Jenny

My mare was covered from Sunday until Tuesday - so once a day over 3 days. She came into season on Friday and should still be in until this Friday. She was definitely in season and was teased for the two days before she went to the stallion and on the morning before we left to bring her down.

However she came home yesterday (was still in season) and today she is out of season. She is Normally on a 10 day season cycle so to be out now is unusual - today would only be her sixth day.

Is this a good sign of fertilisation? Vet is coming out in 16 days time to scan her and she was seen by the vet before she went. From my experience with breeding before the mare normally does not come out of season this early after being covered.

So is this a good or bad sign that she's out of season now? She's a lot more careful with herself too.

Ok so I have a slight problem, my livery yard is closed and I never mucked out my mare this morning. There is no one around to do it. I was not made aware that the yard was only open for an hour in the morning.

I mucked her out yesterday properly and took out 70% of her bed and put down a clean one. I was only going to skip out today quickly. I removed most if not all the dirt from the stable.

So what are the chances she will be ok untill tomorrow? I hate leaving her bed like this, I really don't like not mucking out, but what can I do really. I can't break into the property to muck her out.

I should mention I only bed down half the stable and she is on rubber matting.

So I'm moving my horse into her new home next Monday. I have had her 4+ years now and she has been at the same yard for 3 years. Reason why I'm moving her is the yard is closing down.

So any hints and tips? She's moving only 10 minutes down the road, so no long haul trailoring - even though she is grand with travelling, she is moving to a much larger yard however which is a lot busier.

I am moving her on Monday as that's the day the yard is closed, only DIY liveries are aloud in on Mondays (I'm keeping her on DIY) so it will be quiet when I move her.

Not planning on exercising her the day she moves! No worries there.

So any hints and tips to settle her? Make her feel comfy? I'm thinking I might let her out into the arena to get a good look at the place, let her get a few nerves out with a few bucks before I intorduce her to her new stable

Can anyone in the know point me to some good arabian shows in the UK. Or shows that may hold an arab class of two. Preferably more prestigious shows!

I'm doing my research a few years in advance - I'm from Ireland and there are zero to no arabian shows here and I can count on one hand the amount of arabian stallions standing here. So my plan is to breed my 89% crabbet arabian mare in the hopes for a colt. There is a big hole in the market - there are no crabbet stallions standing in Ireland (unless you count my mares sire who is now in his 20s!) so the market is in demand for them. if she has a filly, the filly will be broken at 4 and used by my as a endurence horse.

Obviously I will be showing my mares foal, which is why I'm asking this. Over here there is only one big show - equifest in Cavan, which only has 1 arabian class, my mare has only ever gotten top 10 in this as it brings in a lot of international showers. She has won more local arabian shows. I have experience in arabian halter showing and ridden showing, my mare generally gets 1st place in country and provence shows. She is also doing very well in the dressage circuit, she is not just some random mare.

So lists! I will be shipping the future colt to the UK to compete to get some big names onto his records. I want to stand a fully approved, prize winning stallion. He will not cover any mare unless he has proven he is a good example of the breed. Any genetic problems/behavious problems he will be gelded, broken at 4 and sold as a preformance arab.

The stallion in question is a 87% crabbet stallion - 2005 polish arabian, he has won many titles over in Poland and in Europe, I know the owners of him and they are offering me a chance to breed to him - he only breeds a few mares every year (only approved, prize winning mares), he is currently standing in Germany, he comes to Ireland for a few months every year.

So lists! Shows! Tell me all of your favourite arabian shows! If you know any in France, Germany, Europe would be even better!

So my chrio was out to my mare today. She has been diagnosed with severe headaches, which she has been suffering with for a while, so not kissing spines like I suspected (which is good in a way), shes like this due to the way the bones have fused. But she has teeth that havn't erupted properly which is also adding a lot to her pain, dentist is comming out next week.

But I have been told to clean out her ears, it would ease a lot of the pain in her head. But I just realised I don't know how to clean out a horse's ears properly! I know clipping the ear and lightly brushing out mud and such but not cleaning out the ear of wax and other stuff.

Any advice would be appreciated.

She's a 10 year old 15.1hh arab mare.

I am now nearing week 10 of a recycle - had a big fin rot and ich parasite break out so I'm killing off any live parasites.

