So, Becks and Grace now live with me, Andrew, Chakra & Eddie the dogs, and Evan the cat, on 5 acres at Castlereagh, NSW. I know, right? It's awesome. The days are long, I get up before the sun does, but to have them here at home with me is a dream come true. Natalie comes over maybe twice during the week and then every Saturday and sometimes Sunday too. We have ridden Grace two more times since we got here (taking it very very slowly), and we have taken her out on the roads in hand or ponying off Beckham quite a few times now too, to expose her to traffic and dogs and pushbikes and trucks and rivers and other horses running along fence lines and goats and trails and motorbikes.... she deals with everything really well, super proud of her. She is so funny... when push or motor bikes go down our street, Grace runs to the front paddock and chases them along the fence line like a dog! She is just shy of 15hh at the wither now. (15.1hh at the hip, she's quite bum high!)
Beckham is doing really well too. He LOVES sharing a paddock with Gracie and grazing all day long. There are acres and acres of trails surrounding our property, plus quiet roads and a river close by. Becks doesn't mind going out by himself too much (He still neighs his head off for Grace though). The other day I was cantering down a trail on him on our way back home and he was so connected, so light in my hands and under me, he was totally off the forehand, I have never felt him move that way before - impulsion, self carriage, hocks underneath him... just amazing. I never get that out of him during schooling. He was just so happy.
We have kangaroos that visit our back paddock and try to jump in front of our cars at night. I was out on a trail ride and I saw about 30 of them all grazing in the back paddock of the motor bike race track around the corner. They all started to hop away together (thank God Becks is so quiet!) and it was just so graceful.
Even the puppy dogs love it here. They need to be locked away in their dog pen for long periods of time during the day when we are at work and at night (bush full of ticks and snakes on one side, giant bull mastiffs on the other and very little vet-bill finances) but they come out every morning for about an hour and they stay out for about 3 or 4 hours at night. Lucky they are old, disabled dogs, otherwise they would go stir crazy.
The cat has become an indoor cat, only going out for short periods of time to chase and eat bugs. He's on a diet right now as he got too fat!
So horses are wonderful. Funny that I still don't ride anywhere near as much as I want to though, even though they are right there.
More pictures? Ok.
(If only she had grown a longer neck...)
(Cutie pops!!)
(Not long after he first arrived - the move was hard on him as Grace came 2 weeks later and he lost a bit of weight. He wouldn't drink for 5 days! I was forcing the water down using the hose in his mouth, and soaking his feed. We had to borrow a pony for company for him.)
