My office is currently housing a collection of critters worthy of a zoo!

There are two very healthy, cheeky young silkie chicks.

There’s an incubator with half a dozen eggs, twitching with impatience to hatch. They’re due to crack their shells tomorrow but I think one might be starting early!

There’s a sick rabbit on the floor – one of Tiger’s second litter who doesn’t seem to have figured out the water bottle. I tried giving him a dish of water when he started looking ‘off’ but his bigger brothers and sisters – not to mention his mum – drank it all. He’s been in since this morning with a water dish of his own and nobody to steal it, basking in front of the heater and looking much happier as a result. He can stay in a few days until he either drops dead or pulls round and gets lively again.

There’s a sick quail hen propped in a box of layer’s pellets. She can’t balance properly and keeps falling over, so she was also dehydrated and hungry. I go in every hour or so and give her a drink of water and she can reach the pellets all around without tumbling onto her back again, but if she doesn’t improve by tomorrow I think I’d better put an end to her rather than keep her crippled and frustrated in an old ice-cream carton. She’s an older hen and I suspect it’s neurological rather than physical – possibly she’s had the quail equivalent of a stroke. The empty water bottle prevents her falling over backwards.

All in all, normal for smallholding!

Abe had a very good training session this morning, practising standing at the mounting block and being leaned on. Lynn couldn’t come round so I didn’t take it any further – just in case!

I don’t think George has gone out in the field since he came in at breakfast time. He gets as far as the field gate, sighs heavily, then looks hopefully over to see if I’m around – and shoots back in if I am!

Dancer has been wallowing like a hippo in the mud, the little monkey! She’s more pinto than palomino at the moment.

This morning I was greeted in the bunny shed by three eager little faces on the hay stack side of the shed. Dottie’s brood have found a hole to escape out of! I’ve mucked them out thoroughly today and tomorrow, when I find where I’ve put the wirecutters, I’ll patch the hole in the wire. For tonight they have a large cardboard box wedged in front of their cage, hopefully blocking the escape route…

I’ve had all four horses out this morning for a play. Abe walked up a line of 6 hula hoops, stopping with his fore hooves neatly in each one on request, standing a minute and then moving on to the next, walked over the tarp at the top of the drive and back down another line of 6 hoops doing the same on the other rein, then he did some good standing by the mounting block for me. Dancer came right round the barn, out of sight of her mum, and looked at the tarp, then Poppy whinnied and we went back. Poppy came out without Dancer and came across to a circle of cones, where she poked one of the cones to check it wasn’t a goblin in disguise! She also boggled at the hens for a bit, then got over that and decided they weren’t horse-eating eagles. Although she’s the oldest, in some ways she’s also the greenest of the horses!

George was great, allowing me to manoeuvre him out through the gate, walked past the hens with a pause to drink some water from the trough by their run, then we did some cone-work and up the hoops to the tarp and back. He’s not so good at stopping neatly in the hoops – possibly because he hasn’t noticed they’re there! He’s a bit distracted by the grass and clover. I walked him back to the gate and he decided to use Poppy as an excuse and wouldn’t go back! I made use of him skipping past the gate and lined him up at the mounting block instead, where he let me walk up and down it without reaction, then we circled around for more grass, had another evasion at the gate and finally got it on the third try.

Not that it was all plain sailing even then! George turned so smartly as he went through the gate with me that we came out together again, too! On attempt 4 I managed to get him through the gate while I walked along the outside of the fence, then Abe tried to come out for a second go and I barely got the gate shut ahead of him!

It’s nice that they’re so eager to play games with me, but-!

I think there’s no doubt now that Abe is ready to back tomorrow, if Lynn can come over to help steady him. It’s quite a big step for a horse to find a human on his back instead of standing next to him, no matter how often I drape myself across him, and having a steady, reliable hand on his head will be invaluable.

I’ve managed to confirm George’s grand-sire’s breeder via Facebook – she asked for a photo and says he’s very like Charlie, his grand-dad. I know there’s only a few hundred Suffolks in the country, but what are the odds on George coming to live only a few dozen miles from where his grandfather was born, at the far end of the country from the overwhelming majority of the breed?

I was checking over the foal watch photos on the Suffolk Horse Society’s website this morning, as I like to do from time to time, and came across this notice:

George has a little half-sister!

I also stumbled across a photo of his grand-dad, Florence’s sire, Auchenhamper Highland Bonny Prince Charlie, this afternoon. I think this horse was bred in Aberdeenshire – I crossed paths briefly with a lady who was breeding Suffolks up here in the noughties, just around the time I lost Gwen and sold Rhiannon, and she’s now gone out of Suffolks, I believe, so our paths haven’t really crossed since. I was reminded of her just the other day, however, as a friend of mine is hoping to buy an ex-racehorse from the lady’s daughter and apparently they got to discussing Suffolks when Lynsey and Lynn went to see Tucker (the horse)! I can’t find anything definitive online but there’s a strong clue – there’s a VAT business record for a business in the lady’s name which uses the same Auchenhamper prefix, and it’s registered to the same address….

