The rain came...

...at 7pm tonight...despite not being forecast to arrive till tomorrow.

So no thanks to the met office, but thanks VERY much to all of you who crossed fingers, did weather dances or just got down on your knees and prayed for us ;-)  We got all the haylage in, baled and wrapped with about half an hour to spare - pheweee!!!

The baler performed beautifully all day, with only one bout of impaction colic from some extra thick grass, which was easy to clear.  The loader broke one of its grabbing arms, but that was repaired and barely slowed things down, so alls well that ends well and the horses will eat this winter after all :-)

CROSS EVERYTHING!!!!!

Still dry, sun shining and breeze blowing so though not warm it fantastic drying weather.  The haylage could be fantastic and we are supposed to be baling it tomorrow...

There is a horrible forecast for Saturday - heavy, heavy rain - so we HAVE to get it in by the end of tomorrow...only problem is that my neighbour is having his baled today and the baler has broken...Due to be mended overnight so we are hoping, hoping, hoping the repair works...

EEK - its a nightmare having all the grass cut and rain due in 36 hours...

On a more cheerful note, Sarah has done a fab job on the Ride Bare website  - www.ridebare.com - which is now almost complete in all its shiny pinkness!  There is lots more info on where we will be going and details for those of you who plan to join us en route - see you there :-)

Ride Bare Exmoor test ride

Cutting the grass!

We've crossed the Rubicon...grass is being cut and we are hoping the current forecast is more reliable than last week's...

At least it will be done before Ride Bare, which will be a big relief :-)

Another "navicular" myth

You read some great stuff online, don't you?! The latest one has come from the FHOTD blog - normally a good read and very sensible.

The current post however contains the gem:

"I honestly cannot think of a single time I've seen navicular in a horse with a
great shoulder and a long, sweeping stride."

It would be nice if conformation were that easy, and you could just blame straight shoulders, end of story, but in reality horses with HUGE strides and great movement (I am thinking especially of Ghost and Dexter who both have classic laid back shoulders and enormous overtracking strides) can get "navicular" - actually DDFT if we are being accurate - just as badly as any other horse.

By contrast, you can have a horse like Felix with a fairly upright shoulder who is as sound as a pound and very light on his feet. He has a bouncier stride, and will never have the over-track of Ghost or Dex, but he is more compact and agile as well.

Its more to do with hoof health than straight shoulders, I am pretty confident about that :-)

Ride Bare - test ride of the last day, across Exmoor

Sam and I tried it out yesterday and had a great ride in almost perfect weather (cool and breezy!) and with a well-timed pub stop - what more could one ask for on a Sunday afternoon?!

The ride was 17.4 miles and the headcam footage is here or in the post above :-)

Comment of the day went to a very interested lady at the pub where we stopped to re-hydrate (we reckoned a pint of shandy and a packet of crisps provided a near perfect electrolyte replacement for us and the horses!).  We told her about the big ride, and she said: " Well of course you'll shoe them for that, won't you?" :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPUMy3oIOcc

Blue goes home

Blue went home today and although it is sad to see him go, because he is such a sweetheart, its great to think that he and his owner will be off for long rides on the beach in Cornwall to continue his rehab.

I've put up his final "before and after" photos from here - top photo from the day he arrived, the lower one from yesterday.  

I hope I will be able to put up more updates on him over the next few months - he should go from strength to strength and I am sure he will appreciate doing less hill work (!).  Both his owner and I think he looks happier and a bit more "toned" now that he has been back in proper work for a while and I am sure he will look even better with another 2 or 3 months work under his belt :-)