The-ramblings-of-a-horsewoman: 2013

Sunday, 16 June 2013

Open farm Sunday, mainly about farms , it's cute, not yawn yawn

I have lots to chat about this evening but I'm pretty sure I wont fit it all in with how tired I am today. Todays' rabbiting on is mainly focusing on farms. If you dont like farm stuff, then you may as well press the back button now because I will probably bore you to death reminiscing? you know what i'm like, yawn yawn :)

I'm currently sat on my bed typing whilst semi watching Jimmy Doherty (from the Jimmys Farm Series). In this new series of his i'm watching, Jimmy takes on big superstores like Tesco , this new series of his is called 'Jimmy and the Giant Supermarkets', you can watch it on Catch up tv if you have that option available. The purpose of this series is to prove to the big fish, that Jimmy can provide free range sausages and produce, at affordable prices. Currently, customers have to opt out of the healthier free range products due to extortionate supermarket prices.

FOR JIMMYS FARM CLICK HERE

On that note; On the farm front, I supported our nations Open Farm Sunday and went along to one of our own local farms. The one the husband and I visited was called 'Holly Farm'. Holly Farm is in Garstang, Lancashire and is a lovely Dairy Farm. I was thinking about all our farms last sunday as the weather was perfect for it all to take place on a mass scale.

Me posing on the way to the farm, June 2013

Open farm Sunday is to help educate people and children, on where their food comes from-from start to finish and to see how the farm is ran . What a wonderful idea open farm sunday is! Of course, me, being the big kid I am, was desperate to get on the farm and join in.

I love farms passionately. Holly Farm is a super duper farm,it is so family and child friendly.It is so carefully, maticulousy set out to suit the public, with super safe guarding for their visitors and the safeguarding of their animals. I have never been to a farm so scrupulously clean. It was spotless. The farm also wanted to promote you as a visitor to keep spotless too, accomodating you with lots of hand washing points. They had great little signs everywhere which were a wonderful touch in educating you , giving you more of an interest in your environment.

For example, I, as a person nearing 41yrs old (oh god, am I really?! ha), I never knew hens laid their egg, then the shell hardened after it. WOW! Knowing this new fact, you don't feel as bad knowing the large egg one of your hens may have layed, proved they didn't need tears in their eyes after all. I must admit, I did use to say to some of my girls "oh you poor girl having to lay that whopper". I didn't know this little egg laying fact until I visited Holly Farm. See, open farm sunday did exactly what they intended the event to achieve...educate educate educate, never too old eh.

The farm had a super large cafe, a super little farm shop which also sold farm made jams, chutney, pickle biscuits etc, it also had a super seating area for families outside in a little courtyard setting, a petting farm and small trail around their farm. It also had a kids play barn so it is open to the public many days. It also has a mini toy John Deer kids plastic ride on tractors area, they have thought of everything!I was overwhelemed, I wasn't expecting that at all. I have many pix to add but below are a few selections of images for now. I will add the rest to my photobucket acount when I can prise my eyes open a bit longer.

I highly recommend Holly Farm to visit, especially if you have young children. Please visit their website, its a user friendly websit being easy to navigate, please see the link below;

VISIT HOLLY FARM CLICK THIS LINK

Holly Farm, this little mite, kept licking me to death, it felt like a cat licking you awww

As a young girl, I went around all the farms asking if they needed any help. I had the time of my life being able to be amongst the animals, the smells, the countryside. I went into the local turkey farm asking if they wanted help, this farm was one of the most memorable because the farmers let me into the turkey shed to see them all and I could not believe how many turkeys I was stood amongst, it felt, looked and sounded like thousands, you couldn't see any of the ground at all. I also, as a 10 year old girl, could not believe the noise in there.I couldn't believe how tall the turkeys were. I loved that experience. They let me see all the turkeys but I couldn't help on the farm because I was too young.

Holly Farm, sleepy heads

This didn't stop me, oh no. I went on to visit lots more farms. I remember going to a lovely farm in Carleton Lancs as that naive young girl. As usual, the farmer allowed me to look at all the animals, his farm had pigs.... and oh my god, I could not believe the size of a real life pig sow! She had about ten piglets suckling on her. She was in an old fashioned stone fronted building, a bit like old stables, the building was white painted with that wet style bobbling cement on the walls, the ground inside her house was cobbled as was the lane up to it. How fabulous eh? Cobbled tracks/pathways, you just can't beat that proper farm stuff, I know these days you dont see it as much and cobbles aren't the easiest grounds to sweep and keep tidy but the look and feel of them can't be beaten in my opinion. Oooooooohhhhhh my opinion, that sounds formal. I loved this visit too! I have driven past it as an adult, it all looks the same and is all still there, I would love to pop there now, but as an adult, it's just not the same. You get away with more as a child. They would probably think I was a weirdo now. Mmmm? I wonder if I should visit and see if they remember me?