I have my 100gallon SPS/LPS reef up since february 2011, it's very coral heavy and features a lot of acropora, and leather corals. it's fully sumped and filtrated

So what do you all think of my future stocking for it? I still have my firefish and yellow tang who have been sitting in a container since August 1st (Only two to survive)

4 Mollys - all bred by me!

3 Pyjama cardinalfish

1 Carpenters flasher wrasse

2 Picasso Cownfish

1 Purple firefish

1 Yellow tang

1 Pink stripe sand sifting goby

I am also going to get two cleaner shrimp.

Any other suggestions for what I can put in there?

Restocking my tank I'm looking to get some cardinals, eitther banngai or pyjama.

At the present moment I am able to get a banngai for 5euro (which is brilliant they're 40 euro each in shops)

my question is, can I add more banngai's at a later date or once this one is put in can I not put any more in?

I'm not too sure on the aggression side of these fish towards each other, I would like a group of them, but at 40 a pop it's a lot of money in one go. I would rather leave that banngai I could buy now if it means I have to add all the cardinals together.

Quick answers appreciated.

It's a 100gallon marine SPS, LPS reef tank, sumped, running for 7 months.

I restarted the pill 2 weeks ago - I'll admit I started 1 week after my period finished, the reason for this is because I'm with a new man and I don't want to take any risks. We are still using other protection methods however untill a month has passed. I am on microlite.

My period should have started this week if I didn't start the pill when I did. Yesterday I had all my classic period aches and pains - moodiness, mood swings, cramping, a throbbing where my ovaries are and bloating. The only thing is, there was no blood!

Tried to have sex last night and it just did not work, I just could not get into the mood. So is it possible that my taking the pill when I shouldn't caused this? I feel better today just some mild cramping, again no blood. I had slight spotting on Sunday morning.

I am 21 by the way, I've been on Yasmin contraceptive pill for 6 years, only went off yasmin 2 months ago.

I went off the pill as I could no longer afford it plus I broke up with my ex this was around 2/3 months ago. Now I'm with a new lad and I want to go back onto the pill again.

I have only had my period twice since I've gone off the pill.

So do I still have to start taking the pill when my next period start and will it take a month to start working again? I'm thinking that because my body hasn't really gotten over the pill yet it shouldn't take as long?

The Pill I'm taking is Yasmin.

Another question, my period finished 5 days ago - if I were to start the pill again tomorrow will it protect me? or should I just wait for my next period. keep in mind I only went off the pill in June.

Anyone have any novel ways to exercise a horse that doesn't include riding, lunging, horse walker, hacking (trekking to the americans), or letting the horse loose school and free jump.

Anyone have any other ways to let the horse get some exercise? my mare is getting bored with either lunging or riding as primary exercise and because my broken chest bone will take a few more months to heal I can't do much with her. She goes on a hack (trek) most days on top of other exercise.

Just want to see if anyone on Y!A has any suggestions!

I will be restocking my 100gallon marine reef in two months time. had an ich infestation that led to the death of 5 fish (breeding pair of ocellaris clownfish included), so the tank is now resting for 2 months to kill the parasite and a fin rot fungus that also popped up.

Now I have a tank free to restock! It is a fully SPS/LPS reef with a few softies here and there that I frag and sell on. So all fish much be reef safe.

I have a yellow tang and a purple firefish that are still alive from the disaster they're in a holding tank for 2 months.

So any stocking ideas? here is what I was personally thinking, but I'm always open for other fish/ideas and I still have a bit of room left!

Oh system is fully sumped/working refugium/skimmer/heater/40KG live rock/40KG live sand/powerheads/over 220watt of lighting/ parameters perfect (obviously if corals need to grow and thrive)

here is my idea stocking:

1X yellow tang

1X purple firefish (Already have the firefish and tang)

2X Black clownfish or piccasso clownfish

1X flasher wrasse of some sort *don't know type yet, any suggestions?

1X Bicolour blenny

1X Ignitus Anthias (don't want a group, they can be kept on their own)

1X Pink spot sleeper goby (for sand sifting)

So any other suggestions? Please no basslets, my royal gramma was the one who started the infestation due to bullying

My 100gallon marine tank is on a 2 month recycle due to ich parasite and fin rot fungus. I lost 5 fish within a week due to fin rot including my breeding pair of clownfish (had the female for 3 years was a hard blow to me ...)

