Both Florence and I have our birthdays on the 2nd of May, and it’s hard to believe my tiny foal is now a strapping seven-year-old. I’m not saying what my age is!
I have honestly done absolutely nothing, but go to work Monday - Friday, working insanely long hours, and then not leave my house Saturday and Sunday! Fortunately there is still so much work to do around the yard, and I am incredibly lucky to have my horses at home!
As lockdown continues, I have developed an aversion to going food shopping in the large supermarkets, as I find the atmosphere most bizarre.
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 up sorting the horses, it definitely helps clear my head from looking at a laptop all day.
While the Coronavirus hasn’t affected me too much, day to day, with still being at full time work, I am certainly feeling the boredom in the evenings and weekends with no shows and a lot less riding.
Progress has been going well with Ben and he is really taking to life off the track!
The ground has finally dried up, and the horses are now out all day. Ben having been on a race yard for 12 years didn’t really know what to make of all the space, so he ran around, a lot!
It’s been another eventful time with the trio, from Bob trying his hoof at shoe removing (his own I may add leading to an emergency farrier visit due to a lot of foot soreness – he picks his timings so well!), to moving to the scary back field, oh and the clumsy owner that is me falling off …no not a horse.. but a stool whilst stripping wall paper and injuring my back! D’oh!
About this time every year, I wonder why I didn’t clip my horses as their coats are now shedding like mad. I have clipped Florence during previous winters, but with the relentless wet weather through the winter making me reluctant to do much with her, I opted against it. So now I have to work on all three to get their coats out.
On the surface, London might not strike you as the best place for a horse enthusiast to go looking for a ride. But we shouldn’t forget that there are around 3,000 parks in the capital, covering nearly a fifth (18%) of the city.