Fat girl jumps again! Kirkby saves the day!

Fat girl on the left

Well I decided the time had come for us to bite the bullet and turn Tilly out.  Joe had said this was fine a few months back, about the time he told me I could ride her too, but the ground was so wet then so I just kept walking her in hand for my safety is nothing else!!   However this last week or so I have felt she was getting a little depressed so I needed to do something.  So on Wednesday morning I sedated her and then Peter walked her for half an hour before turning her in a small, two stables size, paddock.  I was very worried but she put her head straight down and just ate.  We checked her every couple of minutes whilst we finished the yard off and she was very quiet...in a state of sedated shock I think!!!!  
So coffee time arrived and I popped in the house to make coffee and thought I would just check her again before drinking it when I heard Kirkby neigh from the top yard.  Now Kirkby is the tell tale of tell tales and can not keep anything to himself and I jokingly said 'I bet he's telling us that Tilly is here', I walked out the front door to find actually she was!!!!!!!!!!!  Ignore Kirkby at your own peril!   She looked at me and thought 'Oh no it's mummy'  but let me catch her and seemed sound in walk so I bobbed her round in the indoor on the lunge to see how much damage she had done but she seemed as ok as she had been previously.  PHEW!
Peter and I went to inspect the field expecting the fence to be trashed and found to our amazement that she had jumped the five bar gate!!!!    Peter said that if she can jump that big when she is sooooo fat (obese) and sedated that I really need to pull my finger out when I go competing!!!    She had a very smug look on her face for the rest of the day!

So we had a think and yesterday I turned her out in a bigger paddock with Millie to keep her quiet and it seemed to work.  I will do the same again today.  Joe has said she can now go out daily, or overnight and then I will be able to ride her again when she has calmed down a little.  She was all in a bother last night when she came in, not quite sure what had happened I thin and her routine shot to pieces!