So as I have nothing better to do I want to rescape my tank. The tank is a cube shape, so I'm very limited I do find that the rock work can look almost too big for the tank if you get me. I want a nice scape that will utilize space while also looking nice.

The tank has around 20+ corals in it ranging from SPS to Soft corals (full list: 2X acropora, 2X leather finger, 1x brain coral (large 6inch wide), 4X candy cane, 1X colt coral, 1X toadstool coral, 1X metallic green star polyps, 1X button polyps, numbes mushrooms - bulls eye, fuzzy etc, 1X goniopora, 1X gorgonia)

So while the scape may be pretty I also want it to be useful for holding corals especially for the SPS who require high lighting.

So any aquascape ideas you like please let me know, or even post links to cube aquascape pictures you like so I can get inspiration.

My yellow tang and my purple firefish are currently living in a 30gallon container for the next 2 months, they have a nice set up, both are eating hungrilly, both got freshwater baths before going in and both have hiding spots (no live rock as all my rock is contaminated at the moment)

I'm planning a 5 gallon planted tank (100gallon marine is on a 2 month re cycle due to ich parasite and fin rot fungus), and I want some advice on her RE fertilizing for plants.

Tank will either house a single betta or some shrimp. Tank is going to be fully filtered, has a large halogen light for plants, heater and small CO2 injector.

I have a question about how to set up for a freshwater planted in a small tank, if anyone has any steps or websites that explains the process thoroughly and is clear as to what I need to get. For example, what to buy for plant substrate (fertilizers/sand/clay/peat/soil), any additives that'll make the substrate more fertile, any additives for plant health/growth. That sort of thing.

And before anyone gets smart the tank will be starting a 6 week cycling process as soon as I get substrate sorted. I have a 100gallon SPS/LPS marine reef I understand water chemistry, parameter spikes and I will be fully modifying the filter and it's media for this 5 gallon tank.

I should be back in the saddle in a month - 2 months time so I have a question regarding getting myself ready for it.

Was in a car crash 3 weeks ago, broke my sternum bone, cracked a rib, have severe haemotoma in my stomach and a badly bruised hip bone.

And before the accident my mare was out of work for over a month due to proud flesh issues. So I havn't ridden her in around 2 months at this stage.

She is back in work, I have a girl who owns the yard riding her for me, so horse is grand, she is working nicely getting her into work slowly (I supervise her riding sessions and give the girl riding lessons on her)

it's myself this question is based on.

Physio therepists told me that I should be able to ride in around a month's time, but they had no specific way of getting my muscles fit for it.

So I'm asking on here to see if anyone has any exercises or tecniques you use to get your muscles back to horse riding fit. I want to at least get my calf muscles and arm muscles used to work again before I get onto the saddle. It would not do me good to just jump into the saddle onto a hot arab mare after 3 months and severe injury.

Any exercises you reccomment will be talked about with my physio before I try it, and I also won't be trying them for a good few weeks yet, I'm still in a lot of pain from the carch. But it would be nice to get a head start and get myself looking forward to being in the saddle again!

Day 5 of trying to catch a royal gramma and still nothing.

Has anyone have any suggestions when it comes to catching a right pain of a fish?

I've tried the bottle technique pleanty of times, this is the first time it has not worked. I've tried using a bag with bait, the bottle with bait, catching at night with all the lights out, trying to get him into a rock and removing it. everything.

Tank is 100gallon SPS reef.

Some of my other fish are starting to look very sickly, all I'm doing at this point is stressing the fish out.

I havn't fed the tank in 5 days which may be another reason for the blenny and firefish not looking the best. The regal is sick because I'm moving traps in and out, and the gramma keeps going for him.

The gramma is seriously not looking well, he just floats there on his side gasping, yet all attempts in catching him just are not working and all it's doing is stressing him out more. All other fish are out and about bar the gramma.

I really do not want to dismantle the tank, all it would do is stress out the regal tang more, possibly to death, and I honestly don't want to do that.

So has anyone have any idea to get this bloody fish out my tank?

My uncle did suggets a piece of food tied to a string, anyone else tried this? would it work?

