Adams. He improved so much after numerous late nights schooling session is minus 5 at Richmond equestrian centre and the practice was beginning to pay off.

Confidently jumping small courses at lots of different places, we were well on our way to being ready for the 2012 event season and Burghley Young Event Horse qualifiers (BYEH). Early spring saw us on XC courses and clinics. Moon still demonstrating his look before you leap attitude and not jumping anything unless he was convinced his delicate soup plate hooves had some place to land on the other side. 

Then came the rain . . . and more rain. . and more rain. This put an end to the cross country schooling.

Meanwhile we continued to compete in winter dressage leagues with great success. In May Moon was awarded the league champion at both prelim and novice level. I am so proud of my pet pony he has really grown into himself. I think the photos demonstrate how much he’s filled out in just a few months.

That’s you caught up to May. Mays antics require their own blog entry!

Moon kisses to you all.  x

Tents and Tannoys

Wow so much has happened since our last update. We've been in mad preparations for Stokesly show, the last big agricultural show of the season and a mini ambition for us. Adult pony camp was fab, aside from a few high spirited leaps and one canter that was distinctly out of control he was fabulous. He took to staying in a different stable (they had yummy haylage not skanky hay so it was nice) riding with 10 other horses and even jumping small fences, completely in his stride. He did however think that every horse wanted to be his friend and had to sniff everyone he happened to stand next to. The ever patient school ponies couldn’t not have cared less there was a new horse there!

We've been to multiple shows where Moon yet again covered himself in glory. A win in a six string hunter class to win his first sash and winning his first and then his second prelim test at riding club dressage! Such a good boy. I am going to have to stop riding round the ring expecting to come at the bottom of the line up!

So with multiple adult class lessons at Kirklevington riding centre, an extra lesson with chief instructor Jen Brooks whom he went very well for (v proud mother here!). The Saturday finally approached of Stokesly show. Having planned a birthday night out on the Friday night out was not the wisest but something different had to be done and trying to get six girls in one place at one time IS NOT easy!

So after 4 hours sleep I arose at 4am to drag a bewildered Button out of the field, he was actually lying down and  had to be pulled to his feet. At 5am we were lunging in the dark. He was a very very good boy about this. And at 6am I had finished his bath and was doping Him up with the essential Nupafeed syringe!

Stokesly show is not like all the other shows we’ve been to at riding centres. It’s a permanent showground with big main ring, hundreds of spectators (on a sunny day!) Vintage tractors, multiple massive marquees, cows, sheep, pigs and a tannoy system. Now Moon feigns fear of cows at home and has never seen anything like a marquee or heard the buzz from a tannoy. Stokesly attracts lots of entries so is as expecting a full ring of high quality entries and was not disappointed.
Setting off on time ish minus a camera, and probably my mind, we arrived to a quiet but full showground and unloaded him before the trailer was in bits around him. The lorry park is thankfully v close to the ring so everything looked normal to him and he just stood and attempted to eat the grass.

Impatience was high, so I mounted quickly and rode him round for a bit expecting a few good leaps and to have to wear him out a bit, we had plenty of time. In the tiny warm up he trotted around fine and actually felt a bit steady! Shock, just one spook at a man who was thoughtlessly trying to attach a bin bag to the outside of the fence of the collecting ring, he seemed very calm. So we went back to the trailer for a touch up. Twice. Now here I think I should state that I had not had time to trim him on Friday so had trimmed him up at 6am and missed a few whiskers so you can guess our turnout was not at the highest standard but he was impatient so we abandoned and went back to ‘warm up’. No one notices the turnout of the horses that are way down the line up anyway!
Just before the show started we were standing at the edge of the collecting ring watching a few others warm up and astounding at my scarily calm 4yr old (thanks Nupafeed!). The tannoy started up welcoming everyone and to my horror I realised we were stood just 3 meters away from a tall speaker stand AND one on the floor. I quickly gathered up my reins. Moon started. Then as the voice continued he simply turned his head to look at who had the ridiculous voice! Looking around and seeing No one confused him. He looked left and right. No one, ears flicking around totally bemused look on his face. Clearly thinking “who is that? I hear a voice. . .  Does anyone else hear a voice?? . . . Where is that person?”
Again this happened and we laughed and laughed at him. Poor confused baby. But soon the collecting ring got busy; 14 big hunters in a 20m x 15m area made it look like bees round a honey pot so we retired to standing outside the ring and watching.

