Grown up time for Sheryl

Sheryl was speyed today, after being a bit of a hussy for the past week we thought it was getting a bit late. Meant to have her done a few weeks ago but just didn't get round to organising it. So today was the day and she is now back home, and already has jumped on the kitchen bench!! She's a bit out of sorts, fair enough! The test will be if her appetite is still as voracious as ever - the way she eats anyone would think she'd been fasting for days.

Here is the video Ben did of her and Sunny, it's very cool!

Here comes the mud...

Albeit a bit earlier than expected, we have mud. Not too bad just yet but enough for two certain uncovered horses to have a good time rolling in it. Some pics of Choc and Dee from this morning during their mid-morning nap time:

Two fat muddy ponies

About to roll....


Rollin, rollin, rollin

Bit of a sad day yesterday, Em and Bert left for new grazing, so wee Oscar spent most of the afternoon screaming and had a bit of exercise running around. Managed to placate him with food, funnily enough... he's happier today and now that Choc and Dee are in the next paddock as opposed to having an empty paddock between the three of them he is more relaxed. I'm doing his teeth tomorrow, along with Spyke's, so hope he behaves himself getting down to Ange's place (we're going to use her stables).

Tossing up whether or not to turn him out for winter - I have just clipped him and planned to keep him going over winter but have been so busy lately I'm just not sure about the reality of keeping him going. There is a series of Mini ODEs at Woodhill Sands that I was thinking of doing with him which is probably all we'd do over winter in terms of competing. Will see how the next two weeks go maybe.

Have a video of Sunny and Sheryl to post up here too but it's on the other computer. Very cute vid, Ben did it over a week or so, videoing them being cute and cuddly at home.

Have got our full complement of cattle now as well, 30 all up plus Harry (who is destined for the freezer in a year or so). Eight heifers who will be ready to go this Aug/Sept, 17 who will go Aug/Sep next year and five who'll hopefully be ready to go before Christmas. Should make a decent profit from that. Plus still got the hay to sell too. Meant to be fertilising the hay paddock this week but the rain has been a nuisance plus actually getting the contractor tied down to a date has been a bit tricky... he's also meant to be doing some pens and fencing work around the yards for us that has been dragging on for a while. Keen to get the pens sorted soon so I can put some kind of surface down before it gets tooooo muddy.

Test driving a new saddle

So it seems Oscar's saddle is no good for him now - seemed to be good when we first started out but now he needs a wider one and I can't get my current one repacked so I've had a CTD jumping saddle on trial for the past few days. The rain has held things up a bit, every chance I've had to ride lately, it's been raining. But not today! There was even some blue sky so we went down to the arena and had a play.

Very pleased with how he went, especially since I've hardly ridden him in almost 3 weeks and also he's not been ridden on his own at the arena for a good few months now. He was perfectly behaved and quite keen which was good.

So here's a wee video, shows some trot work, lengthening the trot which he does so easily, and our first real leg yield (albeit for only 2-3 strides, but still!) and popping over a couple of wee jumps at the end. Oh and some canter which just shows how much I flap my arms around when we canter, awful... arghh

Anyway upshot of it all is I think this saddle is pretty good for both of us really. Would like to have at least one more decent ride in it, weather permitting....

We have some new cattle as well, we had 5 weaners delivered yesterday and 17 last weekend, bringing our cattle herd to 30 all up. Eight will go in Aug/Sep, they are looking good right now, big beefy girls. The new lot are black and white faced heifers, plus a few murray grey heifers.