All Change

Sue has come in at least once every week since she has supposedly been off on maternity leave. When she came in last week I gave her the unenviable task of deciding when we should start to turn the horses out. After some puzzlement, worry about a ridge of low pressure,and concern that the temperatures may drop, she decided upon Thursday of last week. The younger fitter (and naughtier) horses went out first. We always ask our vet to come in to sedate them a little beforehand (it saves injuries caused by over exuberance at their sudden taste of freedom after the winter). We decided that Jack (Wild Colonial Boy) and Fundamental should join the younger crowd because although it is unlikely that they can be rehomed they are a little too boisterous to go back in with our old boys. We also turned out half of the girls and it all went extremely well; Zero and Luca had their first taste of being in the herd and Zero was a bit of a scary cat and stuck to Luca like glue in case he lost him in amongst the others. We just had to turn out Deano's, he had already spotted something was up when all the rugs came off and headcollars had begun to be put on, he is funny, he knew immediately it was all change and began kicking out at his box in his anxiety to go out. Everyone is quite relieved that there isn't quite such a lot of mucking out to do although we are expecting some new horses in over the next few days.
Jenny McGregor MBE, an old friend of ours, (founder of SWHP) had been featured highlighting the plight of some 1800 horses that had been left in a pretty shocking way. I had asked her if we could help and she told me that she had a pretty little mare called Dee Cee Elle and it would be terrific if she could free up some space and would we take her in? So Ellie has come in and settled and has made friends with Poppy. We have also taken in a smart little gelding called Tritonville Lodge and I rather hope that given a little bit of time we shall be in a position to bring them into work with a view to finding good homes for them. I'll post some pictures up in due course.