It’s been an exciting time the last week or so. Having a pony right outside the back door, even one as undemanding as Rosie, is a lot of work.
Monday we had a visit from the farrier to give her feet a trim, so at about 8:30 I catch her, clean out her feet and pop her in the stable (complete with haynet, salt lick and water, not to mention a foot deep bed of straw) ready for his visit whilst I went for a cup of tea. 20 mins later the farrier arrives (a lovely chap by the name of William), he drives round to the field and Rosie, is NOT in the stable, the little bugger had launched herself over the stable door and escaped back into the field. Luckily no damage to either pony or stable and after some dancing about and being a bit of a diva, her feet were trimmed. Apparently, she has “dainty hooves” according to William.
Poor Rosies day didn’t get much better as she had a visit from the vet in the afternoon, she needs a passport and she’s being plagued by feather mites and she’s got a wound on one of her front legs that I wanted to vet to check. The vet then gave her an absolutely massive injection to try and control/kill the mites. She’ll need a follow up jab in a couple of weeks to complete the treatment. In the meantime I’m bathing her legs and beard (the areas she seems to be most affected) with a special shampoo. She’s improving but she’s still itchy.
Rosie produces about a wheelbarrow full of pony poops everyday (they’re much smaller than Patches used to do, he was like clearing up after a dinosaur), luckily I have a friend with a smallholding who wants to use it, so that’s one problem solved.
I haven’t ridden Rosie yet, I was hoping to have a few days riding in the paddock before we ventured into the great outdoors, but the weather has been so wet and the ground so saturated if I ride her in there I’ll just chew up her grazing (she’s not exactly light on her feet, not her fault, she’s a cob). So I’ve put a shout out on a local community group for a riding companion, I don’t really know the local area very well (so busy on the house and gardens I rarely get past the end of the drive) it would be lovely to team up with a local rider who knows where the good riding is.
Sam sold me some tack for Rosie and I thought I’d give it a good clean and polish, I thought I could get it done before hubby got home from work, but I got totally busted cleaning tack in the living room whilst watching tripe on tele…
We had a lovely visit from Mal and Ally, along with the kiddies and the lovely Lulu, who had a brilliant time with the best stick ever, having a bouncy Labrador heading straight at you with what is essentially a spear is a bit disconcerting, but she made me absolutely cry with laughter.
Hubby has bought himself a new toy, I dig weeds up, he incinerates them!
Mr and MrsC snr came over to finish filling the skip, it was certainly packed full, they have cleared a load of wire and wood that was abandoned at the edge of the property, all the junk we’ve dug up over the last 6 months and cleared out 2 of the outbuildings, I never get tired of seeing a skip leave with the junk we’ve inherited (and can’t burn).
We found this in one of the outbuildings, deeply creepy.
Maggie seems to be finally fully embracing countrylife, along with the daily harassment of mice and shrews (I’m getting quite good at catching them when she dumps them in the hallway and then loses interest) she’s pictured here, tucked up in a Pinks shirt box, that’s lined with a Barbour… Don’t get me wrong, we’re not all countryside designer labels round here, most of my stuff comes from primark these days.
MrC ordered some insecticide shampoo for Rosie as she’s being plagued by flies, and he helped me give her a bath, she didn’t stay all white and shiny for long, but she sure did look pretty for a little while. Not sure the shampoo made any difference, she’s still covered in flies.
She was not impressed with the horse ball we bought her, that thing took forever to inflate.
When I’m not playing pony, I’m working on the garden, it’s a bit of a slog, the weeds have gone crazy, but I am bringing order to chaos slowly, the veggie garden is looking good, I need to put in a last crop of salad veggies in the areas I’ve cleared. We’re cropping courgettes, sweetcorn, cabbage, tomatoes, spring onions, green and runner beans and potatoes at the moment. The onions are almost ready to be lifted and stored as are the shallots, which have grown huge, they’re the size of onions most of them.
The job hunting isn’t going well, I really need something part time, there is no way I can run this place and work full time, but part time jobs seem to be few and far between. The alternate is to go for a full time post and hire a gardener, which seems a bit daft. I’ll keep scouring the interwebs, hopefully someone out there needs a part time data monkey (will code for peanuts…)
Mr and MrsC snr came around today and he mowed the lawns, unfortunately the lawn mower wouldn’t pick up the clippings because they were so wet, so I followed after MrC snr with a rake and MrsC snr followed me about with a wheelbarrow to pick up the piles I’d raked. Hard work, but very worth it, this place always looks stunning when the lawns are mowed.
Update on Rosie, after a chat with her previous owner Natalie (who seems very nice), the wound on her leg is something that cobs are apparently very prone to called mallenders and she’s given me some pointers on how to treat it and as far as the feather mites go, hopefully the second shot of Dectomax will give her some relief, if not she recommends frontline treatment, removing all the feathers and dousing her legs in pig oil. I also found out that Rosie is a rescue and if Natalie hadn’t taken her on she was going to be put down (she was carrying a foal at the time too), thank heavens she stepped in to help. I’m very grateful for the tips she’s given me, I’ve never had a hairy horse before, I’ve always worked with warmbloods so native breeds are a bit of a steep learning curve.
I’m absurdly proud of this… I growed an aubergine, shame I don’t really like them.
countrysideinsanity 