Vicky Lewis

Hi Vicky, really good to hear from you and i´m glad you are feeling a bit better now and the doc has given you some pills to help.

the rat boys have lost even more weight - they are now down too about 400-odd grams from 600-odd which is great. mya has put on a bit but pepper has lost a bit. i now seperate the rest of the rats from the cage when i put their new food in at night to give pepper a good "go" at it before they all barge in to see if that makes any difference - if not then i´ll take her to the vet for a check up. the rest of the animals are all (touch wood) fine at the moment, which is good :-)

dad finally went back to work last week! not sure he´s actually sat on a horse yet though. unfortunately i haven´t been riding for a couple of weeks and can´t go next week either! we are in a lot of poop with money plus we had to scrap our car so i can´t even get to the stables at the moment! on top of that our plumping appears to have sprung a leak and is ruining ours and next doors wall! (for some reason the pipe runs through the wall!!) so not going too well here! i have had to take on a weekend job working 10 - 1 on saturday and sunday doing home help for a disabled lady - just cleaning and washing and stuff, no personal care, but it still takes a big old chunck out of my weekends! also got an interview tomorrow night for some evening shifts at a local company just packing up orders and stuff - don´t really want to work 3 jobs but may have no choice AND we may be able to get some regular home work too - if we can then i won´t bother with the factory job as i´ll be exhausted! so yeah, i too am hoping for that big old lottery win ;-)

you hadn´t told me about Babs´ accident! well done you for helping out and being so calm and everything...no wonder she said thank you!! did she invite you up to her stud farm to have a look round? hehe, that´d be cool! and how good of floss to behave so well, especially with a helicopter flying around and landing right there! bless her.

glad you managed to have at least a small hack on Gulls - must be awful for you not to be able to ride him so much at the moment.

thats about all that´s going on with me at the moment - all a bit "doom and gloom" i´m afraid. just frantically trying to find a car we can afford to buy (not easy when we only have about £250 in cash and a further £200 we can spare on credit card!!) and waiting for the plumber to come round tomorrow to see what can be done about our pipes and whether it will be covered on insurance or not! gulp!


hope you and yours are all well. thanks for mailing. xxx

vicky, it is so good to hear from you! i am sorry to hear that you have not been well again. i have heard of ME but must admit to not knowing too much about it. i know that it just generally makes you feel crappy though :-( i hope there is something they can do to help you.

pepper and mya continue to settle in well. pepper is still a bit nervous but she´s fun to watch - she´s so pingy, zipping round the cage and run and stuff. had her on the sofa the other night and she didn´t sit still for a second! mya is quite confident, likes to come out on the sofa and run about, she will often come and sit on my shoulder while i watch tv :-) they are working wonders on the boys too, both much more active now - bear more than nanuk but anything is an improvement and both boys have already lost a bit of weight with the increased activity and new diet they are on so that´s good :-) my boys are both neutered so no little suprises! i will try to get some pics of them all over the weekend although i´ve been saying that for weeks now as promised i´d send some to the lady we got the girls from! they are so cute though! about half the size of the boys! hehe.

glad floss seems to be less panicky and that the bunnies are good! you are right about how if you provide a decent home and look after your animals properly then it really pays off. my bunnies are still going strong! was VERY tempted to take on a new one the other day, a little 9 month old black boy lionhead but Freya from this site advised that it would probably not be best for my girls so i had to resist! such a shame as he looks so cute and is desperate for a new home!

dad is STILL not back at work! he finaly got his test results through and he´s torn all sorts of muscles and ligaments in his knee! is now waiting for a specialist appointment to see if there is anything they can do! can´t believe he did it at the start of May and he´s still suffering!

i´m still loving my new back protector. i wear it every time i ride now - i don´t notice its there! i have to get my hubby to zip it up for me as i can´t quite manage it on my own (!) but once its on its great. here is a link i found to a website selling it so you can see it http://www.bluepony.co.uk/products/Adults-Cobra-Body-Protector-1897
it was £110.00 at my local saddlery - pricey but worth it!