Just wondering if anyone on here has used sea monkeys (Brine Shrimp) as a live food substitute for a marine tank, and if so what food did they feed the sea monkeys in order to give them a better nutritional value.

I normally buy a 1 litre (.25gallon) bottle of copepode and amphipods, but a young cousin of mine gave me a sea monkey kit as a present (bless her, such a thoughtful gift! She knew I love fish and said I didn't have any sea monkeys!) so I thought why not.

The sea monkeys at the moment are in the kit they came with (the tiny half litre (0.14g) container) with marine water at 26 degrees (78f) and 1/4 pound live rock (it's such a cute little thing), salinity 1.026 that my reef thrives on. I'm hoping that keeping them in a proper environment will encourage them to spawn quicker and to reproduce healthier and stronger offspring.

I'm thinking of feeding them a mix of new era flakes, coral food with viatmin additives in order to boost their nutritional value. Or do I need bother? Would feeding directly to the fish be alright? I'm not going to feed them the food they came with in the package, I have pleanty of hair algae in the refugium they can have.

So I have three acropora pieces at the moment, and have around 12 blue legged hermit crabs.

They seem to spend their whole time on my acropora corals, I've watched them for a bit, they don't seem to be eating it, however one acro piece is currently looking very bad, so they've now all moved onto my favourite purple one. I am now suspecting that they could be eating my acro ....

So do Blue legged hermits tend to pick on SPS? I have a fair few other corals in the tank and they're completely ignorning them. They are ignoring my Pavona coral however and it sits between the two pieces they're currently at.

So should I get rid of them? They have already destroyed one piece (I think it's pretty much gone, there's little no no visible polyps anymore) and I don't want my second one to be destroyed too - it does have a protector crab, I'm hoping it may actually do it's job.

A €55 coral is worth more to me than the hermits.

Does anyone know any other hermit crabs who actually 'are' reef safe? Red leggeds from my own experience love soft corals!

Tank: 80gallon SPS/LPS reef with some soft corals. 150watt metal halide with 55watt T5 dual tubes lighting. 30gallon sump with working refugium, TMC V2skim 400 skimmer, two heaters (150w and 200w), 3500lph return pump. Tank has two powerheads korlia 4 and nano, 30KG live rock, 20KG live sand with 10KG coral sand mixed.

7 weeks ago my mare got cast, she's been through her antibiotic course, got her tetnus, penicillian and steriods. Now she has a lot of proud flesh. The Vet said rather than surgery we're going to try to burn back the dead skin with a mix of baking powder and vaseline, the leg is to be wrapped 24/7 and she is now on box rest for the next 3-4 days.

The proud flesh is on her back right hind leg on the inside pastern, she keeps clipping it with her hoof.

The vet said that I can ride her after her box rest but only if the proud flesh is completely covered.

Tendon boots, brushing boots, even pastern boots don't cover it enough, I refuse to ride her if the boots don't cover it properly and snugly. Every boot doesn't go down far enough.

And over reach boots won't work either the top of those boots will rub against the proud flesh and make it worse.

I have found these boots: http://www.premierequine.co.uk/acatalog/Turnout_Bo... Which would cover the proud flesh in it's intirety and should provide a nice cushion to the proud flesh.

However can you ride in turn out boots? I'm getting mixed answers really. She won't be jumping untill the proud flesh is gone, so that won't be a problem, she'll be doing her flatwork and dressage movements (none of the hard ones, don't want her clipping)

So can you ride in turnout boots (such as the ones I've linked to) or can you suggest any other boots?

I'm in Ireland so preferably an english or irish website please If you're going to link.

Please get back ASAP as I'm ready to order my stable wraps.

I like my yard but little things are starting to annoy me more and more, I've always been very generous with my stuff, and I live by the rule 'if you take it, return it'. That rule was always upheld and my stuff generally wasn't taken. But lately things are starting to piss me off severely. I think it's because I'm stressed but everything just annoys me. It's only a small yard, there's only 3 liveries and it's run by a family but mostly by a young girl. The yard only has 7 horses in. I just need to vent, I don't care if this isn't allowed, this is the only place where I can guarantee I won't be found.

