Beer and Brooms

We are just entering the last day before the big day.....everything that has been stationary has been painted, every little crook and cranny has been cleaned, hairdressing has been in for the horses, and so we are nearly ready.
We did a semi rehearsal of the tournament yesterday and the full blown one will take place this morning.
This will be an interesting exercise, Dan and Coudy will be wearing their Knight's armour for the first time, Janet is bringing in a couple of hessian dresses for Robbie and Mike, and Conan the Barbarian music will be blasting out, and I have got to try and remember my lines!
So far, the horses have taken all the activities in good heart, we have been practising with the megaphone all week so that the horses that are remaining out in the fields don't have a blue fit. Deano's and Paul are now so unenthusiastic about the whole affair that they were flat out snoring in the adjacent field.

Maddy has been dashing around dicing with certain death putting signs on the side of the road. Laura and Harriet scrubbed out Red's barn, which was a relief, John has completed erecting the poly tunnel, Robbie has weeded for England, Mikey has driven in enough posts to rope off areas, that he is just beginning to suspect that this is all life is about, Becky, Hettie and Sue have made up straw beds until they are seeing double and Coudy and Dan are rehearsing every waking hour. Danny has helped with the commentary and Janet is busy advertising the Open Day in just about everything.
We spent hours yesterday scrubbing all our acres of concrete, and at the end we rested our brooms and opened welcome bottles of beer.....the next time we reach for the opener will be after it is all over!

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

We have just finished hay making. The haylage bales are wrapped and the hay has been baled and is now safely under cover. What a relief!
It has been an uphill battle for the last couple of years to make enough good forage to last us for the winters because the weather has been so wet, so we are delighted that we don't have this particular headache.
We are all working hard towards the Open Day, Sue has taken off her Welfare Manager hat for the time being and is now sporting her Gardening Manager hat. The tubs are being transformed into artistic delights and even Mikey has become enthusiastic.
Last seen he had drilled a few holes in an unused water trough, filled it with compost and it is now overflowing with bedding plants.
Maddy has waited for years for a bit of software which will make her life easier when she needs to design programmes and leaflets, it has now arrived and now this year's Open Day programme will be her particular work of art.
Janet is working on the PR and contacting people to advertise the Open Day as widely as possible...do come if you can, if you are a friend you can come for a private viewing, and the public can arrive at noon.

Cabinets at the V&A

Kim Bailey came up to me at our recent fundraising race meeting, pressed a note into my hand and suggested that I follow it up. With all the various things that you have to do following a fundraising event...(lots of thank you's!)...It took a few days for me to step up to the mark. Following a very interesting 'phone call, Michael and I were invited for lunch with the most generous couple, who had inherited a couple of cabinets which were currently being stored at the V&A. Their wish was to donate the proceeds of the sale of the cabinets to Greatwood and to Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.
Following a delicious lunch we were shown the photographs of the cabinets. They are beautiful Spanish HUGE pieces, inlaid with ebony, ivory and tortoiseshell. We met Jonty over lunch (incidentally, Jonty told me that he was the auctioneer when John and Jenny McCririck raised money for us in Celebrity Cash in the Attic), and he told us that the cabinets were valuable and collectable and that they will be offered up for sale in November. I'll try and post some pictures of them because they are stunning, and I'll let you know how the sale goes on. It is with great thanks that we acknowledge this extraordinary piece of generosity and are grateful to Kim for the introduction.
The small animals have a number of additions, a couple of chicks which two hens are squabbling and squawking over and to date a couple of goslings.
We waited until the weather became a little more settled and then turned out the rescued 2 year old colt (Whiskey, or more appropriately Windy because he is scared of his own shadow). We had stabled George next to him, George had been really kind to the colt when they were in but I wasn't quite expecting what happened when we turned them out together. I have ever seen anything like it.
Marshall, George and Windy went out into the strip next to the old boys. We were prepared for Windy to panic in a large strange area. George circled around Windy, flatly refusing for Windy to have anything to do with the old boys who wanted to sniff and squeal at the newcomers. George behaved exactly like a mare with a foal......Windy was a little nervous when the marauding crowd of old boys came over and he actually looked under George's belly as if there might be a miraculous supply of comfort milk on tap. George continues to 'mother' Windy, moves him along if he gets too near to the fence, and trots after him if Windy strays too far away.
George has become Georgina.

