Taking on our small holding has certainly been a challenge, with the cost (another thing to 'thank' Covid for!) rising by the day for materials, availability and stock being hard to come by, companies being nearly impossible to book in, and the yard duties obviously not stopping for any of that!
With all these things on top of 3 horses, 2 I was trying to keep in work, and 1 yearling I am determined to get as much life experience as possible before breaking, sometimes one of those spinning plates drops!
We are currently trying to clad the outside of our house, thankfully it is single storey, and thankfully it is half way up with brick - done by more talented people than us, but it is still a massive task for 2 of us who quite honestly are learning on the job. The weather has also decided to stop play, and off course after all the nice weather we had, when I did nothing but hope for rain, it came, and it came exactly when we didn't need it!
But what that rain did do, was make the grass grow, and WOW did it grow! Soooooo, now I have a hay field! A hay field I wasn't expecting, a winter field that got so worn out last winter, that I was worried it would barely recover all year, and yet here I am with a hay field, not enough horses to eat the grass, and no one available to even make it into hay! But that is OK, because I have sheep - Finally I thought, they can be of some use, oh but wait - It only has electric fencing and no stock fencing because I ran out of soft ground (and money) to get the posts finished. Although on the flip not having the fence up meant it was easier to put a drain in where my arena will (soon?) so wings and roundabouts? Or maybe at this point I am juggling spaghetti junction!
On a really positive note, all the animals are pampered, and have no idea the mayhem behind the scenes!
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.