Oor Eagle Eye Cherry Away

Cherry has headed off to her new home today which is actually her old home as she has gone back to her breeder Karen at WD Appaloosas. 

Campeador and Zamba

Happily settled with Ally.

Chamfron By Dand - Endurance Awards

Results from the SERC Tayside Awards 2015 show Chamfron By Dand and Rebecca Crump did rather well in their first (fairly relaxed) season of endurance.

Joint 1st - Novice Horse
Joint 2nd - Golden Blaze (most gold awards)
Joint 3rd - Jacobite Warrior (highest distance in 30km classes)
Joint 6th - Senior Points

Well Done!

Chamfron Zamba and Chamfron Campeador Away

Zamba and Sid are away to Wiltshire with Ally this morning, the plan is Zamba will event and Sid will hunt with Ally's husband.  No photos of them as I was too busy trying to stay upright, it is lovely to have frosts to harden the mud but less than ideal when the yard is a skating rink and you are loading foals.  Instead we have a photo of their new Uncle Merlin, ready and willing to teach them everything he knows...!

Pitufa and Yaya Gaitan Away

Pitufa and Yaya headed down to Cheshire with Sally at Roxburgh Horse Transport this morning, they go to join Perdita and Osito with John and Bernadette Archer.  Pitufa was Marks favourite pony, the other woman in his life and while she has given me some really special days out she loves men (I can just imagine her batting her eyelashes at John), loves to be worked and deserves to be appreciated.  Yaya is just glad to hear news of a stable and less mud as she has been living out here!

Mark's Funeral

Details from today...

Entry Music - Vow To Thee My Country (Russell Watson) - well it should of been!!!
Reflection Music - Live Like Horses (Luciano Pavarotti and Elton John)
Exit Music - Now We Are Free (Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard)

First poem by Alison Lewis

When you're sad and feeling low
Remember how you came to know
The son, the boy, the man, the friend
Who chose with you his life to spend.

The horses mope and dogs will bark
Because they too are missing Mark
Keep in your heart the Mark you knew
And his unending love for you.

See through the tears
Just watch him ride
And let him fill your heart with pride
Smiling, laughing, running free
Jumping fences, filled with glee.

Strong and kind, brave hearted Scot
Mark made the most of his own lot
He lived his dreams, made dreams come true
He loved his life, and he loved you.

Second poem by Linda Huxley

Foals dancing in the sunlight, mares fast, agile, serene
A stallion stepping, head held high
His power part of the dream
A dream of horses, fast and proud, taught with wisdom, love and grace
The work is full, the life is good,
The legacy in place.
But dreams are hard and dreamers pay with blood and sweat and tears
Such dreams are made from work and pain
And stress and future fears
The dream is made, in every foal his wisdom now lives on,
His legacy lies in every horse
He set his mark upon
From deep within these horses hearts, his soul rides safe inside
His dream lives on, the dreamer gone,
Yet here in grace and pride.
When darkness falls, just watch for him reflected in their eyes,
His soul, his wisdom, wit and love
Rides free, 'neath starry skies...

No...

Would we prefer to be out in the rain and mud?  Let us give that our utmost consideration and get back to you...

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Should I write this, would someone recognising the symptoms and getting a diagnosis a week or two earlier be a good or bad thing, I don't know?  The reality probably is that by the time someone is googling Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease their life has just turned to shit, before that you google depression and stress and it doesn't quite seem right but hey, we all know anyone can suffer from mental health issues.  So if this blog raises a red flag to you, make Wills, say what you want to say to your loved ones and then hope, hope with everything you've got that this isn't going to be your story.

So our story started in November, before that Mark had problems sleeping but life was good, he'd lost weight but he'd worked hard all summer and he was a wee bit down but the weather was awful, we were all moping about.  Then the niggles started, Marks hands were shaking, he forgot how to log into his internet banking, he occasionally missed a horse out when he was feeding and then terrifyingly one night Mark, who was a wonderful cook, couldn't work out how to use the oven.   It wasn't constant, not at all, as normal we laughed every day and life went on.

Mark was never ill and it took us a little while to get him registered with a Doctor and when he did get an appointment they thought he was severely depressed.  We talked, no one's life is perfect but I couldn't see why he was struggling so much, I asked did he have debt I didn't know about, another woman perhaps, yip horrendous and in hindsight totally unnecessary conversations.  The odd, odd thing about that appointment was Mark was upset he'd offended an old man in the waiting room - there was no old man in the waiting room.  So at 37yo and with no history of mental health problems and no drug or alcohol dependancy he was having paranoid delusions.

That night in bed Mark told me he was dying, he was distraught.  The psychiatrist who saw him the next day had him admitted to Dumfries hospital immediately and despite it being just days before Christmas he had a CAT Scan, Lumber Puncture and many blood tests.  They were all negative and so we were back to the mental health diagnosis, everyone was so very positive, they could fix this, nothing to worry about.  Honestly, I was horrified, so was Marks mum, how naive were we?

Mark had an MRI the Tuesday after Christmas and no one expected an issue, this was just dotting the I's and crossing the T's.  The consultant rang that night, Mark had "significant abnormalities" and he gave four options, the first was CJD but he was in the wrong age group and it was so very very rare.  The other options were treatable, they gave us hope.  Yes, they gave us hope when there was none because they knew then, Marks MRI was a brilliant example of CJD.

The following Monday the team came down from Edinburgh and formally diagnosed Mark, they gave him 3-5 months.  We pushed to get Mark into palliative care and when he got a room there he looked out the window at the bulbs coming through and said he wouldn't live long enough to see them flower.  He was right, he died just 16 days after diagnosis.

Nacreous Clouds

A lovely sight before the big black clouds rolled in again!

Mule of Kintyre Away

Treacle is now well on her way to her new home but not without me having a wee moment!  It is blowing a gale (when is it not?), bale wrap flying past, trees creaking ominously and I don't fancy a three quarter of a mile walk to the road end, I will trailer mule, simple!  

I can't get the lock of the trailer, I have a wee panic, then I get a grip of myself and realise Dick will be over to help in plenty of time and he will get the lock off.  Then Gillies rang, they are at Langholm, OK now I am really panicking, I say hopefully "are you in the 3.5t wagon?" - the driver laughs.

So, I ring my lovely neighbours and they dash up with their trailer, mule leaps on and we trundle down the drive way, meanwhile the lorry has the wrong post code and is going the scenic route (I thought the driver was lovely and calm considering you do not want to do the scenic route round here.)

Mule walks off the trailer, has a small apple and goes straight up the ramp into the lorry.  The driver must have realised she is VERY SPECIAL as by now she has five people waving her off (and one trying not to cry.)

So have fun muley, you are the best of mules, totally infuriating at times but never failing to rise to the occasion.

Oh and the trailer lock...?  It was unlocked, Dick tapped it lightly and it fell off.  I laughed.