Peaks and troughs

It's been a busy and deeply unsatisfying week at work despite our pulling together to get a lot of stuff finished. More than that is best left unsaid.

We did a faecal egg count on the horses at the beginning of the week; the results came back on Tuesday. Boys, fine: girls, suffering a high burden of red worm :( Clearly their previous regime was not effective - this got me to wondering just how large stud farms with bands of 100+ mares manage their routine ministrations. I spoke to the lab (Westgate, very helpful) and my vet practice before settling on a course of Panacur Equine Guard. With a heavy worm burden comes a risk of impaction during the post-treatment egestion process, so I wanted to be sure we minimsed any risk to the girls. I was quite disgusted really and couldn't wait to start the treatment but equally wanted to wait until we were around to keep an eye on them. They've started the course now (5 days) and so far so good.

Otherwise a busy weekend - just for a change.

Saturday: between us we did all the usual chores (shopping and such), built a chicken coop, took down all the old lights from the stables, worked the boys, poo picked, did some weeding, walked the pooch, drove 50 odd miles for dinner with Rob and Jo, and drove home again.

Today: Pheel came to empty the muck clamp (yay), usual yard duties then cooked up a whole series of yumminess including a leek and potato soup, a ragu and a mushroom risotto, all by lunch time :O Oh, and roasted a chicken.Worked the boys in the afternoon, for a miracle just before the heavens opened and down it came. Rather worryingly many of the water butts are already half full, which leads us to the inescapable conclusion that we probably need larger capacity. Staggering really given that we haven't had that much rain.

And now it's almost time to kick off the working week again

Throbbing

That's what my body is doing right now, with tiredness. What I want to know is, is a different sort of busy as good as a rest? I suspect the answer to be "no" but it does serve as a reminder that while we do the one to be able to do the other, sometimes the sheer amount of STUFF that needs doing develops Eiger-like proportions, there's a shortage of hours in the day and the body starts remarking "fucking hell, are you sure?"

At work there's the headlong rush towards enrolment and the new intake of students; at home there's the headlong descent into the harsh reality of winter on a farm in the country with four horses to care for. At work there's the headlong rush towards go live for the new Helpdesk system; at home there's the project sheet of Things To Do Before Winter. I know, I know, we're barely scratching the surface of the autumn, but these things must be prepared for while the weather and the daylight allows it.

I was dog tired when I got home on Friday but determined to ride Q anyway around the shiny new cones. I only realised when I was on board that laying out cones in the dark is not conducive to setting them in a straight line and wondered what hope I had to ride one when I couldn't even walk one. The answer: not much.
Chinese takeaway and an earlyish night in, enabled because Knickers had doe the poo picking and prepared everyone's dinners.Yay Knickers!

Saturday consisted of the following:

7:30 (which constitutes a two hour lie in): get up, feed round, have a cup of tea. Go shopping. In this case it involved Tenterden, a bulging trolley in Waitrose and an accordingly capacious bill for my trouble. Can't believe how expensive food is at the moment. Stop off at farm shop, hardware store and feed merchant to be relieved of further funds. On the plus side we now own a melon baller, but we have no gas for the blow torch to finish the planned creme brulee. Change of plan required for menu later.

Back at 11:30, bacon butty. Poo pick the mares' field, lift the beds. Assemble and arrange the large number (18) of water butts that Sid has purchased to collect and recycle rainwater and assist with drainage, about the place. Dig out an array of pipes and old shit from behind the stables to facilitate the installation of four water butts. Put the old shit in the skip, store away what can be kept, instal the water butts. Encounter Biggest Spider Ever. Prepare and ride T. Prepare dinners and breakfasts; feed round and hay for the evening. Go to shop for alcohol. Take the pooch for a walk. Cook up a marvel of a meal to (a) celebrate Knickers' presence, and (b) commemorate the 40 year anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's death that went something like:

crispy prawns with rocket and lemon mayo
pan fried duck breast (free range, of course) with honey and spices, parisienne potatoes, glazed chantenay carrots, pak choi fried with garlic and a red wine jus
fruit salad (made by Knickers)

Meanwhile we have no hot water, ostensibly because those buggers at EDF were frigging around with the eletricity supply and ours went off on Thursday morning. We didn't know it at the time but this appears to have taken out some crucial component of our ability to create hot water at will and the electricians are coming around later to have a look. Arrrgghhhh. So while I might otherwise have soaked away at least some of the tiredness of my aching limbs with a nice hot bath, instead I am sitting here writing this while the body goes "fucking hell, are you sure?".

