We have had glorious weather for the last week, which has been lovely aside from working during the day; but the evenings have been lovely whilst I'm sorting the horses, it definitely helps clear my head from looking at a laptop all day.

We (I) have decided to get our butts in gear with sorting bits out at the yard as we have the longer evenings and with the horses living out, a bit more free time (also motivated by the horses breaking the fencing we did next to the river, repeatedly! the monkeys!). 

We decided it was time to move them to their other summer paddock as despite having grass in the one they were in, the phrase ‘grass is greener on the other side’ springs to mind.

The issue with the field we were moving them to was that there is a footpath running through the top part of it (not a big one) but with some of the unfortunate stories I have read about horses being fed and it causing them to fight or get ill I was very concerned. Bring in my long suffering partner…we had to get some horse feed in and luckily the feed store sells wooden posts so collected some of them too ready to do the fencing.

I asked about buying a post rammer and was told they hire one out – great I thought we will do that instead… then the kind gentleman serving said, pop by my house I live near your yard and you can use mine for free.

I was so shocked and grateful at his kindness as he had only met us a couple of times previously. He didn’t finish for a few hours so we went back to the yard and utilised the time to strim/pull weeds, and paint the paddock fencing that I had started the previous night.

The fence looked a lot better, but I did end up wearing nearly as much of the paint as I put on the fence! Once we collected the tools, over the next few hours we put the posts in along the path line (not impacting it at all) ready for the next bit to be done the following morning.

The next day we got the mesh fencing out (small holed to prevent injury and any dogs getting through to the field since Bob has a tendancy to chase and try to stamp on them) and put an entire roll up.

We then needed to decide where the gate would go as we still needed to graze the other side (only when we are up there to supervise ). My partner did a great job of building a gate from scratch to fit the gap perfectly, we finished off the other side with the mesh and it was all complete 😊.

Safety for the horses and safety for any walkers and dogs, I may just put a small sign up so people understand why it was done so hopefully it helps if they come across other horses in other fields!

Safe to say after that we were both exhausted but achieved a lot and were able to tick things off the list hurrah! I think we are getting the hang of having our own place and doing all the DIY stuff – I certainly enjoy it although I see the nervous look in my partner's eye if I get hold of the drill or any of his expensive tools haha!

Next job is to complete the painting of the rest of the driveway fence so it all matches and is protected, although I’ll have to wait for the rain to pass first, and also make sure I put on A LOT of suncream as by the end of the first day I gave lobsters a run for their money as I didn’t realise how hot it was in the direct sun d’oh!

I do have a long list of things I want to accomplish by the end of the summer, from replacing the over-hanging roof on the stables, fencing, painting, and sorting out the rug hanging situation! At the moment my rugs are in piles and it's like an assault course to get to anything (a good work out though), I have said I will sort out hanging the rug racks but the horror in my partner's eyes said it all – so he is working out a way of doing it.

I also am hoping and crossing everything that we get planning approval for the arena, everything has been validated now so we are just awaiting the outcome, which is making me a nervous wreck. 

The current riding area has a lot of nettles that have sprung up pretty much everywhere, and despite the other half's best efforts of digging them up it’s a losing battle, so I am conscious it's not very safe to exercise in at the minute. So it's ground and lunge work for the horses to keep them busy.

There was a plus point to the warm weather though that I absolutey loved – it made all 3 of the trio sleepy so I got to have lots of sit down cuddles in the sunshine with them (who doesn't love a horsey cuddle)…. Well almost all of them, Aria gets grumpy if she's tired and you get too close! Sometimes I can sit with her but it was not that day!

I have noticed a change in the trio’s herd dynamics at the minute as well, which absolutely shocked me. There has always been a dominance battle between Autumn and Bob, yet yesterday on finishing her dinner, Autumn walked right up to Bob whilst he was eating his (this is dangerous for a horse in itself - Bob loves his food!) she stood next to him and he did nothing, no aggression or driving her away, when he lifted his head to chew, she was even able to pop her head in the bucket and get a mouthful.

This would never normally happen so I was in complete awe, normally he would have driven her off and kicked out. At one point both had their heads in the bucket together! I finally think they are understanding one another which is fantastic…I just hope it doesn’t mean that he will become nappy when taken away from her or vice versa!