17 May 2010

Dalemain Packs and Tracks

I spent a day at the Fell Pony stallion show on Saturday (I was scheduled to go to a FPS meeting after it, but had to deliver some books at the start of it!). Friends kept asking why I wasn't competing in the driving class, and made fun of me when I reminded them I drive a mare and have done for the last 6 years. The driving class is for stallions or geldings... and also, Ruby's been in season all week. It could have been, er, entertaining.

Anyway, Mr T was being kept back for another job on Sunday. My daughter Jen and I took him to a "Packs and Tracks" demonstration day run by Cumbria Bridleways, at Dalemain House, or Mansion as it prefers to call itself. In the morning we were first on, with an audience of approximately four, which gave Jen a chance to school Mr T by warming him up and doing a dressage test. During the rest of the morning we talked to visitors about driving, and after lunch we did a cone driving demo with Mr T and Mike, one of Jen's pupils brought his Welsh mare to join in. ... Mr T was a complete star and loved showing off through the cones, we had people all around the ring who were wowed by his agility at 23 years of age, and Mike realised he really was brave enough to drive in public :-) We even got a photo of him smiling. Another long day, with more catching up with friends.

Mr T had today off while I dragged me weary bones out to give Ruby some work - she had had 2 days off! She's been powerfully in season for a week, and has harassed Mr T to death while she's out in the field, although she's been very chilled-out when working. She apparently screamed for Mr T most of yesterday, when normally she doesn't care two hoots about him, whether at home or absent! She's been interested in anything that looked stallionly as we passed with the carriage, but amazingly, completely obedient :-)

Today I decided to go towards Howe Nook, which is a farm about 4 miles from us that stands next to the Roman military road. I had a letter to post, so we went down into Greenholme first, where we found a very large tractor pumping slurry from one huge tanker into a smaller one. Brum brum slurp. Ruby - who is mechanically minded - walked quietly past it and parked by the post box so I could slip the letter in. Then walked round the tractor as if it wasn't there, and set off hotfooted for home! Er, no, Ruby, we need to do just a bit more than 300 yards down the hill... so she came round onto the Orton road and trotted up the hill, and past the services, and over the motorway, and trotted, and trotted, and trotted. I gave her a 5 minute breather walking down to the Orton guidepost, then along the Shap / Howe Nook road, and trotted on after that. She was most interested in a Fell mare and foal on the other side of a wall, but the mare took her new baby away from the scary horse with wheels!

I gave Ruby another breather just below Howe Nook, then turned for home. She was feeling well but obedient, and I decided to give her a treat by trotting down Martinagap Lane, which is a green lane / bridleway where we have permission to drive when the weather is dry. Ruby strode on happily, bumping over tractor ruts that had dried solid, until a double bounce dislodged the 56lb weight on the back step and flipped it over, so its carpet wrapping no longer deadened the rattle. It wasn't going to fall off, as it's strapped on, but I didn't want to do the rest of the drive with 56lbs clanking on the aluminium; so I asked Ruby to walk, and then got my headcollar rope and tied her to a bush while I righted the weight. She thought that was good - nice long fresh grass to eat, yum! And as it turned out, that little glitch kept us out of the way of a batch of trail m/bike riders snarling along the road. All 12 of them went by without any inconvenience on either side. So I wrapped up the headcollar rope and hopped back in, and we went home. Ruby was still feeling very well so I just glanced at my watch to see what time she'd make - she did two miles at 16kph. I think she's fitter than she has been for quite a while :-)