Dude, where’s my Horse?

Flurry and Aero are delayed. The transport company I’m using, George Mullins, offers the best rate I could find, but unfortunately this means that they wait until they have a full load, in order to keep prices low. Their departure date has gone from being “the 6th or 7th” to being “maybe at the end of next week.” I’m…well, “annoyed” is too strong, “irritated” is not strong enough. Disappointed? Gutted? Not happy? Desolée? Some combination of those, anyway, with a little frustration thrown in for good measure.

So Aero & Flurry will continue to munch grass in my good neighbour’s paddock, and I will continue to wait. The LSH will be back to “business travel as usual” from next week, so I may very well have to collect them from Macon on my own, which I’m not entirely happy with – I always feel it’s better to have two people travelling when there is more than one horse, in case something goes wrong.

Flurry & Aero checking out their new digs. They have a great view of Cork Airport, the runway is on top of the hill in the background – I waved at the Queen’s plane from this field in May 2011! (There was an anti-aircraft battery stationed two fields away, gulp!)

Other than the acute lack of equines, we’ve made good progress this week. The LSH missed a day’s work with the move, but barely broke his stride and is now back to full-steam-ahead mode.

Our house has been rented – a great relief, and the tenants are happy to look after the cats and chickens, too.

We’ve unpacked pretty much everything except the horse gear, and fitted our own stuff around the house here in Les Granons. We’ve taken down a few of the landlord’s pictures and mirrors and hung our own favourites instead, which makes it feel more like home!

Giles Norman prints, Tony O’Connor original “Blue” (prized possession, and doesn’t he look like Flurry?) and Judge the dog. No, that’s NOT a man-bag on the floor, it’s eh… an iPad carrier. Really.

I’ve made an attempt to sort through the tack I brought. When we were leaving, I essentially loaded the entire contents of the tack room into the trailer. Now, I’m trying to sort it into boxes :

Stuff I’m never going to use, but want to keep “just-in-case.” A bit like the jodhs I’m keeping, just-in-case I lose 5kg.

Stuff I will need when we start some serious trekking – seat-savers, breast-plates, saddlebags, that sort of thing

Stuff I might need if other stuff gets broken – spare bridles, reins, stirrup leathers, bits and pieces from old grooming kits to replace anything which goes missing

Stuff I will need straight away, which will be hung up in a tack-room sort of arrangement (when I get a few more shelves)

The “horse” plan for the next few days is to continue sorting my gear and to clean and oil all of the leather bits & pieces – bridles, reins, stirrup leathers, breast-plates. It’s incredibly dry here, and a good oiling will stop the leather from drying out and cracking (this is never an issue at home, usually it’s damp and mouldy).

Finally, the dogs… they’re both a bit out of sorts, especially Cookie. She’s not poorly enough to bring to a vet, but she’s uncharacteristically mopey.

Mopey Cookie. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her eyes closed before

Our best guess is dehydration, caused by char-grilling herself in every available ray of sunshine which hits the floor. We’re trying to enforce some coolness for a few days, by closing the curtains and by locking Cookie in her crate in a shadey part of the house whenever we go out. We’re also soaking her (dry) feed, to try to keep her water intake up. We’ll see how she is for the next day or two, hopefully she’ll be back to her normal irritating self before long. Cinnamon just seems a little tired, she is quite content in the new house but is sleeping a lot. I suppose we have to remember she’s getting older, and she has the heart murmur, too.

Fingers crossed that both dogs will improve and I will hear good news about the horses next week, meanwhile, the Boyz are enjoying their time in Frank’s paddock.