Another week...

...has whizzed by...Pickles and Snips have gone home, leaving George here for a few more weeks. He became very quickly reconciled to being on of the boys - in fact if anything I think he prefers his new status as one of the lads :-)

Charlie is now a regular fixture as our master's second horse, and is loving being taken around the country in the hunt lorry with hounds - he is absolutely convinced that he really should be her horse permanently (!).

Its peeing down here tonight, what a surprise - I much preferred the freeze in so many ways - and tonight the barn lights fused so I was scrabbling around in the dark for the last few minutes before finishing the horses...very dull! More when the lights go back on...

Seasons greetings!

This is what we look like this morning :-) Snow on Sunday, then again last night and more today. It thawed quickly on Sunday but will hang around today, I think, as its still not above freezing. No chance of riding out, as there is a layer of ice frozen solid on top of the tarmac! The arena will probably thaw out later this afternoon though, so I should be able to use that at least.

Charlie is very pleased with himself because he was the master's horse yesterday, and even better, he got to ride in the hunt lorry with hounds :-) I couldn't go, so dropped him off for a lovely day out while we all stayed here with our noses to the grindstone - lucky boy (!)

Dexter update!

Its about time for a Dexter update...

Although he has left Rockley, I still trim him so see him regularly, and Kelly is fantastic about letting me know how things are going.

She and Dex have done amazing thing since he went home - he has competed at both BSJA and dressage competitions, and has been regularly placed (clever boy!) - most recently, at the weekend, coming 4th in their first test, and then second :-)

Dex is looking fabulous, and I am really looking forward to seeing them out next season!

Bill - before and after...

Here are a couple of interesting photos. Unfortunately the light in the first one was bad, but you get the idea, I hope :-)

The bottom photo is of Bill when he arrived, still in shoes and with a very poor topline from being out of work and unsound for many months.

The top photo shows him as he is now, much more muscled up and feeling extremely well (!)...

We will try and get a direct comparison photo, with him standing square on, as that would give a clearer idea of how much his topline and musculature have changed.

Rocks

Barefootin' at Rockley

I can upload videos now that we are on broadband!

...maybe I spoke too soon...

...actually, no thaw has really set in after all...it froze again last night, good and proper, and hasn't defrostd all day (!). At least its been dry, so no problems with exercising, but still very much confined to the roads, yawn...

We're meeeeeeltingggg!!

Definite thaw has set in this afternoon, with fully functioning taps and all sorts of things dripping and melting. Although we have all loved the sunshine, its been a bit tedious not to have been able to get out properly for the last 2 or 3 days, let alone do any "proper" work either in the school or out at speed across the fields...so all in all I will be quite glad for a return to mild weather, although the inevitable rain will accompany it and it has been SO lovely to have everything dry for a couple of weeks....Still, back to reality ;-)

WE HAVE BROADBAND!!!!!!!!

...it is SOOOOOO exciting - of course most of you won't remember what its like to be creaking away on 115kbp dial up.....but its almost worth being that deprived (!) because the upgrade is FANTASTIC!

Just to celebrate, here are some of my fave pics of the gang, which haven't gone up on the blog before...

Snow as well!

Its not just stayed cold, its got colder! The ground is truly frozen solid everywhere, we have had no water in the barn for several days, but fortunately the streams are running as the main source of water for the horses, sheep and cattle.

This morning it snowed as well - not much, but enough to make the roads like an ice-rink again, very frustrating as at least we were able to keep the horses ticking over with road work up till now. I think we may get a thaw over the next few days, but at the moment the gang seem happy enough munching vast amounts of haylage and having an unscheduled holiday.

Fortunately the ground in the fir woods has stayed unfrozen, and the pea gravel has been fine too up till today, but apart from that they are having to do some serious rock-crunching :-)

Happy 2009, everyone!

Another beautiful day here, freezing cold, but dry and clear - what a fantastic start to the New Year :-)

Unfortunately I have managed to catch Andy's stinking cold, but by a lucky coincidence the weather means that the fields and roads are so frozen that exercising horses is not really an option today, so I have a cast iron excuse not to go out exercising in sub-zero temperatures - its an ill wind!

They are all quite happy anyway mooching round the track - it must beat being stuck in a box all day, and now that the wind has dropped they are using the eastern half of the track again, although they won't hang around there once it gets dark and the temperature drops.

The new horses have settled in well, although Dually/George had me worried last night as he had a mild bout of colic - no apparent reason for it, and fortunately it passed off as quickly as it came on, much to my and the vet-on-call's relief - why is it that veterinary emergencies only EVER happy on Sundays or bank holidays?!?!!!

Alls well that ends well though, and 2008 ended happily for everyone, so lets hope thats a good omen for 2009.