A monthly round up
Down On The Farm -
All the latest Valley farm antics!
December 2008
Another year reaches it's close. Looking back this year there have been quite a few changes. Duke and Conan the two black carriage horses joined us last February and sadly, are back on the market again as they are not really being worked enough in the school to warrant their staying. Hopefully they will move on to another carriage driving establishment which is what they are best at. The main barn has, at long last, been re-roofed. This is wonderful for all the horses stabled in this area as there are now no leaks and the floor is no longer slippery as the rain can't get in. The extra thirty acres of grass has proved invaluable this winter for some of the Camargues who are wintering out. (Until it rains when they will have to come in) The reception and office areas were all tiled over the summer which looks so much better and has removed all the problems of dust from the concrete floors. Miles more fencing has been completed and new water tanks installed in the fields. The old aviary has been replaced with a very posh 'Peacock Palace' and it took about two weeks for the confused peacocks to find the new perches to sit on. Thankfully they have now settled in. So, a busy year indeed. The horses and staff would also like to say a very big Thank You to all the many clients who brought them presents this Christmas. The ponies ate their way through large amounts of apples, carrots and pony treats and the staff munched their way through chocolates and mince pies. A really wonderful gift for both staff and horses arrived in the form of new feeding buckets for every horse. This was appreciated by everyone as the old buckets had large splits and handles missing making them difficult to carry about. (Thank you Julia) Many of the horses have been given their 'racing stripes' now, in the form of assorted clips. Clipping horses is always interesting as some tolerate it better than others. The easy ones end up with neat straight lines and smart clips. Others end up with what is best described as a belly clip meaning that we will start clipping on the neck and see what the horse will tolerate. Why is it that clippers always have to mimic the buzz of a particularly nasty fly, bug or wasp? So, here we go into 2009. Thank you to everyone who has supported us during 2008, we look forward to seeing you all again in 2009 and on behalf of all the staff and horses may we wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
November 2008
Both highs and lows to report this month. Two of the lows were difficult. Firstly we lost Buzz who has been in retired livery with us for the last two years. He suffered an elliptic fit and passed away in the attendance of his vet. The next day, whilst we were all recovering from this, we lost our darling labredor Coffee, who was just two years old. A post mortem revealed that she had suffered an infection after giving birth some weeks ago and the toxins had taken their toll. It was very quick as about twenty minutes earlier she had been barking her head off at a visitor and leaping up and down at the fence. Unfortunately, the last puppy had gone to it's new home only four days prior to this event. However, I am pleased to report we have heard back from all the new puppies owners and they are all very happy (both owners and puppies)
The mild weather in early November allowed us to leave the horses out for longer than usual at this time of year which meant that they were not too hyper for the annual Mock Hunt. On the day of the meet, it snowed heavily so horses and riders downed their hot toddies quickly and moved off to keep warm. Everyone survived the experience and after some good gallops, ditches and near misses everyone returned to the yard tired and muddy. Our 'hounds' impressed all the riders by jumping dikes and scrambling through hedges whilst managing to make authentic baying noises. They did look a little worse for wear on their return and seemed to suffer considerably wet feet. However some special 'hound' biscuits and pizza soon restored them to health. The riders all had a wonderful day but in spite of many sightings didn't manage to catch a single Mock. Strangely, no-one has ever caught one yet.
October 2008
This month three of Coffee's puppies found homes and departed. Two to livery owners and one to a member of staff which is lovely because they keep visiting almost daily!
The other three are still awaiting homes but meanwhile have become 'loan puppies' to most of the clients who adore them and pass them round for everyone to cuddle.
Teasel the terrible terrier has now accepted them and wants to play with them. Last week she jumped into the stable to play and they all piled in on top of her and bowled her over. She left quickly looking frazzled!
