I think having a watch of the Nachees colt starting and Stardust softening the older horse, some great info on what to look for in the early episodes and different requirements for the type of horse to get the fresh off and switch them on to learning mode by obeying the code and what it means to a youngster and an older horse

Absolute belter this week Richard Boatwright I sat reading with my obligatory cup of tea, nodding away and thinking so true, the emails never fail to get me thinking and fired up 

It certainly has picked up, daffodils and snow drops out here, grass starting to grow and the mares moody and coming into season again, happy days!!

Really looking forward to coming over next month and hopefully some nice weather and a bit of sun! 

So as I am husband of the year apparently I did buy a archery set for my good lady for Valentine’s Day and yesterday it was put through its paces on horse back, took a bit of persuading her to not have me holding her horse but eventually she did and she stood perfectly, no one injured but the farm cat nearly took one to the head!! 

Katherine Cosper the haylage is basically meadow grass that is cut and partially dried then wrapped in plastic to trap in the moisture but exclude air, it then slowly turns from grass/hay to haylage which is much higher in sugars than normal dried hay 

the grass/hay is normally a mixture of Timothy and rye grass varieties.

Alfalph is not grown in the UK much if at all, staple diet of our horses is grass in spring and summer and hay/haylage in winter 

standard hay is much lower in sugars but dusty so can cause reactions to sensitive horses, one of mine has COPD which hay triggers attacks (she has inhaler!) 

Colic is common in the UK when horses are swapped from outside grazing to stored hay etc and laminitis is also a major issue in spring with sugars in fresh grass along with overgrazing areas 

Katherine Cosper I’m really not aware of downsides to bentonite and it is used widely in the livestock system in Europe.

I feel your pain on the Alfalfa starting to be poor, our Haylage (wrapped hay that ferments) is now at the time of year where it either is mouldy or smells like treacle, the latter the horses adore but it does nothing for the waist line! 

Luckily the days are longer and the ground warming up so the grass is coming through and full of sugars 

The cubes make perfect sense and can be consistent for feeding

Katherine Cosper good question, as far as I am aware it is exactly the same product, we used it as a binder in products we manufactured and also as loose clay granules, it all was mined from the same raw materials and just processed further. 

I never thought about cubes, we just feed chopped Alfalfa for a couple of our warmbloods, can’t feed it to the Gypsy Vanners as it causes major problems with mallanders and sallanders in the feather behind the knees 

Richard Boatwright

What a fantastic update to read, sounds like your doing great and are full of enthusiasm and energy, hats off to you and enjoy taking them out and about 

Jessica Walker Being English and riding English for years I know exactly what you mean on the 1 rein stop, but it is sinking in along with keeping my hands down!