Greetings Blighty,

For some strange reason I can’t get into Blog tonight so am posting this to Q & hoping he’ll oblige ?

The weather the last 2 days has almost made up for the rain for the past 34. It has been absolutely lovely. Clear, blue skies & bright

feel-good sunshine.

More good news – I am no longer ‘the new one’ at work.

Today, Natasha arrived, from North London, via a cattle ranch in Montana.

Now there’s an idea.

She has never worked on a stud farm either so we can look at each other in clueless fashion whilst the others rattle off the Melbourne Cup winners from ’76 onwards.

Hadleigh, the good news is there is a love interest.
He is tall, red-haired, called Rory & I know he is interested because today he tried to mate with me.
Unfortunately, he is only a year old & is a neddy.

I was mucking out his box today & he kept following me & inhaling the scent from my clothing very deeply. Sometimes the colts will test you by giving you a little nip so I was keeping a close eye on him as I moved around the box.

He started making friendly whickering noises, which horses usually only do if you arrive carrying food.

Naïve as I am I though ‘Aah – that’s nice, he likes me’ His next move was to start curling his lip up over his nostrils to scent me better. It was at this point that I finally noticed he was ‘excited’. I beat a hasty retreat from his box, much to the general amusement of everyone else.

Need I tell you that this afternoon they left him for me to muck out? He improved on his am performance by nibbling my bra-strap with his teeth. I’m worried to go in there tomorrow.

The girls told me some great stories about embarrassing moments they have had whilst leading yearlings who got amorous on sales parades. They asked if I was wearing perfume (I was not) & also had I changed my deodorant (I had not) & came to the conclusion he just liked me.

We have 18 foals on the farm now. Imagine how frustrating it is seeing them all gambolling & not having much to do with them. I could seriously waste some time if I worked with the foals. The fine weather means that our most recent baby was born last night. A very cute filly but not the sharpest, she has been trying to find Mum’s udder between the front legs all day.

The filly was born to a lovely, kind mare called Turtle Bay & the foal takes Mum’s name until she starts to race when she is renamed.

It becomes very confusing as there can be 3 horses on the farm all with the same name ie. Mum & 2 children, for example at the moment we have a mare called ‘Rationane’ and a filly & a colt by the same name.

I am starting to get the hang of what goes on now.

The busiest time for the farm is coming up & it’s what is called ‘yearling prep’ or preparation. In essence, these 1 year olds are prepared for sale in January in Auckland.

This comprises, turning them out for only a couple of hours daily, bringing them in, taking their rugs off (called covers over here) exercising them on the walker, grooming them and putting their covers back on again. (note to the horsey people, over here horses wear rugs regardless of the weather. If they are show-horses it’s because the sun bleaches their coats (particularly if they are bay) & if they are race-horses it’s to cut down on grooming.I understand the reasons but I hate to see them with rugs on fine days)

This sounds straightforward & it would be with older horses. However, since being separated from their Mums these babies have had little or no contact with people & are living, turned-out, as wild horses in ‘mobs’ of about 5.

Even just putting a headcollar on some of them is a feat of patience & when I unthinkingly pat them to praise them I have to peel them off the ceiling. Each one is either terrified of you or wants to hurt you so when you come across the odd ‘normal’ one it is a rare blessing.

One filly I have already bonded with is called ‘Fiddle de dee’ or ‘Fiddle’ for short. She is a beautiful bay girl with a ickle snip of white on her nose & a very pretty face. I asked how much I would need to take from my piggy bank to buy her? ‘About 60’ said Kevin.

I assume he doesn’t mean dollars.

Yesterday, every horse I laid a hand on wanted to bite or kick me & yet today I didn’t have a problem with any of them. All you can do is not bear a grudge & remember that you are dealing with the equivalent of a toddler so that if they do hurt you it’s pointless losing your temper. Difference being, I suppose, your average 3 yr old child can’t really hurt you (unless they put the ansaphone lead in your mouth eh Cocky?)whereas these leggy babies can really hurt you.

When arriving home this afternoon, I stopped the car on the drive & got out to play with the piggies. They were cavorting around their enclosure gleefully devouring the apples Eric had given them. I walked through the cows to get to the pigs & thought how lucky I was to be able to do it.

I hope the novelty doesn’t ever wear off.

The house is very quiet this evening. Michelle & Harriette are in Auckland where Harriette is attending a seminar & Alice is staying with a friend. Eric & I are wondering how many evenings on the trot we can eat KFC before tiring of it.

Bedforshire is beckoning so I will say goodnight.

Big hugs to all,


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