Muddy played the joker this April first, she set out with the dogsbody and his brother to look at a job, boiler installation or something thrilling. So Mud's entertained herself in the van by barking at the trees, jumping on the dash and nashing her teeth at the window, unfortunately during her frenzied car guarding activity she managed to jump on the central locking. And no, the keys hadn't been removed so a frantic rescue operation ensued. Not of mud's, of the keys. The dogsbody obviously has a chequered past, he's pretty handy with old plastic packaging tape at getting through the door seal, round the lock and busting into vehicles. ONLY OUR OWN VEHICLES YOU UNDERSTAND. On this occasion the availability of first grade plastic tape was limited and the thin flexi stuff available just didn't cut it. Fortunately for them a couple of old farmer boys lopping down trees nearby saw their predicament and swaggered over with some wire to get in, boasting they'd be in with the minute.Half an hour later and they were still prodding and poking, puffing and panting while Muddy quizzed the strange human behaviour on display," why didn't they just open the door like normal?"
Apparently the little French farmer wielding the wire did know what he was about ( according to the expert) but was too short and stout to easily manoeuvre the wire to where he needed it to be despite standing on tiptoes. Unfortunate also that he was too much of a man to relinquish his wire to a taller member of the team, eventually his perserverance paid off though and he was able to claim the glory!

I am informed by those in the know at Wiki that the 'Poisson d'Avril' is the french equivalent of the April Fool and the tradition is to pin a paper fish to the fool's back without them noticing. Is this true? We've never witnessed it.


Pearl is also playing the joker at the moment and giving me the jitters, her foal with Charlie was due on the 27th March and she was by then fairly full of milk and ready to pop. Indeed the ' foal calculator' tells me she was due from the 14th to the 29th March, but still no foal. She's as big as a house though certainly not fat in herself, I haven't been generous with her food since Charlie was big dad I was trying to keep the foal as small as possible before it hit the dirt, but I have to confess that I am now worried despite my most mature efforts not to be. It's true Pearl does always like to hang on to her babies but this is beyond a joke. Her boobies are gynormous and will the foal be able to make its own way out? Has she hung on to it because the weather has been so damn cold? We were still getting heavy night frosts until two nights ago and it's hardly pleasant out now.

Puppy selling has been a nightmare despite my very best efforts with the cutesy photos.


What a bunch of wa, tricky people. The first two never showed, the third viewer arrived two hours late but did purchase ( that's okay then), the fourth ordered a brown girl over the internet, the fifth arranged a viewing for  the remaining girl the next night, the woman who ordered over the internet changed her mind  and wanted the other girl.(Too late love, she's just gone to the latest lady). Cutesy 'Currant bun' purchaser is in love with her and wants updates every day on her survival, which won't be long if they hang round here for any length of time as Red nearly obliterated a the whole half dozen playing in his table this morning when he came in for brekkie. The sixth viewer came and bought and left with pup",we love people like you!" So six viewings for seven pups and we've still got three!! What's going on?

Charlie

 
and Red

 
were both superstars on sunday despite  a rather unorthodox preparation, especially for Charlie. We failed to get them out to Beny or Gavray as both owners were continuosly unobtainable,the big young horse show at St Lo for four days probably had them tied up, so we were left with what was available at home.
Charlie's prep comprised of me taking him up to the field in a vile mood, feeling absolutely pooped and with a pounding head( I have a cold). My mood was matched only by Charlie's own (maybe he has one too) and within the first 7 minutes he'd attempted to dump me twice, coming frighteningly close, so I jumped off bellowing "********, I'm never riding you again" and threw the whip at him.
 Charlie understood that to mean he better get out of there, so he galloped home down the chemin.

Calming down that night I thought it would be silly not to take him if only for the collecting ring experience to see if being there made him better or worse.Let's face it he might be seven but he has the competition experience of a five year old. I often  find the fear or distraction of a show to a young horse can make me become their better friend and so it was to be with Charlie. I rode him very gently, no spurs, no contact, no swearing, no pressure and took him back  several stages to  jumping from a trot for the first few fences. He went in and jumped clear, with confidence. What makes Charlie so very hard is that  he can't handle pressure from a person, it has the reverse effect, you have to coax, cajole and congratulate him forward. More importantly Charlie made no attempt to deck me at any time, he behaved like an old hand once we'd got over the sight of several little ponies screaming round flat to the boards which caused lots of snorting, highstepping and tail waving.

Red was Red,still the only llama in the class,


 lots of puffing and snorting, bucking and galloping, but he jumped clear with no style whatsoever in the 95cm and 1m05.He still relys soley on his massive power but is getting a lot more rideable. The canter now has gears, they're a bit crunchy and sometimes you can't  quite get the one you want but there are now a range of speeds apart from turbo charged. I aim to get him jumping 1m10 clear regularly and then return to the UK to hopefully qualify  him for one star.
So all those clears helped us win a few pennies back and let's face it in our current situation every little helps and it pays for them to go out again and get another day of experience under their belts.

Was rather alarmed to see in the photos that the size of my rear still makes Charlie's look petit


Perhaps it's time to lose the winter weight and slim down for the summer, but will it come? We've still been dogged by snow up until a week ago.