Today:'s plan: guttering, removal of old stable lights, finish off cabling/lnking up six water butts, ride both boys, poo pick, cook a few things for in the week and maybe, just maybe, sit on my arse for a bit, rocking quietly backwards and forwards and trying not to think about all the things I have to do at work this week.

An embarrasment of Johnsons

I went up to deepest Shropshire at the weekend to collect my niece Knickers and all her Knickerly doings, in preparation for her final year at uni, when she will be staying with us and eating us out of house and home in return for some much needed help about the homestead.

The journey up there was crap and long and awash with rancid weather as it invariably is around Birmingham. I can only assume that there must be some notable geographical feature that predisposes the area to a higher than average rainfall, because every time, and I do mean every time I, or anyone else I know has the misfortune to drive through it, it's raining. It reminds me a bit of Sintra in Portugal in that regard, in that Sintra has characteristics (mountains, by the sea) which predispose it to clouds rolling down the hillsides and enveloping anyon driving along the coastal road in thick fog at a moment's notice. But while Sintra has the benefits of sun, sea, mountains, warmth and being in the hallowed land awash with Lusitanos and the best coffee, cake and horses found anywhere, Birmingham is none of those things and is merely a blot on the landscape whose only function is to rain on people like me as we drive through.

Anyway. We had a fabulous farewell party for Knick Knack that involved the combined bodyweight of everyone in food, some nice wine and lots of siilly photos, finished off with an emotional farewell of the sort that only the Johnsons can do, and a path beaten back to deepest Kent to begin the next phase of her time at Uni. And for a miracle, it was (a) sunny, and (b) not a traffic jam in Birmingham. Who knew these things were even possible? Not me.

We got home about 1ish and the rest of the day was spent doing horsey doings, poo picking and such while Knickers unpacked and got her flip flops under the spare bed. The boys finished off putting a gale break around the arena, I worked both horses in hand, Knickers and I poo picked the boys' fields and then we all collapsed over a nice cous cous, knackered.

This week, it's almost as if there's a giant pixie in the house, cleaning it while we're out at work. Every day I come back something is cleaner than when I left it! On the flip side, fruit is disappearing at an alarming rate :)

Paddock prunings

I may have mntioned that I arranged with Pheel to come and top, harrow and resed the paddocks on Wednesday. I may also have mentioned that Pheel is a great bloke whose only real vice is a tendency towards the optimistic when it comes to time frames. Determined to get the paddocks done on schedule, I took the precaution of contacting him beforehand to remind him  that I still had that handy pole in the garden and some rusty nails with which to nail his bollocks to it should it come to pass that for whatever reason he couldn't make it. I only use this vilest of threats infrequently, lest he begin not to take it seriously; it lurks there in the back of the kitchen drawer full of random useful bits and bobs for when I really need it.

Meanwhile Rui had worked the boys on Monday and departed for fairer shores on Tuesday, so I was pleased to be anticipating an evening of doing very little after a very busy day at the orifice. Pheel arrived as I got home from work and we formulated an action plan, where it rapidly became apparent that the mares would have to come in during the day, which of course necessitated me laying a bed and doing water and haynets for them, then getting up even earlier than usual to bring them in before heading off to work. So much for my evening off.

As a result of this I can say with some authority that it is tactically a good move to drink a large cup of tea just before bed the night before, to facilitate an achingly, eye-poppingly full bladder with squamous cells at full stretch to assist the waking process (well, not so much assist as nuke). The downside is that it necessitates what might be described as "the Max Wall jig" in front of the bog, but you can't have everything.

I can also advise, in aid of those who might for whatever reason still be asleep at that time, that it is bloody dark at 5:15am and it's best to make more tea and attend to the array of hungry felines before venturing outside to bring in mares who are (a) unaccustomed to being harassed at such an hour, and (b) definitely unaccustomed to being brought into a brightly lit stable.

Q of course, in that unerring way that he has, somehow knew something was occurring and was on hand to yell and whicker repeatedly throughout the bringing in process, which was nice. If you're reading this Dan, my apologies for the unseemly noise at such an ungodly hour! Once in, the girls quickly settled (well they are Lusos after all) and off I went to work.

