See our New Arrivals at Open Day on the 5th June

In amongst the long days and hard work in preparing for our biennial big Open Day we have also taken in a number of new arrivals. Following the loss of Noddy, Peejay and Reg we have had to beef up our number of sheep and goats. The first addition to the Horse Power flock were six 12 week old pygmy goats - I hadn't intended on taking in quite so many but there we are! Kate, my neice, is over from Australia and is undertaking work experience here and she has become great friends with Amy. The two of them have spent alot of time in looking after the kids and trying to get them tame enough to be used with our visiting children. The next addition were 2 orphan lambs (called Gavin and Smithy), they are an absolute delight; Kate and Amy have been bottle feeding them and they are growing well. There is a bit of a downside because I hadn't quite taken in that they need feeding through the night.....and who is on call? so I have had quite a few weeks of broken sleep!
A rather unexpected arrival came in the shape of an outstanding looking horse:
Poltergeist - The Hon Harry Herbert had called me in the week to ask if we could help Highclere Thoroughbred Racing by taking in a 4 year old gelding. He went on to explain that this gelding had sustained an injury to his knees. He made a good recovery following surgery but when he ran again at Newbury at the end of May, he was extremely upset and lost alot of condition in just one day. It was decided to retire him and because he is so young and has such a kind nature the syndicate wanted to see if he had a chance of a future in another career. Of course, I agreed to help because Highclere are fantastically generous in their support to Greatwood. What I hadn't quite counted on would be that he would arrive so soon! It did throw us into a bit of a spin because we had already allocated all the boxes to our horses but we have sorted a box out for him and he can now be seen tomorrow. He is such a beautiful horse so do come along if you can!
Let's hope the Met office have the forecast wrong......