Last night I received a phone call from David asking me if I wanted the bad news or the bad news. It seems that the
next door neighbour to where I keep my horses decided that he would start his
search for a water leak in my fields even though we had assured him that our
meter reading was within it's normal parameters. He took it upon himself to ask
a contractor to go in with a mini digger and dig a five foot by five foot square
hole to a depth of five foot in one paddock and a deep two foot trench
all the way down from the water trough in the other one and then leave it, with the horses still
in there! No warning, no communication, no common sense. Luckily David was
alerted by Charly and they were able to make sure the horses were in fact safe.
The contractor said that he knew all about livestock! Really? Has he seen the
pictures from the local Animal Rescue Team and all the horses and other animals
they have to pull out of ditches more dead than alive. You can imagine I was
livid and perhaps it's a good job that it was David that went up to meet them
today and that I was still here on the IOW. (David has stuck the gate in the hole to give some perspective!)
All week Jo has been pushing me to do more
and more road work with my horses – even though my natural inclination would be
to never bother with roads at all. Today was the ideal quieter day to go around
the roads and both horses were brilliant with the steady stream of small
vehicles that came in both directions. Perfect incremental training.
Later it was off to see Bea, a horse I
haven't seen for two years. Her owner wanted me to get her used to fly spray.
Bea was brilliant and a perfect example of how the use of a lovely rub to
change the sensation of the spray really works. Spray then rub, spray then rub,
spray, spray and then rub. Repeat, repeat, repeat. She was fine, even without
any head collar on and didn't run away or attempt to squash me as she has been
inclined to do before. Afterwards we did some general desensitisation work.
Dillon went well in the Western saddle
again and was ridden up Jo's long drive a number of times.
