Prepare Carts For The New Season.

A dry day allows us to bring the carts out of the shed for a good spring clean. They were serviced recently to ensure that all wheel bearings are safe and hydraulics functioning well.
Harnesses have been checked closely and those needing repairs have been taken away today for the necessary attention.

It isn't long now until the farrier returns to shoe the horses on January 3rd. when they will start regular exercising to get them fit for the new season.
New volunteers will get the chance for training, especially those of us who wish to become Able Bodied Whips, of which I'm one.

Besides learning to drive we need to learn how to harness the horses and how to put them to the carts. There are also strict guidelines about loading a wheelchair person and securing them on the cart. The rear of the cart is lowered to form a ramp and then it can be raised using a hydraulic pump. Straps are attached front and rear securing the wheelchair to special metal runners on the floor.
We have two 2-wheelers like the one in the photo and one 4-wheeler that Marmite pulls. There's a lot to learn, but it's all great fun.

I experienced one of the many perks of being a volunteer on this wonderful site this morning. I arrived early and took a stroll down the edge of the woods in the Twin Oak Field when I stopped to watch some twenty Sika deer grazing in the field. Ever alert, they soon spotted me and studied me closely for a while, and then surprised me by trotting as a mob towards me full of curiosity! They were all youngsters: like a nursery group, that, on realising my true identity, turned tail and scampered back into the woods with their typical four-footed prance that is so engaging, white backsides bobbing up and down in the gloomy early dawn - wonderful!!