There's an interesting new smell in the house - tack.  On Tuesday I went over to Helen's and we had a fabulous day.  Smudge, the fourth horsekitten of the apocalypse is doing brilliantly and has grown so much in just a week since I'd seen her previously.  She's now bossing the other cats around and having a whale of a time - there's a huge personality inside a very tiny kitten.  Helen has used her rescue contacts and found Smudge a perfect forever home.  She'll have other cats to play with, an enormous garden, and owners who work from home.  As Helen knows them, it will also be possible to get updates on how she does - which is lovely. 

After we'd had a coffee and coo-ed over Smudge, we headed across the farm, first up to the lane and the fields near the barn, with the farm dogs in tow.  These are all rescues too, and once again, it's difficult to put into words how lovely it is to see dogs who've gone through unimaginable cruelty (I won't even begin to describe what one of them had suffered) having a wonderful time in the sunshine, running, playing, jumping in puddles, and generally having a perfect doggy time.

Our first stop was Helen's Lusitano mare, out in the field with Bryn, the Friesian.  Bryn looks like a gorgeous cob, big, black and with a crest, a long mane, and feathers.  As Helen's pregnant, she's not riding at the moment, so the horses are enjoying being out at grass.  However, after the birth the plan is for riding to re-commence with me joining in on either Bryn or his fellow Friesian Eeyore.  Helen's mare is lovely and came over for cuddles and did that nice horse thing of tickling you all over with her lips and amiably chewing your head. It was unbelievably fabulous to be just messing around with the horses, I hadn't realised how much I missed it. After a while we left them and carried on up past the barns and set out on a trek across the land to another field.  It was  a gorgeous day, though slow going through the mud in places. On the way, Helen was pointing out different crops, a wood they own, we had a look at the cows and all the way, the dogs were a constant joyful presence. 

Eeyore, the other Friesian had been moved to live with another horse, a very young Lusitano colt who's a bit scatty still and needs a fatherly guiding hand around.  Both Eeyore and the colt were boxed, though the colt actually had a large, almost school size area and it was immediately clear he had stunning paces and real star quality.  When he matures he will be a very special horse. We got some hay for the horses and checked their water and stood and had a chat and a neck scratch.  Horses are surprisingly sociable and enjoy human companionship (if its someone they know well)and are always very interested in what's going on.  Eeyore and Bryn are semi-retired but the sort of light hacking they'll be doing next year, with perhaps the occasional Veteran class will be something they can enjoy as a change of scene and an opportunity to socialise with other horses etc very much as we do with Boola when we go to events. 

We slowly strolled back and just as we were returning to the farm buildings met Matt the gamekeeper, driving a wonderful 1948 vintage tractor laden with some feed for the cows.  We stopped for a chat, then picked up Eeyore and Bryn's tack.  When they arrived with Helen, it coincided with the a busy time for her, so the tack needed a good bit of TLC.  I've offered to bring it home and go over it - I like cleaning tack, and I love the smell of it - a very pleasant mix of horse, leather, saddle soap and neatsfoot oil.  I keep saddle soap and neatsfoot oil here anyway as we use it regularly on the dogs' muzzle straps which are leather. 

Coming home was a bit of a faff as for the past few days we've had the BBC in the street filming Casualty.  The story is that a gas main will explode while some workmen are digging so they've dug an enormous crater, and each morning the street fills with millions of extras all wearing very convincing makeup to show their injuries.  As well as these, there are masses of security folk, ambulances, fire engines, cherry pickers for high shots, lighting rigs, lots of people with down jackets and clipboards running around, and a huge quantity of ironing boards. All day, fake drifts of smoke keep coming across the garden, and all we can hear is the loudhailer organising the shoot, and counting down to "Action!".  As part of the effects of the explosion, they've actually put false fronts on some of the houses, very cleverly, to mimic broken windows and other similar damage.  It's not a programme I've watched for years, but it will be interesting to see this episode.