Big Bump

Ruby looks like she needs a good hair cut. Not the most flattering picture but you can just about see her bump. Her new rug (yes, she's already managed to rip it) is getting a bit snug and the straps are nearly fully extended!

Considering her mane is so long, her coat is looking great. Although she hasn't been clipped this winter, it's very short and fine and really really shiny (her thoroughbred ancestry coming out no doubt!) Unfortunately the pictures don't show what a wonderful colour she is.

This one shows the bump a bit better . She seems to be very contented at the moment. Didn't make the usual fuss when I moved her rug. She's still quite pushy though and needed a dig in the chest to make her move back to give me space to get in. She was determined to escape. She seems to be happier now she's in a big shed rather than her normal loose box. It means that she only has Jack to contend with in the next-door pen rather than rabbit's friends and relations invading her space to tack up outside her loose box (which she hated).

Rabbit's friends and relations - a reference to Winnie the Pooh. When Pooh got stuck in the rabbit hole, rabbit's friends and relations (they were all sorts of forest creatures, not just rabbits) helped to pull him out. In this context it means everyone. Every man and his dog.

Deer Ruby!

Chris from Melbourne asked when Ruby was due to foal. Not an easy question to answer. According to the covering certificate, she should be due around 14 April. I say should be due because, when trying to work out the dates, I realised that gestation in horses is a moveable feast! So if you just count the average 340 days, it comes to 14 April. However, I understand that the weather can have an effect and previous experience. Unfortunately, although she had two foals before we got her, we don't know how either of them went - only that she produced two big foals!

She's supposed to be going back to the stud to foal because they have all the facilities and a vet on call. I have a feeling she might fool us all and just appear one morning with foal at foot!

Although she has been putting her hooves up for the past few months, she certainly didn't take it easy at the beginning of her pregnancy. So far she's:

Been on a week's holiday to Scotland (see photo)
Been reserve champion Working Hunter at a local show (if there had been a prize for the horse the judge most wanted to take home, she would have won that hands down - he was totally smitten!)
Been placed in a number of show jumping competitions
Represented the Pony Club in the Inter-Hunt Relay
Done a week at Pony Club camp

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

This picture really doesn't do the weather justice. This shows just one blackbird in my (very small) back garden. Sadly I was unable to capture an image of the flock of fieldfares that has descended on my garden to eat windfall apples. There are all sorts out there today, the usual family of blackbirds, goldfinch , blue tits and a tiny jenny wren.

It's getting very crowded out there!

After struggling to work on Monday and then having to leave again before lunch I decided to do a recce before setting out this morning. My 20 mile route to work takes me down country lanes but I thought, if the main roads were OK, I would go that way instead. HA!

The main road goes through our village with traffic lights at the top of a fairly gentle slope. Of course, none of the vehicles could get going again when the lights changed so only one or two cars were getting through on each change. One car even got stuck turning out of the village onto the flat! So I and a few fellow villagers gave it a push.

The horses don't seem to be too phased by it. They've got nice toasty warm rugs to wear so as long as they've got plenty of hay.....

Tiger, on the other hand, doesn't have a rug but he does have his extremely thick coat. I just hope he doesn't get lost in a snow drift cos he's got such teeny tiny little legs!

Apparently Annie spoke to the vet about the size of the foal and said vet confirmed that they tend to put on a spurt in the last two months so there was nothing to worry about.