Upon my return to the homestead some hours later, bog eyed and bleary, there occurred what can only be described as biblical quantities of rain and both Sid and I got soaked through to the knicker elastic as we attended to the variety of chores that needed doing - moving the chain harrow, getting rugs on two very soggy boys, turning the girls out and watching them put on a truly fine aerobatic display, mucking out two very shitty stables, feeding round and so on.

But the paddocks have been pruned and the garden pole can remain unfettered by famer gonads for a while longer.

Busy is not the word

It's been so busy I've had neither time nor energy for any blogging. Really, ridiculously busy. Busy as buggery. Busy as a really busy thing. Bloody busy, really.

Friday: working from home for the dentist in the afternoon; Q just needed a tidy up but it looks as though T might benefit more from being seen just once per year but to have a power session as he tends towards the formation of transverse ridges, so I think we will try that. Plan for the mares to be looked at next time as well, as the vet will be there for sedation so we can see how it goes and then see whether sedation would be needed - or alternatively waited until the babies are born. I need to find out whether it is safe to sedate a pregnant mare.

I had a lesson with Rui which was interesting in that it followed on from some stuff down at Dan's clinic, focusing on forward and straight with transitions on a straight line. Sounds easy doesn't it. What I learnt was that we haven't done nearly enough work on transitions on a straight line and as a result these were quite crap. So the focus was on developing exercises to address this and Rui left me with some homework for Saturday. He also schooled T but I wasn't able to watch.So much weeding, so little time. And if it's not weeding it's poo picking or one of a thousand different chores to do.



Saturday: usual domestic chores followed by a great deal of weeding. Like a fool I have decided to manually remove a lot of weeds from the paddocks rather than spraying and having to keep horses off/risk delaying re-seeding and I've been hard at it for what seems like WEEKS but is probably only about three days. Loads of crap growing but it's very satisfying seeing the paddocks slowly recovering and starting to grow good grass where previously they couldn't get a look in. Problem is though I've become a bit obsessive about it and get to the point where when I close my eyes all I can see is weeds - lol.

Rode Q and worked on our homework, which went much better and was a productive session. We did struggle on the right rein riding the three quarter line as he wants to edge back to the track and I am not strong on my left side, so had a few gos at that until I got my outside aids working and finished there once we could get it reliably.

Then Sid decided he simply must have some weatherboard to fix the stables in time for next weekend when his friend is down and that it had to be done today. Bottom line wasI had to hot foot it over to ye olde timber shoppe to get said weather board. Land Cruiser wouldn't start; arghh. Jump started, stepped on it and got to Staplehurst in record time just in time to purchase said weatherboard and drive back very gingerly with it sticking out of the sun roof and wondering if that was legal.

More weeding and poo picking; gave T the day off as I just ran out of time. Made two not one tagines and crashed on the sofa. May have begun dribbling.

Sunday: got up to find both girls flat out in the field :wub:. Good job they're so FAT or I wouldn't have seen them in the long grass.

Weeding, lots and lots of weeding. And poo picking. And walking the dog. Rui got back from Cambs about 2 and we had a lady due for a 3pm lesson. She has a nice Luso mare who is quite green and needed a few lines drawn in the sand, so it was interesting to watch Rui work her in hand and then under saddle. Brought Q in to prep for my 4pm; they called to each other and the mare proceeded to throw everything she had at Rui, who resolutely sat there and worked her through it after the fashion of the professional rider.

Opted to warm up Q in the picadeiro - first time for him in there since the girls arrived and he was very good indeed. Next thing I saw Binky and Jimbob (the meehoo) wandering way too close to the road and was in a quandary wondering what to do - in the end tied Q to the fence, grabbed Jim and took him indoors (and Binky followed) while Q stood like the perfect gentleman waiting for me to finish the rescue mission. Ahhh.