Poor Roulade and Romeo have been in the wars this month. For reasons best known to themselves they decided to stage a fence breakout and in doing so came off quite badly. So both are now on box rest nursing their wounds. The older horses think they were two very silly teenagers to try such a lark. Half term brought the usual influx of riders to groom, exercise and get muddy around ponies. Halloween night saw most of the ponies out on a spooky night ride in the woods followed by a party for the riders in the restaurant.
Loads of Pony Clubbers took assorted tests on the Rally Day in half term and congratulations go to all those achieving their E, D and D+ certificates. The new loose boxes are taking shape and, as usual no sooner than four walls appear than someone puts a horse in there! With luck they may be finished before Christmas.
Our Royals Club had a wonderful afternoon competing in the rematch gymkhana against the Newton Hall Livery club. The weather was fantastic so we were able to use the events field and make the most of the last of the summer sunshine. Our Royal's took their job as hosts to heart and cooked loads of buns and cakes for the half time break. After much cheering, galloping and fun the Royals club were declared the winners, making the running total now one all. Our thanks to the NHEC team for their participation. We look forward to challenging them to a cross country event next spring.
September 2008
Coffee has had puppies! Three beautiful golden ones just like their Retriever dad and three chocolate ones just like mum! Coffee is a wonderful first time mother and is very good at allowing us to pick them up when we want. Teasel the terrible is not so keen on having the peace shattered with puppy squeaks and is under the impression we have a nest of rats in the corner of the kitchen. Consequently, she spends much of her time in her pen or out on the farm with us.
With the pony camp season over, we have been able to start the usual clear up. Jumps have been gathered in and are undergoing refurbishment. The barns are still being painted, with luck the task will be complete by Christmas. In fact, just about everything that could be painted, has been. Including the fleet of tin horses, Can-Can, Toucan, Tin-Tin and Dobbin. The reason for this sudden surge has been the discovery of some fantastic Bedec Barn Paint. Not only does it paint barns, it paints just about every other surface as well. And even better, if anyone makes a mistake and splurges the paint over something they shouldn't, it just washes off. Likewise the brushes, a quick swill in water and they're done. We just can't believe it, so in our enthusiasm, we have decided to repaint all the showjumps as well as the stables, barns and chalets. The only thing that would make the purchase of this paint better we decided, would be a free brush with every can and someone to operate it.
Framlingham St John Badgers have been practising their circus skills this month. For a couple of evenings Will and I taught them to spin plates, diablo without breaking the lights, untie the knots so skilfully woven into the rhythmic ribbon, unicycle without running over anyone and whack the devil sticks hard enough to make them rise into the air. The presentation evening where they showed off these skills went well and the parents were suitable impressed.
Sailor and Philippa spent an afternoon at Hacheston Festival doing carriage rides whilst the rest of us were at Easton Farm Park attending the Make a Wish show. This was my first show with the grandchildren.
Rhianna, aged four and mounted on Mouse did the mimimus jumping (poles lying in the grass) whilst I attempted to operate the camcorder and shout orders at my daughter who was leading.
Later I, being the proud grandma, took two year old Philippa on Silver Lady, into the gymkhana for the under fives. We did the musical sacks. On the first trial run I whisked the child from the pony, balanced it on it's legs and shouted 'Run to the sack' whilst aiming it at said sack. It wobbled off, got to the sack, and carried on wobbling straight on. OK, I thought, I know how to do this. So the next time, I repeated the process and as she wobbled over the sack I yelled 'SIT'.
It didn't work, she carried on!
August 2008
Mad month! Every day busy with pony camps, weddings, fetes or shows. We were joined by Anka from Germany to assist us with ponycamp and schooling horses. Our other two students Chloe and Estelle, from France, departed having been an enormous help throughout July. The wonderful weather we had enjoyed in July gave way to gales and rain. One particularly windy day one of the marques took off and went for a short flight across the campsite, much to the delight of the children.
