Play time

This week - and next - The New Forest Carriage Driving for the Disabled team are running two fun days for their guests. In the dry and dusty conditions at least it wasn't too hot. This was a practice run for the competition next week and the drivers undertook a dressage test followed by a timed round of cones. The latter woke the ponies up and there was some avid trotting and a canter from Mollie.

My friend, Wendy, was very accurate and put in a good time; those balls fall off the cones if they are jolted.

This lady, L, did a very good round too and cantered across the finishing line. 

It was good to have Daisy back this week and she and her team did a great job of keeping H safe and happy.

For some bizarre reason, I won nearly all the raffle prizes and had to work hard to pass the cakes around before I ate them all. I did go home with a wonderful sea trout!

Happy Feet

Good news that Prince has redeemed himself since the great escape. That day he came home and met the farrier for the first time. They spent a little time getting to know each other and the scene was set for s future meeting. 

Last week Prince had all four feet trimmed and was very relaxed about the whole thing. Not bad for a pony that was only taught to have his legs and hooves handles when he was already a teenager. 

Panic buying

Anyone who says, "It's summer, just summer!" can have no connection with the countryside and with the source of their food. Cereal crops and grass are producing just one tenth of their usual yield and farmers are already having to supplement their animals' food as if it were winter. Although food prices might rise, farmers will have to compete with imported goods and won't be able to recoup their losses. 

Horse owners are now panicking with their fields looking like overworn lawns, trying to secure hay for the autumn and winter. I am pleased that I have kept the same hay supplier for almost twenty years - he hasn't changed much - despite the fact that his hay has been at the top end of the price range at times. It has always been good quality. This time he has gone beyond the call of duty, buying in large bales of hay from Devon where they seem to have avoided the drought. These big bales are equivalent to more than 10 old-fashioned bales of hay, difficult and heavy to manoeuvre, but once cut, the hay can be divided up and distributed in a wheelbarrow. I am very pleased with the texture and quality of it and it is always good for the horses to have vitamin and minerals which are different from their own grass (if they can remember that far back).

I am using this and scatterable hard feed to keep them amused and healthy, but they are still bad-tempered about the lack of roughage in the field. A raindance is required.

Nothing to do with Horses

For a few weeks I have been watching a friend of mine, James, make his way through the various rounds of the Kenyan Taste Off, their version of Masterchef. Out of 450 hopefuls, I am glad to say that James was the victor, winning 1 million Kenyan shillings and lots of other prizes including a stay in a top hotel for him and his family.

Hongera sana rafiki yangu.

From the Teeth of a Disaster

I had a very stressful telephone call from Ruth last week to say that Prince had gone missing from his field, leaving his two companions behind. At 6 a.m. he had been there but at some time during the morning he had done a bunk. I gave my usual advice in this situation which was to alert the police to a possible stray horse and then to check the ditches of his own field and those nearby first. Prince had been more adventurous than that and fortunately turned up in a completely locked sheep field in Whiteparish. What had begun as a disaster ended with Ruth catching him and bringing him home triumphantly although she did have a blister on her foot!

Proof that the grass is not always greener...

You will all remember the horrible events in London last year where a handful of Cavalry horses went galloping through Central London after being spooked by some construction workers. The grey in particular looked badly injured with blood all over his chest and legs. People wondered if he might have to be put to sleep.

I met a man last week who had met the horse, who is called Vigo, when he was running a camp at Longmoor, near Portsmouth. They had coincided with the Household Cavalry's visit and were taking the horses down to Hayling Island to go swimming in the sea. Lo and behold Vigo was there.

Another reunion

It must be about twenty years since I last saw Christian. We met again today at Driving for the Disabled. I started his Mum's pony, Horace, under saddle - well actually bareback to begin with - and he went on to win a rosette in a local show for best riding pony for the disabled with Christian on board. 

We has such a lovely chat. He is still the decent, polite and kind young man that he always was.