Warming up

This is Whisper. He's almost 17 years old and usually a most competent jumper. In fact my heart pops into my mouth when I just look at photos of the fences he can clear! Here he's warming up before going into the ring to compete properly. He's being ridden by my god daughter Louise ( who also happens to be Mary's aunt ) who will soon be moving to a farm nearer to me in the West Country with her husband ... quite soon actually as they get the keys next Saturday. I'm very excited for them, tho they're a bit overwhelmed themselves! They'll be very much missed by everyone up here in the Midlands tho.

Anyway, Whisper very annoyingly knocked a pole off a jump in both classes he was in, so we loaded him up, went back to the farm, tacked up another of the horses there and took them both off for a hack through the woods.

The conversation that took up most of our ride was about TB, as it is spreading through the area and has arrived at the farm now - 4 cows were taken away to be slaughtered at the weekend. We mulled over why badgers have been singled out as the culprits when deer are just as likely to carry it ... then suddenly I noticed a herd of deer trying to blend in with the trees as we rode past, hoping we wouldn't see them. All eyes on us, imploring us not to blame them. Personally, I think it's time we had a vaccine .. but then, we have a vaccine for foot and mouth but we don't use it in Britain ...