A Tiddler!

There is a sneaking suspicion on the stud that one of the chickens is not pulling its weight in the egg department!  Shame I don't eat eggs as everyone raves about the quality of ours and Mark is a master of cooking them perfectly.

The foals meet polo balls

Mark introduced the foals to a polo stick and ball today, they were interested and bright, no doubt sniggering "hey mate, you've lost your horse"!  We took a quick snap of Cherry, she is due to foal on the 13th of April and if I squint and ignore the mud, is looking well.

Hoochin' with Critters!

We moved the trail camera onto a fox den two nights ago and got these shots at two in the afternoon, night shots show a badger coming past regularly too.

Chamfron Bellini - Nine months old

Looking very well having wintered on the Isle of Wight.  Natalie says she's the most laid back horse on the yard!

Kayreen's Gang

Kayreen's Nico youngsters, Sioux who Kayreen bred last year is out of a Dales mare and has the cutest tiny blanket and Chamfron Angel Dust who is three in June, growing like a weed and the yard clown.

Chamfron Deja Vu - 20 Months Old

Enjoying a good butt scratch!  Photos thanks to Natalie.

Valentines poem about new rugs (bad!)

Ellie is Red

Bridget is Violet

Both totally in love 

With the ParcelForce Pilot

Yolanda and Mara

First snow in Yorkshire!  Mara still trying the "cuteness will get me everywhere" line of attack while stealing Yolanda's hay.

Trail Camera Update

Badger camera in the woods continues to be a hive of activity, exhibitionist badger is regularly seen kicking back and showing of his wares to the camera.  To be fair he is a hard worker and regularly cleaning out the set.  Also seen on the camera are small mice (about 500 photos of blurry small eyes), a grey squirrel, robins, blackbirds and this morning (after a major set clearance) we had a fox passing by and then then two Jays arrived.

I'm still not convinced photo quality is as good as it could be so we will continue to experiment, this week I think we move away from this set and see what other activity there is on the farm.

Being spoilt...

Dry all day!  Stela has been partaking in some intense divot creation and Morello is looking good at ten months old, he's such a lovely clean horse.

Maintenance!

A few horses to vaccinate, swab and have their teeth done this morning and then Marks favourite job, foot trimming.  Lysander stood perfectly to be done but there is no doubt that *when* we win the lottery Mark will never trim a foot again (he's too long in the back for the job!!)

A Change from the norm...

Nice to have a wee break from the daily grind today, Ross from Glasgow School of Art came to visit Arrayan as part of his research into a film he is making on Tschiffley's Ride.  Sadly the film will be made in Argentina and Manhattan so Arrayan will not be having a staring role but we can help out a bit with the books and papers we have on Criollos and give him more background into the breed.  It gave Ross a chance to see a Criollo in the flesh and hopefully he can visit again in the summer.

Being Spoilt!

Two (almost) dry days in a row.  Perdita and Toledo are full of the joys of spring and are casting their coats furiously.  Stela was backed as a three year old then the turned away for "six months" to even up and as she is now rising six (how the hell did that happen!!) she is back in to be ridden away!

Divots, divots everywhere!

Not actually raining but very soggy underfoot.  Gutted that we are now in February without snow, in fact without even a hard frost, this isn't winter, it's been gloomy.  Still a little bit of sunshine to get the camera out this morning.