reposting..Robbie at Trec 2007.. to remember him

Robbie in his lorry on the way home
Barbara Ann drove him in a Trec event today
with Dave and I as 'grooms'
and he won these, and as its a special event, the grooms got rosettes too!

what a fabulous day that was. lovely weather and good company. Robbie reached a lovely old age of 23 and was put to sleep recently, he had a couple of old age related issues which meant he was getting unhappy in his life, his owners have the best thing for him as always through his life they did the best for him always. bless.

beauty

I unfortunately don't understand a word.... and don't have to, just look at the fabulous photographs.

http://ekokayak.wordpress.com/

re;posting "exotic vines"

"Everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was."

Robert Louis Stevenson

a friend sent this quote to share and a photograph of this exotic Glove Vine of North America, thought to be very hardy but prey to gardeners who pinch things. . . .

going through some old posts and found this from April 2007.... lol. xx

Smokey Tiptoes

she's a cute kitty. this is her blanket...

wee walk on the lane

wee movie of us walking back down the lane, this is the link to the map http://gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5722652
bareback riding, just a quick walk along the lane and back before going to work  yesterday, glad we did as today was dreadful weather.

a cosy stable

this is the stable we are getting to use just now, hope to keep it but the yard owners are so busy with four young horses to bring on to sell,  we will just have to see how it goes.

posh frock on

This is Abbey in her best winter-wear posh frock, she did a good job of keeping it clean for the two days she had it on. The temperature went up overnight and she was too warm in it this morning. I was going to put her back out in her lighter one but I got told we've got a stable to use to use now; so her feet can get dried out for a few days.
Photos of stable to follow as my camera gave up after this photo, I bought ordinary batteries and the two sets have been hopeless. I am now charging up my last set of re-chargables as they seem to last well.

thinking of adding flashing lights....

here we are ariving back from a ride out in the rain. this is most of our 'bright' ... everything on but the leg bandages as her legs are too muddy. I'm also muddy .... never ending rain!!

more bright!!

this is a Parsons Rump, lovely and bright for riding out.

as the nights draw in....

check your 'bright', apparently it can wear out and fade. so you can either take a photo with a flash or go out in the dark with a torch. think ours is still ok.

and here is what we did today, its a hard life being a pony....

pony raincoats

the mares sheltering behind the hedge last night, I have taken pity on Abbey and given her a raincoat to wear, wee Esme is not looking too impressed...

chilled.....

chilled out ponies... this is a common sight in the field. a nice atmosphere and calm horses living in a herd. this is the girls sleeping. Abbey on the right and Esme on the left. in the middle a group of young 'uns. there are also geldings and horses/ponies of all ages in the 'herd'.
Abbey doesn't like to ride out on her own much, so I lead her round the road and ride back down a lane that runs alongside the field. we've been out riding once or twice a week with other people who go out regularly, and Abbey is fine to do this as she likes the company.... once she was even brave enough to lead the way past a combine but then tucked in behind again as the other horses came past.... she would make a great trekking pony, always at the back.
there is no school to ride in, if its dry enough (and empty) its ok to ride in a paddock but its been too wet mostly and sometimes full of fatties on a diet.
weight is coming off them now its colder, and wet. Abbey has quite a bit of weight to loose so I will not rug her until I can feel ribs.... its not very often you can feel ribs. as we have no stable she will winter out, probably rugged up, and there will be hay out in the field for them all, as long as she doesn't stand and stuff her face constantly that should be ok.

another Honey

lovely wee shetland pony called Honey, she might be in foal but not confirmed yet.  

Parelli Demo

in the sky

lucky shot

snapped the camera at this seagull about 20 times as it flew arround, this is the only picture I got and this is unedited apart from reducing size to upload. I like it.

if you go down to the woods today....

friends inspecting a fairly new hive to find the queen bee, it had been noticed that there was not much activity with the bees. I am a good distance away using my zoom lens......

 after giving them some smoke, all the hive comes into sections and the combs all lift out seperately.

 each section inspected and no queen bee to be seen, there are also very few bees so the thought is that she has left and taken bees with her.

some of the cells have grubs in them so one of them may grow into a new queen bee..... story to be updated then!

nice feet!!

dayglo accesories.....

new to me...

my daughter just gave me her old lap-top.... its got a couple of keys missing though it all seems to work ok and is much faster. just need to add my photo program and other things I use.
its got a web-cam and I've no idea how that works.
looking on ebay for a couple of cheap keys so hopefully they'll not be to fiddly to attatch.

