Oh what rain we have all been having. We need to build an ark!!! 2 weeks ago we had Storm Babette who threw down a months worth of rain in a day. There was massive flooding in Sunny Suffolk. Cars under water up to their roofs. Lots of people and their horses flooded out. Our ponies were ok as we are on top of the Only Hill in Suffolk. But poor Jo had her house flooded as did a few other friends. Then last Thursday we had Storm Ciaran (?). More flooding and near Hurricane force winds. Since then its been raining! During high winds many people ponder weather to bring their horses in. My view is they are better left out. Horses are herd animals and are born to run away in danger. Left out they can huddle with the Herd, or run for it, if a tree comes down. Shut in a cage (sorry Stable), they can hear Armeggedon going on around them, but cannot run away. The stress must be immense. Our Ponies don't have Stables so have to stay out. And after a night of weather chaos we arrived to find them happily grazing, without a care in the world. Personally I am fed up of the Wet stuff now and would appreciate some dry days.
Horse Agility has been great fun this/last month. I mean its always fun, but October had a Halloween theme. I love Halloween, so used Pumpkins, Witches hats etc to decorate my course. Charlie and I had a hard time with the Pumpkin Weave which had to be done with me at his right shoulder. As he cannot see much from his right eye, he does not like me at his right shoulder which blocks his limited vision.. We have just had the results through and I'm pleased that we had a 1st in WO Silver Liberty and 3rd in WO OLHA. When we had finished filming we smashed up the Pumpkins....
https://youtube.com/shorts/7eXjFHO2GrE?si=VH9npUoQOv1VNUKB
So with Winter approaching fast whats next? Well a lot of hard work!!! Jo and I are girding our loins. Jo is waiting for a hip replacement and my Dodgy Lungs And Dicky Ticker are getting worse. Papworth have fitted me with a tracker so they can keep an eye on me remotely. The good news is its a Garmin Venu 2 smart watch and I love it. Every cloud and all that! Between us we nearly make a whole person, but it is hard going looking after 5 ponies in Winter, so if anyone wants some exercise/tuition/rides/fresh air/numb fingers/wet clothes/kisses from a Shetland pony please let us know.
Obviously I will continue Horse Agility with Charlie throughout the Winter and Daisy, who is ancient but doing really well will be coming back into work. Charlie is coming on with his ridden work, and needs to start hacking with Daisy as a nanny pony. And then the Top Barn Challenge is looming. I have just signed up Charlie for Bronze. This is our 6th Challenge. I have been told to slow down, hence the Bronze only, but this year there is a Copper Challenge, so maybe I will do that with Daisy. Its a great motivation to keep going during the Winter.
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