The Beginning

May 08, 2020

The Beginning

So where do I begin....without boring you to tears - an intro and a little bit about me -

My name is Catherine and I was born on a RAF base in a market town called Driffield in East Riding of Yorkshire.

At the age of 5 my parents and I emigrated to Canada and then moved to USA and finally Iran returning to the UK in 1979 at the start of the Iranian Revolution.

During our time living abroad the three of us had an idyllic life and horse riding became my hobby and passion. I learnt to ride by the time I was seven and enjoyed endless trails and when we went to holiday touring the states I rode on ranches in the Rocky Mountains to beach rides in California.

As a child the question was always "Can I have a horse for my birthday?"

"Will Santa bring me a horse for Christmas?"

FAST FORWARD -

Years 2005 - 2010

Early in 2005 I was head hunted by a utility company in South Wales and started working for them on 4th April 2005 as a Payroll Manager, a career that I have undertaken since 1981. I am now a Global UK Payroll Manager for the fifth largest IT company in the world.

During this time I also met my husband, Gary, and we married in Cyprus on 20th May 2010 and we are now the proud parents of 2 sons who are age 6 and 8.

Gary is an Area Business Manager for a retail company and covers 21 stores in Wales and the M4 corridor.

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Year 2011

Fast forward to Wednesday September 21st 2011, 11:00pm, - I was sat with my dad, age 80, who was in a nursing home, holding his hand, he whispered softly to me "I never did buy you a horse, I am sorry."

My dad sadly passed away 11:10pm. My dad passed down to me a strong work ethic and hard work and diligence have a moral benefit and an inherent ability, virtue or value to strengthen character and individual abilities.

A week later at my Dad's funeral I had the brain wave idea to "get a dog and name him "William" after my dad. Forty eight hours later we were collecting an eight week old Lachon ( cross between a Bichon / Lhasa Apso puppy. William is now eight years old and you will hear loads about him in my Blog.

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YEAR 2018

Our eldest son was born with weak core muscles and it was suggested one of the best ways to rebuild these muscles was "horse riding". So hear our story begins - He started riding one lesson a week on a lead rein pony at a local riding school. Our youngest son also got the "bug" for riding and he also started lessons.

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May 2019

After a couple of months of the boys still being on the lead rein I had a brain wave idea and thought this can't be that hard - lets buy a pony!

July 2019

We found a local livery stable that had a vacancy for full livery bought a British Spotted Pony, named Topsy. Everyday after work and at weekends we would be up at the livery with our pony. As Topsy was on full livery and only seeing us in the evenings and at weekends and as the boys were still getting used to her it wasn't working out well for us as the pony thought the stable yard manager was her owner and we were weekend visitors!

August 2019

We were away on holiday for 3 weeks in August, during this time we decided as we had always planned to retire in five years why not bring our plans forward and if this dream of wanting a life in the country and having horses is going to work we will need to move to a rural location with our own stables. Our move would benefit the boys ( get them off those I pads) taking care of their animals, climbing trees, biking, following nature and general farm chores..

September 2019

We are home from holiday, the boys are back in school, My eldest son is in Year 5 and my youngest in Year 3 so we decided we would aim to move within the year.

We had three estate agents round to provide valuations and placed our property on the market, mid September. We had 2 viewings the first week, and the first couple offered the full asking price and wanted to buy our house! Oh my goodness what do we do now? Zoopla and Rightmove here we come looking for an equestrian property!

This proved hard work, with everything that we saw being out of our price range or located miles away, and this was not good as we both needed to work for our 5 year retirement plan or properties that needed renovating beyond belief!

Three weeks later we are on our way to view two properties. The rain was torrential. Both were forty miles from our current home. The first property was ok, just ok, but no WOW factor! The second property was a five bedroom equestrian dwelling in a small hamlet with 6 ares of pastureland and 5 stables, barn, tack and feed room. We found our dream home!

January 2020

One thing I do know is ponies are herd animals and never live alone by choice. We viewed a lovely Gypsy Cob, named Queenbee who we have placed a deposit on and we will collect her when we move.