riding has been a bit of a nightmare! i was trying to get my confidence back AGAIN and riding toffee but then we went out for a hack - something i used to LOVE doing, especially on toffee, but he just acted like a loon! ended up rearing on to the back of my instructor´s pony and bolting! i guess i should have been firmer with him and stopped him running off but i just thought it would be safer to just hold on! my instructor was at a bit of a loss with what to do with me then so i rode one of their ponies they use for beginners (!) the next week, she was quite nice but i felt like a bit of a loser riding her! nothing against her, bless her, but i´ve been riding years and now i´m on baby ponies! anyway, next she tried me on a horse called Bally. she´s about 15.3hh so going up in size a bit again - which is good as i used to love big horses before i turned into a total wuss! and she´s very sweet and gentle. she doesn´t do jumping or anything but she likes her flat work. you have to use a bit of leg to get her going (which is kinda good for me right now as i don´t want something that´s going to be bombing off with me) but she´s very responsive to slow down and stop and quite light in the mouth, which is nice. so have decided to spend a few weeks working on my position again, no stirrup work and stuff like that, and then some time learning how to get the most of her, getting a good bend, getting her working properly and eventually in a decent outline and lowering and coming on to the bit and stuff as i´ve never really been taught how to do all that. and then i want to work towards doing a prelim dressage test. i don´t want to compete or anything but thought it would be a good thing to work on during my lessons. hopefully, once all that is done my confidence will be back again and we can start doing some other stuff, a bit of jumping and what have you. unfortunately it does mean that i´ll probably miss the summer out in the fields galloping about like i had hoped to do but i´m really not up to that at the moment! still, its nice to have a plan and i´m actually starting to really enjoy and look forward to riding again. last week i had about 15 mins left of my lesson but had just done some really nice canter work and was shattered and wanted to end on a good note so i just went in Bally´s stable and groomed her and gave her her tea :-)

i really hope that you are feeling better and that you get to see gullie soon - i bet you are missing him like crazy!

big hugs to you and your furries :-)

Hi Vicky, lovely to hear from you :-) thanks for your condolences about koda, poor little guy. trouble is, in situations like that, you can never do the right thing! with hindsight, i should have had him pts on tuesday rather than trying to treat him but had we actually done that i would have spent the rest of my life wondering if there was anything we could of done! hindsight is a wonderful thing, as they say!

i´m glad that ginger´s eye is so much better now, that must be a relief. shame about their hocks though. do you know what´s causing it? know what you mean about being a bit wary of using the cream your sister gave you, i´m always worried that my animals will lick off stuff like that! my bunnies are about 9 now! am so pleased that they have made it so long considering their crappy start in life, bless them!

i´m sorry to hear that floss has been having panic attacks, poor love, it must be horrible to see her like that, but how strange that sometimes she doesn´t react to these things! i don´t think we will ever understand our animals!

with our riding holiday we just pay for the riding that we do at the end of the week so we didn´t have to get a refund for dad or anything, but he was totally gutted that he had to spend the whole week sat on the sofa! poor thing. he´s still not much better. he finally has his scan booked for the 27th June so hopefully they will be able to tell then exactly what he has done to it. he still has really limited movement with it and is only able to work half days at the moment! riding is totally out of the question.

as for my nerves of steel, they feel more like nerves of mushy peas at the moment! its horrible feeling this nervous. before i had the fall on holiday, it never bothered me too much if one of the horses i was on spooked or bucked a bit or whatever but now the thought terrifies me! i rode toffee last week and i swear, that pony is my confidence pony! i was totally terrified on commador if he did anything more than trot but on toffee i just feel safer. i think its because he´s so tiny! bless him! when you first start riding him he´s quite slow and his strides are really small. i feel massive on him (he´s about 13hh and very thin too!) and he´s really old (about 20 odd i think) so i feel bad pushing him on at all, but once you´ve given him a canter he perks right up and stretches out more and gets a bit excited! so, this week, as my instructo knows how nervy i am again now, we just did fun stuff. walk and trot warm up. a few canters large on each rein where she just told me to push him on as much as he and i wanted and enjoy it (by half way round the school i was just grinning from ear to ear!!) and then we did a few jumps - all to boost my confidence again. the jumps were tiny, no more than a foot - a foot and a half but it did me the world of good! also, i got a new back protector the weekend before, figured i should start wearing one after the fall and there was no way i could continue with the other one it was just too big and bulky so i found another, it cost £110! which is scary but my god, the difference! i could hardly tell i was wearing it! the shop told me to leave the tags on so i could return it if i didn´t like it - i was a bit unsure as the back still felt quite long but unlike my old one, the back on this one is flexible so even if it does catch on your seat if, say, you are doing a drop jump, it bends rather than shoots the body protector up your body and into your chin, which my other one did. anyway, after about half an hour i just ripped the tags off as they were getting in the way and i could already tell how much better it was! i´ll try to find the make out for you (cant remember it off hand) and send you a picture or something. i know it is pricey but really, its a fab protector and it may suit you too - i remember ages ago you were saying how you should get another one but all the ones you found were really big and uncomfortable!

