With the massive disappointment last weekend, discovering Pearl didn’t fit into our trailer, our hopes of getting Pearl and Rebel to the vet seemed slim. But in organising the hay delivery for a Saturday morning our bloke said he knew a guy that might be able to help us with the trailer. So we were looking forward to the weekend… If you had asked us how much you can fit into a weekend on Friday, we’d not have thought of half of the tasks we ended up doing by Sunday evening.

It all started with the usual Saturday morning routine……

5.00am – feed the menagerie, open pens, walk the dogs and check that everyone was accounted for and happy, no surprises until discovering 3 large creatures in places they should not have been.

5.30am – Obviously a fence had been trashed somewhere so the race was on to capture the wayward three, wake Dale, check the horses for any injuries, see what they had stepped on during their excursions and then fix the hole before the 6.15am hay delivery arrived.

5.45am – Surprise surprise none of the wanderers were interested in leaving behind all this newly discovered grass so halters were donned and with leads attached the struggle to entice them back through unfamiliar areas was an event in itself, but along the way we soon discovered the trail of destruction where the chook pen fence used to be…. trailing wires, twisted mesh and bent posts greeted us and the time to fix was getting shorter by the minute…..

6.00am – OK horses secured in the front paddock and we’re frantically pounding in new posts, threading new wire and unrolling mesh ready for clipping up. 5 posts in and the hay guys arrive so Dale’s off to unload and stack bales…. so 3 more posts to do, then fight the wire through each post, get spiked as the mesh roll re-rolls itself despite the brick holding the edge in place, small moment of joy in an otherwise disastrous morning, discovering the clips and pliers were exactly where they were left and ready for action, (had to be at least one win to crow about) then get clipping.

6.45am – Dale is still busy with the hay guys and our next appointment, the trailer guy, was due at 7.00am to inspect and advise on modifications for us… I’m covered in dirt, grassy horse slobber, scratches that were slowly beading with blood and here I am still in my PJ’s as we never did get back to the house to change or have breakfast. So a few more clips to go and I should be able to shower and make us both a coffee….

7.10am – no shower happening or breakfast. As I am walking back to the house the trailer guy arrived, Dale was finished with the hay so the both of us, grotty and sweaty, presented a rather smelly picture for the poor guy. He was however forgiving and also informative. He too had a mate that just might be able to help us get Pearl to her AI appointment despite our trailer woes so he was off and we were quite pleased with the situation so far until realising the time…. 7.40am and we had to be on the road by 8am to deliver the car for it’s service and then on to the dentist on the North side by 10am.

7.45am – cereal eaten whilst standing at the kitchen sink, showers done and presentable again in record time but coffee was left in the cup as it was too hot and we had run out of time.

8.10am – heck we’d forgotten about the car.. still had to drop it off on the way out to the dentist, back to the house for the keys and finally we were on the road. Quick hi hello to the car mechanic and back on the road again fighting Ipswich road, Saturday traffic and the ever increasing mad city drivers. Amazingly we actually arrived at our appointment with 10mins to spare. What a morning! Dentist gave us both the all clear and our trailer guy called to advise his mate could come Sunday to see about the horses…. so we were free to do what we wanted the rest of the day. Shopping!

BCF.. what a great store… we ended up buying a few goodies and despite the crazy morning we enjoyed the time perusing the RV accessories… Expensive, but loads of ideas. Lunchtime came and went and when heading home we decided to drop into a friends place to see their trailer and how they had fitted it out for their heavies… unbeknown to us they were in the final preparations for hosting a 50th birthday party. Despite our unannounced visit they were more than informative and gave us more of their time than they should of. As usual the heavy horse people are marvellous, nothing is too much trouble and always willing to impart some of their wisdom at a moments notice. We certainly learnt loads of things in that hour which kept us thinking and talking through the rest of the days chores on arriving home, settling the menagerie for the night. And I was pleased to see the fence was still standing!

Sunday.. another early start and 7.30am the trailer guy and his mate arrived who came up with the simple solution.. remove the internal horse bails and load the horses that way. I wasn’t sure this was safe but he then afforded more of his time and showed us how it was done. 15 mins and Pearl was loaded with Rebel jumping in 2 mins behind her. So with that simple demonstration we could plan to deliver Pearl and Rebel to the vet without further delay. Amazing what an hour with these talented people can produce. Hopefully our bookings phoned through will be confirmed and we can co-ordinate the driver, the vet (semen arrived last week) and the horses for a Monday delivery and the trailer modifications can be done in between drop off and pick up.. sorted!

Still our day wasn’t done.. we had to prepare the 2nd shed bay for the other half of the hay delivery next Saturday, clear the steel, pickets and equipment from the trailer reversing area ready for transport, re-arrange the shed to store the steel, pickets and equipment, prepare horse feeds for next week and complete a few other chores whist we had the tractor out and working. Come dusk we were still out finishing up but despite the hectic weekend, it’s been rewarding on so many levels. Now I just have to convince the boss I need to leave work early on Monday so that I can load and transport a horse to the vet….. ahhh but that’s Monday morning’s task, it’s time for dinner and relaxing for the rest of this Sunday.