It is getting nearer to the time when the Fillies, Bliss and Misty are due to go to Bloodstock Sales in Doncaster. We are still not sure if we are going to send them, so much so that we are now breaking them in to ride, as well as preparing them for the Auction. It is normally the person who purchases the yearlings that gets them broken.
There is a lot work to do, and you need a lot of patience when you break a Horse. I don’t mind the work but I haven’t got the patience, so I leave it to others. Any Horses that we have, that needs to be broken we always do ourselves. Of course Bliss and Misty being born at Denbury know and trust us, so any thing that we do to them, they will trust us doing. They have no reason to believe otherwise.
I thought that Bliss would be easier to break than Misty, but it looks as if it is going to be the other way around. When we are working with Misty and you go out of sight of Bliss she will keep calling for Misty. She will get out of that, within a day or two. The first thing that you need to do when breaking a Horse is to bit them, a Horse without a bit it is like a car with out a steering wheel or brakes. The bit is the control system. Some people have problems getting a bit into a Horses mouth. We do it within seconds. To get them use to the control that a bit gives, you walk by the side as if on a lead, putting very slight pressure on the left or right side of the bit, when you turn in that direction. You must be very careful not to put to much pressure on the bit otherwise you could make the Horse hard mouthed, needing for you to have to pull hard to get the Horse to turn or stop. You then progresses onto long reining. That is walking behind the Horse with long leads attached to the bit, tapping it backside to push the Horse forward. We will be long reining tomorrow. Having the Fillies broken will allow us to send them away to be trained when we want, if we decide not to sell them. I will let you know how we get on with the breaking.
Elaine, the Badger were scared by to conventional sprung rat traps that the Badgers when looking for their food accidentally tripped. I am sure some of you must have seen the large amount of rats that were feeding on the crumbs left by the Badgers after feeding on the puppy and cam two last night. I hadn’t watched that camera for a little while and had not noticed how many rats were there. I went out this morning and purchased a number of traps and an electric Zapper that electrocute the rats when they enter the box that was zooming in on. I was try to avoid using poison. After watching tonight I have little alternative. All the traps have been tripped without catching any thing and the rats are being very cautious of the Zapper. I counted thirty on view, at one time last night. There must be many more that I did not see. I really do have a problem that I have got to sort out. Secondary poising is always a possibility but poisoning seems the only sure way that I will get rid of the rats.
By the way, have any of you other than Marie managed to watch the www.tattersalls.com sale that is currently on. It is on tomorrow and Friday from 11.am until about 7.pm