Duncan, whose carriage horses joined us a short time ago, has been busy helping out with yet more fencing and, in his spare time driving any horse he can lay his hands on. This has meant Muffin the Mule, after a ten year break was back in harness much to her surprise. After a few tours of the indoor school it was out into the exercise arena and then off to the local pub. For a week she was out and about every evening and loved every minute of it. Meeting large buses and tractors on the road didn't bother her in the least. Then it was the turn of Hibou and Fabriqu�who also gained quite a few more hours in harness. This was followed by Mouse the Miniature. First he underwent the usual long reining (assisted by assorted children) then it was into the vehicle in the indoor school. After a few laps he seemed to have got the hang of it and the following day one of the staff decided to have a go. They were taken by surprise however, when Mouse managed to clock up a good gallop from one end of the arena to the other! Luckily his brakes did work and trot was soon re-established. Poppy and Jack didn't escape Duncan's attentions either, they were press ganged into doing some pairs work in the carriage together. At first they were a little apprehensive about both being the carriage at the same time but after a while settled down and decided that actually, two was better than one as it halved the work. Poor Snow has been visiting the vet a lot this month with an eye ulcer. Luckily he recovered in time to be back in harness to do a wedding with his best friend Nimbus.
We were delighted to welcome back an old friend called Mitch and his owner Caroline this month for a weekend break. Mitch, a very large skewbald, spent some years here a good while back. He definitely remembered the place and was keen to have a catch up chat with Camelot.
Our Royals Club children had a fantastic afternoon out at Newton Hall when they challenged the hosts to a gymkhana session. Everyone involved had a wonderful time and both ponies and riders were very well exercised. One of our team, competing with a fractured wrist, was determined to manage the day and did so admirably. The hosts won the day and a return visit is now being planned for our team to try and beat them!
July 2008
We're well into Pony Camp mode now. The highly complicated schedules have been fine tuned and stapled to the staff wall. With six groups rotating and the usual lessons continuing, the staff have to be on the ball and follow the schedules to the letter. Every member of staff has a time schedule detailing where they should be when, with what equipment, horses and riders. Needless to say things don't always go according to plan, the odd horse loses a shoe which throws the schedule but luckily there is always a list of 'spares' for the staff to select a replacement from. Horses are more easily replaced than staff who, as usual, are unpredictable. I rather feel like a grumpy old woman these days when it comes to employing staff. We usually start to advertise the positions in January, followed by endless interviews. Finally, after much correspondence, paperwork and time interviewing, we make our selections. This is always difficult as we then have to turn away many whom I think would have been very good, but we have limited positions. Contracts are then signed, and all is set for the summer season. What I want to know, is how does anyone establish during interviews the commitment of the person you have offered the position to? This year, shortly before the summer season began, one person who had been booked dropped out. This left a gap to be filled. Telephone calls to others we had short listed confirmed they now all had jobs elsewhere. This is not an unusual position to be in, but it is highly frustrating and the 'drop outs' seem to have no idea of the problems they are causing. Having sorted this particular problem, we start the season. Within a week another member of summer staff decides it is not the job for them, so they just fail to materialise again. This of course throws the schedules and overloads the remaining staff. Luckily, all the others seem to throw themselves into things and get on well. The many work experience placements from abroad and various colleges are quick to pick up the yard routines and are invaluable in making sure that animals are tacked up in whatever is required for the right time and in the right place. Life in the fast lane has slowed a little for me this year as I am unable to cover some of the duties, due to somehow wrecking both Achilles tendons! Now unable to run everywhere around the yards, I sort of hobble and sway my way round. Needless to say everyone who meets me assumes it is some sort of horse related injury so I am tempted to where a T-shirt stating 'My injuries are not horse related!' Never having had an injury I have not been able to over-ride, I am finding the loss of mobility hard to deal with. The fabulous hot weather has made life in camp mode easy to deal with. So far in the last three weeks no-one has used the marquees to eat in, all preferring to sit outside at the picnic tables. Also this month the media have been visiting us again to cover various horse related topics. Dear old Sailor, aged 33, was star of the show for a carriage driving article. The wedding horses Snow and Nimbus have been out most Saturdays in their splendour and on Sundays it is the turn Kite and Kestrel who have been doing carriage rides at fetes and in the pony club displays. With bookings already taken through until 2010 it looks as if they will not be retiring yet!