glad you got to ride gullie the other day, that must have been nice for you...can´t believe what that girl said to you though! jees! god, we all get caught a bit off guard if our horse falls out of canter quickly and you can´t help but be pitched forward sometimes. i think i would have died of embarrassment too!

are things really busy for you at work still? must be good to be busy and have the extra cash but its a shame its taking up your time with gullie.

i´m hoping the weather stays nice this week so that on thursday i can take toffee down to the field. its my next big hurdle in getting my confidence back. i used to love going down there and doing a few x-country jumps and having a mad gallop but at the moment the idea fills me with dread! i need to get over that as i was looking forward to a nice summer of jumping and fun! i think once i´ve done it the one time, i´ll be more confident again...that is assuming i don´t come off again or something! haha. and will definately to to make sure my first time down there is on toffee...even though he is a bit of a nutter out in the field i still feel safer on him. i just wish he was a tiny bit bigger and a bit younger as i feel bad riding him sometimes! its not like they over-work him or anything, i´m usually the only lesson he does on a thursday, but still...! i assume i´ll ride him for a few weeks and then move on to something a little bigger and eventuatlly back to commador...definately think its the size that is scaring me at the moment as the horse i fell from was about 16hh. guess it shows the difference between when a 13 - 15hh pony bucks to when a big old 16hh horse bucks! haha.

anyway, best get one. email soon and let me know how things are going. sarah.

Hi Vicky, good to hear from you again. thankfully things seem to be settling down and sorting themselves out with me, which is great!

will definately try to get some pics of nanuk soon, and some of the cage too, so you can see how cool it is! went to feed them yesterday and noticed how fat nanuk is getting...really going to have to cut out the treats i give them! naughty me.

the cats still seem to be getting on well. we left them loose together for the first time over the weekend while we went out. only left them for about 2 hours the first time and then about 4 - 5 hours the second time, and they were fine! both curled up on the sofa about 2ft apart from each other both times when we got home! yipee! fudgie still growls at kenny when he gets too close but its SUCH an improvement! i'm now trying to teach kenny to use the cat flap in the hope that i can soon leave him loose all day! fudge hasn't slept on my head for a while, not since i got back from holiday - think she got used to me not being there for a week, but she slept in the spare room last night so at least its not because she's scared to come upstairs or anything. kenny tends to get on the bed when i first get in and have a cuddle but after about half an hour he jumps down and spends the rest of the night on the floor.

sorry to hear about floss, it must be very worrying for you not knowing what is wrong with her! and i hope that the lump in ginger's eyelid is ok - let me know what your sister says.

the riding holiday was fantastic. went back to longfield equestrian centre (yorkshire / lancashire way). mum, dad and i went there last year and had a fab time so booked again for this year. its such a lovely place. they have a cottage on site that you can book by the room or book the whole thing, which is what we did. its a beautiful cottage and the horses and staff are all lovely. unfortunately my favourite horse from last year was not there this year, she had an accident and had to be pts! that upset me quite a bit as she was lovely. again unfortunately, my dad fell off his horse on the second day and buggered his knee and had to spend the rest of the holiday sat in the cottage as he couldn't walk! poor thing. i managed to get chucked off twice in one lesson on the third day! haha! i was riding holly - she was my 2nd fave from last year - a big 16hh tb cross and we started doing a bit of jumping and she just got all excited bless her. after the jump (which was TINY) she just started bucking and doing these leaps where all 4 feet were off the ground and i was stupid enough not to sit up quickly enough after the jump and just flew over her head / shoulder! landed with a wicked thump on my left shoulder and side. got back on, jumped once again and was fine, then again and she damned well did it again! haha! i remember saying "not again" as i fell the second time! i had to laugh. managed to get back on again and try one last time and then left it at that! i'd still like to take her home though, she 's a fab horse! i just don't think she gets used very often and is mostly kept in her stable. she is on working livery but i don't think they use her in the school too much and i only saw her owners up there once. can't blame her for getting a bit excited! it has certainly knocked my confidence though as the next day i was riding another horse and she spooked a little bit (nothing major, not as bad as le gra or anything) and i got really tense after that. its a shame as before that sort of behaviour didn't really affect me (although obviously it did long term) and i would just laugh about it but now i'm quite nervous. had a riding lesson at home last thursday and rode a new horse, commador - lovely big boy, about 16.2hh - and again, normally that height wouldn't have worried me but i was proper nervy on him and wary of jumping and stuff. we did half hour in the school on the flat with a few small jumps and then went out to do a few x-country jumps (tiny ones) and i was pretty much terrified! i hate being like that. its a shame because he seems quite a nice horse. got power there but he came back to me when i asked him. when we were out jumping though, as soon as i turned him towards the jump he'd leap off at 100mph and i couldn't really steady him - that scared me a bit whereas before i'd probably just have laughed. i made sure i put my body protector on too but i definately think i need a new one, it kept catching at the front so think its too big. ANYWAY...am riding commador again this week and hopefully i can get over the nerves!!

