Thursday 21 July 2011

Day 67, 11th July

It was a lovely sunny morning and I allowed myself to sleep an hour longer than usual. We had done about two thirds of the way over to Craven Arms, so it was going to be a short day and there was no need to set off too early.

The night in the lorry was very comfortable. I invited Maggie up onto the bed, but she clearly preferred a more important position and went into the passenger seat which is the side of the car she normally lies on when I leave her alone in my car.
I found the farrier there in the morning and wondered whether I might be able to borrow one of his tools to trim Dazzy´s hooves. I only had the rasp and knife on me, so having a little extra would have made my life a whole lot easier. In the end the farrier came and did his hooves for me... luckily they sustained no damage, but the job was terrible! I was quite shocked that he didn´t even look round to check his work or he may have seen the bad shape he left them in and the toes were still too long! Wow, so much for professional training!

I decided to not correct them there and then, so we set off in the late morning and had a nice walk down to Craven Arms. There were a lot more horse places and less crops, though we did come past some very sadistic people´s strawberry fields where they were cruel enough to grow acres and acres of strawberries, but didn´t have a stand where they might have sold me some of them. Torture, true torture!
When we arrived, Jo was very busy with the sheep and had to go out again almost immediately, but we could go on the same field that we had spent the night on before and make ourselves comfortable in the meantime. We even had guests in the form of all their Friesian cows – about forty of them – who were most interested in their new field companions. I took the ponies to the bottom of the field where there was water and a gate that I would be able to tie them to safely while taking care of them. And, while doing so, all the cows stood around us in a half circle having a good look. Some were braver than others, as usual, but most kept a quite respectful distance. What is it about people being afraid of cows?

Dazzy decided to venture out between the cows to get some grass while the others had to hang around to have their saddles off, but soon decided to return to his big protectors when about half of the cows took off after him.

We had a lovely evening once again and I could have a real clean in the bath and slept well, though quite late.

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