June 2008
Pony Camp season is fast approaching again. With the July camps already fully booked, it looks as if it will be a very busy summer. So we thought we would take advantage of the lull now to tidy the place up. Having bought an enormous tin of barn paint, I set to work on the buildings whilst the staff all tacked the insides of stables with tar and paint. Before long we all looked like new style zebras with black and white splodges all over us. But the buildings and stables look fantastic. David, meanwhile, has spent every waking hour on the tractor topping meadows or strimming or cutting the lawns and hedges. Philippa has taken over the flower tubs, for which I'm extremely grateful as my gardening skills usually kill most things in the space of a week. Sophie has been re-painting jumps, so all in all, everything is looking pretty smart. We've even managed to fit in quite a bit of carriage driving. Both sets of black horses have been exercised by various staff round the new farm tracks and David and I have even found some time to take out our own favourites Juno and �oile in the evenings. Kelpie's long awaited foal arrived in the pouring rain at the end of the wonderful weather. A black filly with a star it looks just like it's Camargue dad did when he was little. Kelpie is a wonderful mum and quite happy to share hugging sessions on her foal with any of the staff, which is just as well due to her milk shortage in the begining which meant we had to help out a little by topping up the foals feeding times with a bottle. No shortage of volunteers to do this! The grand opening of the new livery yard went well supported by the wonderful summer evening weather. Bryan Adams, the Pony Club regional development officer and his wife Tish did the honours of cutting the white ribbon and unveiling the plaque, which was followed by a barbecue for all the livery owners. The EADT covered the event for us which should appear in Suffolk Magazine in the future. The building, dedicated to the memory of my mother who supplied the funding, makes a wonderful place for the children and their ponies to use as a 'Club base'. Our Cavalry unit has expanded again as we welcome back David Foster along with his troop members. This has involved some hasty extra practice sessions for the new members to learn the routines in time to perform them at Easton Farm Park on Fathers Day. Luckily the weather held and we were able to hack eighteen horses from here to Easton for the performance where they and their riders put up a fantastic show. (Our thanks to all the parents and back up crew involved in this event). In addition Duncan Drye took his two black horses to do carriage rides. This proved interesting as poor Conan had to cross a black and yellow cable guard and was convinced it was a snake waiting to bite his legs off. In the end we had to take him and Duke out of the carriage and lead them over it. At the end of the day they crossed it again to come home but by then the fear factor had gone and they trotted over it happily. The Suffolk Show went off well in spite of the weather and our stand was very busy. Silver Lady accompanied us as usual and wowed the public with her usual cuteness.
