2007 Update
The New Year came in quietly – we had seven horses, all living out on their winter accommodation of around six acres, unlimited, big bale haylage and a salt lick. We had clipped and rugged the riding horses this year after finding it quite time consuming the previous winter scraping the mud off them – in particular Snuggur was always quick to wallow in anything wet and muddy although Stjarna did, at one point, manage to put him quite firmly in the limelight by completely immersing herself in a layer of mud that welded her mane completely to her neck - took a fortnight to chip her out of that mud pack.
The first quarter of the year here is usually quiet but Smari & Mandy of Edda Hestar brought their Stonehenge ride forward to mid-March so we had the opportunity to partake of a pub ride culminating a stone’s throw from Stonehenge. I took Billy No Mates Bob Marley Snuggur, Fiona took Toots and the mini-SWMBO tagged along to ride a horse borrowed from Smari - Frothi – one of the first Dropi youngsters to be started and ready for riding.
It was an eventful ride – we saw a camel being ridden across a Wiltshire bridleway – yup, a camel, ship of the desert, dromendary, BIG thing – fortunately it was on the other side of the field so Snuggur never got the chance to really freak out at it. We also got close to Ari – a youngster that Smári was bringing on – so close in fact that Snuggur managed to step on his hind foot and pull a shoe off – my fault that time but events later in the year would tend to maybe suggest otherwise.
March let into April, Easter and May. At Easter Drift, who was in foal to Dropi, gave birth to a filly foal. Unfortunately things did not go well and the foal died within 36 hours – Drift herself had suffered some internal damage from the foaling which led to an incontinence problem.
Incontinence in horses is a rare occurrence and the prognosis is generally bleak; our vet referred us onto the North Park Veterinary Group where Jon Herrod-Taylor dealt with Drift. Over the next four months he treated her for what he had discovered was internal tearing and bruising resulting in swellings which were pinching her urethra shut.
Meanwhile courses had started and there was a show at Easter held by Edda Hestar plus a show in May hosted at Oakfield by Nick Foot. The two shows went fairly uneventfully – Fiona had switched to riding Jord in an English Hackamore after being unable to find any bit that she would accept. In March we had taken delivery of Silfra from Holland and Natalie was riding her at the shows – I was still doing my thing with good ol’ Snuggur and we were, from time to time, even managing to show some pace when we were meant to (but sadly not a lot of tolt).
Around 35 years ago a much smaller, lighter weight and black haired version of yours truly had spent a week at a Boy’s Brigade camp in West Linton, near Edinburgh. June saw us loading up Malcolm with horses, people and loads of stuff and hitting the high road back to West Linton ( a mere 500 mile jaunt up the motorway from Deepest Devon) – the occasion? 2007 IHSGB Summer Show & British Championships which, that year, included a shot a obtaining a qualifying mark for consideration for inclusion in the British Team to travel to Holland for the World Championships in August.
After an overnight stop courtesy of Emma - Shiatsu Queen we duly arrived at West Tarf in the midst of a late afternoon shower – no problem there apart from the fact that Malcolm had suffered some sort of minor electrical fault, you know the sort – no lights, no windscreen wipers, no nothing to be honest – just an engine, gearbox and brakes - so we limped into the showground like Biggles on his way back from a losing fight with the Red Baron. (Fortunately the gremlins were fixed over the weekend thanks to help from Mike Adams’ and Rob Reeves)
This was our first time at West Tarf and it was a wonderful setting – Ruth and Jim Aitken have a top class setup – like an oval track in TellyTubbyLand. Unfortunately the weather was pretty awful and, when we tried to leave on Monday morning, Malcolm got well and truly bogged, front axle deep as we tried to follow Mike Adams off the camping ground (well he does have a diff lock) – Jim came to the rescue and pulled us out of the mud – thanks Jim. The weather on the Sunday and overnight into Monday was truly foul and those in tents had a rough time of things – Lizz Reeves tragically losing her hairbrush when her tent was blown over.
My family also all paid a visit over the weekend to see us and have a look at some of the ‘strange’ things we get up to on our horses – they’d never seen an oval track competition before nor, indeed, had they seen any of our Icelandic Horses. My brother arrived during the T2 final and, after watching the horses demonstrating their light, slow and high footlift during the working tolt section described them as moving ‘as though the ground was red hot’ – a pretty apt description. My father did wonder about where all the jumps were – having been to his first pony gymkhana the previous weekend to watch some local youngsters.
