New Transport

In preparation for the ponys arriving at home, transport has been laid on. All the way from the wilds of the New Forest a shiny black and silver trailer should do the trick.

Wall of fame

What to do on during the long cold winter nights?? Well apart from counting the leaks in the roof that have now started to blow fuses in the house lighting.... should we be concerned? Seemingly this is normal on the Wellington estate - at least the water should stop the whole house catching fire!

The other use of the long winter nights is to refresh the "wall of fame". This time not only have the picture frames been dusted down and the contents refreshed but there is also a virtual tour. What this means is that for those too scared to come and visit in the wilds of Hampshire, you can check to see if you've made it onto the wall. And if you haven't? The only option is to meet up and drink, ride, climb, party to name but a few qualifying activities.

Back on the bike

As January is proving to be wet and wild the only thing to do while still not having a horse to play with was to get back on the mountain bike. This being Hampshire there was a distinct lack of mountains - no Rockies to be found here!

Mud, rivers, fallen trees, floods all make for a great ride. So while Boo was working with Hugo I made for the wilds of Hampshire.

Mother made it home today from the the real wilds - Antarctica to see Orkas, Emperor penguins and albatross all rumoured to have been seen, but as she forgot to take her camera I'm afraid that there are no photos.

Winter morning

Well winter '08 finally arrived in the UK this morning with a good
heavy frost, a bit of a shock to the dogs paws first thing! A day of
much needed chilly gardening and bonfires.

More from new year

These photos appeared once the alcoholic haze had lifted!

The start of proceedings...

The reaction of Boo's lesson in moving horses:

And Gavin didn't quite make it to bed at the end of the evening.... They say that the sign of a good party is ending up in bed with some old dog.....

Happy new year

And we saw it in well...

Ruth, Brian, Lucinda and Diane decended on Chez Buckley for Squash and Parmisan soup followed by Roast lamb on Flagolet Beans then a pomegranate silabub pavlova and LOADS of wine as usual.

Due to the excess of wine what you see here is Boo and Ruth demonstrating how to move a horse in a trailer......

Boxing day walk

A wall up the Downs to shake down the christmas excess

2007 - What a Year!

So what a rollercoaster of a year - we kicked off in style as always with a party at Hugh and Suzy's on the IOW - A 1970's party complete with Duck a la Orange and Mateus Rose.

The new year also brought bad news that Joanna's suspected pneumonia was in fact a very large grapefruit sized lump in her chest - so she was sent straight to chemo without passing go.

2007 also brought much travelling - David and Sarina left us for their new life in New Zealand whilst Luke and Kat left for India shortly followed by a move to Portugal (see their blog links on the right) - not to be outdone, Gavin fixed up for us to have a long holiday in Colorado from May to December but unfortunately our sponsors changed their minds and we had to come home. For Dizzy, Nutty and I that meant two months exile in Brittany on the way home to avoid quarantine. For those that didn't follow our stateside adventure, check out the US blog.

Horses came and went, Otto was diagnosed with a dorsal arthropathy, which basically meant that he went lame on one rein in flexion in trot which is not good for a dressage pony so he was sent back to Holland where he has found a new life with two happy hacking lesbians.

Theo arrived in his place just before we left for Colorado, so was sent for training with David at Welly along with Hugo the wonder pony to practise his dressage with auntie Ciara.

Young Zipper survived the Yorkshire winter and came south to Warwickshire to live with auntie Kay who put a saddle on his back and he now thinks he's very grown up.

Returning to the UK we decided that Theo is far too talented for the likes of us and has gone onto a more professional home, we look forward to seeing his pic in Horse and Hound very soon.

Time away from a real life set us thinking about what we really want to do, which is to set up an equestrian business, we found the perfect spot in Hazely Bottom and are in fact even now in possession of the contract to complete, sadly the chain fell apart and it all seems to be slipping away. So 2008 will be the year of the big property hunt.

Back in Stratfield Saye we round off the year with good news that Joanna has made a full recovery and lost her lump.

And so with 24 hours left to go of 2007, we make plans to once again eat, drink and be merry to see in another New Year.

To see some pics of our year click here.

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

Keep an eye on this blog to see what happens next (we certainly don't have a clue!)