As lockdown continues, I have developed an aversion to going food shopping in the large supermarkets, as I find the atmosphere most bizarre.
I have instead started to frequent local farm shops for the basics, only braving the supermarkets when I need to restock my freezer.
I am on my second month of furlough from work and I can honestly say I have never been so happy to have my animals to keep me going. As mentioned in my last blog, I am fortunate that the yard is small enough not to have put any restrictions on us, as we are all being sensible re: hygiene, etc.
Diva enjoys having the extra attention, and I have continued to do a little agility training with her. One of the obstacles used in competition is an arch, which has ribbons on it. I haven’t got one as yet as I’m unable to go shopping for materials to make one, so I improvised by asking Diva to walk under one of the show jumps.
Her friend, the international showjumper, Baltimore VDM, seen in blog number 14, jumps fences as big as this in competition! Diva never lets me down, and after an initial hesitation where she looked at me as if to ask whether I had lost my mind, she strolled under the pole without any worries. She stood beneath it quite happily, as the photo shows.
With the weather drying out, my poor abused field has had some attention, and so the horses are restricted to one side of it to allow the other time to recover. It has been lovely not to be knee deep in mud for a while. Mabel and Diva are very close and spend hours mutually grooming each other, despite the fact Diva can only reach halfway up Mabel’s sides. They are often seen having a drink together, which is very cute.
I hope you’re all staying safe and coping with the lockdown restrictions. See you next time!
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.