dancing and prancing...

as Abbey gets used to her suroundings she gets a bit excitable at times. today some kind folks allowed us to go out a ride with them. as they walked on nice and calmly we ran circles round them... mane and tail flying.... they kept saying 'oh how pretty she is'.... which is very kind and a polite of them as she was a hooligan. she wasn't exactly running away, er, but not totally in control either, I just kept directing her around and around.... I hope they will allow us to go out with them again as the more we can go out and about the better she will get. then eventually she'll go out by herself.

volcano

my friend recently visited Iceland and this was my present from her trip... I think its great fun, the white wax and stones represent the ice and volcanic stones, then the inside is red for the volcano. what a great idea.

ponies in the snow

girls at the gate. Abbey, Shuna and Fizz

Abbey and Fizz, I always think that two horse heads make a heart...

barefoot pony print.

its beautiful

but very cold, I feel like hibernating...

in the mornings

walking to the field


eating.... its a hard life....

early mornings...

I am not overly fond of early mornings, however the new stables Abbey is now living at it seems early mornings all go... they seem to have done a days work by the time I turned her out at 8.30am. I took my camera with me as yesterday presented some fabulous photo opportunitys when I did not have the camera, I will wait a million years for them to be repeated..blah blah humbug. here she is today grazing with Pie and Trinket.

Pippa providing a lovely photo opportunity...

the pheasant must be a regular visior as Abbey did not spook at him

fluffed up in the chilly morning.

spiders working hard as usual

wow.

my lap top no longer prints the letter "b". I have to copy and paste or think of another way of saying it. electronics.......

light

the clocks went back last night, so much less light in the winter, sometimes I go from dark to dark without seeing any... this is a lovely bar of soap I was given, love the way the light is shining through it... its aloe-vera soap. kind of like saddle soap with added greeness.

the clouds do this quite often, they seem to roll over the top of the hill. took this earlyish one morning on the way to see Abbey.

Abbey has moved house again, loved the place we were at all summer but the field was so big and we didn't have a stable that it became a real prolem having her overweight, its not good for horses to be fat as it can cause all sorts of prolems with joints and hooves. she looks quite unimpressed with the riding area we now have, its big enough to lots of things in, and there is also a covered area. its a busy place with lots of horses and people about. lots to get used to.

she gets tucked up in a little stable at night, not much space about for storing things... or.... I have too much stuff.....

shiny new boots

Abbey's got new reflective boots for going out in the evenings now the light is not great after work, she doesn't look too impressed.... as for the wet and needing webbed hooves just look at the puddles in the riding area...
nice and warm today but its a strange stormy feeling heat. just paid somebody to cut my grass and have started to clear the veggie beds out. got some final courgettes of the plants so I have chopped and frozen them to make pasta sauce probably at a later date. the peas are quite finished now, Alderman peas for next year definately very very nice to snack on.

rain and rot

the greenhouse is cleared out, the remaining tomatoes to ripen in an egg box in a drawer. I have no idea why that works but it does. the veggies still out are rotting where they stand, in the neglected overgrown garden... it looks derelict...
and the rain goes on and on....
whenever I have time its too wet to get anything done, I keep having to pay for somebody to cut the grass as it ends up too long and wet for me to do it. and at the moment I have no money to pay anybody and it started to look overgrown two weeks ago... I have a long weekend off in about three weeks so I would hope to get it cleared then. I think I'll rip everything out and cover the veggy beds in black weed control fabric which will keep it looking neater. I am not convinced its particularly good for the soil wildlife/bacteria though.
the flower beds need some clearing too, as the lovely things which look after themselves and spread are now all growing on top of each other. I'll try to pot up stuff I take out so I can give them away to grow elsewhere.
I did manage to get my hedge cut so it looks nice and tidy, last year my best birthday present was a battery powered hedge trimmer, it makes doing the hedge very quick and easy... I've almost got the hang of getting it to look straight.
so if there is a dry spell today I intend to rush out and play with my pony... poor negelcted garden doesn't get a look in!!

from far away....

having walked over the hill to bring Abbey in , then everybody else decides to come too... its a herd thing...

far away horses....

horses on the horizon, at least you can see them. sometimes they are away over the hill and you have to trek out to see where they are.

and then when you get closer....

Abbey moves off....

to hide behind a tree...

checks to see nobody is coming up behind her...

and goes to sleep behind the tree..... bless....