Author: UftonGreen

Last night I attended a Heartstart first aid session arranged by the Mortimer Village Partnership and run by the Rural Responders in conjunction with the British Heart Foundation.

It was a very enjoyable couple of hours covering the recovery position, CPR, use of defib machines and dealing with things like severe bleeding and choking.

Key learning points for me were:

1. CPR is now 30 heart compressions and 2 breaths, it was 15:2 when I last did first aid training.
2. A 5cm chest compression is essential to get blood to the heart and yes it does feel like you are beating the cr*p out of someone.
3. You are highly unlikely to bring someone round with CPR its function is only to keep blood to the brain until the emergency services arrive.
4. A defib machine would be your new best friend in an emergency situation.
5. Horsey people are more likely to have a handy dressing/bandage about their person than most people.

It was a free course (although donations welcome) and something I’d recommend to everyone. We now have three defib machines in the village which is great news and over 30 people attended the session last night.

https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/how-to-save-a-life/how-to-do-cpr/heartstart

We have been working with West Berks Council to improve the access for walkers in three of our paddocks that are crossed by a footpath.  West Berks have installed a combination of kissing and latch gates but the work required removal of sections of old barbed wire fencing that needed replacing to secure the perimeter. This is the last area of the farm requiring major fencing improvements and we spent the day pulling out old barbed wire fencing that had collapsed, hanging gates and installing new post and plain wire fencing in all the gaps in the hedge lines.

We need to fit one more gate and install a water trough but apart from that it is ready to use.  This area of the farm has previously been a bit tricky to access but we have reinstated an overgrown track that leads from the yard to the fields so we now have about another 8 acres easily accessible from the yard.

Despite the cold it was a beautifully sunny day and the job was completed without too much swearing.

We’ve had some amazing sunsets over the yard this week.  Jess and Ellie caught the last of the daylight to take Benny and Rupert out for a walk in hand and Jess managed to get this wonderful picture of Rupert gazing across the fields as they came back.

Rupert is a 9 year old who Jess is re-backing with a view to driving eventually, this was his second in-hand hack since he arrived at the end of July.

Last Friday we had a visit from Jess one of the nutritionists at Top Spec.  Expertly arranged by Lucy one of our liveries Jess weighed 19 horses on the portable weighbridge and provided an individual feed plan for each.

It was perfect timing for some of our own horses as one is due to go back in to training in November, one is due to go back off to stud in February and one has always had trouble keeping weight on and needed a few tweaks as we head in to the winter.  My aim was also to simplify my feed regime and reduce the number of different sacks in the feed room, whilst making sure that all their nutritional needs were covered.  Luckily we have now got a plan to try that only involves four different feeds so it will be great to see how they get through the winter on the new regime.

In terms of the advice for our three, Shilpa our broodmare is starting on stud balancer with a bit of alfalfa chaff, plus ad lib hay, Molly who is going back in to training is having the Comprehensive Balancer, alfalfa chaff and ad lib hay and Odin who needs to fill out a bit was actually getting too much feed but of the wrong sort, he is going to be on Ulser Cubes and Comprehensive with a little bit of alfalfa chaff.

We all enjoyed and learnt a lot from the session, in the main most of the horses were happy to go straight on the drawbridge and if they were a little reluctant some bribing with anti-lam did the trick.  It is a free of charge service and we look forward to seeing Jess again in six months time to see how we have all coped through the winter.

Benny another of our ex-racers on loan to Ellie.  Ben weighed 548Kg and Jess suggested a few minor tweaks to his diet.

To Carley, Jenna and Wiggy who all won classes at Hall Place and Swallowfield shows today.  Carley won the 2’6″ with Cassie’s Roxy at Hall Place, Jenna with Scarlet won the Best Turned Out and Condition and Turnout stable kept classes and got two tickets for the next round of the Sunshine Tour and Wiggy won the Novice dressage at Swallowfield  with Lord Algernon Percy. 

Well done ladies, great effort all round.

Wiggy and Algy with their cup.

Suzan has recently acquired Pixie who is a young Irish Draft from a small family run stud nearby (we also have her half sister and brother on the yard).

Pixie was lightly backed a year ago and has spent the last few weeks doing groundwork ready to be ridden away at the end of this summer.  She is taking to the process well and as we fitted her for a saddle yesterday and it was nice and quiet this morning Suzan took the opportunity to take things a stage further.

Some ‘listen to me’ groundwork in the jumping paddock first including walking over some poles, stops and rein backs and then when Pixie started to really focus the first lean over from the mounting block in the yard.

All completed calmly and just before the rain came down.

Several of the liveries have been raving about the facilities at Boomerang and as Wiggy and Big A were off there for a tune up a few of us from the yard decided to tag along.

For those that have never visited Boomerang it is the ideal schooling facility for the aspiring eventer, pony clubber or anyone who fancies a fun session with their horse.  It is approximately 45 minutes away from the yard at Ufton Green and an easy journey up the M4.  There is also the opportunity to spot a few stars, we parked next to Andrew Hoy while we were there and the professionals can often be found schooling their young horses.

There are jumps and combinations to both challenge and entice and Wiggy and Big A certainly seemed to enjoy themselves.  I learnt a few things during the course of the morning:

1.  If I ever want to sell a herd of plastic sheep, or a Moulin Rouge style Maharajahs elephant I know who to call;
2. In Big A’s world choice of jump, speed and direction should be left up to him, the rider is an unfortunate encumbrance and ideally he would have taken himself around the course and then off for a cooling shower afterwards.

We got back in time to enjoy our traditional Saturday lunch of pizza and prosecco eaten on our picnic table whilst we enjoyed the footage taken in the morning.

Welcome to the blog of Ufton Green Stables based near Reading in Berkshire.

Follow our journey as we improve the facilities at the yard hopefully having some fun along the way.

Tracey