Communicating with horses is easy.

Creative Clara wanted to provide a little update on Grotty Groom's ride this morning. As she mentioned yesterday, today was to be her first hack out without Wesley's safety-blanket, Joey. Instead, they were to ride out with Rex (an ex-racehorse), and his mum Kaylie, who is a groom (and another livery-owner) at the yard. This was Pauline's suggestion, to get Grotty to push herself to the next level in her confidence building. Yes Baggees, Pauline is much more than your "usual" yard manager!

Freda Fretter was ridiculously nervous, so in order to assess the horses' reactions to each other, they all pootled down to the indoor school first. This went swimmingly, so they headed off into the big wide world. Now, even though Baggy is twice Kayley's age, Kayley is probably the more experienced rider, and certainly the more confident, so she told Grotty to choose a route she was happy with. 

As they headed off through the working farmyard, Clever Bird couldn't quite believe how relaxed Wesley was; a little too relaxed in fact - Grotty was struggling to get him to walk out.  After maybe forty minutes of walking through the stunning Suffolk countryside, Baggy realised that Kaylie and Rex were taking them on a new route - a much longer one than Grotty or Wesley had done before. No problem, as Wesley and Grotty were totally chilled.

"I'm really proud of Wessles, Kaylie. I really wasn't sure how he'd be away from his brother. Usually when he goes out with a new horse, he's a bit of a numpty, but today he hasn't whinnied once. I remember a ride when he called out to Joey for literally the whole forty-five...

"Neighhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

"Oh no! I shouldn't have spok..."

"Whinnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy."

As Kaylie laughed, Baggy repositioned Grotty on the now shaking Wesley, as he continuously called out to his brother. Grotty's legs were now merely resting on Wesley's sides, as he constantly whinnied in his high-pitched way, and thought about taking off to get back to Joey. The rest of the ride was more like the one that Freda Fretter had been expecting from the start - constant whinnying, a bit of jogging, lots of tripping as Wesley paid no attention to where he was putting his feet, and Baggy's nerves beginning to fray a tad. As they got closer to the yard, even Baggy could hear Joey calling back to an increasingly hysterical Wesley; then a few other horses joined in. Closer still, Baggy could hear Joey hurtling around his paddock; his paddock that is adjacent to the road that they were about to go on. 

"Would you rather get off and walk him past?"

"Nope! We're good thanks," said Grotty, while Freda Fretter wondered what planet she was living on, and prayed she'd get off the numpty-horse, who was now calling like a demented child and setting off pretty much every horse on the yard.

As Grotty finally dismounted outside the stables, Wesley continued to whinny to his brother, and Psychic Ploppo realised her error. Ploppo has always been able to communicate with horses and dogs. Not all of them - just ones who have needed her help. It seems to work in a visual way, combined with "thoughts" that arrive in her head. Very much like the "visual thoughts" that Baggy conjured up as she remembered the ride when Wesley called and spun around trying to get back to his brother, for an entire forty-five minute hack. Hmmmm!

Lesson (probably not) learnt. 

Despite this numtyness, it was a wonderful ride, helped no end by the fact that Rex was a model horse and ignored all of Wesley's shenanigans, and Grotty now knows a new route - well at least she does if Hormonal Hannah allows her to remember it...

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!

Routine can help with depression.

Grotty Groom's Week.

• Trot circles are coming along dressage-diva style.
• Weekend hacks with Calum and Joey are now up to an hour, pretty much all on wonderful off-road, permissive bridleways.
• Grotty cantered Wesley up a hill! Yep Baggees, even Clever Bird can't believe that statement, but it had rained all of the night before; the ground was soft; and the hill was "calling". It was actually calling Wesley more than Grotty - probably because it's pretty hard work walking up a hill with a human sitting on your back - so before Wesley took matters into his own hands, leaving Grotty as an unwilling passenger, Grotty asked for a canter. It was wonderful!
• Calum and Grotty persuaded the Boys to walk through bonfire smoke, coming from a crackling fire just feet away from them. The smoke was so thick that even Baggy could barely see what was the other side of it, (but at least she knew that it was just the yard!). It took a little persuasion; okay a lot of persuasion, but Cal got Joey through it, and realising that if he wasn't careful he was going to be left in it without his brother, Wesley decided to follow.
• During Wesley's second warm-up canter this morning, Grotty managed to prevent him from undertaking his favourite cheeky-horse move! Suddenly his head was being shaken from side-to-side and heading down between his knees. This move has previously been the first stage before throwing in a fly-buck or three! Baggy's heart rate shot up, but Grotty took charge! "Don't you dare!" growled Grotty, as she pulled his head back up. He listened - he stopped, and returned to being a dressage diva.
• Tomorrow, nerves permitting, Grotty is going to hack Wesley out with a horse and rider, that Grotty and he have never ridden with before.

