It’s lunchtime,\u00a0it’s so quiet that a veil of complete and utter silence hangs over the valley.<\/p>\n
Except for the twittering of the birds in the wood over there.<\/p>\n
The view on three sides of me is green and arable; open fields stretch down and away from the hill I’m standing on.<\/p>\n
Behind me is the American Barn (stable block) and the lorry park.<\/p>\n
I’ve taken a half-hour lunchbreak (even though it’s 15.00) to check on the health and wellbeing of my boys – Beech and Vin.<\/p>\n
The fly that’s been stalking me since I climbed out of the car is in for a shock if it gets too close.<\/p>\n
Anyway…<\/p>\n
Beech is fed up.<\/p>\n
He doesn’t understand why he’s shut in his stable as though he’s a naughty schoolboy, grounded for overstepping one too many marks, when he hasn’t done anything naughty and it’s wonderful weather outside.<\/p>\n
So I tried to explain that having a fractured leg meant no running, jumping or larking-about outside with Cousin Vin, but it does mean he has to stay in and try to not move too much… but he doesn’t get it.<\/p>\n
He’s adopted an expression of puzzlement crossed with frustration; it suits his mood very well.<\/p>\n
But he’s wearing a couple of sliced apples.<\/p>\n
On the inside.<\/p>\n
My fruit-based gesture of goodwill seems a little pathetic, particularly when I see him stumping around his stable with his floor-length Robert Jones Dressing on his near foreleg.<\/p>\n
Vin was also pleased to see me.<\/p>\n
As I walked down to his field he lifted his head, pricked his ears and made little whickering noises as he strode purposely towards me.<\/p>\n
He looks good; keen, fit, healthy, raring to go and he shows no ill-effects from Saturday’s workout at Hilltop Cross Country.<\/p>\n
I’ve trotted him up in the field, just to check he’s not lame after suffering the cut to his coronet band on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Thrilled to see him move with his customary athleticism and no sign of tenderness.<\/p>\n
Vin too is internally wearing a couple of sliced applies.<\/p>\n
There’s a dressage competition over at Swallowfield on Saturday that I’m taking him to; Prelim 10 and Prelim 18.<\/p>\n
Two more dressage tests to learn.<\/p>\n
It’s very hot this afternoon.<\/p>\n
Vin now has a sheen of fly repellent but my stalking bluebottle doesn’t seem to be particularly repelled.<\/p>\n
I think I hate flies.<\/p>\n
I need to go now.<\/p>\n
I’ve been super-productive, got lots of work done today that I would still be struggling with, had I been in the office.<\/p>\n
But I’ve got lots more to do.<\/p>\n
The temptation to tack Vin up and school him in the arena for 20 minutes pops in to my head but I look down at my running-short-clad legs and dismiss the idea instantly.<\/p>\n
I get in the car, start up, put the air-con on full blast and pull slowly out of the yard.<\/p>\n
Bugger me.<\/p>\n
That bloody fly’s in here!<\/p>\n
Be afraid, be very afraid… <\/em> It’s lunchtime,\u00a0it’s so quiet that a veil of complete and utter silence hangs over the valley. Except for the twittering of the birds in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"