The Trials and Tribulations of the Saffmeister

2008-03-31T08:55:00.000-07:00

Ch.ch.ch.changes .....

2007-07-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

Just look at how much she's changed!

March 2007

July 2007

We changed from the way she was worked in the past (forwards, forwards, forwards - balance through movement) more to the French Classical school which works more slowly (balance before movement).

She hasn't found it easy to work more slowly but you can see that it's paying off :)

2007-07-08T12:31:00.000-07:00

How could I forget the new advanced moves that she's patented!!!!

Now first a disclaimer ... these are advanced moves and shouldn't be attempted unless your horse is ready for them and you are qualified to teach them. No responsibility will be taken for any hurties or ouchies caused by attempting these moves.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

EAT GRASS to TROT transition

One fluid movement from eating the grass to trot. There should be no walk steps inbetween. The frame should be maintained. The horse should not lose balance and fall on their nose

EATING GRASS TROT

An advanced version of the free trot on a long rein. The horse should maintain impulsion, stretch down long and low and should eat a mouthful of grass at each stride. They should not lift their heads between each mouthful and should not lose their balance and fall on their nose

MUNCHING FROM THE HEDGE LATERALS

Whilst walking or trotting forwards with purpose the horse should bend through the body, take a mouthful of hedge and then return to walking/trotting straight. This movement should be fluid with no hesitation throughout the bend.

Saff is a work in progress for these highly advanced movements but she was giving them a damn good go yesterday :)

Audition for the Spanish Riding School

2007-07-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

Despite how chilled she looks in these photos it just disproves the old adage that the camera never lies .....

When we got to the yard today the school was booked out for a private lesson for an hour so we decided to long rein her around the field.

Saff was fairly good but was rather overexcited. She did some pretty good beginnings of piaffe, passage and levade with a bit of terre-a-terre and a mini capriole (I've seen her do better on the lunge).

She was about 18 hh today, beautifully arched neck and very stallionesque.

I think that we made it round the field quicker than anyone else in the history of going around the field :)

Apart from one spot (which she's bizarrely taken an intense dislike to) she was just very exhuberent and full of the joys of the first warm day in a long time.

The levade is definitely going to be a possiblity judging by today's performance! She just gets more and more collected and then levades.

She's a LOT more athletic than she appears when you see her on the yard and we can see the horse that she can be with more training. Even when she's overexcited she's not trying to run off and doesn't pull on the lines. Strange horse.

Spanish Walk Update

2007-06-10T12:16:00.000-07:00

She's getting the height

and now the extension

Saffy's self service approach to clicker training!

Clicker Training

2007-06-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

Saffy being Saffy she's taken clicker training and added her own, very unique twist to it!

She does the move, we click and Saffy treats herself to the trees and bushes at the side of the school!

We decided today that she's not an ISH, she's a IDxTBxHamster. There's no way on earth that she can pack that much food into her mouth AND the pelham unless she's got cheek pouches! I've never known a horse like it. She ALWAYS grabs something to eat and wraps it around her bit ... it's not like she's going to starve in the hour that we're in the school.

She is progressing really nicely, though, and did a beautiful slow trot today Not bad for a ned that thinks that her place in life is bombing across a cross country course!

More piccies ...long reining and ridden

2007-05-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

Practising the Spanish Walk

2007-05-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

She loves the Spanish Walk and is always happy to show it off :)

She's getting very cocky now, though, look at how she rests her hind leg in the last piccy :)

Even more photos ....

2007-05-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Saff is loving her work these days and finding it much easier than she did before. So easy, in fact, that she can do it with her eyes closed :)

Not sure what happened here but she was very excited going into canter, squealed and .... well .... see for yourself

and a nanosecond later ....

She also loves her Lucienuts .... soaked .... she also likes to give kisses just after she's had her head in the bucket ....

The 'before' piccies

2007-05-26T11:18:00.000-07:00

Just after her shoes came off

Off Fore

Near Fore

Piccie for the hoof anoraks

2007-05-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

Look at these lovely barefoot paws :)

We have an excellent barefoot trimmer who does her feet

she's a member of the UK Equine Podiatry Association

http://www.epauk.org/

Saffy's first outing ... Heather Moffett clinic at Smeltings Farm

2007-05-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

Daft o'clock. Got up before the birds to get my taxi through to Sheffield. Still asleep as I hadn't got in from the clinic the night before until midnight.

