20th February 2011

...so after a sleepless night in 50mph winds ....

First priority is ponies after a wild night like like that... put down some towels, left tilly snoring on the bed and went out.

Fed Spike - was affa chuffed he was so calm in the gale - still 30mph at 8am - as wind freaks him out.

The farmer at the bottom of the hill has a weblink to his Davis weather station which said his highest gust was 44mph at 4am... and I'm at the TOP of the hill about 600 feet further up...

I put Spike back in field and went round to the field shelter to tie up the haylage net... expected 3 ponies... only saw the 2 littlies.
No ginger pony.

Looked around field... eyes had swept half the field and were confused by the ginger thing at the far side of the field beside the swamp...on the OTHER side of the fence.

EH?!

I tied up the haynet for the other 3 (who were totally unconcerned about their bud and hunkering down for themselves...) and walked over...

Yup he was on the other side of a fence that is BIGGER than him!
He was totally calm and unfazed...

Ok, so he has no wounds, cuts, seems ok, not shivering but eating a gorse bush TRYing to hide from 30mph winds.

I gave him a sweetie (which he only gets when he's been a REALLY good boy), went and got haylage, hay and warm water.

I spent a useless half hour trying to find my boltcutters that my husband had NOT put back in their place ( Oh SUCH a long story there...).

Auntie H finished tagging cattle and stopped by (what on earth is she doing tagging cattle at that time on a Saturday!... doesn't she EVER lie in??!!) ... my plan was to open the gate to the swamp, clear the gorse down to Charlot then cut the old fence just before the point the new fence joins it.

The old fence with barbed wire is on Charlots left shoulder in the pic, the strainer post is where it meets the new fence with no barb which is on his right shoulder. The horse in the rug in the background is Spike being an eejit...

So we cut through the old fence, star pony trustingly followed Auntie H over the gorse...

If you look on the right side of the fence... that's where we led the wee fella - from behind the tree at the back of the pic THROUGH the gorse at the front.

Wee soul just followed Auntie H calm as anything.

I kept the others busy while Auntie H got him out the field, trotted him up - totally sound - canna believe it.

Then took him into Steading 3 for a warm drink and a bite of haylage. The things a boy will do for a bite of Geordie's best...

I really don't care as long as the wee ginger pony is in one piece and ok.

That was one HELL of a day...

Auntie Px