Soon the imaginary voice said it was time to enter the ring and there was  a mass exodus as 14 big, mostly bay, horses negotiated their way into the ring, past the open water jump that had been left for the show jumpers and the marquees right on the side of  the MAIN RING FENCE. There was chaos. If being a main ring with all the fun of the fair around it wasn’t enough, they had piled up all the showjumping wings up all along each side of the arenas, then some bright spark had run red and white plastic tape along to cordon it off. 
Now we all know Moons feeling towards show jumps; always best off given a very wide berth. Not good. In addition to this as the class spread out the red tape began to flutter in the wind which caused half  the class to proceed completely sideways across the judges’ side of the arena. Great class! Luckily I had spotted a big grey horse that seemed to be blind (not batting an eye at ANYTHING) and made a bee line for him. Riding across the tape side the horse in front of Moon stopped and ran backwards towards him, so we simply changed our track and went round him settling in behind big grey blind horse. Moon is a good sheep, so just trotted round behind grey horse happily, if a little livelier than in the collecting ring. Thankfully after realising that there would be no class whatsoever if people kept going sideways and stopping all over the place some stewards took the tape down.
The only thing he didn’t get used to after a good five laps of the beautiful Main arena was  a last lonely piece of tape flapping around a tannoy pole. All was well. The very sensible judge required no galloping from the Novice Hunters so we just  trotted and cantered on both reins. Some people tried to overtake me and get between me and grey horse but a few overtaking in the corners manoeuvres sent us safely back behind our shepherd.


I trotted past the steward and he invited me into the ring and unsure of where to stand I sensibly stood slightly further away from the massive water tray and had to move closer when asked. Damn. A few more horses lined up by the steward and people started dismounting so I copied. The judge came over and I was asked to pull Moon forward to she could ride him. No problem I said and replied he was only 4. Then while I waited with trusty groom Caroline I asked her if the steward had asked certain horses to join the line up or just lined everyone up together. She said she saw the 6^th or 7^th horse being asked to come in. MY god. We were at the TOP of the line up!  I refrained (almost) from jumping up and down with excitement and watched Moon being ridden beautifully by the judge, he was a tiny bit gobby but apart from that looking fabulous. Then he went past aforementioned tannoy pole with tape and spooked sideways, throwing in a change of leg (only the front ones) to add to the effect. Judge did not move an inch and pushed him back over to which he simply changed his front legs back. Star. He lengthened nicely the steward noted to me and said that the judge was into her dressage. I replied that that was a good thing as my horse was into his dressage too! Finally his turn was over, it seemed like an ages and she got off and moved to the next horse without a word.

Roughly an hour later the judge was getting to the end of the line. Moon got bored after the 3^rd horse and reverted to his banging his front foot trick and almost taking Caroline out at the knees. So knowing his love of anything to chew we found my jumping whip in my grooms bag. (Things only go IN the bag and don’t get removed!) So he happily chewed on the end of the whip and waved it about for the next 45  minutes. Caroline noticed we were the only people talking to our horse, entertaining him and even kissing him while we waited. Everyone else was too busy covering them in baby oil. And they thought WE were mad!

Finally it was time for a quick trot up. Now here I was nervous. Moon only has awareness of his legs when they are moving and consequently looks like a total retard when he stands, standing with one back leg in front of the other or front feet on top of each other.  Making him look like his conformation is awful! So I was worried all our hard work in the riding would all go to waste. By some miracle he stood fairly wide in front and behind and square ish behind. A front leg was a little twisted out but on the scale of Moon retardedness it wasn’t half bad! We walked calmly away and turned to trot back. I set off and so did Moon. MUCH faster than I was going! He leapt past me and I had to turn around and regain control, after he realised I wasn’t going to sprint he trotted up past the judge in a fairly straight line.

As I got back on it started to rain. Joy. Luckily we were at the end and it was time for a final go round. After being in the ring for an hour and a half I was hoping we’d avoid this.  So off we went at the front, with no big grey horse to follow. No one in fact! In what seemed like an eternity they pulled us in first. Absolutely chuffed to pieces. We got out red rosette and judge said he didn’t move quite straight but he was only 4 and she was very impressed with how loose he was through his back and neck. She said he spooked but he sorted himself out and again he is only a baby. And had behaved perfectly apart from that.  Taking my lap of honour was amazing. I am so proud of my wobbly baby horse. To  lead the way round  the main ring on him was an honour I never expected.  I only wanted him to behave among all the monsters he’d never seen before  and I hoped a place would cap of his season perfectly, but to win was amazing. I am so lucky to have such a lovely horse.  

