Saturday 28 July 2012

*choke* *cough* *splutter*

Apologies for the radio silence, but I've been ill for the first time in about six years and it's kind of knocked me sideways.  Two weeks ago I schooled Finn on Sunday morning, then mis-timed taking Merlin for a walk round the village and got soaked to the skin.  That set off a urinary tract infection which became a kidney infection with added conjunctivitis, swollen tonsils, glands and a temperature.  By Wednesday, despite antibiotics, about all I was capable of doing was lying on the sofa and watching the room spin in an interesting manner! 

10 days later I'm mostly mended.  I managed to put my contact lenses back in this morning, but I still have the sore throat and the occasional twinge in the plumbing.  Most days it's been about all I can do to struggle round the field with the wheelbarrow, let alone think about riding, so Finn has had a quiet life.  His old owner came to visit him this morning and I was hoping she'd be able to take him out, but we had a downpour at 6am and by the time I got out he was drenched through and, to my surprise, shivering :o(  I scraped most of the water off and put his heavy turnout on him to warm him up.  By lunchtime the sun had come out and he'd cheered up, so he finished drying out in the afternoon breeze while the rug dried out in the shed and I've put it back on this evening because half the weather reports are saying we're going to get heavy rain around 7pm (the other half say it won't hit until lunchtime tomorrow). 

This evening's job: find a cooler rug to go under the turnout....

Weight-wise they've both gained; Merlin is up to 470kg and Finn back to 420kg, but this time last year M was 511kg, so we're doing better.  There's still a sizeable chunk fenced off in the top field which they're slowly strip grazing up, though Finn worked out that if he bent his knees and shuffled a bit, he could limbo under the electric gate and get into the long grass, which delighted him and infuriated Merlin!  The gate has now been lowered and he's not happy with me!

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