May 2008
This month I have conducted an unwitting experiment. One of our livery children had asked me to look for a bigger horse for her. I duly called our usual supplier who found an animal to fit the bill and dropped it off here along with a small chestnut pony whom we thought might be useful for the summer season. On the second day the small pony was heard to cough a bit in a dust allergy sort of way. The next day it refused to eat. By the time we worked out the problem it was too late, the damage was done. Like wildfire the Equine 'Flu hit my yard like the great plague. Never have I seen so many sick horses at one time. Trying to isolate the problem would have been impossible in a yard this size, so we decided that the best thing was to continue our daily routine as usual and allow everything to succumb as quickly as possible in order to get out of the situation as fast as possible. Daily I watched more animals develop the symptoms. It was heartbreaking to see some of them. After consultation with the vet., it was decided to put the most at risk animals onto a course of antibiotics to try to allay any after effects. Kelpie who is due to foal shortly, fell into this category along with about a dozen others. This kept the staff busy twice a day administering the drugs. Those who were too ill to eat had the mixture syringed in twice daily. After a few days a pattern emerged. Some animals remained immune and in spite of the daily contact with the others, remained satisfying healthy. All the Hungarian driving horses were immune as were the newly imported Spanish. Those who had received the 'flu vaccinations remained healthy. Two other carriage horses stormed through but we realised that again their chequered travelling history (they spent six weeks driving through France) probably saved the day. Two other ponies who we know have travelled extensively also survived it. Quite definitely the hardest hit were my prized Camargue herd. Giving it some thought, we realised that the majority have been born here on the farm and haven't ever travelled, therefore their immune system was totally unprepared for an onslaught such as this. After two weeks everything that was going to get it had got it. The Camargues, the foal herd, some of the school ponies, four of the big horses and some unvaccinated liveries. At this point all the sickly animals were removed from the system and turned out away from contact to control the infection. Lessons were reduced and the carriage horses were all pulled in and told in no uncertain terms that they were to behave like riding school plods until the other horses were again fit to work. Another week went by during which the normal flighty carriage horses wondered what had hit them as they covered for their sickly friends day after day. The supplier of the chestnut pony telephoned after a bit to see how things were going and was informed if he was trying to put me out of business he'd been pretty effective! By the time this goes to press the problems will all be far behind us and I shall be heading an intensive advertising campaign to get us back on track. In the midst of this, the problems experienced with the building of the new stables paled into insignificance. The stabling duly arrived (eventually after numerous 'phone calls) and was unloaded. The first run of boxes was erected down one side but when the men came to erect the second run a problem occurred. The boxes weren't as ordered and all the doors were on the wrong end. Several more 'phone calls resulted in a promise to replace them the following week which would have been in time for our annual council inspection. Needless to say, the building was in disarray with assorted homeless sickly animals when the inspection came. A stroke of luck occurred whilst the inspector was on site, when the stabling company called with further excuses for the delay and I handed the 'phone to the inspector who was standing next to me. He was very good and berated the company, explaining he was from the council and had come to inspect the non existent stables. Eventually, after a good deal of grief, the company told us to erect the incorrect stables and then they would send a team of people with the correct stabling to take down the panels and replace them with the correct ones. This we did which meant we did at least now have some stabling. The following week the correct panels arrived but needless to say no back up crew. The driver asked if we could take down the other stabling so he could return it and was met with rather short shift from our own workforce, so the lorry returned to Wales empty. The panels have now been changed by our own workforce (another day's labour) and all that is left to do now is to agree a fee with the company before allowing collection of the spare panels. Finally, Lily and Heidi two of our goats had an interesting day out at the Schools Fair in Ipswich. Poor Muffin, although one of those not affected by the flu, was grounded, so Lily and Heidi made their first appearance at the event. I spent the day spinning camel down which was good practice for me and entertaining for the visiting children. Ah, apologies here, I had my knuckles wrapped for my reference to the Otley Spinners in a previous article, it's not, it's the Suffolk Village Spinners and Weavers, no longer based at Otley but Clopton. I knew that!