So the super star show horse has been on holiday for two weeks. Not having really grasped the idea of a holiday he’s been  galloping madly around the field with Zonda, breaking all the gates he can find and now keeps coming over to me when I’m in the field as if to say “isn’t it my  turn to go for a ride mum?” or maybe he just knows I’ve always got food! 

Peace, love and ribbons to you all. From all the mad ones and the superstar show horse.

Airs above the ground

Moon is getting fitter - and apparently more intelligent!

We were having our regular ish dressage lesson. And I am as usually half moaning about things in the response to the first question “how’s he been going?” and unusually there is a long pause while he watches us warm up in our very own dressage arena in the field.

Then Paul says, do you think he has good rhythm? As we’ve been trotting round for 5 mins in pretty much the same speed I say yes. And Paul replies with well why are you still trying trotting round in that trot? He’s BORED, that’s why eh wont concentrate. He needs something more exciting to do! Now I was under the impression my dearest moon was a little slow, he is undoubtedly ‘special’ but I thought he may be a tad err backwards (!?) in the thinking department, but apparently there is enough brain natter to be bored by 20m circles in trot!

So off we go in shoulder in, medium trot, walk to canter, shoulder in to medium, flexion to inside and outside and so many transitions I felt a tad of whiplash! After 20mins gruelling work for my mind and body (a few transitions were late or did not appear at all due to my brain just not being able to comprehend so many things at once!) Paul says ‘you ride better when you do lots of things together’. So I ride better when I can’t concentrate on what my arms and legs are supposed to be doing. Gee THANKS!

Practice, practice, practice.
A few days after the lesson we are practicing Halts, square-ish in front and obedient in the contact.  Moon has decided that walk to canter is MUCH more fun (he even does it on the lunge now) and would rather do that than stand still. So reverses and reverses and reverses. I let him work it out and we travel backwards 20m at a speed faster than I’m comfortable with. Eventually he stops, I can hear him t thinking ‘that’s didn’t work’, I breathe out. Without any warning he jumps clean off all four feet vertically up in the air kicking his hind legs out behind him and lands in exactly in the same place still as a statue. ‘That didn’t work either’ he thinks. Shocked I laugh a little nervously and after a few seconds ask him to walk on.
Mad horse.

Summer Show At Kirklevington

So Moons ‘Airs above the ground’ as the Spanish riding school call them are increasing in size and frequency. But so far he’s always pulled it off in the ring so in preparation for a bigger show in Sept we take him out to Kirklevington to their summer show. We arrived very stressed with Moon and Polly (Zonda was going to attend but on Friday decided he didn’t like the trailer so couldn’t go) and after a call from my friend en route I get straight on in case I miss Moons class. The collecting ring/warm up area is reasonably busy and there are families stood all over it. Bad idea. An agitated Moon trots about half looking for Polly half gawping at small ponies running around him. Ten minutes in and he still feels like a bomb ready to explode and the leaps start. Squealing he jumps into the air, and bucks a few times, I  continue to trot and he continues to squeal and leap until one rather large leap followed by a few bucks results in us almost landing on \ very nice coloured horse stood quietly with his rider. At this point our class in getting closer an I am getting worried that my love.ly well behaved moon is still in the field somewhere and I am about to attempt a riding horse/ hunter class on a wild 16.2hh four year old.
An hour or so later (having missed the in hand veteran for Polly due to poor stewarding) Moon is worn out and as long as someone strand at his head (he likes company) he stands quietly and waits. Eventually its time for our class, only3 in it so I breathe a brief sigh of relief, plenty of room in the ruing. A quick word with my fellow competitors (all friends and colleagues from Kirklevington) to stay away from me and we enter the ring. The only thing Moon cannot stand is horses up his behind. Passing fine cantering in front of him, fine. Coming up too close behind No way. We walk trot and canter round happily on both reins with only a warning growl at Lilly for getting a tad too close despite have a huge ring at her disposal, she circles and he is perfectly behaved. He gets pulled in first. He does a perfect show, probably the best he has ever gone. Totally pinging in medium trot, beautiful canter transitions and totally obedient pulling up. A smart show by little Lilly and Emma had me worried but he won his class and I was much chuffed.