Anyway, here he is.

George has been excellent today – all four hooves lifted politely and held up for a few seconds on request, without any hauling me away by my scruff in his teeth and without scowling about it!

Lucy Goose was out and about with Hannibal most of this afternoon, so I sneaked out and took a look at the nest. She’s sat so well all this time and there was no little fluffy gosling with the adults, so I thought something must have gone wrong.

I was right, unfortunately. I found the egg squashed next to the nest, with a fully-formed ready-to-hatch chick dead in the shell.

I don’t know what happened – there were some marks on the body, so maybe rats sneaked in and killed the chick during hatching before being driven off, or the jackdaws, perhaps, got in there while Lucy was off grabbing a bite of grass.

At least we know that they’re a fertile pair and that Lucy will sit like a rock to bring her eggs off. Perhaps next year she’ll be able to get the reward she deserved this year – some little fluffy grey goslings to bring up.

I’ve just had all four horses out of the yard – not quite all by themselves, since Dancer escaped through the gate after Poppy when it was Poppy’s turn, but Dancer herself had a turn by herself and of course both the boys had individual goes.

Dancer was very good, came as far as the back of the car by herself and stared around a lot without panicking, and did several good ‘whoa, stand’ pauses as well as ‘walk on’ and ‘back’ without trouble on both reins.

Abe was super, walked across the tarp without hesitation and allowed me to drape myself head and shoulders across his back from both sides without flinching. I’m going to work hard on this with him over the weekend because my friend Lynn is coming over on Monday and, hopefully, we’ll back him then.

George was excellent, too. He stomps over the tarp without the slightest concern but he let me step up on the mounting block without his usual snarls – in fact I had two really nice ears-forward poses from him while I was up there!

Poppy was quite shy, but then it’s the first time she’s had the chance to walk around the yard. Dancer was good, having escaped after her mum, and didn’t interfere – she just grazed quietly nearby so Poppy and I could concentrate on her walking around, looking at everything, and then – with quite a lot of coaxing – Poppy consented to put the tips of her front hooves on the tarp. It was a big ask and she got a lot of praise and treats in return!

Here’s Abe yesterday, modelling the walk-my-horse pack. He is the least spooky Arab I’ve ever met!

It’s a big day in her young life – she’s one year old today!

I don’t think she cares.

 

She did a super walk-with-me this morning in the barn – walked when I walked, halted when I halted, turned corners with me, all while staying beautifully right next to me. She’s a lovely little monkey who can still fit her dinky little nose inside the treat bag to steal nuggets if I don’t hand them out fast enough! She’s clever and has picked up Abe’s trick of poking me with a hoof to get attention, though she still thinks it’s worth trying a really mean expression to see if anyone’s scared (no, darling, we’re not)! I expect this next year she’ll get naughty and cheeky as she explores her boundaries, but her basic nature is sweet and loving so she’ll settle again as she gets older.

She still has three or four years before I ask much more of her than she already knows and will do – years to play and grow into herself, find out who she is and settle into her adult place in the herd. She’ll have her mum there with her to look after her, she has uncle Abe to play races with and uncle George to nibble itches and scowl at her when she’s annoying, and of course I’m always there to provide feeds and stuff endless hay nets, keep the floors clean and the water buckets full!

 

 

Many happy returns, Dancer.

This morning I wanted the horses in nice and early so they’d be dry and clean for Odette when she came to trim hooves. Naturally, therefore, they refused to come in, even when called. Eventually I took a head collar and walked out to collect either Poppy or George, since they’re the ones everyone else follows. Poppy was nearly sliding out of George’s head collar, but it stayed on long enough!

Poppy and Dancer are doing fine with their feet – Poppy’s moving her break-over point slightly back from the toe on her forefeet so Odette trimmed back to match that, shortening her toes a bit. (Breakover is the spot where the toe of the hoof touches the ground as the heels begin to leave the ground as the horse walks forward – Poppy has simply worn the horn back a bit at the toe so Odette tidied the rest of her hoof to fit how she’s moving. It’s one of the best things about a barefoot trimmer – they trim every hoof individually to match exactly how the horse moves, rather than shaping all four feet to match the nearest shoe size. I’ve also learned that barefoot trimmers will tell you far more about the hoof, its shape and function than any farrier I’ve ever met!) Dancer was exclaimed over – Odette’s mare has a two-week-old foal at foot so she was remembering Dancer as a baby, too, though in fact Dancer will be exactly one year old tomorrow!

Abe was fidgety with his feet, which isn’t like him – but the weather was a bit unsettled and thundery-feeling, so maybe that was affecting him. Both he and Poppy are shedding some of their soles at the moment, probably due to the hot, dry spells recently, but Odette assured me this is perfectly normal and nothing to be concerned about. She trimmed off any loose bits and left the bits that aren’t ready to fall off yet alone to come off in their own time. She also spotted a mark on Abe’s near hind hoof that showed he’s had an abscess on that hoof – though I don’t recall him being lame, stiff, reluctant to move or in the slightest pottery or ‘footy’!

