Sunday, 20 September 2009

Our (big) little girl

Kanga was 5 months old last week (17th) and she's abso-bloomin-lutely HUGE!

She hasn't had as much handling as she might have done so is being a bit naughty but, after last week when she kept rearing and got her leg over the lead rope and scared herself, she's just done little rears and thrown her front legs about quite a bit.

And on an altogether different note, it was the first home game of the season last night and the official opening of the new stand. Now my seat isn't in the new stand, but I get a lovely view of it. And very impressive it looked too. It has 10,000 seats and all of them were occupied. I was concerned that moving the stand back from the pitch would dilute the cauldron-like atmosphere and I expect for people sitting there it's difficult to 'feel' part of the action, but the roar was immense (although the Crumbie did win noise-wise cheering the boys on during the warm-up)


Monday, 31 August 2009

New Baby


This is my new Timbertop Thurmaston, purchased from Farnham on Saturday. I seriously thought the lady who was selling it wouldn't let me take it away unless I proved I could spin properly with it. She insisted on me having a go on it for about half an hour. ra had a go too. It's lovely and spins really beautifully, and it's in lovely condition. Made of Yew wood, it's marked as 89 (made in 1989) 1378 (Mr Williamson's 1378th wheel).

Since I got it home, I've spun and plied 2 skeins of brown Shetland and I'm just starting on some grey. It treadles beautifully but it's more highly geared than I'm used to, but I am slowly getting more control.

Sunday, 16 August 2009

Some Bad News

Em Txt me last night while I was on my way to Als' for dinner....

"Omg GB broke his leg in the stable and had to b shot last night. Poor jess! x."

Jess and GB had only just got together this summer, mainly for the Area Dressage. And done really well (the best of the intermediate team). GB was a gorgeous grey, owned by my old riding instructor. He was a beautiful horse, a former show hunter and one of Jack's mates, although they did try to nick food off each other. He and Jess got on really well.



Here are the Intermediate Dressage team. From the left we have: Bryn, Jack, GB and Shan. They pointedly refused to all look at the camera together but this was about the best we could get!



Saturday, 8 August 2009

And it went like this

The good......

Their best dressage score yet! 34.(something).


The Bad.......

Still needs more work on the showjumping. Four fences down. He can jump, he just finds it all a bit of a lark....

and The Ugly



Jack says: "Oh, you wanted ME to jump it"

Fortunately they were none the worse for it and managed to re-mount and finish the course. Just a muddy pair of Jodphurs, a lost shoe and a bit of dented pride!




Respect to Em for getting back on and having another go.

Thursday, 6 August 2009

And tomorrow is.....

Area Eventing.

In the past two weeks we've done Area Dressage and Area Showjumping. The dressage is OK but the show jumping leaves a little to be desired. Jack just doesn't take plastic poles seriously! And we've had to travel to the farthest-flung corner of Area 7 for both. Happily the Eventing is only at Moreton Morrell so we can leave at a reasonable time tomorrow morning.

Let's hope it eventually stops raining.




Friday, 24 July 2009

Jack Eventing



I'm just getting the hang of my new camcorder. Dressage and show jumping was OK but the cross country was a bit more difficult. It's all right until you try and move at the same time. Very easy to lose the fences!




Jack's now a semi-permanent fixture. Long story but it involved him getting stuck halfway over a hedge. Full details to follow......

Wots Been Occurring?


Well, lots! This is the first photograph of Kanga, born 17th April at the Louella Stud.

Because we weren't sure how Ruby's previous foalings had gone, we thought it wise to send her back to the stud, where they've got lots of experience and a vet on call. Sadly this meant that we weren't present at
the birth but they did a grand job and Kanga arrived safely. Ruby was an absolute star. She was totally unphased by all the fuss and was quite happy to let us touch the baby when we went to see them the following day. Kanga was a bit shy at first but, once she'd had her bottom scratched, became VERY friendly. We had to stop doing it because she got into the habit of reversing into you whenever she wanted a scratch and she's turned out to be a real groomer, which is lovely, but a bit disconcerting! Because her legs were so long, her joints were a bit flexible so she had to spend most of the first week in the stable with short forays into the paddock.

Her confident personality showed right from day one and on the day we took her home, we reversed the trailer up the the American Barn and led Ruby down the walkway with the foal supposedly following on behind. Only she didn't follow, she strode up the ramp into the trailer as if she was an old hand!

You can see in this photo how big she was (she's about 12 hours old here) as Ruby's a very big girl at 17.1hh.


Since coming home, Kanga's been taught how to lead on her own (she has her own ideas about it but is usually quite good, ), grow at an incredible rate, lost most of her baby fluff, been to two shows, won three rosettes some money AND a cup!

And stolen the hearts of
just about everyone who's met her! And she doesn't even have a proper name yet. Daddy is Primitive Proposal and Mummy's Legal Reputation. We've had a view ideas but can't agree!