Latest on Greatwood

Despite our concern about Deano's, the old fella travelled really well. He arrived at Lambourn as cool as a cucumber, and stood in the lorry for at least half an hour whilst we were waiting to be called for the Parade. He just looked out of the window patiently even when kids on ponies whizzed by. We have decided that he has a signature walk when he is on show, he sticks his nose out in a very determined and individual fashion. Nothing fazed him at all, even when some Shire horses came up close. He strutted his stuff, took everything in, got back in the lorry as good as gold and came back here as cool as he had arrived at Lambourn.
This is good news, we haven't paraded him for two years because he travelled so badly last time, it now means that we can take him elsewhere without too many qualms.
It is always interesting for us to realise how greatly he is still held in people's affection. Countless folk came up to us to admire him, and reminisce about his victories on the racecourse and his occasional bouts of stubborness.
Eddy is now alot better, he has been on quite alot of medication which seems to be clearing up the abcess on his back and he is no longer so uncomfortable. He is much happier out in the field with his pals now but we can't get a rug on him as yet, so we are keeping a close eye on him to make sure that this current deluge of rain doesn't make him too cold.
It is half term, (the children come back next week). We took advantage of the unused classroom to welcome Andrew Poynton, our consultant farrier here, to hold his Imprint Sport Shoe Advanced Farriery Techniques Training Course. We brought in Proprius, Seigneur de Paus, Just Jim and Double Rainbow for Andrew and his trainees to work on. Proprius, was the only horse that slightly blotted his copy book by behaving a little badly, but other than that I gather the day was a success.
The new cloakroom is of great benefit to us for all kinds of reasons, it is great to be able to hold these kinds of days here and to be able to provide the proper facilities.
Robbie gave up a couple of days of his holiday to try and sort out the ruts on the track that the tractors made when they were clearing out the slurry lagoon. Mikey got some grass seed and with luck the place may look a little smarter in time for our Open Day.

Cool Dudes

Sue and I had worried all night about turning out New Seeker and Fairfield Lodge. Both horses had been on box rest for months....and although we ask our vet to sedate them to make it safer, it can still be pretty hairy when they come round and realise that they are in a big open space....
We wasted our time worrying. Both horses immediately started grazing and haven't lifted their heads since (even when Park Lane Princess and Minnie galloped up and down the fence line, which wasn't particularly helpful)
We have found out what is wrong with Eddy, he has an abcess along his back, poor chap it is clearly really painful and the trouble is that it is a horrid place to try and drain.
We decided to let them out to graze for a couple of hours. Monty, Runner and Eddy pulled like trains with Eddy bucking on the spot like a two year old, making us realise that there is life in the old chap yet.
Sue is getting Deano's wardrobe ready for him to parade at Lambourn tomorrow, and is already dreading travelling him. Deano's is notoriously bad in the lorry...

The Big Clear Up

We have been dreading it..but it has been so dry we just knew we had to go ahead.
The enormous muck heap in the slurry lagoon has been cleared. James,Gerald and Barry along with 2 huge tractors and JCB started work on it at 9am and didn't finish until late afternoon yesterday. The trouble with this procedure is that the tractors and trailers have to drive through the yard and around the buildings leaving the inevitable trail of detritus in their path, which we then have to clear up by hand. Oh joy of joys...especially when Becky, Robbie, Hettie, Coudy and Lucie were on holiday.
We had to bring in BT and Al, although BT has been entirely used to tractors throughout his life, on this occasion this whole situation was just too dreadful and simply would not be borne. I then had to juggle him around to try and make sure that he was out of earshot (impossible) and certainly put him somewhere where he couldn't see what on earth was making all that clatter. I've always said that whoever named him Broughton's Turmoil got his character on the nose. Oh well.
Matt Day Robinson finished the fencing in the orchard at the weekend. It looks really splendid and will make such a difference to Laura because the children can now be in a safe area. It's just a bit of a shame that we have had to put the contents of the slurry lagoon adjacent to this wonderful bit of fencing, and it's just a bit of luck that Matt DR is not around now to see it.
Talking about the children, Matt overheard one little girl ask if all those animals in the fields were buffalos............
We have spent all morning clearing up the yard but at least that is one less thing to do before the Open Day.
Steady Eddy isn't so good. He is thirty and although he has been exceptionally well all over the winter, we had to get Andrew our vet to come over and have a look at him on Sunday. I couldn't quite work out what was wrong because he couldn't put his head to the ground and was inexplicably sensitive pretty much all over. After a bit of head scratching the only thing that we could come up with was that he had taken a fall in the field. He is now in with Runner and Monty (which Monty is a bit fed up about)but you can't separate these old timers. I'm hoping that a few days of painkillers and enforced rest will see him feel a bit better. It's always worrying when elderly horses 'go down' with any ailment because it can very well lead to something more serious.
Anyway, we will have to wait and hope he is ok. Sue has just come in to tell me that he can now put his head on the ground to eat but is still uncomfortable, so, sadly for Monty they will still be confined to barracks.
We have just done field checks only to see Sam and Forgery have quite a serious squabble over the possession of a bit of wood that one of them had found.
We have nearly all the horses out now, and are hoping that New Seeker and Fairfield Lodge will go out tomorrow, this is great news for them both but because they have been on box rest for so long, extremely nerve wracking for us!

At Last!

The majority of the horses are finally out to grass. It has taken us about a week to sort them all out into the fields. We use the school in the winter so that the horses can still have a play, a buck and a roll..this saves the fields for the summer but it does mean that it can be a bit of a hairy exercise turning them out for the first time. Our vet appeared to visibly blanche when she saw nineteen horses take off at full tilt and then launch into the pond....
The old boys rather surprisingly went off at a more sedate pace and haven't lifted their heads since.
BT continues to go through a bit of a tough time because he was so under par when he came back. He has developed an abcess on one of his legs and is on heavy medication, but he is going out on good grass with his pal Al and it is to be hoped that he will pick up before too long.