I recently attended an evening talk at Cambridge. Wow! what an eye opener I couldn't quite believe it everything seemed to fit so well and I couldn't wait to get home to "sort" my fella out.

First of all I'd just like to tell you a little about my horse Majestic, he is a well bred 5 year old thoroughbred who didn't quite make the cut as many don't. I track worked him in Gisborne for most of the time he was in work, and we must have developed some kind of relationship as he became my "champion" and everyone had me on about it! Anyway somehow I managed to claim him when he was given the chop.

Unfortunately Joanne my boss, was cutting right back so I needed to find work elsewhere. Then I ended up in Morrinsville on a 900 cow dairy farm, luckily after a month or two I was granted permission to bring Majestic over, which is very, very lucky! well straight onto ryegrass pasture he goes (a little paddock out the back out of the way) I naively thought I had just secured the lottery for him, was doing him a huge favour. Oh dear!

After 2 weeks we had a bad run of weather I had gone and bought him a new rug. He has always been a little funny about having a rug put on, and after plenty of patient persistence I had managed a relatively more relaxed horse. well not that day something spooked him and he went blindly through a gate got all caught up went through high tensile wire fences, it was awful because I could only watch, he ended up with a nasty chunk out of his hind leg, narrowly missing the tendons but causing a fracture to the splint bone, a puncture wound on his front leg and a flap off his fetlock. Everything was terribly contaminated, luckily it is all healing well and should come right.

Now he is a horse of permanently poor condition, cow pat poos for as long as I can remember, throws his head up for no apparent reason, you can scratch all his head and ears with no worry but hates if you put you arms around his neck.

Last week on Wednesday I gradually introduced him to extruded barley, lucerne cubes, chaff, ezy beet and the minerals, tox-defy and alleviate. I have honestly never had him enjoy his food so much, I had to try to believe it and surely enough he has had a personality change! I can now throw his rug on without him going all funny, backing off snorting and running in circles- with no halter on as well! the flicking has stopped, a helicopter flew straight over him the other day and he just looked inquisitively at it...amazing! and I can hang off his neck and he loves it.

I have a few problems and I'm not sure where to start:

1. I have made a track in his paddock to drastically limit consumption of the grass which I cannot change. Like I said I have a very understanding kind boss who has allowed me to keep a horse on land which is just so valuable to them. He has decided he hates eating hay, gives me thoroughly appalled looks and refuses to touch it, even though the chaff (which he adores) is just the same - brown top - just cut up, so I am worried about the fibre...

2. He has no company apart from cows and calves across the fence, really I hate it but I seem to have no other choice.

3. Currently he is getting very little exercise because of his recoveries I take him for a walk a few times a week.

If you could help me with anything, or just i would love to hear what you have to say,

Thanks,

Olivia Blane

By the way, his condition has improved and poo is looking normal which is the first time in ages.