Gloria Gardener's Week

• Much watering!
• A pathetic amount of weeding, considering just how much needs doing!
• With help from Furry Mama, a frog was rescued from one of Pepper Pooch's water bowls, and relocated to the little pond - Furry Mama can't decide whether he's still in there though.

Furry Mama's Week

• Grotty being at the yard from 6.30am, means that she's done-and-dusted by around 8.45, so Furry Mama can have Pepper Pooch on the beach at Southwold by 9.00. Social-distancing is easy-peasy at that time of day.
• Pepper has been swimming and ball-chasing daily.

The Domestic Goddess's Week

• Aside from the usual boring cleaning and cooking stuff, she has given Billy Bob Jalopy campervan a thorough wash, because he was filthy!
• He needed cleaning as Baggy wanted to get him seen by the local bodywork experts to get a quote for having his rusty bits and scratches sorted out.

• He's booked in for a respray in September!

Hormonal Hannah's Week

• Truthfully, Hannah has been struggling a little. She's okay, but she's been tired and teary, a sure sign that the black cloud is hovering somewhere nearby.
• Siestas have become a "thing", so it is possible that Baggy might be anaemic again, but she's not going to the doctor's to find out!
• Hannah is loving Grotty Groom! She is her antidepressant.

• As is having a takeaway cup of decaffeinated latte, while sitting in Billy Bob after walking the Pooch, enjoying this view.

Overall it's been a good week...

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!

How a positive mindset can change everything.

Apologies in advance Baggees, but Grotty Groom is fully in charge of the gang at present, so if horses aren't your thing, Creative Clara might bore you a little. But horses are a great way to distract Clever Bird  and Hormonal Hannah from the current Covid-19 crisis, so she's still spending every morning with her Boy. 

It's a worry though! Far from bringing out the best in people as Clever Bird had hoped that it would, this pandemic seems to have brought out the worst in some - refusal to follow social-distancing guidelines, ridiculing the mask-wearing guidelines, leaving litter everywhere, and far worse, in some areas - riots. It's worrying, and now that in the UK cases have stopped dropping, and are currently showing a slight increase, it's hard to know what to do for the best. So Baggy is sticking to her Plan A, and living her life to the full. Clever Bird does have one serious question though, that being, "Why is the world not pulling together to fight this thing?" It's the deadliest illness to hit the world in decades, and yet countries are purportedly hacking other country's scientists and pharmaceutical companies, to try to get access to the latest progress they've made on developing a Covid-19 vaccine. Clever Bird would just like to know why this is necessary? Why aren't experts everywhere sharing every little bit of progress that they make with each other, to speed up the process? And yes Baggees, sadly she does know the answer to that question - commercial greed is winning as always - and  that seems incredibly stupid! But Clara digresses.

Back to Grotty! Frankly, she has been nothing short of surprising, particularly to Freda Fretter who has always worried whenever Grotty has ridden Wesley, but her mindset is now so positive that even Freda has stopped worrying. So much so in fact, that on Monday when Grotty took the Boy Wessles down to the indoor school for his first ride in a week without his brother Joey, she was determined to progress his trot work. In order to do this, Grotty decided to canter him first to loosen him up - really no biggy, except that every serious accident that Grotty has ever had on Wesley, has been from a canter or gallop, when his back has hurt him and he's thrown in a few rodeo bronks to remove the source of the pain i.e. Baggy. And the last time that Grotty cantered was in 2016!! 

Naturally Baggy's heart rate shot up at the thought of upping the gears, but she decided that she would only have failed if she didn't try, and before Freda Fretter could change her mind, as Grotty walked Wesley around the corner of the school, she asked for a canter. Baggy resisted doing a yee-hah whoop, as Wesley cantered up the length of the school, but she had a massive grin on her face as Grotty brought him back to a trot and then a walk, before halting him and giving him the biggest hug ever.

Baggy's new attitude is to push herself, so each day this week Grotty has taken the Boy down to the school and cantered him before trotting him. By Friday, he was starting to look and feel like a dressage diva, and Baggy was aching all over but she didn't care, as it had occurred to her that in the fifteen years that Grotty has been Wesley's human, she's never ridden him on her own for days at a time - she's never had the confidence to, always wanting someone with her in case Wesley had "one of his moments". But it's done them both a massive favour; they've always trusted each other, but now that trust is unbreakable. When Wesley spooks, which he still does, Grotty is confident enough to reassure him, and he's soon over it. And the surest sign that Grotty is now enough for the Boy, is that he has only called to his brother once this week, rather than every few minutes.

