For those who have never visited my fields, they are at the end of an old airfield perimeter road/ track in the heart of the Forest and about half a mile from a Forest gate which is owned and locked by the Forestry Commission. I have a right of access across this land. Most of the time it all works well and if I need the gate left 'pretend locked' so that a visitor can get down to me then I tend to leave a polite laminated note in the eye of the gate. Recently the Forestry Commission have begun work on an important restoration and conservation project just below my nearest inclosure and they are using the same access. Everything has being ticking along happily until last Friday when the contractors ignored one of my laminated signs which said "Please leave gate unlocked as vet arriving" and managed to lock the poor vet in! Fortunately she needed to walk her dog and walked her back down to the fields so that we could go back and let her out. Today I went to have a very calm word with the contractors, project managed by Jason from Alaska (the company not the country) and we had a very friendly conversation. In fact all of the people I have spoken to at various times have been so pleasant that I was inspired to go and fetch them all an ice cream.
Despite big black thunderclouds Pat, Tracey and I had a lovely ride out this afternoon. There was a family gathering before we got ready. We came back across Janesmoor Plain following the Alaska digger up the track. We always like to use our environment to train the horses.
Whilst giving the Alaskan men a shout for being so pleasant, I should include the vet, Helen Taylor, who not only did a great job with Zoe but was very sweet-tempered about being imprisoned! It was a good week for pleasant people and I should never forget just how lucky I am to be surrounded by such kind and willing helpers, Tracey, Julie and lately, Nadia.
We finished the day by applying the last new poultice to Zoe's foot. She seems to have taken the advice about soaking her feet in iodine to heart and is taking preventive measures with her other foot.
