Everything seems to have gone into overdrive. The activity level at the farm is in it’s usual runaway train mode. People say to me, why don’t I take a few days off ….they have NO idea. I am not complaining mind you, if I had to choose between this and a ‘quiet life’, there is no doubt what my choice would be. I have always loved life with horses.
The shows and clinics are coming fast and furious. The truck and trailer are at two events almost every weekend. Dressage shows, jumper shows, horse trials, clinics and lessons with Clayton all have to be fitted in. We have students at every level you can think of and we try to accommodate everybody as many times in a season as we can. Different groups go out on different days to different levels of competition. As a result horses are on all sorts of different programs. The FEI horses are all on a strict four day program, the Training and Pre Training horses work six days a week but don’t gallop much and the lower level horses work five to six days and don’t gallop at all.
Rummy and Benny are both under doctor’s orders to stay in bed. Benny is awaiting the removal of his stitches so that he can go back out and cavort in the paddock. Rummy has thrown a very painful splint and will not be cavorting anywhere for a while. Although for the most part splints are part of the life of many a horse without causing it any problems, this one is proving to be quite an angry little lump and is taking it’s sweet time to settle down. In the meantime poor Rummy is on hand grazing until his splint calms down. We have had it x rayed to make sure that the splint bone was not cracked or broken and I am happy to say there is nothing lasting. However, the time off was NOT what we planned for him to be doing right now. As you can see from the video clip he is finding other ways of amusing himself. He might be the first horse ever that I buy or make a toy for. Benny should be back in work by the end of this week. He will be good to go as soon as the stitches come out. I will be happy to have at least one of my beloved thoroughbred boys back out playing in the sand box.
Woody is looking magnificent. He is lean and mean and is feeling very good about himself. Unfortunately this ‘feeling good’ often manifests itself in big jarring spooks and leaps just when you are mid hack and enjoying nature and the sunshine. Heaven forbid that nature and the sunshine should throw a bird or horror of horrors and bunny rabbit our way. Once we saw a deer. I am very happy to report we have not had that dangerous beast sneak up on Woody too often, which is just as well…..sigh!
I love the summer. I don’t mind it is hot and I don’t even mind too much when it is hot and wet, as long as it is hot. I just hate and despise being cold and in the summer I enjoy every moment I puff in the humidity. There was a spectacular storm rolled through last week. I am partial to storms although my dogs are not quite so keen. Our barn has a lot of sky behind it and I have taken some photos over the years showing all sorts of Canadian weather. This one was about half an hour before the storm hit.
The lull before the storm
