Whoooo's That?

I was very glad to have a day to potter about with the sheep. I've rather missed them and the tranquility of Crook Lot. One of our neighbours even came out to greet me! I managed to get this photo of Mr Tawny (or Mrs, looked to be quite a big owl!) sitting out in the sun.

The girls seemed pleased to see me and all looked great as they happily grazed in their sunny pasture. I've noticed that they really enjoy browsing the gorse flowers.

Vole Farming

After the thrill of Badminton, you might have thought that Kath and I would be ready for a break... we were, but still had an important trip to Devon to make in order to pick up Water Voles for my release project. So we headed south again where we found my friends and vole experts Derek Gow and Kathy Holder with 103 voles packed up and ready to move.

It was a long drive home to Cumbria, but we all got back safe and sound. Looks like I'll have my work cut out for me for the next week or so until this lot go out!

Badminton Horse Trials Cross Country Day

Kath and I were thrilled that fellow Cumbrian Ruth Edge was sitting in second place after the dressage test and looked forward to cheering her on around the Cross Country.

We managed to arrive pretty early again and did a spot of shopping before heading toward the stands to watch the first horses off the mark.

Kath is thinking about getting a new horse box, and it looks as though this could be the one. My spending was at the other end of the spectrum: I got a new leather hat as my poor well traveled old one is rather the worse for wear!

In true Badminton style, the course was as imposing and technically demanding as ever. Only the fittest, cleverest and best trained horses get around this Cross Country. Here Jane Doherty and Art Attack demonstrate how to take the hay cart with apparent ease.

Many came unstuck at the Blue Cross Roundtops, which were deceptively tricky.

Here a horse puts a knee in the pansies sending petals flying. They got over the obstacle however and galloped off looking fine. As did William Fox-Pitt and Ballincoola.

Of course the water always gathers the biggest crowd since it is one of the most exciting points of the course and one which causes the most problems. Sadly this combination was the downfall of Ruth Edge and Muschamp Impala who both tumble into the Lake. Both were fine and no doubt with have their day again.
Below Georgie Spence and Running Brook II show how it should be done.































In the end we were happy to see Lucy Wiegersma, who was on the British Team with Kath when she took Gold in the European Championships, come in second on Shaabrak

Badminton Horse Trials 2008

Despite a long day yesterday, Kath and I jumped up from our temporary lodgings in the van, no time to set up camp last night, and set off for Badminton like a pair of kids on holiday. As we drew close to the ground, we switched to Badminton FM so that we could learn what had happened during the first day.

We were so early that we actually managed to get a very good parking spot right next to the ground. A bacon butty was the first call of the day and we happily munched while plotting our day.

Being dressage day, we planned to watch our favorite riders between walking the cross-country course. The hunt were out showing off as we wandered round. You have to admit that a hunt is a fine sight. however much I admire the riders and love to watch the antics of the hounds though, I can't justify killing an animal in that manner for sport. I hope that the trailing can be developed to give a better day out rather than simply a sprint for the finish.


On our way back to the stands we spied Pippa Funnel and Ensign looking immaculate on her way to perform their test.

The dressage was amazing to watch. Those supremely fit powerhouses of horses being handled so skillfully by their riders in order to show how finely tuned their training is. The rounds were not without their mishaps as horses primed and fit for the four miles of cross country the following day can not always hold in all of that pent up energy and have a tendency to "boil over" now and again! We did however see some excellent examples of equestrianism, mixed in with the not so good! As Kath said of one mount, "He'd better be a machine over the course tomorrow!"
In the photo Zara Phillips pulls off a reasonable test, but pink cheeks were clearly visible as Ardfield Magic Star managed to play her up in front of the very critical Badminton crowd!

Kath and I rounded off our day with an excellent BBQ feast back at, this time a properly pitched, camp.

Road Tripping

You wait and wait for something to happen and then everything does at once.

With about two days notice, I got the go ahead from my steering group to pair up water voles again in order to breed more and expand our release site. At the same time, I had to collect all of the voles that were at the right age for release into the wild. Only trouble was that most of our voles are being bred by Derek Gow and Kathy Holder in Devon... and 100+ voles were never going to fit in my little Jeepy thing.

Looking at my diary, the only days that I could get down to Devon and back was this weekend, which scuppered my chances of going to Badminton Horse Trials with Kath... or did it?

Kath and I studied the maps and planned our time-table. It wasn't a big detour at all to go to Badminton, only a matter of a 20 minutes in fact, and having an extra person on my trip would be a great help... so we decided to go for it.

On the way down, it just so happened that there was a horse that Kath wanted to look at just off the M6, so we decided to pop in there too.

Interestingly enough, Amy, the horse in question, was bred by my Grandma's cousin Vin Toulson, the well known horseman. Sadly Vin, who won the Horse of the Year Show five times, recently died aged 78 and I came to learn that his young stock were being sold off as his partner couldn't deal with them on her own.

We arrived to meet Amy late in early evening. She was in a paddock with a little friend and came down to greet us immediately.

As it happened, I took to Amy far more than Kath did, if only I had the money for keeping a horse! Kath is having a think. So I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. However, considering that Mi Mi will be arriving soon, along with Fizz's new foal, due in June, and the fact that Quem Foi (Kath's Luso Stallion) is still around, probably means that another filly on the yard might be stretching things a wee bit!

Sheep Shopping

Following my supporting Kath on her horse shopping mission the other week, she kindly returned the favour and accompanied me to pick up my new little flock member this weekend.

Bartistown Ruby is a black blettet sokket shetland (or a little bandit as Chris described her). She has the most divine fine fleece and a beautiful little fluke tail. I can't wait to take her to a couple of shows this summer.

On introducing her to the others she seemed a little overwhelmed at first. But soon settled down and got to know her new field mates. Of course she is half sister to Rosy, Rebbecca and Rachel and I wasn't too surprised that she revealed that she did indeed recognise them. They soon split into their usual groups, but now they number five and four.

Pssst, wanna buy a pup?

We found this dodgy looking character in our local the other night. Luckily we soon identified him as Stuart pulling a silly face and having his new little field trials hopeful tucked in his jacket. Juno is the daughter of Stuart's gun dog Teal. She'll be trained as a working dog like her mum.
I got a cuddle but the pup was more interested in the bar!