The championship was later on and a bit of a mad dash as I had ridden Polly in the class before. We trotted all the way into the ring away from a totally mad Polly held by Saint Caroline. There were ten horses in the ring and it was crowded, we walked and trotted and the judge asked the little ponies if they were ok to trot around with the giants. Both said yes so off we went, shortly into the first canter poor Ellies pony had had enough and Zoomed off at high speed across the ring towards the exit, unfortunately Moon and I just happened to be right by the exit and after a loud call from the judge to ‘STOOOPPPP” we performed a perfect canter to halt transition as a small palomino pony gallop straight towards him, swerving last minute as he remembered the gate we slightly to his left sending his poor little jockey flying off sideways hitting the ground with a thud and skidding towards moon,. Moon jumped at the thud but otherwise stood stock still, good boy.


Now my dear moon is not used to these things happening, he has never even seen small ponies never mind had one hurtling at him at speed and has never witnessed small riders fly off all over the place. And it upset him a little bit. So now a very on edge moon is trotting round not really concentrating pulling and acting like a bomb again. Another close encounter with the other sister on her own slightly larger pony getting way to close behind him sets him off on a broncing fit. Unfortunately right down the side the judge was watching. Twice. Now they didn’t last for very long and I managed to keep both stirrups throughout and he kept quiet so if he’d done it down the other side No one would have been any the wiser, especially not the judge! But No, moon had to do it right down the side the judge was watching. Never mind – we now know what moon needs practice at. People riding close up behind him!


So we’re off to adult pony camp next week to see the sights of all the riding school has to offer! Wish us Luck!
x

Riding A Dressage Bomb!

Moon again has been growing up, ish.

The recent weeks have seen us out and about places and acting more like a 4 year old and less like a laid back lad we’ve come  to know and love.

In an effort to calm him down more trips have been arranged, a lesson with Paul in which the first 10mins was spent leaping around DEATH eating dressage boards and almost unseating a ride whose stirrups despite being just right for dressage and not ‘just right’ for staying on leaping 4yr olds!
A second trip to Kirklevington riding centre in their beautiful big indoor led to more broncing around like a mustang including a rather embarrassing incident in which another horse dares to canter over a pole, which is enough of an excuse to canter but then had the indecency to hit the pole sending Moon into a series of squealing broncs till we arrived on the track at the opposite wall quite close behind the offending horse. Luckily by the time the rider realised and turned around (deep in concentration) I had yanked his head off the floor and was able  flash a beaming smile looking mostly in control, if a little close!

And with this in my mind we set off for our long overdue first dressage. . . .

The unicorn centre was chosen for its lack of dressage boards and quiet setting good job) and a request to go very early in the class was duly granted by the very helpful lady.  And did I mention I was away for 3 days before the competition! Eek! Luckily I had gone to visit Nupafeed maestros the Nobles and had advised my ever trusty helper to feed him the Nupafeed liquid twice a day till I returned.

The Monday arrived and being the day before the competition and a serious training session was set off for. However when we reached the arena a couple of younger riders were experimenting with their ones so in the spirit of training I rode with them. Ever easily swayed I trotted round a bit wondering why my pony was so slow and quiet. Then as he was so very slow I let Sophie the 16yr old 5ft nothing have a spin. He was beautifully behaved for her and looked pretty smart! So our serious training sesh turned into a random trot about! H seemed fine so the nest day a shattered rider had to have a nap after teaching before bathing a hairy greasy baby pony, whom to the joy of his rider is VERY good at standing, just standing.

Somehow we managed to get there on time and an hour early ready for some antics. Massively stressed I unloaded and managed to undo all the gates into the warm up without getting off. After a little look around warm up was going beautifully, a whole 30mins of it.

Our time was nearing; things were gearing up and two small ponies’ cam to be led around their tests before us. Fine, fine, fine. Until the first pony went in for his test. The second pony rider had dismounted, for a reason I was about to discover. Pony one a bay pony on a lead rein always lived with pony two – a small grey (not your perfect old grey PC pony) and grey pony got separation anxiety when he couldn’t see him. So his leader let him run around in circles on the end of a lead rope in the middle of the warm-up. Not clever. Moon has never seen strange small creatures behave in such a way and thought it was necessary to show them what proper horses do and leap around. And leap, and leap.

