First up...Sorry I have been absent for a whole month!! I have been moving house. Simple enough right? Not this house. We have basically moved from our pokey 1 bed flat to a 2 Bed House. The House had been trashed!! It is Social Housing and while the Group fitted us a nice new kitchen and left us a decent painting kit, the rest is up to us! As the entire place was painted in Pink, Blue, Lime Green, Orange and Red, my Partner had to spend a week painting. There is no deep clean now, so I spent the week armed with bleach, gagging as I scrubbed throw up residue from behind the toilet and cleaned the general muck out (anyone for used ear wax covered Q Tips???). We finally moved in. We have no carpets, no internet, no TV Ariel! We have spent the last two weeks organizing everything, changing gas and electric supplies (including a nail biting 2 days of being on emergency credit with no means of topping up), visits from BT engineers to fix the broken Telephone cable and a plumber to sort the bath. And then there is the Garden!! At first glance it seemed OK, once I had cleared up all the broken glass. And then we realized.....The 4ft Fencing was no match for the Maligator. So we are now replacing that with 6ft panel fencing. And new posts as the old ones were all rotten! Its all slowly getting there!
In the meantime, my escape is doing the Horses. Although I have had The Maligator in tow more than I would like (but between trying to murder the Plumber, Electrician, Fence Guys, Gas and BT Engineer, and "helping" Mark, coming with me is the lesser of two evils). All this means is I have had no time to do anything with Charlie, except a hug and a kiss while poo picking.
All this is about to change!!! The Top Barn 2021 Challenge is almost upon us!!! The anticipation is almost unbearable. As a group, we are all revved up and ready to start. Top Barn have opened the FB Page. The challenges are up for perusal and people are declaring their intentions!! Jo and I signed up immediately and have spread the word. I have a couple of friends signed up (Amanda and Noche) and we have forced Meg to sign up with Daisy. Dear old Daisy has to be about 20 now. She gets ridden a few times a year, when the Moon aligns with Mars, and Jo and I are not rushing off somewhere, its sunny, and we are down to one dog!!! Meg has ridden even less this year, what with work, child etc. So we are now starting the partnership off with a few lessons, to build them both up. I'm not sure if Meg or Daisy is more horrified with the school work. I promise I won't do anything dangerous with you both!!!!! My personal Challenge with Charlie is to be hacking out with Jo and Meg!!
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And so to Coco. Coco joined our herd in the Summer. Having been rescued very underweight, she came to us. She has had lovely grass, grass blocks, feeds, new hay.......to no avail. She is still underweight. Having tried Ulcerguard and several weight gain feeds, Jo had bloods done, and Coco has Cushings. She has no obvious signs of the disease (no shaggy coat, laminitus or bulges above the eyes) but she does have the lesser signs, no Top-Line, Lethargy and lack of appetite. She is now on Prascend (Cushing Drug) and is rugged. Ponies with Cushings cannot regulate their temperature. So while everyone else is naked, the Shetland Pony is rugged! Hopefully with the right feed and management we can reverse this horrible condition. Daisy who had EMS which is the precursor to Cushings is now showing no signs of it, so their is hope for Coco.
Stay tuned for Top Barn and Coco updates.