April 2008
Trying to get away from the yard is always difficult for me. I do have some very competent staff but still I worry endlessly about the animals if I go out even for a few hours. However, a break from business is probably a real tonic for my staff who are able to get on without me suddenly popping up with endless ideas of 'What we are going to do next'. So it was with trepidation I booked a weeks skiing for David and myself in Austria. Leaving it late in the year I assumed would mean less for the staff to do at this end as some of the horses would be living out. The date arrived and off we went. On arrival at our hotel, David tuned in to the Channel Four news only to discover that storm warnings were being issued for the whole of the British Isles. The next few days were sunny and bright for us with heavy snowfall at night making for some very good skiing. Not wishing to miss a minute on the slopes I dragged David out and insisted he spend each day trying to break a leg. Each night we watched the news and panicked about our poor house sitters left behind to cope. A week later, after a six hour flight delay, the loss of our luggage and all the normal travelling quirks, we arrived back home slightly later than planned. Our house sitters had already returned to their safer, more controlled way of life. The following morning we looked out of the window at five a.m to discover the marshland rapidly flooding. Dragging ourselves out, we dashed through knee deep water to bring the horses to higher ground. A couple of days later, we caught up with our now 'restored to life' house sitters. Last year, they commented, whilst we were away, they had had a glorious holiday here and thought how wonderful our lifestyle was and wished they could live our life all the while. The weather had been good, they had enjoyed farm walks with the dogs, ambled around the stables and really enjoyed the experience. This year they described it as hell on earth. The torrential rain and gales had reduced them to nervous wrecks just trying to keep the place on the map. With trees falling onto electric fences, they daren't leave any animals out so experienced the work load of having everything stabled plus dodging the tiles sluicing from the roofs. A couple of staff called to say they couldn't make it in (quite normal I'd say) one because they had come out of the house without their keys and were now locked out and couldn't wake their partner to let them back in. This apparently brought forth quite a few expletives from our house sitters with the result that the person suddenly found they were able to wake their partner. (Perhaps I should try this approach in future) In addition to trees in fields, there was the small matter of the tree across the road to remove. After a week they were immensely glad to hand it all over and commented that they could not understand how we keep going when all the odds seem stacked against us. The idyllic lifestyle they had enjoyed the previous year seemed far removed from their memory! Two more carriage horses arrived this month. Big black beasties all the way from Spain. Having been notified of their departure in Spain, we eagerly awaited their arrival. Having missed the first notified date and the next, I gave up and assumed they would just arrive whenever. They turned up one very busy Sunday morning whilst I was trying to juggle three jobs at once. Having clattered down the ramp, their leads were handed over to me along with all the leg wraps and paraphernalia they had been wearing when they left Spain but had somehow shed along the way into a sack. They have now settled in well and we hope to be out and about with them on the wedding circuit soon. Our other white wedding horses are highly suspicious of them.
March 2008
The barn is back up after it's disagreement with the cement mixer! A slightly different shape, but we're now back on track only eight weeks behind schedule. The old barn posts having been angle-ground off at ground level, the replacement barn is slightly wider to allow the new posts to be concreted into the floor again. With luck and assuming no earth quakes, it should be operational shortly. The new grassland has now been fenced with riding tracks all round the perimeter and through the centre. This will allow riders, dog walkers and carriage drivers to enjoy our countryside and keep them all off the roads more. The recent spell of dry weather (which we are bound to make up for later) has enabled us to turn all the horses out early this year. A bonus for the staff who have had time to turn their hands to carriage driving and working the youngstock instead of constantly mucking out. It's been so dry we have even been able to use the paddock sweeper on the marshland. As most of my life is spent in a spin, none of the family were in the least surprised to find that I have now joined, for a few weeks at least, a spinning group. My eldest grand daughter assumes it involves turning circles at high speed and promptly demonstrates until she falls flat. In a way, she is correct. When my late mother-in-law passed away, she left amongst her things a spinning wheel. An extremely ornate one, of Sleeping Beauty calibre. I commandeered it informing everyone I wanted it to spin my camel wool on. Recently, having ten minutes to spare, I dusted it off, loaded it into the car with a large bag of camel wool and took myself off to join the Otley Spinners. One month later, and I can talk to any passing layman with authority about my Niddy Noddy and discuss the merits of various plys. I also know that it's definitely not camel wool, it's camel down. It takes me only a few seconds to ascertain the knowledge of those talking to me and I know when I can pull the wool over their eyes so to speak. Initially, a very knowledgeable lady by the name of Pat showed me how to operate my wheel and spin some sheeps wool. (Camel down being notoriously difficult) Quickly recognising my 'I want to be able to do everything that anyone else can do and I want to be able to do it now' syndrome, Pat quickly moved me on to plying and spinning my camel down. A month later and I'm hooked. I can spin camel. I can spin sheep. I can spin cat. Not that the cat is very impressed, it's looking a bit bald now. I wander round the house looking for something to try out. Labrador is not good, the hair won't stick together. Strange that, because it seems to stick fairly well to the seats in my car. Having combed the jack russel, I find much the same problem. Of course, it won't be long before the horses all start to moult, perhaps that might work. I would try my own hair, but I've precious little of that these days. Meanwhile, I can impress visitors feeding my camel down into the machine and turning out balls of what I would describe as 'textured wool'. It's quite an art form, I explain, to get some bits chunky thick and some bits cotton thin like that!