7.30am. It's p'ing it down with rain and the herd is right at the top of our 45 acre field! Needless to say Saffy wasn't overly excited about being brought in early!

Got her back to the yard and she obviously knew that SOMETHING was going on because she wouldn't eat her feed.

She was cleaned up as best we could, plaited her mane and forelock, travel boots on, rug on, tail guard on and ready to go.

8.15am. Lorry arrives with a ramp that is akin to scaling Mount Everest. This was no 'edge them slowly up the ramp' job, this was total commitment. Not the best kind of ramp for a first load!

8.20am. Tack etc is on the lorry so time to get Saff on. She stands at the bottom of the ramp obviously rather confused as to what she needed to do. She's not naughty but isn't quite sure about it. You want me to climb up THERE? ? ? ? ? ?

8.45am. She decides to be a big brave girl, stands on her back legs and plonks her front feet 3/4 the way up the ramp. Back legs follow and she's on

9.20am. Arrive at Smeltings. She's travelled well and apart from being a bit sweaty, rubbing her tail guard off and poohing her pants she's fine. She walked off the lorry rather nicely rather than leaping or running :) Damian took her into her stable where she neighed at her new friends and tucked into her haynet.

After she'd had a while to pee and eat we tacked her up and took her into the lunge pen. I stayed outside as there were 2 horses in the school next to the pen and adding a strange place into the equation we expected an explosion.

Apart from neighing at the new horses she was a complete darling. She even lowered her head and offered long and low. What a good girl :)

10am. Show time She came in and had a look around but was remarkably calm. She took a bit longer to settle but wasn't particularly spooked by the indoor school (we only have an outdoor), the cows in the field outside, the gelding in the field outside or the row of faces looking at her in the arena.

We don't have fencing up to the sides of the school at home so she did jump a bit when she wiped her rider (I still can't ride after my accident) up the side of the boards!

Once she'd settled she went quite nicely. She was a bit unsteady in her head and had a few short 'episodes' but she wasn't particularly 'naughty' overall.

I was really proud at how well behaved she was for her first time out, I really expected fireworks and spooks galore.

I had promised everyone that she would be 'entertaining' at the very least and she didn't disappoint! She literally EXPLODED into canter and once she found that this caused people to laugh she demonstrated it again ... several times!

Once actually in canter though she was a good girl :)

I'm so proud off my little moo cow.It was a good lesson and our rider did really well to sit so well on what is, effectively, an unexploded bomb.

I just wish that Heather was nearer but at least we've got two excellent EE teachers in the vicinity.

Heather did comment on her ability to transform from Dobbin to Dressage pone :)

We're hoping that it will work to our advantage once we start competing by lulling the others into a false sense of security and the difference between resting Saff and working Saff being SO noticeable that she'll really stand out.

I really enjoyed the clinic (and the demo the evening before). Heather is such a good teacher and so positive even when she's giving corrections. I'd definitely do it again, it was a great experience.

Having done herself proud it was time for her to go home. She wanted to stay at Smeltings but they needed the stable.

Loading up to go home she did the same thing again and stood at the bottom of the ramp just looking at it. 25 minutes later (that's obviously the magic number!) she jumped on again and went home. Bless her, she was SUCH a good girl, we were very proud of how she behaved.

It was her first time out and must have been stressful because of breaking her routine (getting her in early), loading, travelling, new place, new horses, new work place, lots of people watching. But she was a little star, we couldn't have asked more from her at all.

I have to say a HUGE thank you to Heather who was absolutely fantastic and made everyone feel more positive about themselves and really improved the horse and rider by the end of the session.

Vicky and Damian from Smeltings were brilliant. They were fantastic hosts and must have put a lot of work into setting it all up.

Thank you also to everyone at Smeltings who was involved in getting it all together. Smeltings is a beautiful place and a great venue as it was so calm and friendly.It was a great couple of days and very inspiring. Probably the best demo that I've been to in a long, long time.

Reading the book on Spanish Walk

2007-05-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

The Jambettes are coming on so we have started to combine the Jambette with the walk.

With my very inexpert help we tried stringing a few together (Jambette ... walk a few steps Jambette .... etc) on the one leg.

She's really funny in that she sometimes gets 'stuck' on the first one and gets brain freeze.

