The end of an era
This weekend I will be moving my horses off the yard I have kept them on for the last seven years. A pretty big change and maybe a time to look back over some of the times at the yard...
Joe, the day we moved him to the yard.
The view from the bottom of the yard.
Joe needed company and this meant we took another horse on loan. For the first time I had a horse of my own.
Beneath the smoke from the Bunsfield fire.
In the summer of 2006 the common caught fire and we were trapped at the yard for a while. Even once the fire had calmed down it smouldered for years.
February 2007, before I left to go and play live in Canada. One of the last pictures I ever took of Othello.
After a time of grieving another black feathery horse came into my life. At the same time we were finding that Joe wasn't able to work so easily any more and between that and his habit of bolting, the time was coming up for him to retire.
And so a pony called Jasper arrived as well. Only he stopped being called Jasper and became Small instead.
Joe moved into a flatter field.
I have, over the years, spent so many hours in this school.
It wasn't fair to keep Joe out on his own and the hill was too steep for him so this was one of the last pictures of him before he moved over to a new yard where he could live out on a flatter surface with other horses.
Zorro, meanwhile, was enjoying having some hillside to run along.
Zorro in his stable.
Toffee is a rather charming Section D who has lived in the field next door to our ponies for the last few years.
Gem was a beautiful and totally batshit-crazy Hanoverian mare who for all her many intolerable traits was genuinely adorable in her way.
I went to Texas and came back with a different taste in tack.
Small got ill and to help a friend out ( and to potentially provide Lou with a riding horse while Small was off ) we borrowed Donk for a while. It didn't work out too great on either front, but it was worth a try.
Small in his stable.
That winter it snowed properly for the first time in years.
Using the lake that forms in the arena whenever it rains as an opportunity to practice asking Xefira to step into water.
The view across the field. That hill is a bastard to poo pick.
(I can't believe that I'm already at the point where we said goodbye to Joe already- those pictures always break my heart)
Riding Filly, a beautiful Shire/TB cross who lives at the yard. Another crazy mare who I like a lot, though I would be a bit anxious about riding her often...
Zorro gets to meet a new friend, early last year.
Directly after I returned from Australia ( and I miss that place very much and should I be gifted so many days I fully intend to go back ) another pony found his way into our field.
And that brings us, more or less to now. And time to move.
Well, that is a lot of sentimentality on my part, and a lot of dearly missed equine friends. The yard has been the centre of my life over the last five years far more than my house or work or anywhere else, the axis around which I have turned. It was time to move though- the yard owners are looking at toning down the horses anyway, they have cattle and sheep again now - and I needed to find a new place. It breaks my heart to think of breaking up our little herd though. I will miss Small, who is one of the nicest ponies I have ever met, and I'm sure the ponies will miss one another too. This is the cutting adrift of the last tightly tied strand of my marriage and the life I had in those years.
Happily I have found somewhere just down the road, by sheer chance, so the complete physical move will be about 500 yards. It is pleasant, run by nice people and well maintained. And they have room for three horses, which is important, because there is another pony coming to join Zorro and Cash. For those of you on my friends list, this pony will probably be quite familiar to you and best of all, she will be bringing her human with her.
Joe, the day we moved him to the yard.
The view from the bottom of the yard.
Joe needed company and this meant we took another horse on loan. For the first time I had a horse of my own.
Beneath the smoke from the Bunsfield fire.
In the summer of 2006 the common caught fire and we were trapped at the yard for a while. Even once the fire had calmed down it smouldered for years.
February 2007, before I left to go and play live in Canada. One of the last pictures I ever took of Othello.
After a time of grieving another black feathery horse came into my life. At the same time we were finding that Joe wasn't able to work so easily any more and between that and his habit of bolting, the time was coming up for him to retire.
And so a pony called Jasper arrived as well. Only he stopped being called Jasper and became Small instead.
Joe moved into a flatter field.
I have, over the years, spent so many hours in this school.
It wasn't fair to keep Joe out on his own and the hill was too steep for him so this was one of the last pictures of him before he moved over to a new yard where he could live out on a flatter surface with other horses.
Zorro, meanwhile, was enjoying having some hillside to run along.
Zorro in his stable.
Toffee is a rather charming Section D who has lived in the field next door to our ponies for the last few years.
Gem was a beautiful and totally batshit-crazy Hanoverian mare who for all her many intolerable traits was genuinely adorable in her way.
I went to Texas and came back with a different taste in tack.
Small got ill and to help a friend out ( and to potentially provide Lou with a riding horse while Small was off ) we borrowed Donk for a while. It didn't work out too great on either front, but it was worth a try.
Small in his stable.
That winter it snowed properly for the first time in years.
Using the lake that forms in the arena whenever it rains as an opportunity to practice asking Xefira to step into water.
The view across the field. That hill is a bastard to poo pick.
(I can't believe that I'm already at the point where we said goodbye to Joe already- those pictures always break my heart)
Riding Filly, a beautiful Shire/TB cross who lives at the yard. Another crazy mare who I like a lot, though I would be a bit anxious about riding her often...
Zorro gets to meet a new friend, early last year.
Directly after I returned from Australia ( and I miss that place very much and should I be gifted so many days I fully intend to go back ) another pony found his way into our field.
And that brings us, more or less to now. And time to move.
Well, that is a lot of sentimentality on my part, and a lot of dearly missed equine friends. The yard has been the centre of my life over the last five years far more than my house or work or anywhere else, the axis around which I have turned. It was time to move though- the yard owners are looking at toning down the horses anyway, they have cattle and sheep again now - and I needed to find a new place. It breaks my heart to think of breaking up our little herd though. I will miss Small, who is one of the nicest ponies I have ever met, and I'm sure the ponies will miss one another too. This is the cutting adrift of the last tightly tied strand of my marriage and the life I had in those years.
Happily I have found somewhere just down the road, by sheer chance, so the complete physical move will be about 500 yards. It is pleasant, run by nice people and well maintained. And they have room for three horses, which is important, because there is another pony coming to join Zorro and Cash. For those of you on my friends list, this pony will probably be quite familiar to you and best of all, she will be bringing her human with her.