Rain

Rainy Show Day

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The ponies have been a bit neglected today.

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Instead of riding I have spent the day at the Exford Show.  I love this show and even though it rained all morning I still had a great day.  The Exmoor breed show is held here but this year for the first time Exmoors were also allowed in the main ring’s mountain and moorland classes.  It was very exciting to see an Exmoor win!

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It was also good to see the Exmoor classes themselves.  I love seeing how many different colours there are within such a strict breed standard.

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I also loved the fact that I had what must be the prettiest picnic I have ever seen!

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I so much enjoy just wandering around the show and I may have bought myself some things.  I love horsey shopping and I don’t get the opportunity all that often!

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Springing a Leak

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We have had a lot of rain this week. The tack room ended up looking like this.

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Obviously, this isn’t ideal!  It seems we need to do a little work on the roof.

On the bright side, the torrential rain does seem to have stopped for now and the weather has been wonderful over the weekend.

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We went out for a lovely long hack through the fields.  The rain had flattened the grass and was still sitting in the seed heads.  The whole field was sparkling and it was absolutely beautiful.  I has been a good day.

Trimming the Grass

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After weeks of  no rain it is suddenly raining a LOT.  At least, we have been having some very heavy showers.  Which means that the grass is finally starting to grow a bit.  Of course, it isn’t growing as much as the weeds so the fields needed topping to control them.  Which was rather sad as the buttercups are beautiful.

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Still, it had to be done and it is looking a lot better for it.  The next job will be harrow the fields and they will be perfect!

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Schooling with an audience

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I thought that the downpour a couple of weeks ago had put paid to any schooling for the rest of the winter.  The fields were certainly very soggy afterwards.  Since then though we have had two dry, frosty weeks which have done wonders for the ground.

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The going is almost perfect now.  Perhaps a little on the soft side but it is lovely to ride on and we had a good schooling session.  Galahad behaved very well and was actually working quite nicely.

The puppy normally comes out with me when I do the ponies and she is now old enough for me to leave her to potter about whilst I school.  I tie her up with a long line outside the field and keep half an eye on her.  It is wonderful to be able to do so.

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Schooling Catch Up

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For one reason or another our schooling has been a bit lax of late.  I have always had a reasonable excuse for not schooling (the builders are here/it’s too windy for Galahad to concentrate on me/the field is too wet…) but I have definitely been feeling a little guilty about it.

Yesterday was pretty windy, the builders were still around (although they had stopped for lunch) and it was raining but I decided enough was enough and Galahad and I marched purposefully into the field.  I was actually pretty impressed with him.  He could have had a bit of a better bend and we had a couple of moments when he tried to nap towards home but in general he did what I asked.  His turns on the forehand even felt amazing, possibly better than ever.  Of course, they may have looked terrible!

We did have one major spook (my entire weight went into one stirrup and it actually felt like we stretched the leather a bit), apparently at nothing.

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I realise there are several potentially scary things in my neighbour’s field but as they have probably been there as long as the pony they seem like a poor excuse.

Overall though, Galahad tried pretty hard and I was pleased with him.

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Sunny Sunday Rambling

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Today has been a mixture of beautiful sunshine and heavy showers.  Luckily, Galahad and I went for our ride in a gorgeous, sunshiny part of the day.

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We had a lovely hack, enjoyed some cantering in my neighbour’s field but also spent some time walking round the field to make sure he doesn’t think we always canter.

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It has been a wonderful day!

Changing Seasons

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I think it is safe to say that autumn is properly upon us.  It is still pretty warm but there are now lovely, crunchy leaves lying about and this week I had to ride in a coat for what seemed like the first time in months.  Of course, I overheated and it promptly stopped raining but it had been absolutely pouring!

I am very much enjoying seeing the fruits of the season as I ride.  Obviously there are plenty of blackberries but I have also noticed a huge number of toadstools this year.  We did have a proper fairy ring but this is all that is left of it now.

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This morning I also noticed this beautiful, tiny little one on my walk up to the yard.

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It really is a lovely season!

Summer Joys

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We are certainly having some lovely weather at the moment. We have had rain but most days have been beautiful.

In the mornings when I bring the ponies in they loom up at me out of the mist.

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If I ride in the mornings we go up the hill and pop out above the mist into glorious sunshine.  The view is wonderful,  especially looking down over the mist in the valley.

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If I ride in the evenings after work the sun is generally shining everywhere.  My sister and I have had some beautiful  evening hacks this week.  We don’t get to ride together too often these days so it is especially lovely when we do.

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Hail!

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On Easter Monday morning there was glorious sunshine when I let the ponies out.  My sister and I missed the best of the weather for our hack but it was still nice enough to ride without a coat.  At least, I didn’t wear one.  She has no pockets in her jodhpurs and so needed the coat to carry her phone.  It was starting to get a bit warm to be comfortable though.

We collected our neighbour’s paper and set off up the hill.  I have to admit to hurrying Galahad a bit as there was a nasty black cloud off to the right.  Sadly we didn’t hurry enough and before we reached the top of the hill the heavens opened.  Not just with rain – with biting hail which numbed the side of my face and sent both ponies straight into the hedge so they could turn their heads away.  Apparently that wasn’t much relief though as they were soon keen to be moving again  – faster than before! – and we soon reached the postbox which is handily inside a barn.  It gave us a very good excuse for sheltering inside!

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Galahad was quite happy to stay indoors but Cookster prefers moving about so was pretty soon outside again.

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Luckily the worst of the shower was over by then but my sister was suddenly very happy to be wearing her coat!

Stormy Weather

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I seem to be writing a lot about the weather recently but it has been pretty dramatic.  On Monday we were hit by Storm Imagen with the wind gusting at 45 miles an hour and causing a power cut.  I was obviously at work for most of the day and missed a lot of the excitement.   The power stayed on there with just a few flickers of the lights.  It was very windy around town though, especially when I walked along the river to and from my car.  I had hoped that the wind might dry the fields out a bit but we are still having very heavy showers which are undoing any effect it might have.

Driving wasn’t as bad as I had thought it might be, although a tree in the village had completely snapped in half.  I got home to find that there was still no power so I had to see to the ponies by torchlight.  Galahad has improved immensely when dealing with torches.  He always used to absolutely hate them, which I assumed was because he couldn’t see what was behind them.  It’s a pretty sensible stance to take really.   However,  he does seem to be getting used to them.  He is still wary of them but I can at least catch him when I am holding a torch now and even check him over when he is loose.  It makes things so much simpler!

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The ponies’ colds are still improving.  They are not better yet but they are definitely getting there.  The other day though Galahad sneezed all over my sister’s freshly washed hair.  She was not impressed!