Once she got herself sorted she did a decent jambette on her 'bad' leg ... step .... and then only went and OFFERED jambette on the other leg (that we weren't asking for!).

She managed a few steps before going 'arrrggghh' and then getting stuck again.

Because she was offering it we started to ask for it :)

The little monkey actually had several decent tries at the SW!!!

Ok, they were only short but we were absolutely gobsmacked. It's like she was saying 'for goodness sake, I've read the book and seen the DVD, why on earth would I want to do it the baby way? Catch up will you already'

More photos ....

2007-04-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Getting a better extension on the Jambette

Canter, Saffy's most favourite gait EVER!

The Importance of Magnesium Supplementation

2007-04-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

We've just discovered how important it is to keep Saff on the Mg.

Last weeks 'excitement' at canter was one thing but this Saturday she just completely disconnected under saddle, was spooky and generally had brain fry, it was pointless trying to school her as she was just a spook on legs.

She bashed poor Emma in the lip with her head doing one of her 'levade spins' (too lazy to spin properly) and generally regressed to pre Mg days.

Hopefully trying to get her back onto the Mg consistently will help ... fingers crossed! The awful thing was that she was a complete angel on Thursday but just couldn't cope on Saturday :o

It doesn't always go to plan though .....

2007-04-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

Her canter transition can be a bit 'whoopee'

And she doesn't like the 'scary' end of the school

Training the jambette/Spanish Walk

2007-04-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

We use clicker training for all of her work which makes it a lot easier to teach new stuff :)

We started off with jambette and then progressed it to Spanish Walk (but more of that later :) ).

More pics and something to test your observational skills!

2007-03-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

Now for the test of your observational skills ... why are her ears back in this photo?

My car accident

2007-01-14T14:25:00.000-08:00

Which, unfortunately, has put paid to me riding for a while :(

Was on my way home from the yard today when a drunk driver pulled out in front of me. I hit him side on and completely totalled my car :(

They didn't let me see it (I couldn't anyway) but the front of the car was pushed right back to the dashboard. They wanted to take the top off but I wouldn't let them (that car is ... was ... my baby) though they did have to cut my clothes off which didn't cause quite as much trauma!

Anyway, I was immediately put in a collar, on a back slab with my head completely immobilised and carted off to the hospital. Thankfully it's not half as major as it first seemed (apart from my poor car) but I'm extensively battered and bruised, had to have my knees patched up and may have broken ribs. They didn't want to x-ray me because I already work in x-rays and even if they confirm it they won't do anything about it.

I can't walk at the moment because it's too painful on my knees and my chest is very sore and I'm pretty convinced that my ribs are bust. My neck and back are very painful too :(

My brother, mum & niece came to the scene to pick up the shopping (one of my other worries!) and to see where they'd taken me. The car was so bad that my mum broke down on the spot but as my brother pointed out to her I was very lucky to have come out of it by looking at the damage.

Am back home now feeling very sore, can't walk, can't laugh or breathe deeply and feel very dizzy a lot of the time. Apart from that I'm fine :)

My name is Saffy and I'm a kleptomaniac

2006-09-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

I'd been watching someone else's lesson for about 20 minutes while she had a snooze, came back to the yard to find that she'd unclipped herself (don't know how) and was 'on the missing'.

Looked in the feed bin area, she wasn't there, hadn't got a clue where she'd gone. Someone shouted that she was over in the other stable block. I went over to find a very pleased with herself looking Saffy heading towards me with a Waitrose carrier bag dangling from her teeth ... in said carrier bag were apples that she'd stolen from one of the other liveries.

At least she has standards (Waitrose carrier bag) :)

One thing is for sure is that life is never dull with Saffy around!

Some photos of the mare with, ahem, 'character'

2006-08-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

Awwww ... mum ... but the grass is better here!

She likes her food!

Come on mum, hurry up, I want my dinner

The day after ..... a step forward again

2006-08-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

I tried to reschedule my lesson as there were gales, driving rain, you name it but my trainer was already out and about so that little ploy failed miserably.

Now our school is open to fields on two sides and open onto a 'stack yard' which is open to fields on the other (with the YOs horses in!). Add in trees along one of the sides and you've got the biggest recipe for disaster that there ever was. The trees were blowing and making one hell of a noise. Each tree had it's own microcommunity of what sounded like a tornado. There was NO WAY on earth that Saffy was going to behave.

