Pearl is heading off this season to be serviced by a Bundaberg Shire stallion, Southern Cross Spitfire. All was prepared the night before for Pearl and Rebel’s stay up North, feed instructions, bug spray, mite spray, sun creme, scoop, measures, wormers and feed were stacked/packed ready for loading. We were ready to say good bye, hoped she and Rebel would load well and headed off to bed with the camera charging, ready for the morning.

Friday 6.45am and it’s raining! Now normally we’d be rejoicing the rain, but today, of course it rained today, because we were trying to load a fretting mum and her 4 week old baby into a strange float, with strange men, with strange smells, in the driveway (which Pearl was not used to being in), in the rain.

Ever worn glasses in the rain? they fog, they distort your vision through the droplets and then it dribbles around the nose pieces into your mouth – most unpleasant especially when you don’t know when you are going to be able to clear them. So where is my hat, I hear you say…… the rearing, back peddling, side swiping, stamping, slipping, tripping six foot tall horse (when standing still), removed that in the first 5 minutes. So totally saturated, dripping glasses, muddy ropes, squished toes, panicked baby and 3 other dedicated horple’s (horse people) (owner of the stallion in Bundaberg, Deb’s father, Bob and my husband Dale) we kept bringing her around and leading her in again and again with a bewildered, wide eyed Rebel standing to the side with Dale.

After an hour she finally loaded and Rebel was quick to hop up with her out of the rain, the packed gear was loaded, the ramp was up and they were finally on their way. With a small tear we contemplated what life for the next month will be without them but the excitement of next years foal makes it all worth while. In retrospect an hour isn’t bad given stories we’ve heard of 3 hours or more, injuries, damage etc.

And how many photos did we take?????…. just one of course as the truck was about to leave….. ?