A GHOSTLY LINK TO FARMS IN CARLETON LANCS HERE

Holly Farm, gorgeous calf

Another farm I visited as a child, pretty naughty wasn't I really? No wonder I was never home lol. The next farm I went to , was a pig farm. Ok, it ended up being the pig farm next to where I ended up buying my childhood pony from but before purchasing Jenny Wren, I visited her neighbours at the pig farm and asked them if they wanted help.

I remember the farmer being a short but friendly peculier character. Thinking back, you think, there is no way you would like your own child doing that. Oh well, I was always naughty and stubborn and got my own way haha, nothing has changed much. Anyway,where was I? Oh yes, the pig farm. You always know when you are near a pig farm, you can smell and hear it miles before you get there lol. I asked him if he wanted any help, he was a quirky type, short, rough looking but a farmer none the less and that was enough for me. He said come with me, are you sure you want to help out? He took me to a pretty dark large shed that was full to bursting with giant loud very vocal pigs, ok, as an adult, they are probably not as giant but as a child, like many things, they were gigantic. Again, you couldn't see an opening on the ground, it was like a noisy smelly moving pink carpet. As soon as you opened the big sliding wooden doors and let a bit of daylight through, they scuffled and fought their way to the concrete low wall the barrier between you and them, towards you. They bossed one another about, they were screaming at one another and grunting their way through to you. Near by,standing in tall blue round plastic bins, you still see today now and again, were bins containing wet barmcakes, as I sit here and remember. Eric the pig farmer was the local farmer that went around to all the hotels and schools collecting food waste to feed his pigs, I think that stopped in the 1990s sometime? Oh, I think his name was Eric? anyway, in my blog, he's called Eric as I try and turn back the time remembering it of nearly 31 years ago. I remember them all like it was yesterday but names on the otherhand are taking some extra brain power, anyone got any mackeral fillets to help, lol. You know, I nearly forgot to mention; I trekked acres and acres of fields to get to these farms in some areas, speaking to all the cows and horses along the way.

Me as a young girl in the late 70s, younger than ten years but it's so you can picture me around these farms,, this is a photo of me singing at school,that was used in our local gazette paper

Holly Farm

You know, as I type all this, I have a big smile on my face remembering it all. How nice. Right..... back again to the pig farm. Eric the farmer said to me ' here, get that little shovel and feed the pigs', so of course, I did so, it was so exciting you know! I got the shovel, dug it into the top of the blue bin and threw a load of barmcakes out towards the pigs.Wow, my gosh, you should have heard the noise then! Amazing. Eric then said to me, 'now young lady, if you were to fall in there now, they would take your arm off'. He said, I would need to go back when I was much older. I think kids need to see real farm animals and where food is made, there is nothing more real than the height of a cow, the characteristics of pigs, the chuckling of hens, geese and turkeys, you get the message ,i've got to stop myself going on about such gibberish sometimes. You can get and learn so much more from a real life experience. I didn't know a cow was the height they were of around a 13.2hh/14hh pony until I visted an animal rescue centre who had one, obviously called Daisy, but to be up close as a child next to a real cow was an eye opener. Obviously me, aged around nine years old, thought wow, I wonder if you could ride it, after all, it was big enough to ride lol. Right, I've wandered off again......

Holly Farm, how ace is this mini hen shelter for these free range hens, I love it, when I get more hens, I deffo want one of them!

You know, looking back, these farmers were so lovely in letting me have this experience, seeing their animals, feeding them, stroking them, showing me around their farms, how proud they were, how passionate they were. They could have said 'hey, get off this farm' but no, every one I went to showed me around. I even went to a battery hen farm, that too, was in Carleton. I must admit, as a young naive child, that was the only place I felt sad for the animals, I had no idea that that was how they made eggs, all just on top of one another, eating grain from little gulley type things at the front of their cage pen, platform thingies which seemed never ending throughout the building. I did feel they were too close to one another and unhappy. I didn't like being there as much because most of them looked so poor, but as usual I was excited by the experience.

Holly Farm

I'm sure i'm a reincarnation of a farmers wife or daughter? I don't actually believe in all that stuff, but no one in my whole family knows where I get it from? I'm actually the black sheep of the family. The one interested in animals, outdoors, farms, farm buildings, simple things like cobbles, smells, seeing hay bales, sounds, tractors. I just loveee tractors, I love June onwards,love it. If I didn't look like my parents and have a family resemblance, I'd be sure I was adopted. None of my family do animals, outdoors, poo anything lol.

