March 2011
February at Moor Wood was fantastic for us, with temperatures in the 20°s, beautiful sunshine, trips up amazing volcanoes, and boat rides to watch whales and dolphins frolicking in the sea. Oh no, sorry, that’s not Moor Wood, that was Tenerife where we managed to escape for 3 whole weeks, much to the delight of our little people.
Still, when we returned to England it was to the start of some spectacular early Spring weather, and a definite end in sight to the winter. Now in early March the ground is perfect for fast hacks across the Cotswold countryside, with no flies or midges to mar the fun. The fields are rolled, the horses are out of their winter field, and we still have a decent number of bales of hay left over from our winter stash. We are so pleased that we finally decided to venture into the tricky world of haymaking! New gravel has arrived so our muddy yard is now a pleasure to walk across, and we’re all (children included) busily working away to smarten everything up in preparation for a big corporate day we’re doing later in the month.
The only fly in the ointment is the school: we’ve put down a load of new surface, but in some places it’s still a bit deep. Deep as in the going is deep, not as in a nice depth of firm surface. Our school has always been really good, and we’re worried that the layer of gravel under the membrane might be compacting. It’s been down for nearly 20 years, and it might need a major overhaul. The question is whether another load will help, or just be more to dig up later. It’s a decision we can’t quite bring ourselves to make, and we’re doing some experimenting with buckets of water to see where the drainage problems lie. Oh joy!
We’re looking forward to a busy year. The clinics are not as full as usual, but we are getting a lot of enquiries for callouts, private intensives, and starters. Oh, and the big news! Two of our horses are going to a new home together, and we have a sharer for Amber. Just need to find a home for High Flyer and get some more liveries and we’ll be sorted. Lovely Welsh Cob anyone?!