Laurel View on Lockdown #Log 8
Well folks, can you believe it, that is May away! It has been another fabulously sunny week to exercise all our horses outdoors, with some getting to go for a refreshing canter across the field. Jiggling Johnny is slowly regaining his fitness levels however, it remains no surprise that after some brief canter work whilst practically carrying the equivalent of a Shetland pony in excess body weight that you would think he’d jumped round our entire cross-country course at a forward rate. Meanwhile Guinness and Toby were having a blast and rearing for round two (well, not literally rearing), although I can’t say I think much of Guinness’s competitive spirit as he consistently cut corners in an attempt to win.
Of course, the sunshine also means sun cream time! Some horses love it, and some can’t get away from us fast enough when they see us approaching. Whilst the majority don’t give us much too grief whilst we try to prevent them transforming into the equine edition of Rudolph the red noise reindeer, some act as if we if are about to try steal their nose, being a little over dramatic about the not even 5 second application time by swinging their head in the air, like they really do care! (Larry!!!). Others simply pull entertaining facial expressions and at the other end of the spectrum we have the horses that weirdly like sun cream. Typically, these are the horses that do not need sun cream, with Claire’s Belle representing the mare field as she follows us round the field practically licking it off the other mares. Representing the geldings, we have Bailey and Dominic, who persistently follow us round seeking their share of sun cream.
This week also seen Cindy involved in another photoshoot for the second week on the trot, as my little sisters have apparently entered adulthood (APPPARENTLY) turning 18 this week, and Zara insisted that her ‘precious princess’ Cindy featured in some of her many birthday photos. One of the few advantages of being connected to twins is that once a year we get double the supply of cake to keep Katie content. With no catering required at the yard due to lockdown, supplies had been dwindling. However, their 18th has now rejuvenated our supplies (almost too much) as we now have a total of eight cakes to consume, not including other sweet treats.
It’s also been a big week for my father’s other (non-human) child, Winnie. As the only cremello on the yard, Winnie decided she would also be the only mare to use the tyre-jump as a scratching post! Rather than looking like the piebald she evidently aspires to be, she instead looks like she has walked out of a burnt building covered in soot. Therefore, we decided whilst she was already desperately in need of a bath it would be a good time for her to take the plunge and introduce her to the water jump. After trying to persuade her to follow Connie in and her kindly refusing despite being so close, I decided to just suck it up and walk in myself despite wearing my riding boots (that I can now say with 100% certainty are not waterproof). Thankfully my sacrifice paid off as she followed me straight in after I proved nothing was going to jump out and eat her. If you spotted the video on Facebook, you will have seen that once in the water jump, she was actually a big fan, particularly loving splashing about in the muddy end. Safe to say her bath was well needed afterwards and I was going straight home to the shower after being treated to a delightfully refreshing mud shower.
We have received some fantastic entries for our Virtual Charity dressage already and we can’t wait to see what other entries are sent in the coming days before entries close next Sunday, 7th June. With our incredible sponsors lined up (details to be posted on our Facebook event page https://bit.ly/2ATtKLb) and funds raised going to Aware NI
, why wouldn’t you get involved?
