Cross Country Practice

Can't quite remember when I've been as wet as I was on Wednesday evening. There was cross country practice at Ettington and unfortunately I volunteered to hold the video camera!




Considering he's been out of work since Easter he did very well




You can't tell from the vids just how wet it was. And the grass was soaking wet!

Baby's all grown up

Well she's 13 months old and she's already in a cob size headcollar - even if it is a little large. She stands about 15 hands high and doesn't have the look of a yearling at all.

This week she has resumed her education and is now being led around the field in a headcollar - albeit with a handler on each side. Most of the time she manages to behave herself. Every now and then she has a bit of a paddy but nothing like she has done.

Tiger is in the next field and is totally smitten with her. When she's being led up and down he follows the other side of the fence, whinnying. Only because he's so little it's a really high-pitched whinny. He's so cute! We might try them together, with supervision as I'd hate for her to bully him. I'd also hate her to become one of those horses who won't go anywhere without their companion.

Saying that she manages to behave herself, she's really good to catch and is quite happy to be made a fuss of. The problem is when you try to leave. She'll do anything to keep you there and can get a bit bargy, chase you, bit and kick at you. A wee bit scary. And if you try to drive the car away from her she stands in front of it and bites the bonnet. Naughty Kanga!

We were trying to find out if anything would phase her. She doesn't seem to mind umbrellas much.

Snow Babies

I was getting a bit concerned that the girls are out in all this cold weather. Ha! They couldn't care less!

My baby girl

Kanga was 7 months old in this pic. She isn't actually as big as Ruby but it's only a matter of time! I think she might be even bigger than Mummy when she's fully grown and she's got attitute in spades.

Unfortunately she takes after both Mummy and Daddy in her attitude and is extremely intelligent (or do all proud owners think that?).

Nah, Jack's a bit simple!

And this is her trying on her new rug. I don't think it's going to fit for very long.

My Boy Jack

I've never had a particularly high opinion of geldings. Compared to mares, they just don't seem to be very bright.

Take Ruby for example, she could undo her stable door and escape within days of coming to our yard (that's with it bolted top and bottom). Her door now has to be bolted and tied. And now Kanga's following in Mum's hoofprints. Last week, she watched while the drive gate was hooked back. Ten minutes later, the gate was swinging. She'd worked out how to unhook it. I can see this being a bit tiresome when you're sure you've left the gate open and, blow me, it's swung shut!

Apparently Jack's getting a bit canny as well. Every morning Em opens the barn door and Jack walks in and has his breakfast whilst she moves his rug. Until the day she was wearing a cream coat and cream shoes. Well, it didn't matter cos he just walked in on his own anyway.

That was, until Em had undone all the straps on his rug. Then he turned round and walked out again. And she couldn't follow him. So she hid and he came back in. Until he saw her, then off he went again. So she hid again but managed to swing the door shut behind him before he spotted her!

And they say animals don't have a sense of humour.

And the other side

Of our new stand looks like this.......................











And some very sad saints look like this........














I just love Neil Best. He's almost Tiggerish in his badness! Although to be fair, he's not being bad here!

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)