its a shame you haven't been able to ride much recently, do you still go and see gulli regularly though? bet you miss it!

hope you get your animals sorted and they are ok, and hope you get in the saddle again soon - ooo...its gonna hurt when you next have a lesson! hehe.

take care. speak soon.xx

Hi Vicky no worries, like you said lots of people have signed.

Hey Vicky, good to hear from you.

sorry you've been so busy lately that you can't see Gulli...that must be horrible for you both :-(

the rat cage is fab. couldn't get the original one i wanted in the end as it was just constantly out of stock so found an alternative - actually think its probably a much better cage so worked out ok in the end! the rat boys love it! so much space :-) the cage is in the lounge so easily viewable by the cats. fudge pays them no attention at all. kenny is quite interested but actually quite scared of them! at first i think he thought it was more hamsters playing around and making noise, then one of them came up to the edge of the run and he saw how big it was and ran away! bless him!

the cats are getting on much better, which is fantastic! they are still not friends and fudge still hisses at kenny if he comes too close to her but we can now leave the gate in the hallway open all the time we are home and at night and fudge has started coming upstairs again and sleeping with me, which i love! i really hated it when she couldn't or wouldn't do that. definate progress though. am really glad we stuck with it! just goes to show that even though it may take ages, its worth it in the end! we've had kenny just over a year now and have only been making this new progress since easter!

sounds like you had an interesting ride out when you went out with Dollar! funny isn't it how sometimes a normally sensible horse will just start acting up (Gulli that is)

never did get round to seeing the panto at my stables! shame cos i was looking forward to it but was really ill the weekend it was on :-( riding had been going really badly, just getting nowhere with le gra again. really knocked my confidence and everything so in the end i had a word with my instructor and we agreed to take a step back and put me on some of the quieter ponies again. the last 2 weeks have been fab! really enjoying it again. been riding toffee who is about 14hh, very pretty blue roan - he's about 22 but you'd never guess it! he loves jumping so have been doing quite a bit of that! its so nice to get on a horse and actually get a resopnse from it, i can make toffee go anywhere really easily rather than fighting for an hour with le gra just to make him walk round the school! toffee has a lot of spark in him, gets wicked excited about jumping and when we go out in the fields, but he's not at all spooky, unlike the other horses i'd been riding for the last year. we have decided that i will ride horses like toffee for the rest of the summer, just to start enjoying riding again and get my confidence back and then i'll try le gra again! am really looking forward to a summer of hacks, gallops and x-country jumping now :-) weheeee! also, going on that riding holiday i went on last year, again in a few weeks with my mum and dad...REALLY looking forward to that!

have had to miss the last month of pilates, which is a shame, but definately hope to get back into it sometime soon. things have been a bit up in the air at home recently - no money and problems with the hubby (must add there, not all his fault!) but hopefully i'll be able to get back to it soon.

hope you have fun at the show you are going to with the SJA.

my bunnies are good - had their myxi jab a few days ago and a health check at the same time. vet said that for their age (about 8 1/2) they are doing really well :-) such a relief!

best get on. take care and speak soon.xx

Hi Vicky did you manage to sign the petition? the ED has put a link to it on Feature page.

Hi Vicky ive put another link to try, for the petition on the dog in art saga thanks.