Holly Farm, how stunning is this wall!?

Holly Farm

I thought this was ace, at Holly Farm, even a farm has makaton, it reminded me of school

I have been lucky in life, amongst all the gloom too, that life throws at you. I bought my first plot of land and stables when I was just 19 years old, it was only an acre with two breezeblock stables but it was mine. I had three jobs and worked hard to get what I wanted, I was desperate for land. Saying this,I sold the land and stables on, a year later after doing it up for a good small profit. At least double the price what we paid for it. Then, shortly after,along came children and a mortgage so my three jobs then became one, nights. It's all about life.

Anyway, it weren't until Nov 2004 that we saw our other plot. A basic four acre field in an afluent area. It didnt even have a boundary fence on one side, or any gates to get on. But, it had the most stunning views across farmers fields and the pennines, just stunning in all seasons. The sale took a couple of months to complete due to a disagreement about mains water and having it fitted but my goodness, when the money was handed over and the deeds became ours Jan 2005, it was the happiest time ever. I have a little piece of heaven, ok, not a farm but it was my little farm. It took a year to fund and build what we wanted on it through the help of an architect, 5 stables, tack/feed room, hayshed, sand paddock and so on. It really shocked me on how much things costed, especially post and rail fencing and driveways wow.Shocked me how many truck loads of giant hardcore slabs were brought as a base for the driveways, hard standings and for the sand paddock being built. Worth every penny and all the waiting though. I later bought hens and goats, in fact, I would have had zillions of animals on there by now. But, if you follow my other blogs, you know it hasn't quite ended up the way I wanted. Ah well, we all know,life throws many hurdles at you. To not finish on a depressing tone here, we are hoping to buy another plot soon and start again. We are going to continue to rent out our current equestrian property (the one mentioned above and in 'our yard' photo albums) as a whole and keep it as a good investment. So, you never know, we may have the opportunity to have another yard to build! Anyone got a farm they want to donate? I am so lucky and greatful for everything we have. Life is precious.

Do you know what? I have never ridden in a tractor, I would love to be driven in a tractor all hours and at night like farmers do, for the feel of it, the sound of it, the freedom of the open countryside. You see, just the simple things would be satisfying.

Nope, i'm not one of these city to country type people wanting a bit of a good life that thinks everything country is idilic and rosy. I mean, come on, we all know, farming is a 24hr job, dont we? You just dont stop on a farm.

BELLA

I'm going to add a little update on Bella, my daughters' dog. Bella came out of the vets after being in for five days ,after being attacked by a Staffy dog. (Please see other page). However, the same day she went home, she had to return to the vets as she was in so much pain and her stitches had come loose.

At the vest, Bella woke up, a day after her ordeal

Day five, she then went home and returned back to the vets the day this photo was taken

How Bella used to look aww cute fluffy cloud

She remained at the vets a couple more days this past week and has now gone back home,recovering well, with her little character starting to shine through her pain.

The dog warden eventually went around to the house where the staffy lived and found out in his investigation, that that dog had been on a caution before. We are led to believe it had attacked a cat and another dog, previously though can not quote the dog warden on this until further evidence is sought?

Our local gazette reporter has been round to the home to take a photo of my daughter with Bella.It will be going into the gazette shortly. It has gone to the newspapers due to lack of police support. Still, to date, no representative from the police force have been to these staffy owners. Members of the public that saw it all and helped my girls were fuming on their phones to the police, rspca and dog warden. The scene seeing my daugters and Bella in that state was shocking, still, no one from any authority would help them, just shocking!

NEXT TIME;

Next time on my blog; our horse trailer hunt, got one yeahhhhhh, our visit to the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre with an influx of photos, what are you sure lol?! and looking at yards and plots of land.

Thursday, 6 June 2013

Policing in our country - It's a sad affair

Policing, a sad affair, nothing surprises me anymore.

Little Bella

Today 6^th June 2013. My 18 year old daughters were happily walking their fluffy cloud, aka Bella, a lovely white Bichon Frise. on her lead down the road, after their visit to their grandmas house.

What they had to endure next, in their young lives, will change their lives for ever.

A Staffordshire bull terrier came out of its garden and carried out the most vicious attack my girls have ever witnessed in their entire lives. The bull terrier shook and shook poor Bella like she was a rag doll, the bull terrier carried out its attack so viciously, Bellas blood was pouring out of her everywhere, Bella was screaming and screaming in agony, the staffy continued to Maul her even though adults were battering the staffy to let go. Many people came to help my daughters, Eventually, the staffy let go, then the owner ran off with it, shouting you’re not putting it down!!!.

