Animals are sent to us for a reason.

Baggy spent a while re-reading her blog last night, starting back in February, pre-Covid-19 world. She had forgotten just how anxious Hormonal Hannah was at the beginning of this pandemic; so anxious in fact that she could very easily have developed agoraphobia. Not being able to visit a beach for over two months was hard, and it's wonderful that Furry Mama is going again. Pepper Pooch is loving it as well, and they're getting there early enough  to beat the worst of the heat, and most of the crowds. But, and there's always a "but" in Baggy's life; Pepper seems to be showing the initial signs that he's becoming poorly again.

He seems to have developed yet another ear infection, and he has a psoriasis-type rash on his groin. Naturally, Freda Fretter is worried sick about this, but as Furry Mama has all the appropriate medicines leftover from last time, she's onto it. Clever Bird knows that the vets haven't yet figured out what exactly is wrong with Pepper, but autoimmune diseases mean that his body keeps "attacking itself". What isn't known is specifically what triggers these reactions, although being stressed can certainly be a factor. Freda worries that merely not walking Pepper for a day (because it was 34 deg.C), might have been enough this time - it certainly appears to be what caused it previously. 

After leaving the beach today, Furry mama had to drop by the vets' in order to collect his worm and flea treatments, and a bag of his Anallergenic food. She happened to bump into (not literally you understand Baggees), the vet who treated Pepper with his first violent sickness episode during lockdown, back in March. She remembered Baggy, and asked after Pepper (by name, which was pretty impressive). Furry Mama explained the latest symptoms, and was worried by her comment that "his body was basically eating itself," or words to that affect. 

"Poor lad, he suffers a lot doesn't he?"

"Well, he's mine, so there's no surprise there," replied Furry Mama. "Any animal who chooses me to be their human always has problems!" 

Furry Mama went on to explain about Minty Mutt and Wesley's issues, before mentioning Hinge cat, and immediately getting tearful.

"She was only eight when we lost her, and we still have her sister, Bracket, so it's a daily reminder."

"Bless her, that was young."

"It was, but we rescued them from a horrible situation, so at least she had a really happy few years." 

"And that's what you're giving Pepper too." 

Naturally, all Freda Fretter took in from that statement was that Pepper would possibly not have a long life, and if that is the case, Calum and Furry Mama plan on making the lad as happy as they can. 

Grotty Groom certainly hopes that her Boy Wessles has had a good life with her, during the past fifteen years. He was a sweetheart when she rode him in the school this morning - even though it was already 23 deg.C at 7.30am. 

Yes Baggees, Grotty had Baggy looking more than a little flushed! But look at that Boy, waiting for Creative Clara to get a photo of him with Grotty. She had to wander away from him to get him in the shot, because each time she tried to do a close up, he stuck his nose on the phone!

It's great that he's now so relaxed in the school though, because it means that Baggy can get the mounting block in and out, without having to hang onto him.

Not bad for a ridiculously spooky horse eh Baggees?

Clever Bird thinks that if he could, Wesley would happily just spend the day in the school; not being ridden - just standing about!

There's one nice advantage to being the first person to ride each day, the school has usually been levelled. Grotty uses this to plan her moves - well, yes, more accurately Wesley's moves - because she can see exactly where they've been. Are they walking in a proper straight line? Is their circle really a circle, or more of an egg?

And when Creative Clara gets a little fed up of circles, straight lines, serpentines and tear-drops, she plays, "follow the tractor tracks", (although she can't help but wonder now, whether those tracks might become more challenging once Pauline (the lovely yard manager) sees that comment)...

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

Why is it so hard to wear a mask?

Clever Bird is no longer at all sure how this Covid-19 is going to play out. It sounds as though it's going to be staying around for years, and that they're hopeful, but by no means certain, that a vaccine will be developed. The whole, "let's get everyone over 50 to self isolate" plan, seems to have gone away, thankfully, because that was never going to happen. 1-in-5 people are now known to show zero symptoms when they have it, so presumably are merrily getting on with their lives, and inadvertently infecting other people. Many others do have symptoms when they're infected, but not necessarily the cough, high temperature and loss of smell that are the criteria for self-isolating. Masks are mandatory in shops (in theory), yet many people are wearing them incorrectly, or using flimsy, one-layered jobs that are pretty useless. Freda Fretter has observed total nonsense situations from people who clearly have no clue why they're wearing a mask: an old chap leaving a café and taking off his mask, then laying it, mouth-side down on the newly disinfected table - not "his" newly disinfected table, just a convenient one. He then chatted to a friend on another table, before picking up his mask and leaving! A young woman leaving a shop, taking off her mask and whilst holding the mask in her same hand, picking up, and putting back down, displayed vegetables on the table outside the grocery shop. 

As for social distancing: Baggy was disinfecting her hands with the sanitiser provided, whilst waiting to be allowed to go into a café to order her latte when she heard a voice behind her, "That smells rather lovely, I might have a go with that." Baggy turned around, to be faced, literally about a foot away, by an old guy, with no mask on, laughing and indicating the sanitiser - not that he did use it! Instead he touched Baggy on her (bare) arm and said, "But it's more of a woman's scent." So all things considered, Freda Fretter has come to the conclusion that Baggy's fate is in the lap of the Gods. All she can do is to keep Baggy as safe as possible in the midst of such ignorance, and get on with her life, as she's not prepared to lock herself away again, unless she has to. 

Grotty Groom continues to get Baggy up at 5.30 so that she can work with the Boy Wessles. She varies his work to keep them both from becoming bored. They ride in the school, go out on hacks, long-rein, or lunge, depending on the temperature, and Baggy's energy levels. 

On the hottest day last week, Grotty decided just to give both Boys a bath instead of working them. Admittedly Baggy ended up as wet as the horses, but it was worth it to try to alleviate their itchy tails. She smelt as nice as they did as well, after using the mint and tea tree oil shampoo. Not that it made any difference! This was the next day:  

Clever Bird thinks that perhaps Wesley just prefers the loo-brush look. 

Furry Mama has been going to different beaches to avoid the crowds: Dunwich

Sizewell;

Gorleston. 

Since it's been so hot, number one furry has had the barbeque out a couple of times. It's lovely for Baggy to have a husband who is such a good cook, and they certainly won't be eating-out,(inside) any time soon, so...

Today's lunch:

And Baggy is spoilt! Having made a late lunch, number one furry had to go to bed as he has to get up at 1.00am to get ready to head off to work! Baggy's 5.30am alarm will be a positive lie-in, in comparison...

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!

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!