More exciting than that (well, for Grotty at least - perhaps not so much for you Baggees), is that Grotty and Calum have now built their hacks out, up to forty-five minutes!

As hacking is something that Grotty believed that they might never do again, she is thrilled. This is why Wesley is dressed as robo-horse Baggees: the nose net is to stop pollen, as he's allergic to it and head-shakes; the face net is to stop the flies from annoying him so much that he gets so obsessed with them that he forgets where he's going. Additionally, to prevent the full body shakes that he's fond of to dislodge horse flies, (and therefore likely to dislodge Baggy as well), he also hacks out in a fly sheet - disguised as a zebra.

Creative Clara forgot to get photographic evidence, but from yesterday, Joey was also disguised as a zebra. This made for an interesting situation early today, when they encountered a herd of red deer in a field! The deer clearly had no clue what the animals on the other side of the field were, and spent a good few minutes trying to work out whether they were a threat, before calmly trotting off to the next field. It was a magical hack, as apart from the deer, Furry Mama spotted at least ten hares, varying in colour from fox-red to almost black, and finally, just as they turned back onto the yard, a tawny owl flew in front of them! So, aside from Wesley's impersonation of a Thelwell Shetland pony, as he headed straight into the wheat crop to grab himself a snack, it was a beautiful ride! Ground permitting, it won't be long before they're cantering around the amazing off-road tracks that head off for miles directly from the yard. 

Last weekend, after a harrowing week, number one furry decided that after their hack, he fancied collapsing on the beach for a while. This is not Baggy's idea of a good time, so she left him to it, and took the Pooch for a walk, while Calum snoozed in the sun, protected from the wind and the hoards by his new windbreak.

Clever Bird would love to know why the cruise liner was moored just outside Southwold for the best part of two weeks, but she probably never will.

Probably yet another weird result of Covid-19.

The Pooch wasn't bothered by it; as always he just wanted to chase his ball and swim. Although he's still on steroids for his autoimmune problems, he seems to be perfectly fit and well, and totally obsessed with his new rubber ball.

He always sleeps well after a beach trip.

Clever Bird suspects that the horses probably sleep pretty well these days too! Especially now that both of them also are once more disguised as zebras when they're in their paddocks, as the flies this year are of plague proportions.

Twins...

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!

Horses can be extremely calming.

This last week has been one of incredibly mixed emotions, and this is not an easy blog for Creative Clara to write. Devastatingly, Calum's elder brother Kevin didn't recover from the heart attack that he suffered twelve days ago, and he passed away on Thursday. He was such a kind, larger-than-life character and is going to be missed by so many people.

RIP Kevin, you are very loved by family and friends.

Baggy was honoured to have known Kevin, and was especially grateful to have received his approval to be Calum's wife, after Baggy had called off their first engagement! (Long story Baggees). But at least she was able to tell him that, when she visited him briefly in hospital on Tuesday. 

In spite of Covid-19, under the circumstances the hospital allowed visitors, so Calum took the week off work so that he could visit Kevin each afternoon. Baggy drove Cal there and then waited in the campervan with Pepper Pooch for Cal to come out. Well, more accurately, Baggy and Pepper slept in the campervan, until Calum came out! This is because Grotty Groom has been getting Baggy and Calum up at 5.30am each day, to get them to the yard for their 6.30am social-distancing-slot.

And yes Baggees, they have ridden every day (bar one), this week! There are many wonderful things about being around horses, one of the most powerful, being that when you're with a horse, somehow that is all that you are aware of - as such, they're amazingly calming animals to spend time with, and on such sad weeks as this one has been, are incredibly healing.

Grotty and Calum have been riding the Boys in the safety of the confined indoor school, which they're now so used to, that they're very relaxed in there! Although, as Calum is not quite as riding fit as Grotty, getting off can be interesting!

Baggy tried not to laugh too much, but it was hard not to!

Joey isn't always the most forward-going horse when he's in the school, which can be hard on the legs! Probably because of that fact, last Sunday Calum casually said to Grotty, "Why don't we ride them back up to the stables?" Baggy's heart rate instantly rocketed, but she agreed, as it's not as if the Boys don't have to walk up and down that track each time they go to the school.

Calum opened the school doors, hopped back onto Joey, and led the way up the track. Baggy started to sing to herself. They got to the stable block, and Calum and Joey kept going.