My lesson next and Q was extremely good even while watched by not two but three mares. We worked on exercises requiring me to use my leg more effectively and reprised our work on transitions on a straight line - much much better and brownie points for having done my homework. Q was ace - so very very proud of him. Especially as it turns out he really likes bay mares :)
Rui went off to teach a couple of doors down while I started poo picking T's field while T followed me around at close quarters, inspecting every move I made. I love that. He's such an unreserved flirt with those big brown eyes and that soft velvety muzzle. Got him prepped for Rui as time was running short, and warmed him up as Rui arrived back home. Q was charging about in his field like a man possessed but T took very little notice other than to come out with a slightly better trot .Rui got on and demonstrated a couple of things and was just working up to changes when Q came barrelling up to the fence, ears back, teeth bared to try and have a pop at T. Rui brought T to a halt, they just stood there and cantered off again, which was ace. I wish I was Portuguese. Perhaps as a result of this T started making face at the mares again while Rui was riding but he just carried on and said "Ay!" when needed and that was that - no drama and no interruption to the session. Very much enjoyed watching that.


Rui has now departed and the boys have had a day off. I of course have had no such luxury. The mares have to come in tomorrow (!) as Pheel is coming to harrow, top and reseed the fields - yay! Meanwhile work is stupid busy and it's a constant irritation how when the pressure is really on with projects coming out of every orifice sometimes the only thing a person is at all capable of doing is sitting and staring stupidly into space, so awash with tasks that one is rendered temporarily incapable of anything at all. I think the only thing to do in such a situation is to begin with a small, relatively easy thing then freewheel madly on the momentum that was created, trusting to luck, good judgement and a certain quality of malleability in the laws of space and time to get it all done. That and a wodge of coffee.

Dressage camp days 2 and 3

Day 2
Group polework session in the morning. Some interesting exercises including a corner fan of poles, SI then HP, which never really flowed for us, a fact which I put down to general crapness on my part. Again the emphasis on more energy. I noticed that too much too soon and I lose my balance and block him, so although I appreciate we need to find a more forward gear I am going to work on it with some care because the last thing I want is to cause tension and so on. Q was great in the group lesson, which may or may not have had something to do with the syringe of Carl Hester calmer I emptied down his throat an hour earlier.

Lunchtime Alex did a demo of M61 to show us all how it was done and we all got to judge.

In the afternoon, a lesson on test riding with Dan. Unfortunately, no sooner had we ridden in than the heavens let loose with what felt very much like hail, and something approaching a gale with almost horizontal wind and a great deal of unpleasantness. Q was refusing to turn into it and to be fair I didn't want to either, but in the end I had to turn him and get on with it. I could barely hear Dan due to the wind and we didn't get as much as we might have from it because of that, but again forwards and evenness very much the thing, keeping him connected through the movements - I know I do tend to drop him or at least not support as much as I should. Got soaked through to the knicker elastic. Rui had arrived in the afternoon and came to watch too, but got to hide in the judge's hut.

Day 3
Lesson with Alex in the morning, working on relaxation, forward, suppleness. Now Q is a very supple horse which he is masterful at using in all sorts of crafty evasions but with the degree of forward requested we couldn't really get the stretch and suppleness that I know he has so I concluded that it was probably a bit too much too soon for where we are (that is to say, in pipe and slippers mode). I do know though that I have to learn to ride something other than said pipe and slippers trot in mitigation so this is going to need some work on my part (and his). Some really good exercises, based on ribboning in many ways, change of bend ie SI to renvers down the long side, and switching between LY and HP on a diagonal. I do that latter one with Rui but he'll have me doing LY in one direction then HP in the other. Doing it all on the one diagonal was a bit much for us with the forward as well (!) but with someone a bit further along the evolutionary scale that would be an excellent suppling exercise. We also concentrated on riding into the corners and straightening before asking for medium gaits and that was really good. Riding into corners and using them to set up movements is something I know in theory but never seem to get around to doing.

Afternoon: re-ride the test. I made sure I had it off by heart to get me through the "oh fuckety doodads" moment and in the warm up concentrated on things like riding the corners, riding halts and working to medium transitions (or more correctly, our approximation thereof). By the time the test came we were both running on fumes tbh but got round it without making errors at least - very enjoyable to ride knowing I knew the test and had more brain space to think about how I was going to ride movements rather than just thinking "oh fuckety doodads". Our mediums were very flat, there really was nothing there at all in fact but we got 64.13% for our efforts. I was absolutely thrilled to bits with this :) It's our best ever score in our long campaigning history of four tests (two prelims, a novice and an elementary) and he was awesome, not only in the test but in the group situation away from home, just standing quietly with me waiting to go in, so proud of him.


It's given me the urge to get out and do some comps so I really need to get my arse in gear and arrange something.soon.