A man, stopped his car in the middle of the road to help my girls and phoned for his wife to come and help them. The Staffordshire bull terriers neighbour rushed out to Bellas aid, wrapped her in towels and placed her blooded body on a tray, she was lifeless. Another couple (strangers) ,drove my daughters and Bella to the local vets where Bella was put on life support, she had lost lots of blood and was in shock. At this point, the vets couldn’t even tend to her wounds or assess the damage as they had to take care of the initial blood loss first .

My girls

Whilst all this was going on, people had phoned the police, my daughters were on the phone to the police. My daughters are young respectable hard working hard studying 18 year old girls, who have never needed the police in their lives before. Sadly, this, their first time ever needing the police for themselves, the police were not there for them, or their dog Bella.

Little Bella

Remember, this, a Staffordshire bull terrier, this, one of the UKs most mentioned notorious breeds recently, this, the breed of dog that only a few years ago, killed a little boy, a breed that has only recently killed a teenage girl at her friends house, this, the breed that only two weeks ago, killed an elderly gentleman on the door step of his own home, this, the breed of dog that had just carried out this vicious unprovoked attack on my daughters dog, is a dog pretty much feared and a breed that is well publicised for known attacks, please note, I am not disrespecting all staffies or staffie owners, what I am getting across here, when the police hear of this breed attacking, shouldn’t they attend a call out?

My daughter, traumatised, making this call to the police, was told by the police, sorry, it is nothing to do with us we cant do anything because a human wasn’t involved, phone the dog warden! Now, can you, as a compassionate human being, see the scene? Can you? Plenty of witnesses shouting, and helpers, two screaming distraught teenage girls, one blooded pavement and screaming red puppy now lifeless….. can you see that scene reading this? Can you hear the noise all these people would have made, screaming crying, beating the Staffordshire to let go, can you imagine the noise the dogs made, one screaming for its life, one attacking with all its might? Can you imagine the real life horror my daughters had to endure and them Samaritans that helped them? Don’t forget…. All involved, will have to live with the sound of that attack and the sights of that attack now, for the rest of their lives. Just making sure you readers can see the scene.

Within that phone call, my daughter was told to phone the dog warden and goodbye!!! The dog warden was phoned but I’m not too sure at this point, who made the call. But what I can tell you is this, the dog warden, said they can’t do anything at present and just to keep any receipts off the vets! Ok, so that’s now two sets of people in authority that cant help my children and their dog.

That staffy, has been ALLOWED to come out of it’s garden to attack and maul my children’s dog to lifelessness.

With all the hysterics of this going on. Due to being told by my daughter on the phone the police couldn’t do anything. My husband popped to the local police station disgusted. To his surprise, the police station was shut, it shuts at 6pm! He then drove all the way to the other end of the town to be told by one of the fake civilian police we have, ooops, I mean the community support officer, that it is true, they can’t do anything. They said, if the dog was being walked along the street without a lead , then they could probably do something? But because it had come off its own property, they can’t do anything?

Remember everyone, this staffy, left its property, and went onto the public footpath to carry out this attack.

It’s pretty ironic though don’t you think? Only two weeks ago an elderly gentleman was killed by a staffy jumping over the fence into the mans garden and that dog was shot without any hesitation. But because this attack was carried out on another dog, ‘dog on dog, its what dogs do the police said’ , that Bellas life is worthless, not even worth a call by the police to the staffy owners, but if what the staffy attacks- is a human, then it can be shot?

Where is the human compassion? What has happened to our nation? What has happened to policing?

As a parent, do you know what is more heartbreaking in this story … my daughters psychological aspect. The daughter on the phone to me was traumatised and heartbroken crying her eyes out , this is a dog she has begged for for years, she was devastated, most of all angry as she was told, no one can help her. My other daughter has cuts and burns to her hands through this attack trying to save Bella, she finds it difficult to write dues to the pain in her hands and has told me numerous times this evening/night, she cant concentrate as all she can see is Bella being mauled to death, she is worried about college and her exams on Monday, she feels she cant do them now. My daughter on the phone, crying, heartbroken said time and time again, she just kept screaming she just kept screaming (Bella) and then there was nothing. I am heartbroken as a parent as I wasn’t there to protect them. I am angry as a parent and tax paying citizen , that neither was the police OR the dog warden.

If little Bella, who isn’t even one year old yet, pulls through tonight, how is she ever going to recover mentally? She was just a little playful dog on her lead, walking with her favourite human girls after a lovely playful day and then shuck to virtual death. How is she going to recover?