Oh yes – we also did a spot of riding when there, I did my usual ‘Royumne-Uni nul points’ in the five gait but Billy No Mates pulled it out of the hat for the second run in the Pace Race and we actually got a time (whooooo!). The mini-SWMBO rode Silfra around a few times and showed off how much weight she had been losing (the neddy!) and Fiona tootled around on Toots Tallulah who was settling into the hackamore get up quite nicely.
Well, dip me in a canal, roll me in a polder and call me Piet – didn’t SWMBO and Toots go and score a 5.5 in the V1 Four Gait – the magic minimum qualifying mark for team consideration – the trip back home was full of high spirits (well, right up to the point where we blew a front tyre out in the middle of a thunderstorm on the M5 Motorway - all part of life’s rich tapestry really).
On our return from Scotland we checked out a youngster for sale by Charlotte Fear – Freyfaxa had hitched hiked into the UK in utero with mum - before you could say ‘pimple’ we had another horse to add to the herd. Unfortunately Snuggur took one look at the quiet, inoffensive filly and decided that she was, in fact, some sort of big, nasty, evil stallion out to steal ‘his’ mares. So, instead of doing his, ‘Hi, I’m the sex on a stick, stallion wannabee around here honey, you and I should get together over some haylage some time’ he did his ‘I’m going to kill you; die evil, little, black horse from hell’ thing.
Billy No Mates went back to solitary confinement for a fortnight until the red mist receded sufficiently for him to realise that Fretfaxa was, in fact (1) female and (2) breathing. Calmness and bliss was then restored.
Early August we went off to Holland - read all about that here.
August slipped into September and we took Drift along with Starjna and Tinna to see t’veterinary at North Tawton. Drift was scanned and pronounced fit – fully cured and ready to rock ‘n’ roll. Strajna and Tinna were scanned for a different reason and we now have fingers crossed for a mini-Breki and a mini-Dropi in June 2008.
September and October saw a show each at Oakfield Farm. Mini-swmbo and I did a bit of mini-hestkaup and she rode Snuggur whilst I sat on Silfra. Fiona took Drift to the September show where she was spotted by Carol; Smari had taken Ari and he suggested Fiona may like to try him on loan for a month or so – well, to cut a long story short, October saw Drift going off to live back in Dorset whilst Ari came to live in Devon.
Ari is, like Snuggur, a big, black gelding – we were a bit concerned that Snuggur would take offence to having another bloke out with ‘his’ girls but it would seem that Snuggur’s raging hormones have finally died a death two and a half years after his ‘snip’. Ari and Snuggur spend ages playing gleding games in the field and I do believe that there is now a bit more lightness to Snuggur;s general demeanour. Unfortunately the playing is proving quite costly – so far two New Zealands rugs , any number of repairs to sweet itch rugs and they are pulling shoes off one another quicker than you can say ‘farriers bill’.
The year ended with a few courses and the Edda Hestar Christmas Ride. Julia Reeves has worked very hard for the IHSGB Youth Section both fundraising and organising – in December she had fixed up a course for the youngsters at Kidderminster with Fi Pugh as trainer – being old and ‘uncool’ Fiona and I made ourselves scarce on Ari and Snuggur and went out to play with the traffic. An interesting experience and I can see why many folks may not take their horses out of their sand paddocks around there – I would not have been keen were I on a young horse or a flighty one – still, adds a little piquancy to a ride playing ‘kiss the stirrup’ with a 50mph lump of metal.
The Edda Hestar Ride was to The Hook and Glove (beer – mmmmm) starting from Bron and Alan’s place – a few new faces plus lots of the old ones. Jane and Richard Stone brought along two of their black youngsters – Lif and Oskar who were very well behaved and look like they are going to be a pair of little crackers. We were indebted to Smari for putting us up overnight and organising borrowed horses to save Malcolm the trip – Celia lending me Kokkur to ride and I switched onto Ali after lunch - thanks Celia.
So 2007 creaked to a close with us looking forward to 2008 – the usual courses, shows and two foals due in June – watch this space.
