Stood up for horses that play badminton?

I am now really concerned about Mum. After several days of saying she is feeling too poorly to ride (I feel this could be true as she looked like our famous cousin Rudolf) she now has the audacity to say she was too busy watching horses play badminton!

I had to look this up in my 'whicker'piedia, but from what I can tell its a sport humans play with a fat carrot and a bat with lots of holes in it. I can't work out how horses could play it??? So I am starting to think Mum might not be telling me the truth. Why she would want to watch other horses, especially in the gale force winds and rain we have had when she could be riding me instead is most peculiar. 

Zippy and I are most mystified. 

Yes - got to go out today

Mum says I'm not helping myself, as I continually come in looking like the field!  So I like a roll, I mean I'm loosing my winter coat its itchy.  Mum took some pictures of the evidence - opps on review OK it does look like quiet a bit of work to get me ready for a ride.

So when Mum had finally made me look respectable enough to be taken out with Benji, we went for a lovely ride out to Cotmarsh through the farm fields.  It's a mixed ride, I get to canter a lot through the farm fields which is fun, but Mum gets a bit grumpy with the farmers because their gates are not easy to open and she has to keep getting off.  Plus it was all very wet, Mum was impressed I kept my shoes on, her old horse Charlie would have lost one at least in all the old mud!

Back home I got given a big yummy tea.

I have not been given a choice to rethink my rolling strategy, I have been placed into my ghost rug with the intention that Mum will be able to ride more rather than spend all her time cleaning me.  Plus Mum says I might stay black this year as the rug will stop me fading from black to brown like I did last year.  My new spring black coat is coming through lovely now.  Hope I get to go out and ride again tomorrow.

Mum we don't need hay

Mum turned up at lunchtime today to say hello. She thinks we were looking a little tucked up so gave us each a section of hay to tuck into while she made up our breakfast/lunch/tea!!!!

I launched at the hay and did my usual munching while tossing it in the air, impatient for my proper food.  After much banging and crashing Mum appeared with our two bowls of food - yummy, Zippy and I dived into munching real food.  

Mum feeling guilty took Benji for the shortest walk ever up to the canal and back. By the time she had returned we had eaten our lunch and wandered back out into the field, leaving the hay pretty much untouched. I could hear Mum muttering about what a waste as she picked the hay up and put it back in the barn. Mum the grass is growing we don't need that stuff any more. Honestly she should know better by now!

What I want to know is when am I going to go for a ride?

Hello I'm bored and hungry

Honestly sometimes I think I am just a ply thing that Mum picks up when she fancies and then leaves me alone for ages until the fancy takes her again!

I haven't even seen her today yet, does she not realise we haven't had our meal and Zippy needs her medicine.  If Zippy doesnt get her medicine she gets grumpy and won't play chase around the field - which she doesn't like doing much these days anyway.

I miss Dave, at least he would play with me and we had fun munching the hay together.  Now I don't even get any hay to chuck about.

Mum please get better soon, I'm bored!

Ahhh her she comes, no tack though, but some yummy feed will have to do instead!

It's all too much we need a rest

Well I haven't yet shared with you all my exploits in Wales while I was on holiday, but I can assure you, it was certainly no holiday for me.  Yes it was great to catch up with all my old friends and relatives, but it was a lot of hard work.

Benji and I were heading off with Mum on lots of adventures around the forest and local lanes, normally out for at least two hours at a time - that's a lot of hill work over 10 days!  So needless to say we both were tired.  Below is Benji asleep on the sofa (I'm sure he wasn't supposed to be on there!)

Even Dave was tired and all he had to do was travel in the trailer back to Wales.  Still I'm sure he has had some fun running around with his old field mates and catching up on all the news.

This was me when we got back home, well one day after.  I spent the first day gorging myself on what was long grass in the back garden paddock, no one had eaten on it since Christmas, very yummy.  So once I had a full tummy and the grass looked a lot shorter I decided I needed a well deserved break.

Finally another picture of Benji enjoying the Welsh sunshine.  Yes we did have sun, Mum rode everyday except one when we were really rained off most of the day with heavy rain.

No doubt this time of rest will be brought abruptly to a halt - though it has been extended as Mum now has a cold, so I making the lost of the rest and putting my hooves up!

Easter Saturday Ride

Mum gave me the morning off, as her friend helped cook a big breakfast (really Mum was too full to ride!).  However Lynne took her posh lorry home at lunchtime, which meant I had run out of excuses, so she tacked me up for a ride and we went for a straight forward ride around the forestry hill (read mountain).

Zippy got a super big groom, she shed soooo much fur she literally filled a wheelbarrow with fluff - can you imagine.  That's a lot of happy birdies in Wales whose little chicks are going to wake up in a snug white Zippy fluff bed when they pop their heads out of their shells!

I got told off for herding Zippy around the big pen, so I was move into my own stable (much better accommodation) with the real horses - rather than with the cows!!!!

We all got hay and tea.  It was nice to catch up with Katy who Sarah had been looking after. Mum decided to take her for a quick ride around the arena.  Delia suggested that as she hadn't been ridden for several months and was previously freshly backed, maybe she should lunge her first, but oh no, Mum knew best!!!!

Three circuits of the arena in various cantering/bucking formations and impressively Mum still on top Katy came to a halt.  I'm sure I head Delia mutter 'should have lunged her'.  Katy was now de-stressed and exhausted and behaved impeccably around the arena walking and trotting on command!

All in all a good day, glad Katy tested out Mum's staying power - saves me the job!

Holiday time starts...Good Friday

Finally life has got interesting! Surprisingly it's thanks to pony Dave. Mum has decided he had served his purpose, keeping me company all winter and that it was time to take him home. This has caused some dilemma as the box on wheels only has space for two ponies but we are a field of three. 

After much debate somehow Zippy managed to bag a ride in a deluxe little lorry all on her own - though she was charged with the care of 10 bales of hay, some hope of those still being there by the time we arrive!  Meanwhile Dave and I had to slum it in the tin on wheels - great! Still we also had copious amounts of hay and I did my best to eat it all without letting Dave have any. 

After a long journey, thanks Mum says to some incompetent road workers badly managing the traffic lights around the road works we finally made it back to Dave's home (my ex home) The Akehurst Stud (www.akehurst-ponies.co.uk) in Wales.  Dave got unceremoniously turned out with his old field mates Vince & Brian, bye then Dave, thanks for keeping me company!  While Zippy & I decided to share their old pen, which had a lovely deep bed of straw - this is good news for Zippy's old creaky bones (but don't tell her I said so, otherwise she might think I cared!)

The pen has a concrete base, so my excited pacing could be heard around the farm, evidently my clip clopping while herding Zippy around the pen that afternoon and evening - I can't help it, it's very exciting being on holiday, caused human stress, and ok possibly wore Zippy out, so I was upgraded to my own stable, while Zippy kept the pen.  Ponies this is a top tip, if you want your space be annoying, like humans quite often you can get promoted up the ranks, while actually just being an annoying pain, rather than because you have done something good and actually deserve the promotion!

Looking forward to exploring.......