Wild Wind and Weird Worms!

Yep, and first to the weather report, which is not news as its already happened!!!  Its been Wild and Windy.  First we had Storm Freya, now its Storm Gareth.....although if there was a gap between them I missed it! It was so strong yesterday it moved the tractor!!  

Bad Hair Day for Charlie!









And now onto the more interesting subject.....Weird Worms!  So on Sunday Jo found some worms in Daisys droppings.  We don't have worms. We poo pick daily, and the only time we have ever had worms is when Molly first arrived. I wasn't there, so Jo saved 3 for me to look at (like you do haha).  My first thought was Earth Worms......Except they weren't red. And all 3 were a bit different.

With all our years experience Jo and I have seen most horse worms....but not these! Ask Google. The nearest image comparison was Round Worms....except they are normally only found in youngsters, and at 19 Daisy is hardly young!!

In the interest of science, we collected some Earth Worms from the muck heap. I wondered if Earth Worms went white when they died. So I popped them into a jar of water....mostly to stop them wriggling away, but also to see if they drowned and therefore lost their colour.  You know if you chop a worm in half you just end up with 2 worms?  Well they can also live in water! They must be a form of zombie!

So we put them with the dead worms from Daisys droppings and quickly photographed them, before they started eating them. Just in case you are slightly interested, we them released them into the wild, totally un-harmed! 

Still baffled we phoned the Vets, who asked us to email the pics through.  Result? A bunch of equally baffled vets! The older Vets asked the younger Vets, who may still have some memory of Uni and an encyclopedic memory of Worms. No-one knew what they were, and we all came to the conclusion that they were indeed some Mutant Albino strain of Earth Worm! As it was raining, they had moved up into the droppings, but as at this point they were mutant zombie worms, they did not scuttle back down a hole the minute the droppings were moved.  Why only Daisys Droppings?  Answers on a postcard please!  I think its because she has EMS, and therefore more insulin in her droppings, but the Vet suggested it was just because they were bigger, therefore warmer. 
Luckily for you dear Reader, I have already deleted the pics from my phone!!!

Remember I entered an On-Line Horse Show last month?  I didn't realise they existed, but the Top Barn Challenge has enlightened me.  So I entered a pic of Charlie in The Muckiest Pony class.  To my delight he came 2nd out of about 20 entries, and I am absurdly proud of his first rosette!!!

Sadly the Top Barn 12 Week Challenge is coming to an end.  We are now on Week 10.  Its been a brilliantly inspiring group, with the most encouraging group of horsey people I have ever come across.  People have faced their fears head on, and worked in some appalling weather, to get their hours in. No one on the group will ever say again, "Its too cold, wet, dark, muddy, windy, snowy" etc.  So in the spirit of the Challenge, I ignored Storm Gareth with his 50mph winds and worked Charlie with a hoop yesterday (well ok....its a piece of hose-pipe taped up).  We had a blast!!  Storm? Pffff!!

This may or may not be a link to the video!!!!
https://youtu.be/OfJDvlz2aN0

Out Of Puff ,Solo Rakes and On-Line Showing?????

Just a quickie......
Welcome back to the weather Channel!!  After a very mild Winter, we finally got Snow....for a day.  But that was followed by Storm Eric. Three days of 20-30mph winds, gusting up to 50mph. Now my dodgy lungs and dicky ticker just cannot cope with wind.  It literally leaves me gasping for breath, so I had to take my Holiday Week in the Top Barn 12 week Challenge. Just in case you are slightly interested, today dawned calm and sunny, with a high of 9c!! Work with Charlie began again (well actually, we had a play, while i drunk my coffee).

And a sort of review.........Last year at a pop up tack shop at a show, I bought a SoloRake, made by SoloComb.  I always liked SoloCombs, so I thought the rake would help me with the thick dreads that is Charlies mane.  Having chopped it all off last Summer, to help him stay cool, it has grown again.  So last week I took to him with the SoloRake.  Maybe its only meant for coats??  The blade is good and strong, so I started raking his mane.  To my surprise, it broke.  The handle is made of plastic (a weak point), and i was literally left holding the handle, while the rake was in Charlies mane. I have emailed SoloComb, so watch this space for their reply.

Finally as part of the Top Barn 12 Week Challenge, I have entered an On-line show. I had never heard of On-line shows before..... Back in the day we took the horse to a show-ground, having got up at stupid-o-clock, to bath, plait etc. We then had to hope the bugger wouldn't get too excited, and behave itself!  Having spent all day in inevitable blazing heat, dressed up to the nines in thick woollen show jackets, we then spent 3 hours loading the bugger to come home (or was that only me?), with a sunburnt neck (from the hairnetted hair), to finally arrive home at midnight, then having to unload the lorry and bed the horse down before finally falling into bed clutching a 6th place rosette.

So, does anyone know of any good On-line showing sites?  The one i found had a class for the dirtiest pony!!!!!!  I entered this.....