Lucia in the snow!

Lucia (Arrayan Numa x Carribean Dream) enjoying the snow at Border Reivers polo club, photos thanks to Morag.

Fluffy children!!

Chamfron Kukri in the snow!

Chamfron Kukri with his best pal Errol enjoying the snow this morning, photos thanks to Gemma.

Reservoir Horses...

Mark felt the expressions on Pitufa, Ruby and Erica in this photo...

Reminded him of something...

To mangle a quote from the movie perhaps the conversation was going like this...

Mrs. Pink (Ruby): Why can't we pick our own colors?

Hector: No way, no way. Tried it once, doesn't work. You got four girls all fighting over who's gonna be Mrs. Black, but they don't know each other, so nobody wants to back down. No way. I pick. You're Mrs. Pink. Be thankful you're not Mrs. Yellow.

Mrs. Brown (Erica): Yeah, but Mrs. Brown is a little too close to Mrs. Shit.

Mrs. Pink (Ruby): Mrs. Pink sounds like Mrs. Pussy. How 'bout if I'm Mrs. Purple? That sounds good to me. I'll be Mrs. Purple.

Hector: You're not Mrs. Purple. Some guy on some other job is Mrs. Purple. You're Mrs. PINK.

Mrs. White (Pitufa): Who cares what your name is?

Mrs. Pink (Ruby): Yeah, that's easy for your to say, you're Mrs. White. You have a cool-sounding name. Alright look, if it's no big deal to be Mrs. Pink, you wanna trade?

Hector: Hey! NOBODY'S trading with ANYBODY. This ain't a goddamn, f***ing city council meeting, you know. Now listen up, Mrs. Pink. There's two ways you can go on this job: my way or the highway. Now what's it gonna be, Mrs. Pink?

Mrs. Pink (Ruby): Jesus Christ, Hector, f***ing forget about it. It's beneath me. I'm Mrs. Pink. Let's move on.

*and the girls wander off to the tune of "little green bag*

(Don't get the joke? - see here - youtube)

First Snow!

A light sprinkling of snow this morning, causing the old horses to bounce around like youngsters (while the youngsters looked on, slightly embaressed) they are a joy, even if they do have five minutes of the sillieness followed by a sharp pulling up and "oh errr, my old bones"

The youngsters are unrugged and doing well, bright eyed and fluffy coated. I did plan to rug Cherry this year as she is in foal but I've never met a filly that can lean over a fence like she does (yip, better than "bulldozer" mule).

We love this type of weather, so what if the pipes are frozen, its clean and healthy and the sun is shining!

The fluffies are revolting...

The fluffies were all excited this morning... "Look it has snowed, yay yay this must mean we will be fed, look you cannot see the grass and we might fade away"

Then they spotted me "look, look here comes the slave, she must be bearing haylage"

"Errr she apears to be sniggering, hey Bell did you catch what she said? It sounded suspiciously like 'get digging fatties'?"

"Molly get out your green pen, the service in this hotel is boufing"

Last field change for 2010.

Had a last swap round of horses for a while, Bubbles has gone out with the fluffies making their own "native, furry and fat" corner of the stud.

Everything else is in one large herd in the field next to the house. They had mentioned there wasn't a lot of grass left on the side field by doing fly by's at dusk every night and the sound of 14 horses plowing through slop tends to be a good point well made. The weaned mares are also out again, something we haven't done in previous years. We will just have to see how they get on and the delicate flowers will come back in, as and when is necessary. To be honest with the cost of straw this year any days when they are not standing in, crapping on solid gold is a bonus!!

Our field moves would make the more health and safety conscious nervous, first grab Pitufa, second grab a youngster (today Malambo) - shout on everything else until it forms a melee around you, open gate... most surge through, collect the stragglers by doing a loop round with Pitufa, then once everything is through release youngster, release Pitufa. Youngster learns that sorry, everything else is allowed to gallop past you and you will stand. Pitufa is handy should you need to leap on and round anything back up. My only concession for this move was that I didn't take out the good camera, I never felt it enjoyed being thrown over fences or hung from tree branches when you needed to grab a horse or a gate... which means the photos are somewhat distant and blurry!!

Chamfron Viscacha - 17 months old.

Chamfron Viscacha at 17 months old, photo with thanks from Jo.

Weaning - part two.

Wanda and Cactus were weaned on Sunday night, Cactus went in the pen with Aguacero and Caramia where he settled immediately. As you can see I've had plenty of help to halter break him! He bounced up to Mark "hmmm big and bright orange... are you my mum?"

Wanda went in a stable, because the other three are so friendly she's been prone to hovering behind them and acting a bit shy. She has now had the ignominy of wearing a catch rope for a few days, the other foals are laughing at her and Arrayan is helpfully removing it through the stable bars. Talking of Arrayan, do you notice anything in the "bum" shot, yes not much difference in height is there and Wanda is, oh just over 5 months old. I no longer "do" big horses so she is for sale. (Please ignore the fact I'd been "itching" her and had raised a lot of dust!)

Its nice to have the foals in and get them looking clean and shiny before they go onto new homes.

First to leave will probably be Caramia, little miss take photos of Meeeeee!

Chamfron Colorado - 15 months old.

The amazing colour changing Colin at 15 months, photos thanks to Nicola.

Chamfron Soutra Brae - 16 months old.

A very fluffy Su at 16 months old, photo thanks to Claire.

Weaning - part one.

Ruby had been enquiring when the rugs for foals amnesty would be held...

... so we decided to wean Caramia and Aguacero yesterday, they seem to be settlling down well, though they have asked everyone that has gone past "have you seen my mum? She's about <- this -> big and brown and she's bound to be missing me by now"

Today they have been watching the construction work with interest as Mark and Dick have been building the polo pit. One more mornings work and it should be ready for action.