But she did :)

She not only behaved but she didn't bat an eyelid even with the wind up her tail, in her ears and battering us about. She didn't even toss her head around. My trainer said "I want one like that" as she was just so well behaved. Not only well behaved but worked beautifully, even doing the lateral work Let's just hope that she stays like that :D

Here's her dozing after an Equine Touch body balance

August 2006 .... 3 steps forward and 1 step back

2006-08-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

She was going well despite having not been ridden for a week (I was in London all week then moving at the weekend). She started with a 'dog stretch' (think front legs stretched in front, leaning RIGHT back onto her hind legs) though not while I was on her but went quite well in the school even doing a few teeny steps of leg yield

The next day, however ... ok, it was windy and raining ... it was like she'd been wound up and let go. She trotted around like she was on a mission, nice rhythm, just like Spotty Dog! FINALLY got some good work out of her (including better leg yield) but left canter for another day as I didn't fancy speeds approaching the sound barrier
There was a pigeon on the fence looking at us, unfortunately it was next to the 'spooky tree'. She was fine, ignored the pigeon, but then it decided to fly off making the MOST noise possible! Saff did extended trot for a couple of strides and then settled down again quite quickly (thankfully).

After her 'clockwork toy' routine on Thursday I decided to get her on the lunge on Friday. She wasn't naughty but she was up for it BIG time. At one point she was doind a 20 metre circle in GALLOP! Yes, true gallop. She was completely controlled and obviously just wanted a blast.

2006-03-28T15:15:00.000-08:00

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The strops

2006-02-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to know exactly what she's doing when she strops. Although I'm aware that she's stropping it somehow feels quite comfortable and not really unseating at all. I got a birds eye view when I watched my trainer ride her. Thankfully she doesn't do this any more ... well very infrequently. She has several 'methods':

Cantering on the spot - she does as it says on the tin! She literally canters on the spot

Makes herself tall - it's really bizarre, she kind of grows, hollows and 'tap dances' with her feet, her feet barely leave the ground, she just shuffles them around like she's tap dancing

Rocking horse - she rocks backwards and forwards from her front to back feet, it's quite bizarre to watch

The head toss - probably the most uncomfortable, she sets her neck vertically and throws her head around

The levade - this one is weird. I think of a rear as them levering themselves up with their back legs fairly straight. Saffy doesn't actually 'rear' anymore but she did ... well, I have to explain it really .... when my trainer was riding her she brought her back legs right under her, if I hadn't have know her I would have said that she was going into a canter pirouette. It was very strange and did look like the SRS levade rather than a rear, she was superbly balanced, her hocks were under her and well flexed and wasn't upright like you'd expect a rear to be.

As my trainer said, let's just hope that she can remember that for when we ARE doing canter pirouette! It does go to show that she CAN take the weight on her back end .....

The Spanish Paw - this is one that she uses on the ground to express her disapproval or impatience. Like the Spanish Walk but she doesn't walk! She's careful never to catch me when she does it and if I'm not looking at her she'll stamp her front leg down so that I can HEAR her disapproval. She did it the other day, I turned around, glared at her and she backed up, dropped her head and kind of went "oh c**p" I don't mind her expressing an opinion but she does get reamed out for this method as it could be dangerous.

Changing bit by bit ....

2006-01-21T12:38:00.000-08:00

Anyway ... having two weeks solid with her when I was on holiday paid off beautifully. She is a changed horse. She's still opinionated but now works nicely most of the time and doesn't cause half as much fuss when she is expressing her opinions. Her movement, when she moves more correctly, is phenomenal especially the movement through her shoulders.

Quite a few people say that she looks a bit like an Andalucian though I couldn't really see it even through my rose tinted specs. I have to say though that when I saw the few 'correct' steps that she did in one of my lessons I have to agree.

She also enjoys jumping the xc fences and even tackled the tyres without batting an eyelid. She's such a good girl.