* other livery broke her stirrup leathers. She takes mine off my dressage saddle. I never get told. It then gets said to me in passing as I started to look for the stirrups. They were still on the other livery's saddle. This has happened for the past couple of days. granted other livery then got her own stirrups and her dad helped me get mine back onto the dressage saddle - it's very stiff haha. This just annoyed me for some reason, but now I'm grand over it.

* My bridle keeps getting moved. And adjusted. And nosebands/flashes are dissappearing. I still havn't found my flash so I've taken to using the yards grackle noseband which my horse prefers. The way I see it if they're going to use my bridle I'm going to use their stuff. I'm considering locking my bridle away but I don't want to be the 'weirdo', we used to have a livery who evented, she locked everything away and she got slagged over it. I may just feck it though and do it.

* My martingale is what really annoys me. I went to tack up my mare (took me an hour to get everything together - stirrups onto saddle, trying to find bridle/ flash) and my martingale was gone. Found it on the owners bridle. She still won't admit that she took it. evern though she is the only one who ever uses that bridle - note I gave her that bridle for her eventer as a cob is too big for my arab. And I don't mind her using it, she just NEVER PUTS IT BACK. I'm sure everyone knows how annoying it is to be putting on martingales every time you want to ride. She claims she took it because 'the other livery took hers'. there are around 4 more lying around the yard she just preferred to take mine.

* My horse hasn't had any farrier work for the past 3 months. They keep 'forgetting' to get her done. The horses feet are in horrible condition, they are cracked right up to the coronary band, and jagged pieces keep catching her pasterns. I am getting my own farrier out. Despite this the owner's daughter decided to take her out and hack her, not I don't mind this, as I'm generally in work, but with her feet in the state they were it only made it worse. She did say that the mare didn't trot or anything, this actually didn't piss me off because this girl is a good right, it's more the fact that they keep forgetting about her.

it's not like the horse takes over an hour to do, she's kept barefoot! All she needs is a good trim! it's like 15 mins tops, I don't see how out of 7 horses you can forget a livery .... It has severely pissed me off in more ways than one, I've had a bad day in work but at least knowing that my horse will finally be comfortable made it slightly better, but now this isn't to be, she's still sitting in the stables with her feet like squares flaking off at the coronary band and cracking.

* She got cast in the stable, and yet getting advice is like pulling teeth. I've been asking the BO about what to do with her leg and all I get is manuka honey on it. I can clearly see that there is a lot of proud flesh, and with her feet as bad as they are she keeps ripping at it with the jagged edges of her feet. Funnily enough we bumped into the BOs of another yard and they straight away told me that a vet could easily remove it and what to do.

Venting over ... sorry about this guys but sometimes you need to get your thoughts out and tell people, this is the only way I can make sure no one sees this who I know. If you want to give me your thoughts you're welcome to or even just share similiar experiences to make me feel better about the situation.

This has only come around in the last few weeks, I'm stressed over college and exams, never mind working, the BO is doing night foaling so she's not around and the young girl who runs the yard at the moment is barely 16 and is doing state exams so is highly stressed as well.

I'm taking matters into my own hands, I have to, calling the dentist and farrier and I'm getting the horse seen to, then the vet to get the proud flesh on her pastern removed. Then I'm getting a lock for my box.

When people you know volunteers your horse to give some one a 'pony ride' or a 'lesson' without asking your premissin first? This generally leads to some child getting their hopes up and me being stuck in an awkward position.

I have this happen often, last saturday for example I was chatting to my friend in the pub, she goes to me 'oh the boyfriend's daughter is doing riding lessons,' I was like oh good and the conversation moved onto yards and costs such and then my friend turned around and said to me 'Sure she can ride your horse', in front of her boyfriend.

The daughter is 4 years old. I told her straight my horse is a very hot, spooky mare and is in no way a beginners horse, I did try to explain to the boyfriend why his daughter can't ride my horse, he seemed to understand, but I think being non horsey my friend and her boyfriend didn't seem to understand why their 4 year old can't ride my 15.2 arabian mare no matter what I said.

Not the first time this has happened to me and it's undoubtedly the last. It's like people think just because I own a horse I'm obligated to allow every Tom, Dick and Harry's girlfriend/daughter/mother/aunt ride her.

Anyone else ever experienced this? And if so did it frustrate you? Tell me your stories! I'm bored!