Scruffy Chooks

The chooks are settling in well and are out for the first time today - they're weren't as bald as last years lot, but are still rather scruffy and wouldn't win 'best in show' yet. Fred, the bantam cockerel has spent the last two days hovering around their house waiting to 'acquaint himself'' with them, but when I let them out he was less than impressed and stalked off, ( MINGING he thought!)

We had 16 horses out today, with just Cloud and Eeyore having the day off - I managed to come out the side door when Paddy copied Mooney and shied at something, which wouldn't have been too bad but I got my foot stuck in the stirrup and have twisted my knee (the same one as I hurt last year) It had never fully recovered from then, so it may be the time to get it seen to and booked in for an operation.

All the horses went really well - On a Monday we just do trotting work up hills and it is surprising how hard it makes them work. We had the heart monitor on a few today and it was really interesting to see how high their HR got, The ground is still so hard that we can't do the grass canter work we normally like to do at this time of year so we are having to make do with trotting on the stubble and using the all weather. The horses don't seem to be getting bored with their regime at the moment, and as soon as we get some significant rain we will be able to break the routine up with some hunting and some grass work. The one plus is that it is so easy to get them in and out of the fields without getting stuck in the mud AND the weather is beautiful. Lovely to have this before winter sets in. Anyway, it is getting dark and I have got to round the chooks up that haven't yet worked out how to get home. (Sad chook women...)