This evening was finally time to tackle the mammoth task of clearing out Derek and Bucky. Their stables were dry, but being foaling pens they are absolutely huge and the deep litter system was very…deep.
The Boss set about clearing out Derek’s stable first, whilst I crosstied him and we had a bit of a bonding session. The more time goes on, the more I think Derek believes he is a dog. If the story of him chasing his tail wasn’t enough, on the walk up from the bottom shed to the crossties he sniffed the ground the whole way, in the same manner as that of a dog. While he was tied I tried to find his ‘soft spot’ (I reckon every horse has a spot that they love having scratched and sends them to heaven and back). It turns out Derek likes having under his chin scratched! So much so that he stretches his neck out fully, extending his head down to the ground – he looked ridiculous but he absolutely loved it. I groomed him then while The Boss whizzed around in the Bobcat. When I brushed Derek’s neck, he stood with his head in the air, but the minute I moved down to his back and sides his head dropped as low as the crossties would let it, and he seemed to be in a bit of trance. This led to me having some fun brushing his neck then quickly moving to his back, then rushing back to his neck again (and yes, he did stick his head up and down accordingly!). 
After Derek’s stable was cleared out and bedded down again (which took well over half an hour), we shifted Bucky up to the crossties for The Boss to do the same in his stable. Poor Bucky is a bit of a nervous chap, so I figured a bit of one-on-one might do him some good. He has that wary look in his eye all the time, although he stands perfectly happily to be groomed. I chatted away to him and gave him a good brush all over, and he didn’t seem quite so jumpy on the walk back to his stable.
I had intended to muck out Mama again fully but the evening had gone on and both The Boss and I were tired so we decided to leave it until the next time!
Sunday 3rd March
Today I was visiting my friend Rachel, who runs a harness racing yard in south-east Wales. She lives on-site at the farm where her boss, who is the breeder of all of the horses they race, also lives. Rachel and I planned to take two of her horses in training out for a ride, but first we had to skip out and bed down eleven horses. They say there’s no such thing as a free dinner, as I found out! Fortunately, the stables all have rubber matting and Rachel uses wood shavings as opposed to straw, so the task itself wasn’t too time-consuming or tiring. I mucked out while she followed behind with the shavings. Once everyone was bedded down and happy, we tacked up Wellfield Earl (Early Wurly) and Wellfield Official (Fish) and went on a three and a half hour hack around the country lanes.
Rachel is responsible for getting the horses fit, which she does by jogging them most of the time around their track, and then riding them the remainder of the time (either one at a time on her own, or two at a time with the help of a friend). The two lads had been jogged and ridden during the week, so our hack was just an opportunity for them to have a really good stretch. We had a couple of shorts bursts of trot, but the majority of the hack was walked. Earl spent a lot of his time stretching his neck between his
front legs and Fish, despite being a stallion, was walking on a loose rein the whole time!
When we got back, we untacked them both and rugged them up, then I helped Rachel give all eleven horses hay before heading home to my own two. It’s always nice to visit another yard to see how things work; the set up gave me plenty of ideas for when I eventually have a small racing yard of my own!
Monday 4th March
Today’s visit to the yard followed a really awful day in the office. I wasn’t in a particularly good mood when I arrived, but I knew that getting stuck in mucking out with my fork and barrow was exactly the tonic I needed. I’ve always found that hard work gets a bad mood out of my system!
Maverick and Big Mac very obligingly provided the content needed for me to work hard and tire myself out! I shifted Maverick out first, whose eyes were out on stalks as we walked up the yard because the lorry was parked smack bang in the middle of it. He’s seen it hundreds of times before but I get the impression he’s going to try and keep me on my toes this summer by being a bit on the sharp side! Four barrow loads of muck out and three barrows of straw back in from the top shed; in the meantime The Boss and Mrs B were busy tending to the sheep in the shed and moving straw and haylage around with the tractor.
Big Mac then got tied by the yearlings’ stables whilst I cleared another four barrows out of his stable too. I put two barrow loads of straw back in and The Boss very kindly dumped a bucket full of straw in as well using the Bobcat. Derek and Bucky were still living a life of luxury following the clear out on Thursday, so I then chucked a big wad of straw in with each of the yearlings, swept up outside their stables and then went in with each of them to shake the straw out. Eryn was curious, Olympic seemed terrified of me and the straw and Laddie just stood in the way the whole time!
I moved Mama down to the bottom shed while the Boss cleared out her stable with the Bobcat – it turned out to be not much of a job although would have taken me a lot longer had I been doing it myself! Before I moved her back into her stable full of straw The Boss suggested we chuck some straw in with Melinda and Robbie. He went to fetch a bucket load and I waited for him to return before I opened the stable door. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, Robbie made a successful bid for freedom and disappeared down the bottom shed to scavenge for any haylage that had been dropped. I held Melinda in the stable as The Boss emptied the bucket of straw, which coupled with Robbie’s disappearance turned her into a right stroppy mare! She struck out with her near side foreleg and caught my arm, but when she tried the second time I was already out of her way thankfully. The Boss and I found her behaviour a bit daft considering she isn’t very nice to Robbie when he’s with her anyway! I then had to go on a Robbie-hunt, and found him stuffing his face with the sheep. Cue some comedy chasing around the shed, him diving between Mama’s legs as she stood patiently by Maverick’s stable door, me trying to cut his escape route off (with some colourful language thrown in). I made a well-timed lunge for the little so-and-so and grabbed a handful of mane just behind his ears – thankfully he’s not very big and had partially decided he’d like to go back to Melinda anyway so I half-walked, half-dragged him
back up to his stable and slapped him on the bum as he trotted in through the door to dive into the deep straw bed we’d shook out.
I headed home feeling thoroughly worn out but better for it! Back to the yard on Thursday for more mucking out, bedding down, sweeping up and chasing the Shetland!
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