JOE’S JOURNAL
t has been a strange month. As you will see from this month’s journal, it has been somewhat different. I am sure most of you are feeling the same way, but I hope you have been
I
managing to enjoy the good weather. It has been the one good thing over the last few weeks whilst on lockdown this bright sunny month we have had.
Every time I feel a bit frustrated, I have to remind myself how lucky we are to be able to have our horses at home. I have heard lots of stories of people not even seeing their horses due to the restriction’s yards have had to put in place. I have kept most of the horses ticking over but most of the young horses have been out in the field.
It would have been Royal Windsor this week, a show we never miss. It seems strange to be at home and not even jumping the horses let alone not taking them out to a show. We have had some good news that we can now start moving horses about for training, so my plan is to get them all jumping again. Although there won’t be any shows just yet, it will mean that I might be able to take them to William and Pippa Funnell for some help.
We thought we should make good use of our time at home, so we have all been very busy doing jobs. Charlotte took on the job of painting the main yard, she hardly ever spills a drop of paint and is quite an expert. Otis, who made the front cover a few months ago, and Izzy like to sit in a chair and watch her. They occasionally leap up to play and run towards her on the ladder which is very amusing
for the rest of us. Carley, Izzy’s owner was sacked from painting on day one, you can see why in the photo.
Kyle and I, with the help from my brother, Mark, thought we would make a start on building the new “Pens”. Basically, they are smaller turnout paddocks which means we can get more of the horses out every day when the weather is nice, but they are at less risk of galloping about and hurting themselves. So, having ordered 150 fences posts, we thought we could easily dig them in by hand. It took us nearly 6 hours to get just 15 posts in, we did this for two days in the afternoon after I’d ridden. We were broken and only 30 posts were in! All three of us felt like we’d been steam rolled on day three. Our farrier, Nigel suggested we contact a local friend of his to ask for help. It turns out he had a piece of equipment on the back of his tractor that slammed in the posts in no time at all. He stayed in his tractor to avoid any contact with us and within 2 hours the other 120 posts were firmly in place. My Dad always said that “You need the right tool for the job”, now I fully understand the meaning of that expression.
Carley’s jacket after painting
None of us can remember which day it is, so Kyle now has Mowing Monday to remind us it’s the start of the week. The jumping paddock is looking fabulous even without
Otis and Izzy waiting to pounce
Jumping paddock ready for jumps
28
June/July 2020
For the latest news visit
www.centralhorsenews.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
