Don’t wave now, they’re all looking……..!

Oh My Word… What an atrocious start to a perfectly lovely Sunday morning!!  A lovely lady came to view Cordoba, one of the horses I’m busy selling, this morning.  Firstly it was against my better judgement to let her come on a Sunday.  I generally prefer to sit on my own with D on a

Knight, who is approx 38 yrs old!! xxx

Sunday and just relax, drink wine, read the paper, do some interior decor project etc etc.  But I made an

Seamus

exception today as I’m very very very keen to have less horses on the farm!  Nothing against the horses, just have it in my head that I want to ease into my 30′s with less hassles!  So I’ve devised a plan, get rid of everybody that I don’t really need.  All sounds great in theory, its when I begin putting it into practice the hiccups begin.  Firstly, I love them all!  Okay, some slightly more than others.. Hence the problem.  Take Knight for example, he is a 38 year old pain in the backside ex farm horse gelding that I felt great pity on and brought here to live out his days.  Costs me a pretty penny, as he as terrible scars around his heels and fetlocks from being tethered in the shanty towns with chains etc, and every year, no matter what I do, the ticks and flies have a field day on him.  Also, he HATES other horses and almost all people!!  But I absolutely adore him and couldn’t bear, even if I found someone crazy enough to take him, to part with him.  Or Seamus, Kerry’s latest edition to our family ( Kerry is so fertile, and has rondevous with the neighbours stallion every year in Spring, I could start a stud with just her!)  I don’t need him, he is only a year old next month, and really will probably cause me more headaches and hassle in the 3 years it takes for him to grow up, than it will be worth when he is grown up!  But he was called after a brilliant family friend that recently passed away and for sentimental reasons, I don’t want to part with him.  I should have just listened to my Mam when she said never become a horse dealer, I’m too soft hearted.  Also there is the bold Gasun, who I wrote about a few blogs ago, one word, useless!  Anyways, there are also some horses I can sell, and so that leads to today’s little incident.  Oh dear, oh dear!

Cordoba.... Normally!!

So here myself and D were at 7 this morning out grooming etc etc to make Cordoba look like a handsome fellow, when he started to cough a little.  At first I thought it was just dust from the stables.  The big stable block hasn’t been used for a while and was quite dusty and sneezy.  But then after a couple of coughing fits, I came to the conclusion that he rather had a bad cough, maybe slight infection, and needs some antibiotics, him and Mr Disaster himself, Gasun.  But, these people were already on the way to see him, so I thought, let them come so long, they can have a quick look, a little ride, nothing too strenuous or hard on Cordoba and all will be good…. Wow did I get it wrong!!

They loved him on sight, handsome man that he is, and after chatting to him a bit in the stable, I took him out for them to ride.  So up she gets, all good, they start walking around, still good.  I am sending silent prayers of thanks up to the Lord, when he suddenly decides he is not going to do anything.  He just stops!  Then he starts making almost like an elephant, you know when they kind of throw their head around just before they flatten whatever is offending them.. Well imagine that, obviously without the trunk… And then, shockingly, up he goes, Zorro style!!!  He has never, ever done anything like that before.  The lady on his back was more stunned than any of us, and instead of gently trying to bring him down, she pulled back on the reins to keep her own balance.  Now some of you reading this probably will have no experience with horses rearing, but that one particular maneuver is the WORST thing you can do if you ever find yourself on a horse who is waving at your audience!!  So, the inevitable happened, over they went!! Can you imagine.  Really as things go, I couldn’t have envisioned a worse saga to unfold on

The normally chivalrousness Mr Cordoba

the farm today!!  Here they were, him lying on her left leg, she is a whip of a thing, he is a 16.3hh horse, and I am calmly walking over to assess the damage!   (Its funny, when something happens, the BHS training quickly kicks in and the first thing you do is assess the situation and prevent further accidents or damage!)  So, no running at the horse lying on the ground, trapping the woman underneath!!  Anyways, he got up before I got to him, and she was on her feet too, not much worse for wear, her leg slightly sore, but all else good.  Cordoba was looking slightly bewildered at the whole turn of events, but a quick trot up, thankfully, showed he was also no worse for wear.  Ooh, but the embarrassment!!!!  These people are all looking at me to see what I’m going to say or do next, so I decided the best way out was to apologize profusely and rather busy myself with my horses obvious health issues!!

"Billy the Kid" and soon to be Daddy!!

Will organize Dr S to come tomorrow and do bloods etc.  Have started him on antibiotics already, but otherwise not a whole lot to do until then.  And the sad part is Dr S was only here on Friday, vaccinating the graded horses and checking the goats, (2 of which are definitely pregnant, possibly the 3rd as well!! Little miracles!! Go Billy  )

So this leads me to the reason I want to simplify my life, the horses must go!  D took it all in his stride, laughing away at it, telling me not to worry, I’m getting out of horses anyway so who cares what people think etc etc….  Eh, yeah right!!

Oh, and the lovely lady in question liked him so much, she wants to see him again in 3 weeks, when he’s better and try him again.  She is already in love apparently.  Good man Cordoba

Be Good x