The thing is that I want to do dressage, she seemingly wants to event ... My ex trainer has ridden her a few times. He wouldn't ride her previously because, as he said, it's his livelyhood and he couldn't afford to get hurt. Although she argued with him she went beautifully. It was nice in a way that she stropped a bit with him too. I'd have been completely mortified if he'd have got on and she'd have been a complete angel

So ... they do get better, it just takes time I love her to bits and she's taught me so much. It must have taken about 18 months to really bond with her. I thought that we'd bonded after 6 months and then at 12 months but each time I found new depths to our relationship. I love my little Saffy Moo

Fast forward to 2006

2006-01-15T12:30:00.000-08:00

Through it all she's been a kind and generous soul. A dream to handle, easy to catch (apart from one episode where I couldn't get near to her but later found that there was a very good reason for it :( ) and easy to look after.

We still had the tantrums in the school though.

Saying that, things WERE better, she didn't carry her neck vertically anymore and the strops were shorter and less dramatic.

My trainer recently told me that although he thought that I WAS ready for a youngster he wasn't sure that I was ready for THAT particular youngster. He also said that it was touch and go for a while as to whether I'd come through it or completely lose my confidence. He says that he's very pleased with me and proud at how I came through it all and that a lot of people would have given up on her and sold her on.

I think that I've gained a modicum of respect from him for sticking with it and coming out the other side I refer to those days as my 'darkest hours'. They only lasted a few weeks but boy were they tough. Thankfully what didn't (literally) kill me made me stronger and I'm a lot more confident now than I was even before Saffy.

Let the tree huggery begin :)

2005-06-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

So, we've been treeless from the beginning, are using NH and clicker methods for groundwork, have been bitless (though she was introduced back into a bit because I wanted to do dressage), has Bowen/Reiki treatments and is on a forage based diet, none of this hard feed that horses *should* have!

It could only get worse ....I saw another livery at our yard have a WOMAN trim her horse's feet. This was strange in itself but then I noticed that she didn't have shoes put on. Now Saff was unshod at the back and had coped well but you had to have shoes on the front .... didn't you?

Apparently not! A long story short I had her shoes taken off and she was sound straight away. She's been barefoot for a while now and is more than happy to crunch up the stony path that comes down from the road. Her feet are rather beautiful AND she doesn't sweat up from physical exertion so didn't need to be clipped.

Saffy starts to grow

2004-11-28T12:25:00.000-08:00

In handling, groundwork, lunging, long reining and hacking out she's a real doll. We still had problems under saddle though. She is a very dominant mare and is more than happy to argue the toss with you. She is also very persisent and will not back down easily. I've spent many a lesson with a neck in front of my nose and TWICE got bashed in the face when she was pratting about and bashed me with her head while I was on her back (as before).

Another time we tried canter in the school (her canter on a hack is delightful, very controlled and comes back easily when you sit up). She got, erm, slightly overexcited and took off around the school at a gallop. She did a very controlled 20 metre circles in gallop and I was appalling. The only two thoughts that I had were "oh **** she's going to fall over" and "shall I bail out? No, she's going too fast". Finally she galloped towards the wall at the end of the school .... I, apparently, was shrieking "ooooohhhhhh s********t" very helpfully!!

I was convinced that she was going to attempt to jump the wall (she'd previously attempted to jump a hedge when she got overexcited until I (to my shame but it had to be done) had to almost pull her back teeth out to pull her up). Jumping the wall would have been bad enough BUT I knew that there's a humungous drop down into a sloping field on the other side. We would have been toast. I had completely blanked out by this time and was completely ineffective. She, however, got to the wall, flicked her bum around, deposited me out of the side door up against the wall where I slid unceremoniously to the ground. As she cantered away (about 3 metres) she caught me in the chest with her (unshod thankfully) hoof. She then stood, turned around and looked at me as if to say "what are you doing down there?".

My trainer wandered across and then sped up as I lay there winded and rather battered. Thankfully there wasn't too much damage though my back was completely scraped up and bruised and I had a wonderful hoof shaped bruise in my cleavage. Oh, and I somehow got a humungous bruise on my calf.

Enter the Bowen/Reiki Therapist

2004-11-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

I'd seen this 'strange' woman at the yard, she seemed nice enough but reputedly 'spoke' to the horses (or they spoke to her). Others on the yard swore by her, I was more sceptical.

Anyway, I decided to give it a go and boy did she blow me away. Logically she can't have known or surmised half of what she came up with, what she was saying was far too specific to be a gross generalisation. She sussed Saffy out even though she was stood like a donkey at her haynet when she came.