February 2020

After our housing chain broke at the end of December where it looked like we would loose our dream home - we have completed and exchange is planned for Monday 3rd February 2020. The boys wen to school for half a day whilst the removal vans were loaded. Did we really have 205 boxes? Yes we did! We collected the boys at lunchtime. It was a sad day. This was the only school the boys had known and being a village school we knew everyone and the teachers by first names. Both children was in floods of tears - I was in tears, are we doing the right thing? A little bit to late for that thought. We all spent the night in a hotel as the removal company could not deliver all of their 3 wagons and unload on the Monday, so we arranged to meet them at the new house Tuesday at am.

We had everything for the house unpacked within days. Delivers coming daily with new furniture etc.

On the Saturday our new Au Pair Lucas joins us from Spain for a 12 month contract.

Our boys have started at their new school and have their own taxi that collects them from the door and drops them home and they have settled in nicely and making new friends.

My thoughts turn to the stables, ponies are coming at the end of the month, what do I need? Water buckets, feed buckets, hay nets, manure fork, wheelbarrows, rubber mats, pitch fork, brooms to name but a few.

My brain is working overtime again and I am thinking countryside and mice, I haven't seen any and would run a mile if I did, so a feral cat is needed for the stables. I found a local cat rescue society and we pick up Prunella, a short haired pure black female cat, 12 months old. We were advised to keep her in the garage for 3 weeks before making her home in an empty stable. We release her in the garage and we don't see her for a week, she is up in the rafters and only coming down for food after we all disappear. During the second week, Pru has gone from the garage, we ring the cat rescue society and we were advised put her food in the stable that we were using for her and she will appear when she is hungry! And yes she did and is happily eating three meal a day but scarpers when she sees a human but lucky we haven't seen any mice in the stables, in our bedroom oh yes, that's another story.

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March 2020

Linda who owns the cat rescue society introduces us to a lovely couple, Julie and Pete who moved here from London seven years ago and they own a livery yard not to far away. Julie very kindly offered to help me prepare the stables before we were due to collect the ponies to bring them home. Remember we have only ever had full livery previously so where do I start? Empty stables need straw / hay. Julie helped me with deciding how much to order and the bales and more bales arrived. Accordingly to Julie my face said it all,overwhelmed, dumbfounded to say the least. What do I do with all this, help! So we set out laying the correct amount of straw on the floor, build up the banking and level the bed. Use the pitch fork and check the depth of the bed.
Hay nets - I have never filled a hay net in my life, what a back breaking experience it is! I have since invested in a hay net filling stand, and what a god send it has turned out to be.

So the day is finally here, we are collecting the ponies and bringing them home. It was a cold, wet, damp day thrown in with sleight and hailstones. Gaynor who we had bought the house from who has now become a good friend ( through all our trials and tribulations when buying and selling our houses) offered to take me to collect the ponies. Queenbee was the furthest away and she was first to be collected. I had apprehensions was she going to be right for the boys? We arrived and met the girl who we first saw when we had the viewing and her father was also there. His words to me "This pony is not 100%" - my heart sank, oh no what had I done again! he continued "she is 1000%". I sighed with relief. Queenbee easily loaded in trailer and off we go to pick up Topsy. The torrential rain continued for the next 20 miles that we traveled up the M4, and not a peep from Queenbee in the back. We arrive at the stable yard to find Topsy had been turned out in the field with her pals, despite the stable yard manager knowing we were picking her up. We tried to catch her, with the rain, sleight and hailstone beating down. Gaynor who is an experienced horsey person for over forty years tried and was bucked at, kicked and bitten. An hour later I has come to a hasty decision ( watching Topsy's behavior and taking advice off Gaynor that Topsy was not the right pony for our family. A lesson learned, bought in haste, plan more carefully. So to cut a long story short we left Queenbee where she was. I cried all the way back home. So now I have yet another crisis, one pony, remembering the herd and can't live alone.

In case you are wondering what happened to Topsy, she remained on the yard and has since been sold on to an experienced owner. She is loving life and out hacking most days. I think about her daily but know for my boys safety she wasn't the right pony for us.

We arrive home and Queenbee is unloaded. She is put in her stable to settle in and neighing if I went out of her sight. Now what do we do? Julie to the rescue once again. She had a friend who was looking for a home for her hunting and cross country pony. OK, at least it will be a companion for Queenbee. So off we go to view Pumpkin Pie, a handsome palomino gelding. His owner Rhian is an equestrian teacher/lecturer and explained Pie would be great for the boys as he was also a lead rein and would suit them down to the ground. So home we go and later that afternoon Pie arrives at our home. Both ponies are introduced to each other the next morning, and bond straight away.

