2007 Driving Season Over

On Monday 12th Nov. our farrier, Keith, came to remove the horses' shoes. At this stage of the season we cannot justify the expense of replacing them for a short time. As it happens Keith backed our decision to close the season by telling us that their feet really needed the rest to give a chance for the horn to spread a bit and grow down as there was very little room to get nails into fresh horn.

By the weekend the weather that has been so kind for so long, decided it was time for a change and to make up for a shortage of rainfall. Suddenly the thick woolly coats full of natural grease were put to the test! A close check of all the horses in the constant deluge on Sunday morning found all the horses to be lovely and warm around the brisket between their front legs and at the base of their ears....more than can be said for Wally and Denise who were covering the weekend duties and chilled to the bone!!

Now we start to look at all the maintenance jobs that need to be done around the carriages and harnesses in readiness for the next season.
On Monday the four wheels were removed from the waggonette and parcelled up to be sent away to Bennington Carriages to have the rubber rims renewed.

At this time of the year we are allowed to graze the horses on the Holton Lee camping field. Electric fencing was erected on Wednesday and four happy horses were very pleased to move in for a change of ground. Little Mead was getting very tired and very muddy. The camping field is ideal at this time of year as it is perfectly sheltered by woods from the prevailing SW and northerly weather and they can get right into the shelter of a strip of the woodland if they choose.