A great wee hack :-)

Friday 21st Sept and a friend of ours is leaving the yard where we keep our horse and moving to another yard. We have decided that we would escort our friend down to her new yard in a group ride as Diamond, her Irish Draught does not box well. It is a gorgeous day as we hack out on a hitherto unexplored route through Annbank and then over towards Sundrum. Ben, our retired trotter, behaves himself beautifully and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of riding him today. At the other yard it is time to say goodbye to our friend and also for the Memsahib and I to swap places. You see I rode Ben down to the yard and the Memsahib will ride back, which means I'm on the bike on the way home. Luckily there is more downhill on the way home weeeee!

Rain, rain go away....

Two weeks off work with the aim of painting the back of the house and it must have rained every day so far. Today is a real doozy with the rain coming down like stair rods and the storm drains and ditches around us running like rivers. just popped out to see that everything is ok and had to conduct some remedial work to ensure we stay above the water line. Time to batten the hatches, stoke up the fire and relax with a good book and a nice single malt, Laphroig tonight I think😊

New shoes.

Six weeks have passed since the last set and it's time for some new shoes for the Memsahibs horse, Ben. It's always fascinating to watch the farrier at work and interesting to pick his brains about the anatomy of the hoof, it's a complex piece of work. It looks quite brutal at stages but the horse feels nothing more than some tugging and pulling (if the farrier gets it right). However if a nail goes awry watch out 😳, apparently it would be like having a nail shoved under our finger nail ouch!

Who you looking at?

Whilst walking alongside the river Ayr the other day the Memsahib and I happened on some wooly beef. They were most obliging and stayed still so that we might get some lovely photos with our mobile phones. Feast your eyes on this fella or lady! Not sure as it was lying down 😃