Feburary 2008
What a nightmare! What is one supposed to do with a large herd of animals who would have been housed had not a concrete mixer destroyed their accommodation and then it floods?! The only consolation, is that I can now blame my grey hair which is appearing, on the apathetic insurance company dealing with the claim. Four weeks on from the impact, we are no nearer starting the barn re-build as the insurance company are quibbling over the builders estimate to remove the damaged barn and do a rebuild. Meanwhile we have animals, machinery and feed stored in every nook and cranny. Day time is not too bad as spare animals can be tied around the yards but plainly without supervision at night they must have their freedom. So far, this has involved what one would classify as 'animal impact' damage to the indoor arena walls, which now have toothless gaps all round. The car park has been closed off to accommodate animals and this again causes chaos for clients trying to drop off and collect offspring. Machinery and feed is under flapping tarpaulins which I suppose is good training for the animals which have to walk past it all. Numerous frantic telephone calls to the concrete company's insurers and loss adjusters does nothing to move things along. Clearly, they do not have a herd of animals in their gardens, so it is of no concern to them. On a lighter note, we have been presented with two peacock. The Demon Dog was promptly removed from the purpose built dog court to accommodate them. This suits her as she is now housed in the kitchen near the Aga. After two weeks, I let the Peacock out to settle into their new surroundings. They took a couple of steps, flapped, bounced a bit and then did a runner. A week later I happened to hear on the local radio a poor lady nearby who appeared to have two extra visitors. Off I went to see what could be done. The peacock, on spotting me, flapped up onto her roof. Another week went by and then she telephoned me to say she had managed to lure them into her garage by feeding them peanuts. Off we went again and this time returned with them housed in the trailer. The Demon Dog was not impressed. During the course of this bird saga, a client arrived with a present for me. An old goose off the pond who required some TLC. Most accommodation being taken by now, it was introduced to an old dog kennel on the gravel around the house with the hope that the low picket fence would act as an escape deterrent. After a few days we built up a relationship. Last thing at night I hang out of the bedroom window and have a quacking chat with Gertie who seems to understand every word and knowledgeably chats back. In the morning I throw open the window and she chats away merrily to my attempts at goose speak. Finally, we had another disaster when one of our visitors accidentally ran over the cat. Poor Sugar, she was very old and we suspect suffered from dementia. One evening she was crossing the car park on her way home in the dusk and didn't spot the tyres approaching which just caught her on the side of the head. The staff all gathered her up and cradled her as she passed away. The following day the usual funeral service was held under the yew tree and Sugar was laid to rest. Now, after twelve years, Gizmo is the only remaining cat out of the original seven.
