100th post!

This is my 100th post. Ceffylau has been running since April 2008. Looking back, a lot has happened in our lives with the horses in that time. We have moved Red twice and Dee three times. Red has been on loan and is now on working livery. We have experimented with DIY livery, part livery, grass livery and various combinations of all types of livery in an attempt to keep and continue to have the pleasure of our horses. We are relieved that at last we seem to have found a place where we can afford to keep both Dee and Red, where they are happy and we are happy too. I have also recovered from a bad knee injury and seem to be pretty fit. I now walk across the uneven ground in the fields with confidence.

I apologise for the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks. Life is rather full at the moment and I am not succeeding in keeping up with everything. We inherited half a house a while ago, and in February we bought the other half from my brother-in-law. The house had been rather neglected over recent years and requires quite a lot of work to be done to it before anyone can move in. Having been working on the house a couple of days every week, I have decided that I wanted to move things along a little more quickly and so am now working up there four days a week until it is nearer finished. Our elder son, Daniel is going to live in the upstairs of the house, with a friend living downstairs. We are not making a complete split into two flats so that the house can easily be returned to a family home in the future, but we are ensuring that they have independent accommodation. Consequently we are turning the smallest bedroom upstairs into a little kitchen for Daniel, and are turning the scullery downstairs into a bathroom for our friend.

As well as all this time-consuming house renovation, I am involved in several publishing projects, so I am feeling a little thinly spread. I miss reading all my blog friends' posts and keeping in touch with you all. All these commitments also mean there is little time for riding, and I haven't in fact ridden either Dee or Red for two weeks. They are both well and fit however and I'm sure they don't mind me not riding, though they do seem pleased to see me when I go up to see them, which is most days. I have arranged to ride with some Briwnant friends on Wednesday, so I am looking forward to that.

I will try to post more often while the work on the house continues – even if it is just to put up some photographs.

Hwyl!

Contentment

It is interesting that there is less to say when life is running a little more smoothly. Difficult times are newsworthy, whereas contentment does not make the news. Difficult times make us focus on their form and try to manipulate it; contentment has more space, more emptiness, so we cannot manipulate it so much. Dee and Red are content – so I find I do not have much to write in my blog. In this photograph they are grazing in the far field which is yellow with buttercups. It is an idyllic scene. They are so content that Dee is behaving like an angel – immediately accepting a head collar and following me on a loose lead rein from the field. Red is also a delight.

The weather this week has been extraordinarily hot and sunny. We are not used to it and I find it a little exhausting. Unfortunately—despite the fine weather—we are not finding much time for riding at the moment, but we did manage a couple of hours on Sunday. We took them to the Ganol as they have not been there for quite a while and we thought it would make a change for Red. Most of his rides with Briwnant are around the Wenallt trail. I don't want him to get bored and sour. I've noticed that Dee is fitter than she was before we moved her to Cornwall in December – she copes with hills much better. I surmise that living at pasture without work, even during the hard winter months, is preferable for keeping Dee fit than being cosseted but stabled half the day.

Red is an easy-going chap so he never gets into trouble. Dee is more assertive and so gets into some argy-bargy in this large herd that they are now a part of. She has become well integrated nevertheless, so perhaps it is still early days and will improve. I brought her in today for a bit of TLC because she has been kicked. It is nothing serious and probably due to her being pushy with another mare. Paul tells me that she has settled out at about fourth mare in the pecking order. Dee so loves being groomed and became very soft and sleepy while I brushed her.