Odette was very happy to see George’s hooves are fine and don’t need any attention! It’s her opinion that nobody else would have the patience to keep George long enough for him to grow out of his problems – and I have to admit, most people would probably regard him as too dangerous to handle, because he’s so big. In fact I had him out on his head collar and rope after Odette left and he was super – he walked over a tarp with only a few sniffs and snorts, stepped in and out of hula hoops laid on the ground and inspected the hens with some disapproval. I don’t think they thought much of him snorting at them, either!

Abe came out for a session this evening and we did some standing next to mounting blocks, while I scratched and rubbed his withers, back and croup. He was very good, though not quite steady enough to move on to backing yet. Maybe if I can get a few days without having to run off and look after other people’s problems – ! After that we walked over the hoops and the tarp together, which he took in his stride nicely.

The hens laid another four eggs, and the young quail have both laid their first eggs today! The older quail laid one egg between them, but at least whoever it was remembered to put a shell on this one.

The garage gave my car back to me, having serviced it, but they can’t do anything about the fuel computer problem – that’s a software problem, they tell me, and is undoubtedly due to the specialist Ford garage updating the software wrongly. I’m waiting to hear back from the Ford specialists….. as usual, they’re not returning calls.

I need to find an independent review site and leave an absolute stinker of a review for them.

Yesterday I went to Aberdeen in the afternoon to help shift some boxes for a friend with no car. I filled the Kuga up ready for the run to Glasgow and back, then scooted off to Aberdeen, whereupon the wretched car threw a new error message up. Service oil, it demanded.

I don’t have the facilities to get it off the ground far enough to crawl under and change the oil, even if I wanted to. I’ve added it to the list for the garage to look at tomorrow.

In the meantime, I didn’t feel confident driving the wretched thing 300 miles today, so after discussion I borrowed my mother’s car for the run. It performed flawlessly.

Having completed the drive and fetched my daughter back safely for the final time, I then had to burn off enough fuel from the Kuga’s tank to get the error message back for the fuel computer so the garage would be able to investigate it! I’ve just spent 2 hours driving as uneconomically as I could around the area to do that. It’s now parked behind the garage and my daughter drove me back up here in my mother’s car!

At least the critters are all happy and well. I picked up eggs four, five, six and seven from the new hens tonight, so they’re definitely settling in well! I spent a few minutes sitting with them and they cheerfully inspected the soles of my boots, the seams of my jeans and the boldest of them even checked under my fingernails!

Tomorrow is a hoof trimming day and then I can settle to some maintenance work around the place and composing the advert to get shot of that wretched car!

I opened up the big dairy shed this morning and three ferrets scooted out of sight hurriedly, then peeked at me and came bundling over when they recognised who I was.

Copper’s cage was in bits, empty.

Arrgh!!

I picked up the ferrets – Ajax, Achilles and Bane – and restored them to their cage, where they’d somehow managed to get the bottom door open, then went back, heart in mouth, to look for the corpse.

After all, they are ferrets and Copper’s a rabbit, it’s a bit of a no-brainer.

Except that Copper was sitting on top of the stack of straw bales, looking at me with a slightly self-satisfied expression.

I wonder if he kicked his way out of the cage and ran for it before the ferrets could wiggle their way in?

He wasn’t too keen on being caught but I got him when he tried to take off for a good leap from an open bale and just sank instead of launching! He’s back in with Nightshade and the kits for now – I’ll have to find time to secure the ferret cages more thoroughly before I reassemble his cage and put him back in it, but I also have a packed schedule today, tomorrow and Wednesday morning so the ferret cage will have to wait until after I get home from Aberdeen tonight.

The new hens have laid me an egg this morning! The quail, on the other hand, have given me the second shell-less egg in a row, so I’ll have to have a chat to them about eating more grit.

Also had a lovely session with George this morning – several, in fact, because he turns up at the big dairy door, waits while I do the bunnies, has a bit of target work and some grown-ups with ears up, then I do a haynet and top up the hay box so he comes through and has some more target work, then I sneak out the other door and hang a haynet, he hears me and comes through so we do some liberty work up and down the yard, then I dive back into the big dairy shed… by the time I’ve gone round all the water bottles, hay racks, cage doors, rabbit feed dishes, the sugar beet for the horses, topped up all the water buckets and hung five haynets for the day, George has consumed two or three scoops of nuggets in ones and twos while getting loads of two-minute training sessions!

Four slightly tatty hens – they’ll be about 18 months old and in their first moult, which of course is why the commercial people clear them out, but I know someone else nearby who picked hers up this morning and has already been given an egg in return, so hopefully these will be paying their rent soon too.

I don’t know if they’ll have names or if they’ll end up as an indivisible mass of indistinguishable chickens…. probably not! Even near-identical brown hens develop their own characters and quirks, I’ll be able to tell them apart in a little while and then I’ll know what to call them.