January 2008
This month was Panto season. I've never done Panto before, so when the opportunity arose to lead Cinderella's ponies and carriage twice a day on stage for three weeks at Ipswich Regent, I took it. What a fantastic bizarre experience. The ponies were delivered to the stables early one morning to be billeted with us for the duration. Two angelic looking Shetlands with the normal shetland temperament. We were called in for rehearsal the following day. David and I arrived and hitched up the ponies. After the usual 'We'll need you in two minutes' four hour wait, we trundled onto the stage. Easy stuff. Not enough space to leave the stage where directed, but everyone said 'Don't worry, we'll sort it' Opening night arrives. We wait in the cold outside the door for our cue. The doors open and we sneak in to hitch up to the carriage. The doors shut and we are in total darkness. David grables around with traces and hitches up in the dark whilst I hang onto the heads and attach the coupling reins. We wait. I feel sick. Our cue arrives and off I go. I collect Cinders and everyone waves goodbye. The music stops. I panic and lead the ponies off stage. The music starts again - whoops! The director meets us in the wings. 'Could I possibly hold the ponies on stage until I hear the third mention of Cinderella in the second set of music. And could I possibly stop more centre stage to block the light which might otherwise blind the audience, and if I could come on a little earlier when I hear the word Flight, that would be good'. For the next performance I elect David to try leading the little darlings. We arrive as usual and hitch up. 'Are the ponies ok with dry ice?' someone asks. How should I know, they're not my ponies. We assume they will be as there is no choice anyway. The cue arrives, I tap David on the shoulder and off he goes. The ponies don't mind the dry ice at all, but they do like the look of the dancers and promptly refuse to turn so panicing the leaping performers. After a couple of days we are all getting the hang of it. I then enlist the help of my son as David has to spend a day in Norwich with the 'Christmas Donkey' Muffin. I explain to Will how to hitch up in the dark and all the other requirements. We manage all this and I set off on the correct cue. Halfway across the stage I glance back. There is a thick black cord entangled with the carriage. I ignore it and hope that no scenery will fall upon me. Cinders spots it and deftly flicks it undone before boarding the carriage. It elesticates itself back across the stage surprising the poor dancers. Eventually we all settle into the routine. Now life becomes surreal. I find myself in a 'Groundhog Day' experience. Gone are the nerves. Each day finds us doing exactly to the letter the same as the day before. The people are saying the same words, standing in the same places, the two half clad men climb over the traces between the ponies and the carriage backstage, the girl who operates the carriage lighting pats the offside pony in passing, the dry ice man squeezes past their heads. Nothing changes. It's an endless circle of repartition. In addition to these antics, a number of our clients were persuaded that they should take the British Horse Society Riding and Road Safety test. Trying to round up eight volunteers, we finally ended up with thirteen. Training the riders proved relatively easy. Training the horses was another matter entirely. Riding School horses do not go out alone, especially on the road and away from the premises. At the very least, they go in pairs. Knowing there would be some horse resistance to going alone, I set the staff a daily task of hacking the required horses individually up the road and back. Well, if I had been trying to make a Thelwell film, these animals would have had star parts. For a start, it was plainly obvious to them that if we succeed in making them walk up the road alone, they would end up like Piggling Bland and cross the county boundary never to return. With a great deal of persuasion they finally would crawl to the end of the road, only to return with the riders hanging on to the reins to prevent a gallop. After two weeks, we had succeed in training five animals to do the job. Eventually the day arrived along with torrential rain. The horses performed perfectly and eleven out of thirteen riders gained their certificates. And finally there was the barn saga. Always short of space and shortage, we have just erected a new barn to store hay and straw with the assumption that as the animals eat it they and machinery can fill the space left. Concreting the floor had to be fitted in early before the panto performances. The first stretch went well. Next morning the lorry arrived again, backed round to unload when I heard an urgent degree of 'Whoa, WHOA'. Doesn't sound too good I thought. It wasn't. The lorry had hit the top of the barn and shifted it about a foot and a half. The posts, being concreted into the ground, had developed an interesting Tower of Pisa effect. When the lorry was pulled forward the barn sprang back, but still a long way out of alignment. With Christmas only a few days away, I doubted that the resulting insurance claim would allow us to start any proceedings before the New Year, however, to my many urgent 'phone calls the loss adjuster arrived on Christmas Eve. Hopefully we should be able to start a rebuild not too far into January.
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