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!
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