Saff had been getting very, very tetchy when you touched her and you couldn't get near enough to actually groom her. She wasn't nasty just didn't want you near her skin. The therapist said that Saffy's skin felt 'creepy' and that she didn't want the hard feeds any more and that she didn't want carrots but she did want grass, hay and cleavers, oh, and a couple of apples!

Rather bemused by this I decided that it couldn't hurt and Saff had pretty much stopped eating her feeds, including the carrots, anyway

(the therapist didn't know any of this).

The change in less than 10 days was amazing. She was a different horse. She enjoyed being groomed again and whilst she was still a bossy moo she was much nicer to be around.

I finally discovered Simple Systems feed which has been a lifesaver. She only has forage these days and a couple of apples a day. She came out of winter as porky as she went in and her weight is pretty stable even when they went out onto the new grass! Her behaviour improved immeasureably in just a couple of weeks.

She's still bossy and she's still opinionated but it's measured and useable now.

The Pasture Mix Episode

2004-11-24T02:00:00.000-08:00

She was pretty good to handle and on the ground but I came back from holiday to find that she'd dropped loads of weight, wouldn't stay in her stable and was a highly strung, shaking mess.

She had reared at people in the field and even charged at the YO one day. I hadn't got a clue what was going on but she was obviously in some distress. I got a phone call early one Sunday morning to ask how long I was going to be. I wasn't told why but when I got there (thankfully I wasn't too far away) she was stood in her stable dripping sweat from the tips of her ears to her little hooves.

I woke up at 2am the next morning, sat up and said "Pasture Mix".

Thank you whoever planted that seed in my brain! I took her off it straight away, acting not on logic but on intuition, call it what you like. First of all she went onto Cool Mix and within about a week was much better though still not 'right'.

She was much, much better and hadn't reared since the RA visit but was still very stroppy and opinionated. She had all the regular checks and more, she was ridden in a treeless saddle (my beloved SBS), was in a hackamore, was off the Pasture Mix so it was her character ..... wasn't it?

She was completely upside down with a very impressive muscle on the underside of her neck which she used to great effect. She also had no bum, something I've strived for myself but never been able to achieve!

Enter the Recommended Associate

2004-11-14T14:00:00.000-08:00

On the first outing to the field she walked down most of the way on her back legs.

The first day in the school (in hand) she showed me her levade even tapping my on the hand to make sure that I was watching!

When picking up even the lightest of contacts she stood on her back legs over a dozen times in one lesson. I was hit in the mouth while riding her twice and I spent one lesson with blood dripping down my face, when I got back to the yard they were all really worried as the blood had streaked all over my face and down my sweatshirt.

Her rearing was knocking my confidence. She was fine to handle but a nightmare in the school. Our RA rode her for just 5 minutes before figuring out the problem. She took off her bridle, put on a Dually headcollar and attached the reins to that. It wasn't as if she was in a harsh bit, I'd gone from a snaffle to a french link to a happy mouth to a rubber straight bar (which she ate!). I thought that she was nuts but Saffy proved me wrong and lengthened, overtracked and relaxed. Later that day I hacked her out in the Dually even though people thought that I had completely lost the plot.

The 'diagnosis' was that she was expecting either pain, discomfort or something horrible to happen when you picked up a contact. She was put in a hackamore for a few months and was 'cured' overnight.

She eventually went back into a bit, kindly choosing the KK Ultra costing me even more money! She obviously takes after her mother in liking expensive things

In the beginning .....

2004-09-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

Introducing Saffy aka The Saffmeister aka The Saff Monster aka Saffy Moo Cow aka Saff Saff aka Saffy Lou aka Saffy Loulla aka Loulla aka Saff Baggs aka Waff Bags aka Waffy!

It all started on September 11th 2004. I didn't actually go to buy a 5 year old or a grey or an ISH or anything under 16hh. I went to buy a 16.1hh dark bay 8 year old warmblood! The only box on my wish list that I could check for Saffy was MARE except that she wasn't called 'Saffy' when I went to view her, she was called .... Fanny!

There was something about her though which grabbed my heart so I ended up bringing home this rather gorgeous 5 year old RISH mare, steel grey with a mohican mane (she's never been a girly horse)!

She loaded beautifully but didn't stay in the trailer long as she backed out at speed taking the skin from my ungloved fingers with her (the person taking her for me was in a hurry hence the lack of gloves). Mummy ended up in the burns unit getting the tenderised flesh on her hand and fingers sorted out!