Bank Holiday Weekend

On Friday, after shelling out a disgusting amount of money, my car passed it's MOT.

Well, I didn't do very much over the bank holiday weekend. The weather wasn't that good, heavy showers of rain and sleet on Saturday morning and some sunshine in the afternoon. I did manage to cut the grass on Saturday - so that was a minor achievement.

On Sunday early morning I rode little Maud, who I discovered has managed to break a front incisor tooth! I am trying to get a dentist to check it out and tell me whether she will need a vet to extract the remaining stump or what to do?

Later in the morning, Jude and her kids came to see Bazil. It was lovely to see the girls and Jude again, having not seen them for months.

On Monday, Chris was very tired, so all we did was take the dogs for a walk round a reservoir close to Tandlehill. There were still carpets of bluebells and young fronds of bracken coming through, and plenty of swifts flying all around us - most entertaining, they are such acrobats, a joy to watch. In the evening, I did some house work, which was NOT joyous!

My beautiful car failed it's MOT today

I've just got back from the MOT place with a red FAILED certificate for KLOD's MOT! She needs 4 new tyres!! I thought I had enough tred - you know the penny test - and the two front tyres were brand new in September - What's going on? Also the front suspension is loose, which of course means a new front suspension thingy, and just my luck, the friendly mechanic next door decided to go on holiday today for a week, so I'm having to pay over the odds for the suspension bits!!! I'm SO cheesed off!!!!!

I seem to have thrown so much money at this car already this year, that it may be time to get rid of her. The only problem is that I like her. I like driving her and she is the right size for me, the dogs, and the weekly shopping of horse feed and bails of hay. Also, she holds the road extremely well.

So what car to choose. The Alfa's CO2 banding is horridly high, making the road tax a little excessive, but what is there that is similar to the Alfa? The BMW Series 1 (what ever model) is over priced, so that car is out of the equation- and they are not as good looking. The Italians do know how to design good looking cars, the Germans did a strange copy, as did some other manufacturers after the 147 came out. Oh Dear!

FOR SALE: F.A.F ALFA ROMEO 147 2.00T offers - 5K

13 days old, and another sunny morning for Bazil

Since the arrival of the wee man, it has rained almost every day, I thought he may grow water wings it had been so wet, so he has been enjoying the few nice days that we have had recently.

After turning Ruth & Bazil out this morning, the foal came back over to me without his Mum and started chewing my fingers, wellies and trousers - so brave - and I can report that his milk teeth are coming through - poor Ruthie.

He is becoming more and more confident and as you can see in this mornings pictures of him, he decided to leave Mum and chew her feed bucket which he managed to pull over giving himself a big fright.

Cut the grass in my garden on Sunday, which took several hours, but I'm still no closer to finishing the footings for the dog kennels due to rain and work, but I'll have to get a move on. (my plants are suffering.)

Imogen gets Bronze!

Last Saturday, Imogen managed to pass her Kennel Club Good Citizens Bronze Test! This was amazing, because although she is fairly obedient, I cannot get her to walk to heal. We were asked to do that exercise twice!! But phew, she passed. Little Fleur, has Bronze and Silver but failed her Gold three years ago and I haven't tried to resit it with her, to be honest, she became totally bored with puppy school. It happens.

Imogen on the other hand is a bit of a dafty and really enjoys puppy school, but next week is the last class for the summer. Anne is running field trail training which I think I'll enroll Imogen for. She really enjoys the classes and is stimulated by them, so much so that she comes home on a complete high, buzzing for about an hour, jumping over the furniture, whizzing round the dinning room table etc, etc. Fleur & I just keep well out of the way until she drops from exhaustion!

That's the plan ....

Maud's First Show

I think Maud thoroughly enjoyed her outing to Easterton Show. I had entered her in the Mountain & Moorland In Hand class first before the M & M Ridden class to see how she would behave. And Maud being Maud, she was a dolly as usual, although just a little sparky in the first class which is only to be expected. The good new being she was brought in third behind two colts and finally placed fifth.

My niece Stephanie rode her in the ridden class and once again Maud was in the ribbons, coming in sixth! Well done to both Maud & Steph.

Rain on Bank Holiday Monday

With all the excitement of Bazil arriving last Saturday and work, I didn't have the time to write about my equine escapades on Bank Holiday Monday.

In true bank holiday style, the weather was awful! That is it poured with rain and was very cold. Actually the day before when I was out riding Bombay, we got caught in a hail storm - rather nasty!

Monday was my first show of the season, and I had decided to take Bombay and little Maud to the Spring Show at Easterton Sables, which gave me an awful lot of work to do in one night - plating and grooming and cleaning tack for two animals. But I got it done.

This was Maud's first show ever, ......

OOPs, I have to go to work now down at Ibrox. Chris is making a programme on Dado Prso, so I'd better go and I'll finish this note soon.

YIPEE - THE FOAL HAS ARRIVED!!

Early Saturday morning, Ruth gave birth to Basil. I checked Ruth on Friday night to see if there were any signs of the foal, and she looked, behaved and felt the same as she did that morning and the night before! So as you can imagine I got a big surprise, but Ruth's surprise was bigger - she was completely stunned if not a little bewildered by this little fellow, but very protective.

So my weekend plans changed. I didn't go to the one day seminar on the welfare of the Native Pony, as I had my own Native to worry about. I phoned to cancel my place, then phoned the vet to do a "check" on both Ruth and the foal. All is well with Ruth, and the placenta was intact, but the foal had a bit of a weepy eye which was looked at carefully to see if there was any scratch or other damage. Nothing was visible, I was just to keep an eye on it. I was greatly concerned early on Saturday morning, because I didn't think he was getting any milk when he was trying to suckle, but today is day 4 and he is getting enough milk at the moment and his eye is getting better.

However on Sunday I phoned for the vet again because he hadn't passed anything and appeared frustrated, so the vet gave him a mild enema and Basil is bouncing around for fun.

Ruth is very protective of her foal as I've said, but she is aggressively so, which is upsetting me, however I'll contact the stallion owner for advice. And so my troubles begin .. a Colt foal ... I will have to be very strict with him to ensure good manners. At the moment his head is so small that the smallest foal slip we found will just fall off him, so that is not such a good start.

Anyway, must rush home to let the dogs out, and bring Ruth & Basil in for the night as they have been out all day.

Bank holiday Monday was another action packed equine day, but I write about that tomorrow.


The top picture shows Basil last night and the second picture was taken on Sunday night. I did take pictures of him on Saturday morning, but I used my telephone camera so not to disturb Ruth or the foal. (Thanks to James for taking the top picture & sending it to me.)

No signs of Ruth's foal

Just to let you know, Ruth's foal has still not made an appearance, but the closer we get to the 5th of May, he may just change his mind and come and join the rest of us in the outside world.

My brother emailed me this photo of his wife's Andalusian mare with it's newborn foal. Many foals are born one colour and change colour as they grow older, this one will be grey. I have no idea what their names are, but I'm sure I would be unable to spell them anyway if I did!

I have a bit of a hectic weekend coming up, involving Bombay and Maud, but more of that next week.

Still digging furiously in the garden, trying to lay the foundations for my kennels. The plants I have dug up desperately need to be re planted - I'm getting quite frustrated by my slowness at getting the job done - time just flies by.