Tania Kettle

It's been crazy busy this week.

Everyone I know who is close to me, is having success and I am super proud of, and for, them.  They've all worked hard and deserve these successes.

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Horses at home are good and happy and this weekend I'm going to (fingers crossed) wash Ralph and Chew, photograph them and hopefully enter them into a competition.  Well, I will enter them in a competition, I mean hopefully we'll win, there's 12 spots and we only need one, and let's face it, they are super cute.

Mares is good and is showing real personality.  She's got that I'm listening to her so we're fine tuning her feed.  Today she was like, Too much chaff, what else do you have? so I did the one thing I always go back to in times of, I have no idea what I'm doing periods.  I gave her her normal feed then put another bucket down with different feed.  Horses are not greedy, they won't just eat food because it's in front of them so she is then trying to show me what she's trying to get across.  And I got out of it that, No, I don't like that, I want less of that, more of this... so I did.  B then growled at me and told me she was just having an off day and I shouldn't pander to her wants and needs. However, I sit with the whole idea that when a horse is talking he or she has something to say, unless they're just shooting the breeze or telling a joke.  

Anyway, it won't do me any harm to listen to Mares and play round a bit with her food, and seriously, it's fun communicating.  She's a funny little thing, she's got her little ways, and I watch her think, process then show me.  Sometimes I joke around and pretend I don't understand, then watch her try and show me in another way.  I like the playing, not so much the leading her when she's straining, prancing and generally trying to do the bolt.  B still leads her up for me because of this.  

And my young one gave me another lecture about Stop fixing horses if you can't lead them when they're well.  As I tried to explain to him, I see nothing but where they're sore or sad or hurt, I can't see anything else when I first start and then Boom! Hola.  

He just sighed. 

I love him, too.

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Mares is not being difficult.  She's in season and trying to tell me she needs to eat differently around this time.  Duh!

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And I have finally mann-ed up and eaten a banana skin.  

I know! It freaked me out for ages too.  

Anyway, I have a rule that I never feed any human herb/vitamin etc to my horses unless I have ingested it myself.  It's a great rule and keeps me honest.  And I eat heaps of bananas.  However, I have never eaten a skin nor have I had any desire to.  In fact, quite the opposite.  However, my horses love banana and their skin.  Which tells me that excellent nutrients and vitamins are in the skin.  

But honestly...Uggghh.  

What to do?  What to do? Cooking it will change the vitamins I'm getting out of it so the only thing left was to whizz it into a smoothie.

So, I did.

But didn't quite get the smoothie.  

I chopped up half the banana and skin, taking off both ends, and put a little water in and whizzed it up in the bullet.  Weirdest thing happened, it went this weird a** brown colour.  Uggh.  But I had a taste and it was delicious.  So, I added in the rest of the banana (still minus both ends) and when everything was whizzed, ate it like baby food.

I am totally a fan.  

Within 10 minutes my body had been flooded with happy hormones, it was sweet, I felt full and totally amazing.  No wonder the horses love it.  And it's totally different to eating a banana.  

Think banana on soup-ed up, happy juice.

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Felt great all day on the whizzed up banana.  I did take 3 bowel movements within 2 hours but you know, all good and healthy.  I felt full most of the day and my seratonin levels were excellent.  This ended up being particularly good because the girls, Fenny and Flash, popped themselves back to their normal paddocks and shut the gate behind them leaving Buzz-the-Bl**dy-Bull lonely and p*ssed off in the arena.  

Mostly p*ssed off.

So, there I was having washed Ralph and Chew and we were in the photographing phase.  We'd taken photo's all round the place and then they wandered over to the arena.  Where the love lorn Buzz was.  But wait...after the storm one of the rails had come loose and was just held on with a nail.  Buzz gave it a look and I swear, hand on heart, it fell off in fright.  

I was still trying to photograph the little ones but out of the corner of my eye I saw a black horn.  I looked again, and not only was there a horn but there was also a head following, but wait...then a delicate hoof.  Then I really looked and realized the bad tempered, humpy moose was holding his breath and sliding his whole body through the fence!! 

O.M.F.G.

Because once he got it through he had the whole run of the place, including up and all round the house, driveway, garage, sheds etc.

I dropped my phone, ran into the big shed and grabbed the naughty stick.  A big, yellow stick type thing, with yelllow pvc strips hanging off it and ran like a b*tch back to the fence to get the big bl**dy moose to back his big black a** back into arena.  

Then I had to get the bl**dy big heffalump back into the paddock where the girls were.  Which meant I had to go into the arena, walk a bit of a way, open gate to paddock, get heffalump back in then slam gate shut.  And double bolt it.

So, there I was with an armful of baleage, naughty stick to keep horns away from my a** and one p*ssed off bull following me, while trying to open gate, encourage Bull in, keep girls out, throw baleage in paddock and slam gate shut.

I was talking to the young one later about it and he had the most unhelpful advice of, You know bulls can smell fear, right?

Of which I replied, My fear of him getting out and running riot around the house overrode my other fear of him.  Life's all about perception, baby.

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So, that's been our week: Excitement, fear, offers and adventures.

Take the good stuff, dump the rest.

Wishing you much love my friends, and of course, my humans.

Caps, me, Spirit, Az, Ralph, Chew, Buzz-the-Bl**dy-Bull, Fenny (who's not just the cutest cowette in the world but is also pretty damn smart), and Flash (not too shabby either).

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* Hot shower in theory is brilliant but in reality sucks the kumara big time.  Hose connected to tub tap keeps falling off, squirting all round the place no matter how far I've connected it or how much plumbers tape I've used.  It's really frustrating because I know it should work.

Back to the drawing board.

** Did not organise my day very well and found myself feeding out tonight in the p*ssing rain and pitch black.  Not my finest work.  It was kind of funny though because the horses were down the bottom paddock eating the new grass so there I was with their food out, banging on the fence, calling them by name and then there they were, galloping, slipping and sliding down the mud to get dinner.  Kind of made it worthwhile.

*** And a big Hola! to Helen's new man William, who came over, played round with screwdrivers and stuff, and made it possible for the mini's to have a hot shower again.  

Much appreciated xx

**** Mares loves having a second feed bucket and it's working pretty well for me.  First bucket is her normal feed that she likes and I know works for her.  Second bucket sits next to it and has things that I want to give her but don't know whether it works for her or not.  I put a little of what I want to give her in the bucket and she tells me whether she likes it or not.  She's funny though, she won't eat from the second bucket until I've left her paddock, as if she doesn't want me to know immediately and instead wants time to decide for herself what she likes.  

***** Day 4 of banana skin whizz and I've noticed definite changes.  Banana skins definitely work with seratonin levels which is cool, but they also have an amazing flushing ability with the bowels, getting them in balance and realigning the gut balance.  I also know that they decrease your appetite which is also directly related to seratonin levels, which I didn't know previously.  

I know that my tummy is in balance so it works with the pre and pro biotic balance, maybe one, maybe the other, maybe both but anyway, definitely rebalances.  I also know that for me it kept my hunger pains away and my calorie intake went from a hopeful 1500 a day (but normally closer to 2000ish) to 1200 or under.  It also doesn't seem to have the same result as Pohutakawa bark which speeds up metabolism, cuts hunger but also makes you put on weight because of the increase of insulin that floods the system.  Banana skins just seem to cut your appetite and get your bowels working on a regular basis.

Overall, I'm a fan however, I wouldn't use the banana skins every day.  This week I used two Sunday, one in the morning and one at night, one Monday morning and haven't needed any more.  I would use 2 to 4 times a week maxium but you most probably wouldn't need 4.

You're welcome.

xx