"Urrmm! Where are you going?"
"I thought we could just go and see the first bit of the hack - which way is it?"
"It's just round that way," said Grotty, trying to get Wesley to stop hopping on the spot, as Freda Fretter thought, "Yeah, through the scary yard, that they've never seen before, which has tractors and farm machinery and log piles and a manure heap, and, and, and all kinds of other horse-eating things".

Baggy sang some more, and got Wesley to follow a rather unsure Joey, who spooked as he reached the end of a large barn that sits next to the field. Now even Clever Bird isn't sure what happened next, but Grotty got all brave, and made Wesley take the lead! They only went a few yards, before heading back to the stables, but it was a start to braving it back out into the big wide world!

As Calum and Grotty were leaving the yard, Clever Bird finally realised that there had been a conspiracy!

"We hacked out!" said on over-excited Grotty to Pauline (the yard manager), "only a few hundred yards; but still!"

Pauline and Calum giggled! It turned out that it was all planned to get Grotty "out there" without letting her panic about it first. And it was a great plan, because each day since then, they have gone a little further, culminating today in a proper thirty-minute hack around the wonderful tracks behind the yard. And considering that a mere six weeks ago, Calum didn't really want Grotty to risk riding Wesley again, that is just wonderful!

The other beauty of being at the yard so early, is that Pepper can sleep in a cool Billy Bob Jalopy campervan, before they all head off to the beach...

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!

Lockdown living.

This lockdown-world that pretty much everyone is living in, is most peculiar! Yes Baggees, Creative Clara is stating the obvious; and yet for Baggy, it's now not much different from her before-lockdown-world. No, actually, that's not true, now, Baggy's life is better. As number one furry is away all week, Baggy spends most of her time alone anyway, so her current, (sans-Calum) lockdown is what she was already used to! Except that it's better, because now she has a proper routine and therefore a purpose, and that's the best thing going for Hormonal Hannah's mental well being.

And when number one furry is at home at the weekends, they're making the most of their time together, instead of either working on house stuff, or sitting around watching telly. Last weekend they visited a beach that Baggy has never been to before - not surprisingly, as it's a ridiculous windy road trek to reach! But Calum knew of it because the week previously, he'd driven a 40-tonne truck there!

This amazing place is the beach at Shingle Street, a Site of Special Scientific interest because of its flora and fauna. It was blowing a hooly and rather cold, but it was an incredibly atmospheric place.

And you're right Baggees, this was mid-morning, straight after Grotty Groom and Calum had already ridden the Boys - but at least jodphurs are warm - if somewhat unflattering. Grotty is now riding six days a week - something that she hasn't done for years - certainly not since before her Lawrence-the-durmoid-cyst surgery anyway. Have a little guess which one of these saddles is Baggy's... 

Grotty has also refound her confidence and is now enjoying her riding, rather than making Baggy do it! So much so, that this morning she was at the yard at 6.15, so that she'd have time to ride both horses. On Monday she was so confident, that she decided to take a mirror selfie! She managed only the one, as, as Creative Clara took this shot, Wesley decided that he needed to have a whinnying chat with his brother, and spun around to do it!

But on Tuesday, Grotty's confidence was so high that she even forgot to put on her air jacket!

Wesley was pretty chilled too. Yes he still called out to his brother regularly, but he went beautifully, partly helped by the beautiful new saddle pad that Grotty had bought him!

It has made Baggy feel like she's sitting on a sofa, so it must be comfy for her Boy.

They even managed a first few strides of trot work. Both Boys are well and happy, and loving their lives, and Grotty is building up to getting them both out on their first hack in years.

Grotty went mad today, she was at the yard by 6.15, and left three hours later, having ridden both Boys! Then Furry Mama took Pepper Pooch to the beach for his swim and hurtle, before Baggy treated herself to a decaff latte, and just sat in Billy Bob Jalopy campervan admiring the view for a while, while the pooch snoozed.

None of this would have been possible last year: Baggy was way too heavy to ride her horse, and too tired to get up at 5.00am, but even had she not been, Hormonal Hannah's anxiety totally prevented it! Clever Bird is so proud of Baggy for biting the bullet and signing up for her on-line healthy-living course. Baggy still has another stone or more, to lose, but her weight has currently plateaued and she's okay with that, until her body decides its got used to being two-and-a-half-stone lighter than it was, but more importantly her mental attitude has turned around totally. Baggy feels like a new woman and is determined to enjoy every moment of her life.

This was brought home to her even more this week, when Calum's elder brother had a heart attack, and is now in hospital fighting to recover from it. Psychic Ploppo has been sending Kevin love and healing thoughts each day, and praying for his swift recovery because that's all she can do at the moment, as thanks to Covid-19, no visitors are allowed to the hospital, but she's looking forward to seeing him again soon...

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!