So here we are Monday morning, Gary at work, me working from home and ponies to muck out, feed, water and turnout. I have found a god send in Lucas. He is our third Au pair and worth more than his weight in gold. So so keen and wanting to learn anything and everything. By the end of the week, he is bonding with the boys and the three of them are handling the ponies and getting used to them.

One way to get us used to the ponies and them us is to walk them in hand. Well this didn't quite go to plan as the moment one is out of the other ones sight, separation anxiety sets in and the one left behind goes crazy! So what do we do? Find another pony! After searching we found a local Mini Shetland pony, named Patch. She is six years old and not broken to ride but is excellent on the lead rein and easy for the boys to handle, but she is a Shetland! Beware of the wrath! Problem solved we can now take a pony out and Patch will keep the other one company.....oh no not on your life. Queenbee wants Pie and Pie wants Queenbee. So our saga continues. We have learnt though instead of taking one out and leaving the other in the yard, put him/her in their stable with food! Job solved.

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Mothers Day Weekend

A surprise for me for Mothers Day - a ten week old black Labrador puppy. I have named him Jett. William is not amused. He has been Mummy's spoilt boy for nearly nine years and now this puppy is taking over. He is growing like there is no tomorrow and insist on waking up daily at 5:55am!

And we also now have from tomorrow Covid 19 and lock down. Who would have ever thought we would see this awful pandemic. I count my blessings that we are so rural and isolated this terrible virus stays away from us. Gary does our weekly shop and getting hold of flour has been difficult but he managed to get me some on week 5. I have been baking in my spare time and getting used to my AGA.

I have am also loving the array of colours in our gardens, woodlands and surroundings area.

And general pottering about in our lovely farmhouse

So I am working from home and Gary has been placed on Furlough. We are home schooling the boys. Gary is kept very busy being my "stable hand", bless him. Joking aside - I wold be totally lost without him, he is my rock.

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April 2020 Easter Weekend

I am super excited, I love organizing an Easter egg hunt for the boys.I am up at 6am out I go hiding all of the stash of eggs I have collected over the last few weeks before lock down. I have tons of hiding places, stables, trees, plants, feed room tack room, barn to name a few.

The morning was a success and the boys are delighted!

As tradition one egg before breakfast is a must. A Maltesser egg is the favorite and chosen but the packaging is all torn. What has happened here, I blame Lidi. Egg opened and eaten. Later as I am tiding up and come to through away one of the bags that the eggs were in and it is torn at the bottom......OMG....you guessed it... MICE with a capital "M". Gary help!
The eggs were hidden in our bedroom wardrobe so mouse traps are laid. The best way to catch mice is peanut butter in the traps. And the next day, we have the culprit.

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May 2020

So the grass at the back in the winter paddock has pretty much disappeared. We are awaiting for Ray, Gaynors husband to come over and spray our four acres for Ragwort. This is a plant that is deadly to horses if they get hold of it. In the meantime Gaynor has kindly said we can use her field next to ours for the ponies, until ours are sprayed.

We moved the ponies across Tuesday of this week. We checked on the ponies in the afternoon, and they were happily grazing away. At 7pm we went to bring them over to go in their stable and Queenbee had managed to get her foot stuck in the fencing. By the time we got to her she had pulled herself free, but could not place her foot flat on the ground. Time for the Out of Hours Vet. Two hours later she arrived and examined Queenbee luckily nothing major had happened. She needed an anti inflammatory injection and needed to remain in her stable until the following afternoon to rest. The vet gave me a sachet of Bute to give her the next day. So here we go again, how do I administer this? Ask the vet, place the contains in her food, but she only has hay, Catherine use your brain and give her an apple with the contents, problem solved. Live and learn. Queenbee is this morning back to her lovable self happily grazing in the same area, hoping not to make the same mistake twice.

We are surrounded by wildlife. We feed a family of squirrels daily their breakfast and dinner.

We are role models to our boys teaching them how to enjoy their new surroundings. Encouraging them to explore and making their outdoor space conductive to free play.