I must add in here that while he was being a good boy I had removed his bandages and breastplate (Handle) and had my stirrups at ‘proper dressage’ length so leaping wasn’t appreciated. When a few more horses came to join the ‘party’ he decided that he had had enough of being perfect and that he should show people that he was worthy of more than a walk /trot test and that really he should be in the Spanish riding school. Even if he isn’t white. So some leaping off his hind legs then throwing out every other leg at random angles whilst in the air demonstrated this quite nicely and his wowed audience watched appreciatively wondering how long before someone fell off.

Luckily it was time for my test so I dubiously took a deep breath and kicked like billy o to get into the arena. A few more deep breaths and I assessed the space. The RDA mounting block at foot height was enough for Moon and he stopped in the middle of the arena and promptly pooed himself. “No thanks” he said and I silently replied “but that’s HALF of the arena down there you have to go past K and A!” more deep breaths and gentle encouragement mean the second time round he went past with only his eyes sticking out past the track.

A patient judge let us walk round for a while and the bell rang and we set off, and bless him was he good. He felt like a bomb, ready to explode at any moment, but trying so hard to contain himself. He tried and tried to concentrate and held on by a knife edge to his composure and did a lovely test. Rider error meant his foot hit the wall once and he got a bot distracted in free walk (how DARE some horse whinny from the car park!) but aside from that he tried so hard. I was over the Moon! Outside I hugged and patted and hugged some more while he just walked and looked at me as if to say “I don’t know what all the fuss is about- I just trotted around a bit”

My beautiful baby is blossoming! Not so much that he can stand still in the lorry park for a while and eat grass, No, no! This dressage pro was now so important he had to go and say hi to all the other horses who were standing quietly by their trailers. So he just ran off from my mum across the car park. Twice. No sniffing squealing or running round, just went to see another bay gelding to keep him company.

We waited for the results and much to my delight he had won! 71% and won by a large margin! I was so proud; it made my very busy and tiring day.

Until next time Moon-ster followers, stay safe and enjoy August!

******** Honourable mentions go to Rupert in his first dressage finishing 3^rd behind Moon, who also terrorised the collecting ring by kicking out every time I used my leg. (These people are never going to want me back!)  And poor Big Ginger horse who unfortunately lost his life the same evening at a yard along the road from ours. May we all realise how lucky we are when we have high points.

Over the Moon!

Again Moon and I have been busy visits out here and there and Polly has been doing the majority of the hard showjumping work!

Moon however has had an ‘easy’ time of things mostly just flat schooling and weekends off.  Every now and then jumps and poles appear in the school and he feigns terror, spins around and refuses to go anywhere near the ‘Monster’ until rider becomes far scarier (growling and a schooling whip seem to work)  and he just trots over it.  There was one almost unseated moment where he had trotted over it fifteen times each way but decided this time it was due for a 3ft leap in the air to the right whilst looking down as far as his neck would reach to the left!

His 3^rd showing show loomed and after a few weeks at home I thought  he needed a trip out before terrorising the show ring so a lovely local friend agreed we could use their outdoor. We arrived at their beautifully kept outdoor arena at the Wades ‘The Grange’ farm and livery Yard and Moon was as high as a kite! Bouncing everywhere and spooking at jumps in the corner and chickens roaming free. It took a good half an hour of bouncing around for him to settle and do some reasonable work in the arena; this did not give me great hope for the show on Sunday!

Nevertheless we exercised bathed after work on Saturday got up early to plait and clean tack on Sunday. . . with a little help from a generous friends Gaynor and our fabulous team Moon groom Caroline we were ahead of schedule when we arrived at the show just minutes along the road from home. With plenty of time we touched up, tacked up and walked around an alert Moon. His class was the first one in the ring and the show field was full of tiny ponies and screaming kids. No horses as yet though . . . Moon walked and looked calmly at first but shortly a squeal was followed by a leap and leg throw. Walking was boring. Trotting and cantering fine and he settled into some lovely work but when we walked he looked around, squealed and leapt about. Plenty of time meant a warm up till he settled a dismount to touch up his pretty face and a remount and walk towards an empty ring. . . He was the only horse in the riding horse class. . . Beautifully behaved he won the judge over to his side, who said he was ‘Mr laid back’. Ha ha ha!

