As another three weeks of lockdown has just been announced we are still ticking along here at Little Garendon.  I hope all of you reading this are keeping well and coping OK with lockdown.  We feel very lucky compared to so many as we still have a routine and something to get up for everyday, but like everyone else we are missing our friends and family, some of the people who come to ride with us have been coming most of my life since Mum started the riding school about 40years ago, its very strange around the yard just having us there.  We have had a virtual  weekly coffee time chat which is nice to see everyone’s face but it’s not quite the same.

All the horses are going well and ejoying the sunshine. I have decided to teach the boys flying changes as a bit of a challenge for us both whilst we are stuck at home. I had a little play with Mick the other day, I was really pleased with him as he seemed to grasp them really quickly and did a couple of slightly hurried but clean changes. Eric is now back in full work but just had a lunge and a couple of quiet hacks and finished the week with a stretching session in the school but he can start flying change school next week.  Mum has been back on board Darcy this week and she has also had a school with me, she was a lot more relaxed this week but I think she will still be glad when Cherise is allowed back.  Flo is also back in work and she’s had an easy week this week but can go back to doing a bit more next week.  Ringo and Maverick have both been good boys although Ringo has had an extra day off when he decided he didn't want to come in from the field! Below is a video of Mick doing some poles. We also had some fun doing the NHS poles for all of those amazing people working so hard looking after everyone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EceFieOf6-A&feature=youtu.be 

To keep ourselves and our online followers amused we have been trying to think of some daft things to do and put a smile on ours and other peoples faces. Below is our latest attempt, can you tell we are missing going out to competitions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpS1oz75Kt8

I am still busy catching up on repairs as well has having had a large quanity of rugs delivered so that will keep me busy, although this week after the Easter break  for Ila I am back to being school teacher as well, there was a lot of huffing and eye rolling when I pointed this out!  But she is a good girl and will still settle back and they do have lots of space to run and enjoy the freedom.

I also got out Dad’s sewing machine last week and made some of the scrub bags for the NHS meaning they can put their work clothes straight in them to wash with out them contaminating anything, if you or anyone you know would like one of these please feel free to get in touch.  

I have cut out my next project which will be a wallet, you can see from the picture below how many bits just going in to one small item. I got an Etsy order made this week for one of my Angle Clutch bags.  I have put on a video below of me finishing of the edges of the bag, these small details make such a difference to the finished item, it is this as well as using the best quality products that make them such lovely items which will only get better with age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zOGAky7J6M

I hope you have enjoyed reading what we have been up to and hopefully this awful disease will slow down and we will be able to return to some sort of normality, although I like so many have enjoyed the chance to use this time to spend more time with my family and I must say I much prefer the quieter roads and the peacefulness it has made happen.

I hope all of you reading this are getting on ok in the current situation, as so many have said it really is unprecedented and it is certainly very surreal and scary times we are living through at the moment.

We are very lucky compared to so many as we still have something to get up for every day as obviously the horses still need caring for and we have decided at the moment to keep our horses in gentle work.  I will post some videos from my You Tube channel showing some of the pole work exercises we use, these exercises will be simple exercises using not to many poles and all are set in our 40m x 20m arena, meaning that most people will be able to creat them. Please click below link for my first video of Mick and Eric working through some poles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQKLPMT_kyk

Like so many other parents I have my two girls with me full time so I am trying to do some home schooling, in fact that is exactly what I'm doing at this moment, multi tasking!!  Both girls are being very good and although Ila is very sad that she doesn't get to see her friends everyday she is enjoying the freedom of having the yard to play in, and the trailer has become the spy headquarters! Although typically of horses we did need the trailer last week when Eric managed to cut himself and needed at trip to to vets to check it was just superficial as the cut was fairly close to the fetlock joint, the good news is its just superficial.

We were meant to be at the Burghley Pony Club Huntertrials in preparation for the event season, we decided not to dwell on this fact as I think everyone nation wide has something they are missing out on so we decided to run it at home, please see below link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzgKJg5rjho

In between everything else I am trying to work through the back log of repairs I have in, maybe I will have a tidy work shop at the end of all of this.