May 30th 2010

I have decided to keep one page for a year for the Blog now seeing as I am not getting round to keeping it up as often as I would like. However, sometimes there are enforced periods of rest which give me time to go back to the keyboard and now is one of them!

I have just been in hospital for the best part of the week to get IV antibiotics for a cellulitis in my foot, which has left me hardly able to walk. It came out of the blue, probably as a result of an old injury from Christmas time that had not totally gone away and had got infected. The antibiotics seem to be working okay, though the heavy doses make me feel quite sick, but the arthritis in my ankle is struggling with the inflammation.

One bit of fun I had recently though was to take Indie, one of the young cobs, to a couple of shows where he did well in hand, even managing a 2nd at Mundole where he was in a CHAPS class of horse from all over the country trying to qualify for their Championships.

He also went into the ridden class for the experience where he was beautifully behaved, considering he had never been in a ring with horses all cantering around him.

It was fun washing and fluffing him - it really is very easy to produce a hairy and he is so calm going away from home, even on his own.

Endurance hasn't been going quite so well though this season, as Rumi tweaked a hamstring at the Cawdor ride and even though it seemed to be right very quickly and was checked out by the vet (following which he happily managed a 25 mile training ride), he failed again on the same injury at the Golden Horseshoe after only 25 miles. The ground was very sticky up on the moors and, with his little feet, I guess he was just sinking in more than most and putting a pull on that hamstring again. In other, firmer terrain her might have fared better. So he is now on a slightly longer lay-off, though he was quite sound when he got home.

I should have had Louis out at the Burgie ride doing 80 km yesterday, but I am obviously not fit to ride that distance and so it will just have to wait and I will have to keep him ticking over at home till I can get him out again. How frustrating is that?

April 9th 2010

We are now just out of hibernation - at least the winter seems to have abated at last. It has been long and hard. Our 80 y.o. neighbour says that he does not remember such a bad winter since 1946! However, I have been able to keep riding (all but 3 days of the winter I was able to hack out) and the horses are quite fit. They put on a few muscles doing resistance training in deep snow though and the walker made quite a difference to maintaining fitness levels.

There was quite a surprise in January though, when I went out to the field to find one of the bought in Zwartbles ewes standing in the field with a newly born lamb. She was brought inside and went on to produce two more. They, needless to say, received a fair bit of pampering over the last two months, but all are looking fit and well now.

And here they all are - Clementine with Samson, Sunday and Snowie looking pleased with themselves.

All this year's lambs names must begin with S.

Our lambing is now finished - just. We have had nearly all boys with just one pair of ewes twins, just one single, another pair of boy twins, one lot of triplets and one lot of quads (which we were totally amazed at). I was reading that the number of multiple pregnancies in sheep this year were up on last year, but I am not sure that this is a good thing. I reckon twins is plenty!

December 24th 2009

Thought it might be as good a time as ever to sit down and try to do a catch up for the Blog. Just to give you a feel of how it is today, it has just started to snow again and has stayed well below freezing all day though we have had some good sunshine this morning and the snow should start to make things a bit warmer. Here is a photo of yesterdays riding here.

The past few months have been a bit quiet on the horse front, just as well as there has been lots of other things going on. Friday has been out competing at Dressage at Mundole with Rumi and they both also took part in for the Dressage and Endurance event at Drummond a couple of months ago. Everyone seemed to enjoy that, though some of the competitors were getting a bit stressed prior to the Dressage which took them way out of their comfort zone, but Stephen Cruickshank was a very kind judge and put everyone at their ease. It's a pity that it rained pretty hard during the ride though and people rushed off home rather than staying for the promising looking feast. Iain and I just had to take care of some of that baking after you had all gone!

Friday warming up for his dressage at Mundole                            

I took Rumi and Friday to a Trec competition at Logie Farm, Glenferness just for an outing and they did okay - not brilliant, but it was a first for both of them. I think I will put on a Trec competition here but I will divide between novice and open horses and also between ponies and horses as I think it would be a better idea to alter the distances for the likes of the bending and s-bend according to the horse size and also it would make the walk and canter timings a bit fairer too. So - watch this space and we'll see what we can do!

There was also a Pleasure Ride for SERC that we organised down at Foyers, but there was a disappointing turnout, though those who were there enjoyed themselves and it allowed Khomma and Rumi to get a run. The ground was very frosty but the views were fabulous.

The most exciting news! .... There is a good chance that there will be a Draghunt starting up in the area (between Inverness and Golspie) in the near future. I think this would be a huge boost for equestrianism in the area and would give people a reason for keeping horses up in the winter - not to mention the Point-to-Point and the Hunt Ball! There is quite a bit on interest from landowners as well as riders so again .................watch this space. The organisers will be looking to put in place a Hunt Supporters Group so if you are in any way interested then please drop me an email and I will pass on the relevant information.