Mr Laid back takes a glance at the photographer.

A few more horses appeared for the next Hunter class which I guessed from the springs on his feet was a bit more exciting! We carefully circles away so the other horses were in behind us (nothing to catch up to) to which some clever sod turned across the school to get some space. Well Moons simple brain said he’s over there, I want to be over there and squealed and leapt in protest! OOPs! A calm turn and a chance for the other horse to get round the corner was all it took or him to forget about that idea. We walked and trotted for AGES and the only other minor disobedience was when he saw a small grey pony in the other ring cantering during her individual show and thought “ I can’t do that – why aren’t I doing that” so tried again, starting with a squeal and a spin. This time the judge was watching. . .

After a mediocre show I felt I had let him down but his ‘Mr loose’ movement and laid back attitude ensured he had won the judges heart and won his second class of the day! Bless him, he just about held onto himself and carried off two red ribbons.  To say I was pleased may be an understatement! I was over the moon!

Bored Button

We haven't yet found a solution to our trailer problem, any suggestions welcomed!

My lovely sane moon is back. And behaving like a good boy again. Nothing much has happened but i thought I’d let you into the wonderful world of bored Moon. Firstly he loves his food, like any man does. But when he's licked every last inch of the bucket it becomes his favourite toy. He picks it up, flaps it up and down and throws it everywhere. He’ll stand for 10mins after breakfast and play. All fun and games for him but i sometimes have to trek a good 100m to go get it to fill it up again! 
I've even devised a game for both the boys to keep them occupied. After feeding them all I stack up all 6 buckets with treats in between then watch them sniff and lift all the buckets off to find the treats. Took a long time first time, not so the long second!

Moon entertaining himself whilst being tacked up

He also has a 'treats ball' one of those decahedron things you will full of food and then they push it around (or try to chew his way through the outside of it in Moons case) and the treats fall out. I put i t in for both of them to enjoy but poor Zonda (moons field mate) is not allowed near it before Moon. Even if Zonda has been nosy and is near the gate when it gets thrown in Moon will run across the field to nose it around first. Now Moon does not run voluntarily, he’s far too laid back for that but for the bright red ball, he will canter completely of his own accord, right across the field. Just to make sure he gets there before Zonda eats all his treats! 

Zonda or Houdini as we like to call him is Moons field mate. Moon is too socially inept to share a field with herd boss Polly who will kick anything within a 10 foot radius whether it was coming at her or not. He’d just wander up behind her dopily and then wonder why he his leg hurts so much as it's hanging off at the knee, so he is always kept separate from her and the girls. He used to live with darling Cleo who was the only one who accepted him as a friend when he arrived as a completely socially retarded creature who didn’t know how to groom another horse or how herd politics work but Moon loves to play to cure his boredom he likes to bite and buck and occasionally run. So does Zonda! Which gives rise to the biting game. An amazing invention that could only have been invented by two boys. You stand, face to face then bite each other’s neck. Hard. You don’t run away, just bite. It’s a bit like the horse version of 'slapsies'. occasionally when it gets really serious you rear up at each other to see who is the tallest (always Moon) but mostly it’s about who can bite the others neck the most. (You can see whey Cleo quickly grew sick of sharing a field with the boys).  Moon usually loses. Well in human terms loses i.e. he always has more hair missing and more cuts on his neck. He does seem to get Zonda a lot but he has no hair missing off his face, which is a shame when Moon is the one who has to stand in front of a judge wondering why my horse has gone bald in random places on his face, not Zonda. Maybe moon is too soft. That would make sense. . !

The Biting Game

 
Moons other favourite thing to do, apart from eat play with his bucket and the biting game is rolling. He loves it. Especially after getting showered off after riding. However he has a rather special way of doing it. He paws all the mud or dust up lies down and rolls one side, all very normal. Then he sits up, just like a dog, walks his front legs around his bottom like he’s doing a sitting half pass and collapses to scratch the other side, it is so funny. Sometime he just sits and surveys the world, possibly imagining what it would be like to be a dog and live on the sofa and not have to do any real work! It’s a shame he’s too big for the house. He'd love it!

Dog Sitting

 The Boys Just Chilling Out