A very busy day as we are a man down for a few days. Charlie was around to see the horses. He is judging at a show in France next week - that is fatal for his finances as I am sure he will end up coming home with a new horse if not 2! By the look of things Hopstrings is enjoying her holiday with a flock of Jacob sheep and a cob named Murphy. Murphy is a legend, he has accompanied horses of ours to the races and is very handy to have around. On Monday she will come back in as feeding her with her companions isn't that easy. She likes to eat her food slowly, standing with her isn't an option when there is so much going on in the yard.
There is little to report, the horses are all fine apart from those giving the odd cough. The 4 yearlings, one of which is feral have all settled in. The feral one hadn't been to the sales, she met the transporter at the sales complex and made her way here. Yesterday I couldn't get near her, today I can do anything I want with her. I adopted the tactics Captian Radlyffe taught me. Every hour on the hour you go and spend 5 minuets with them, they soon come round and she is now another example of prove it works. The 2 colts were rollered, one of which had clearly experienced it previously, the other hadn't and he threw some shapes. On Monday they will be long rein in full tack and we'll be on them when the time is right.
Tomorrow after morning stables is an office day, I don't see any windows of spare time in the week. Sunday mornings will soon be spent back on the touch line at Stow RFC. Sholto will be playing under 8's. Today I received an email pointing out the rules for this age group. Among other rules there is to be no ripping of the ball or hand offs. We had been working hard on both throughout the summer and he has a fantastic hand off which will clearly be no advantage to him this year. The sooner he starts to play contact rugby the better. Perhaps I won't sport so many bruises.