Who do you get to help you in these situations? Vigilante groups? Take the law into your own hands? Who? You can’t follow any council or government pathways to getting anywhere in help to deal with this, so where do you go? Who do you turn to?

There is certainly a lot wrong with the Politics in policing if a police officer can’t do a routine disturbance call. If they can’t call out to two young girls due to the useless dog acts that are in force, couldn’t they have called out as a disturbance of the peace just to help my daughters? Just to show a little compassion and empathy to what they had to endure? Do police only call out to traffic offences or shootings these days?

Not one officer has been to the dog owners address, so I am sure they will feel their dog has got away scot free, not one officer has phoned the vets, not one officer has asked for a statement, not one officer has contacted the witnesses, not one officer turned up to help my daughters. Not one officer has phoned back since the attack. What do you think this says to two teenager girls? What do you think this says to the trauma the witnesses had to also endure? We’re on our own perhaps?

Who is going to listen to this story? How many other un recorded dog attacks are there? What do we do as ordinary folk, now?

It's now 01.55 in the morning, this is me, still heartbroken over my daughters having to be part of this awful event in their youthful lives, me , still angry at the authorities. How will I get through a full days work tomorrow?

Thursday, 30 May 2013

Horse riders on the road

Driving at peak time at 5.30pm, to go to the yard, I came across a rider on a nice big bay horse, wearing no hat or any hi-viz wear. You may think "so what, mind your own business busy body". Quite honestly, I am a 'so what, don't care type'. But this incidence made me think "oh my god, what a totally irresponsible horse rider". I was really aggravated for all horse riders, seeing this rider. That sort lets the responsible horse riders down.

The road in question is a notorious country side road, that has a very fast national speed limit.It is fast all day long, busy and bad at peak times.

I just can't believe a horse rider would CHOOSE to take their horse out on a busy fast road like that, at 5.30pm peak time. Even more shocking was she wasn't wearing a hat! I personally wouldn't dream of taking my horses out at that time, in fact, I often weigh up if I will be back plenty of time ahead of work traffic to hack out at all. Not only do I not want to be a hindrance to the road users, I don't want an unpredictable accident to happen. After all, your super duper bomb proof horse, can have an off day.

I am also one of them that thinks no horse rider should be on the road without taking lessons in riding and road safety and/or, taking the riding and road safety certificate. It always baffles me that any age or any experienced rider, can take a big sturdy animal like the horse, on to roads, let alone busy ones. If it's compulsory for young motorbike riders to take a CBT course before they're allowed on the road on a scooter, then why aren't horse riders having a compulsory test before they take a horse on the road? A horse in general will undergo similar moves to that of a scooter when it comes to road manners and use of the highway code?

I have edited my certificate, to protect copyright

I'm one that is quite against that typical horse persons argument, "we were here first" "horses were here before cars" and so on. I, like many, should have moved with the times by now. There is a time and place for horses and it's not on busy fast roads, at busy peak times. As riders, we should learn to share the roads and do it responsibly.The world has moved on in many ways, we can not justify having horses on roads like we do, since the motorcar has taken over massively since post second world war.

Yes, I know, some riders don't have a choice but to ride on the roads if they have lack of facilities, however, they do have a choice on WHEN to take that horse out.
I love hacking. It's super for the horse, for their fitness,bonding time with it's rider and for their psychological state. It's also nice for the rider to relax, bond, enjoy your surroundings, thinking time away from the 'real world'. We have hacked for hours and hacked for miles but we always choose the right sort of horse friendly time to do so. As well as pick an area to do it, if you are lucky enough.

So please, wear a hat, wear some hi-viz no matter what time of day it is, just so cars can see you in advance and please, choose your time to hack out, to suit the other road users too.

On the horsey front, i've been excited these past couple of days. I've finally found a Equitrek Trailer and have done a sort of deal for it. We go to look at it tomorrow, like usual, because I am a spoilt brat if all goes well, we will be having it. I've waited long enough for one under £4000. It's the model we are after the Sport with living, witwoo, can't wait, but as always, will be going with a business money head and not a fluffy can't wait head. We will know tomorrow if we will own this one or not. This is it:

We have other good news, I'm not going to say too much because I don't want to jinx it. But i'm looking at a place to put the horses,if all goes well, I intend to rent it as a whole on contract. We visit the place at the weekend. I'm not getting too excited, I have learnt not to when it comes to plots, houses and yards. However, my hubby gave me fabulous news, that we can, in a year or so, consider buying another plot of land.We all know though, anything can happen. I'm going to take each day at a time.

The Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre is having an open day, see below;

https://www.facebook.com/events/441612422595733/