Meet the newest member of the family

Hi.

Meet Charlotte, a 6-year old, long-haired Tabby cat that we have got from a Cat Rescue foster home.
We have nicknamed her Tiger, bacause of the green eyes, and because her ears are normally flat back on her head!
She has already had a stand-off staring match with the local black-and-white cat from next-door-but one. 1 - 0 to us !
Now she is just waiting for her first chance to escape out through the door into the garden when we are not quick enough.
More later, as she settles in more.

Summer Solstice Endurance Competition 2007

Here I am, the first one out on the course for my Class. This was my Non-Competitive Ride. We all got loaded into the trailer without any fuss this morning ( not like last time ), and set off for Cirencester. Seemed to take a long time to get there but I had a big haynet so I was happy. Once there I was taken to the Farrier to check my shoes were o.k. then to the vet to check my heart rate was o.k. and then I had to trot up in a line and back to make sure Iwas not lame and was fit to do the ride.

The ride was a mixture of tracks and open long grassy stretches where my mum let me have a gallop, phew, got quite tired at one point during the ride, not used to trotting the whole way but mum says we won`t make the time aloud if we hadn`t got a move on. We finished the ride with plenty of time to spare ( see mum we could have gone abit slower). I got taken back to the vet and again made to trot in a line up and down apparently to check that I am not lame after the ride, if I had been I would have been eliminated despite doing the whole 16 km !! Anyway I passed the vetting and got my rosette and headed home only to run into the storm from hell, my field was under 3 ins of water !!

Thank goodness my mum is a softy and put me down a lovely big straw bed in my real mum`s BIG stable so I was lovely and cosy for the night. I think my mum was very proud of me today, looking forward to the next one!! Oh buy the way that frilly hat I wear keeps the flies off, I think it`s cool !!

"Pear Tree Stables"

Here's where we all live.. I'm the youngest, so I was given the "terraced" one, while the two elders ( Mum Lady & Auntie Etti) each get the larger and more comfortable "End Of Terrace" models, though these come with Live-In Swallow families, and their associated "debris". These Swallows are everywhere, all the time. Two of them even managed to sneak into this picture above the weather-vane!

In the front is our wonderful trailer, and Dad is building-by-hand, a pad to keep the trailer level, and dry. It's big enough so that the Land Rover can reverse onto hard-standing, and start to move way on solid ground, instead of spinning and digging-in to the wet grass. In our last place, whenever the wheels were left on wet grass, the trailer brakes almost always seized on, so the trailer had to be dragged along until the wheels freed. Hopefully that won't be happening now with this latest new landscaping.

Am I wicked, or Wot !! ?

I was SO wicked this morning !

We were all set to go off to a ride this morning. Everything was loaded up, and it was just me to go, & I decided to play up, Big Time .

I went into the trailer, except for my back feet, which I kept on the ramp, and just as Mum thought we were getting sorted... I backed out again Hehe

And that's the way we fought.. on the ramp, off the ramp... on the ramp, off the ramp... until mum noticed that I kept skewing off to the right of the trailer. She's brainy is my Mum.. she waited until I moved off one more time, and then she pulled really hard on my head-collar, until I was squashing my nose up against the side of the trailer, which hurt. Then we did it again, same result.. and again, same result. After that I decided that she was brainier than me, so I gave up, and walked straight in. I have to add that I did manage to stand on Mum's toes and twist, before she started getting serious with me.

We went off for an hour's drive, and then had a 19km ride over the open fields and hills, which was brilliant, and then (almost) straight back into the trailer to head home again.

Me and Mum going to work

This is me " at the office" getting ready for work. It looked like it was going to be a lovely sunny day, but we suffered two blizzards within the one ride!