Cobs Can

This is the front cover for Omar's book "Cobs Can!" I took photos for the book back in the summer. The book is published by J. A. Allen and will be available in May 2011. Should include some great photos of Ketchup doing Piafe, Passage and Spanish Walk!

Furry feet and lycra!

This lad last featured on the blog in June 2009 as a new born foal of our neighbours. Since then he has been growing up on the hill and is now offered for sale, so with a bright blue sky we legged it up to take some photos of him.

Then as the driveway was free of ice, I donned my Christmas lycra and started jogging again. There has been mutterings of three peaks challenges and other lunacy so I think more movement is needed!

Wanda Sold.

Deposit now taken on Wanda (Chamfron Wakizashi) who will be going to Tessa Scott from Cumbria in the spring (yay!)

Photo of Wanda is from the summer as it is unbelievably grim out there today, lots of rain, mud and gale force winds. Ruby is in to dry out after wearing her rug as a necklace, Bugsy has a foot abscess, everything else is depressed (myself included)! Forecast is better for next week at least.

Iron free horse...

Blurghhhhh, I can't believe I typed that, I hate the hippy phrases that have sprung up as people somehow think they invented riding a horse bareback in a halter (did we not all do that with our sharp little ponies when we were eight?) and that its only possible with "Natural Horsemanship" and long distance learning courses.

There is nothing "Natural Horsemanship" in the way this little mare was broken, schooled and trained (she says there may be in the way you leave me to forage for food in the snowy wilderness...) and yet you can leap on her and round up the herd in a halter. She's not brain dead, far from it, she's a proper little athlete (yes, under the fur!) and Mark did say as she bounced in the gateway he thought "best not give her a kick in the ribs, or I'm going to be making snow angels"!!

I don't give a rats-ass if she's left brain introvert (or whatever the phrase of the week is) I just know she's a damn good horse who knows her job and was raised and trained by real horsemen! The problem in this country (apart from the obvious that horses are no longer used for work in the majority) is that somehow we have become a nation that expects horses (dogs/children) to be naughty and its a self fufilling prophesy. Don't let the rot set in, be proud if you've got a good 'un!

Oh and yes the look on Pitufa's face is - I have counted them through the gate, they are all on, get off me and let me eat haylage!!

Best Laid Plans...

As the ground was covered with snow this morning we decided to change tack and to put three bales of haylage out in the winter field and run the horses back into it. Chris put the bales out and the horses watched with interest...! The gate opened and over they charged, Hector, Ned and Muley turning themselves inside out with excitement (well for mule it was mostly the ears that got turned inside out!). A brief moment of disbelief... "It looks like haylage, but its been so long I could be mistaken" then eighteen happy horses settled down to eat. No kicking, no fuss, no stress. We certainly don't feel we have left them to get hungry as an hour later there are six horses at the bales and the rest away picking at the grass, it is beautiful haylage, may not have been a huge crop but its the nicest round bale stuff Mark and I have ever seen.

More snow... (yes again!)

Woke up to a nice sprinkling of fresh snow this morning, quite put a spring in my step (as opposed to the odd shuffle I've been doing over the ice the last few days!) The forecast says milder and lots of rain (oh happy days) over the next few days but the sky still looks full of snow.

Lightning quick field change...

We were walking the dogs in the side field and as we strolled round we became convinced there is a bite of grass in it so the horses have gone in, even if it is just for a week or so to get the winter field harrowed. Everything seems to be wintering well, plump under those rugs and yet we haven't started feeding haylage yet. Absolutely amazing!