Tuesday 25 September 2012

It was a foul day yesterday, so the horses were all ridden out in the morning but then left in for the rest of the day - consequently we had very fresh horses today - Four horses went cubbing, Jess, Paddy, Goody and for the first time, Subo, the horse that was given to us last year in return for breaking in some youngsters for John Apro. Subo was probably the best behaved out of all four, but it was probably the 'shock' factor, and she may be different next time when she knows a little more of what to expect. The other three were fresh but not uncontrollable, whereas when we got back the others, particularly Ben, Button and Aitch were somewhat on the lively side and poor Clarissa got dropped when she was legged up a little too quickly onto Aitch, who took exception and unburdened himself of his load. Clarissa\was soon re-united, a little more gently this time, and we proceeded on the ride with Ben and Button having a lovely time bucking joyously at every opportunity - luckily Charlie, who was on Ben, and Faye on Button, remained in the saddle, even Definite Dawn (me) Jake (Laura) and Flash (Jay) had their backs up, so everyone was very relieved when we all got back in one piece. Needless to say when we turned them out they all had a really good hoon, so hopefully they will be back to their best behaviour tomorrow.It just shows how important it is for a horse to be turned out, I really don't know how they manage in these big yards where they stay in their stables for twenty three hours a day every day.
I'm just looking out of the office window at the swallows re-grouping before their long fly back to South Africa, I saw the first one on April 15th this year, which is earlier than usual. The summer seems to have gone by far too quickly, mainly due to the fact that the weather has been so disappointing - I'm not sure I'm ready for wintry weather yet....