West Ilkerton Farm News

2008-06-01T08:41:00.001-07:00

We had an action-packed half term. On Tuesday, Chris' brother, Brian married Suzanne (and about time too!) It was a great day, with a wedding breakfast at Powderham, followed by a coach trip to the marriage ceremony, followed by another coach trip to Haytor on Dartmoor for ice creams and a walk. Lots of family were present, and the grandchildren were bridesmaids and pageboys:

Thursday and Friday were spent injecting all the sheep against Bluetongue (the cattle have got this treat in store next week). George Rhind (who plays rugby, skis, sails....) broke his arm attempting to catch a lamb and spent most of the day with me in casualty, poor chap (poor chap for the time spent in casualty, not the company he kept, you understand). Working with sheep is now officially a dangerous sport. The photo is of Sarah injecting, George marking the injected sheep and Sophie keeping the sheep in the pen. Ironically, the first photo includes a marvellous 'before' study of George's left arm.

Sarah has also been busy making her 'scuffle' vehicle (with Chris' help) this week. She's hoping to get it finished in time for the Riphay scuffle in August. It's a unique combination of old Bedford truck, old Suzuki jeep and old oil tank. So far, nothing has been purchased, except a can of WD40.

On Saturday it was the Exmoor Foxhounds Point-to-Point. Chris has been promoted from car park steward to ring steward. He looked very smart and responsible in his bowler.
Sophie (my niece) and Betty (my sister) were staying with Mum for half term. Sophie was delighted to be re-united with the tame lambs. She sent me these photos of the farm which she took last week. Thanks, Sophie!

Cate, John and William Fade were staying in the cottage for half term. Cate sent us these lovely photos of William and Sophie with armfuls of tame lamb:

2008-04-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally sprung.

Phew! Lambing's over for another year!

Oliver Willerton is on the quad bike with Beetle. Oliver is staying in the cottage this week with Nikki and Richard, his mum and dad. Richard and Oliver have been a great help because they drive the quad bike round the fields every evening to make sure the ewes are with their lambs. This is a very tricky job; like the game 'Pick up Pairs', except the sheep keep moving! Nikki has been putting her nursing skills to good use in the tame lamb department.

All these photos were taken around the farm today (going for a walk with the camera is much more fun than doing the VAT return!)

2008-04-14T12:49:00.000-07:00

Lambing is nearly over (38 more to lamb) and touch wood it's gone very well. We've had a good team this year, with Bernie on his usual 10 days 'holiday', George Rhind as our very capable student, Sarah at home most of the time (with the occasional breaks for parties which couldn't be missed) and Chris and I taking the roles of manager, cook and nightwatchman/woman. Sophie Perks and her friends took after the tame lamb department for a week, which was a great help.

The weather hasn't been particularly kind this year, with hail, thunder and the odd snow flurry, but at least there have been some dry periods so the animals can get warm and dry before the next onslaught.

The first Exmoor foal to be born was found dead in the field after a particularly rough night, poor little thing. The second foal was born today, and seems to be fine. He's a colt foal.

On the subject of horses, Arabella is now recovering from a nasty infection which the vet thinks was Lyme Disease (a bacterial infection caught from ticks). Thankfully, she's now making a slow recovery, aided by injections of mammouth proportions which she bore with incredible good humour (perhaps she was just too ill to protest).

George (Eveleigh) has four black Labrador puppies (all dogs) to sell if anyone is interested. Price negotiable. They were born three weeks ago up in Scotland, but he's probably coming down south for a few days in July and can deliver them to English homes then. George's gundog bitch, Ali, is the mother. The father is a working black Lab. Unfortunately Ali isn't registered because she was a rescue dog, but she's a lovely Labrador and a very good, willing worker with a gentle, biddable nature. Pics to follow, when George can get near a post box.

That's all for now. I'm on night duty, so I'd better go and see what's happening in the lambing shed

The foal which was born today

Any spelling, punctuation and grammatical mistakes in this blog are due to sleep deprivation, not incompetence!

2008-03-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

As we feared, Mike the bull wasn't firing on all cylinders last year. We should have almost finished calving by now, but so far just five calves have been born (all heifers). We replaced Mike with our new bull, Winston, in July 2007 so we'll probably get a surge of calves in April (lambing time) which will cause problems if the weather's bad. Here are some photos of the calves when they were in the back yard while Chris mucked out the shed and gave them clean straw.
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The stags are back on the farm again. On 4th March, we counted 27 red deer stags on Opposite (the field opposite the farmhouse). I took a photo with Chris' camera.
When I was spring-cleaning the holiday cottage this morning, I saw three stags from the window of the master bedroom, so I took a photo of what guests may see from their bedroom. It's usually sunnier than this, of course! Chris saw a roe buck by the track to Barham Field the other day, and took this photo. We seem to be becoming a wildlife sanctuary. It's lovely to see so many deer on the farm, as long as they leave a bit of grass for the sheep, cattle and ponies.

2008-03-05T14:12:00.000-08:00

Chris and Sarah on Arabella & Tempo

Chris didn't want a birthday party, so the Exmoor Foxhounds met at West Ilkerton and we had a party anyway. Our wonderful neighbour, Jim Sanders, collected £1 coins from lots of friends and neighbours and bought a lovely Rowan tree which Richard Leworthy supplied and planted. Many thanks to everyone for making the day so special. Ken Walker made a speech, Jim Sanders sang, and everyone had a good time despite occasional flurries of sleet and snow. We were very pleased that Ada Tucker came. She was born at West Ilkerton and lived here until the farm was sold to my Grandma in the late 1960s. It's always a treat to see Ada at West Ilkerton. I took a photo of her standing by the entrance to the yard (last picture below). The photo at the top of the Farm page of our website http://www.westilkerton.co.uk/ is of Ada standing in the yard when she was about nine years old.

2008-01-15T10:16:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a happy Christmas. We had a lovely time. I've discovered the secret is to delegate. That way everyone does something and nobody feels put-upon. This year I delegated so efficiently that I had very little to do; I conveniently missed all the put-upon vibes from everyone else! There were 13 of us for Christmas dinner, so we split into two tables:

Our nephew, Lawrence, took these photos of Christmas Day, including one of some stags which he saw when he went for a walk after lunch.

Both my New Year's resolutions (to lose weight and write my Lundy story) lasted as long as the dry weather ie 48 hours. George's surprise homecoming for a week's holiday just after New Year provided an excellent excuse to fill the kitchen cupboards with all sorts of goodies and cook huge roast dinners. Then Sarah fell ill with flu, which turned into the sort of tonsillitis which doesn't cooperate with antibiotics. Luckily, she's on the mend now. While she was ill, she lost a stone on my behalf. Does that count? Novelty hot water bottle covers are so realistic nowadays
On the farming front, we weaned the cows and calves about a week ago, just before this bout of heavy rain started. One cow looks pretty close to calving, so I'll let you know when that happens. In the meantime, I'd better chew on a lettuce leaf and write a story....

2007-12-16T03:16:00.000-08:00

It's easy to take Exmoor for granted, especially when I get bogged down with the usual day-to-day things like office work, farm work and (very occasionally) housework. A few days ago, I did a book delivery to shops in the Exmoor area. I remembered my camera (for once) and took some photos along the way. It reminded me how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place. This was a routine delivery trip, not a sightseeing tour! http://www.tortoise-publishing.co.uk/

Porlock Common, looking east (above and below)

Winsford Hill
Brendon Common

Inevitably, I found an Exmoor pony near Chetsford Water!

On the subject of Exmoor ponies, Pippit has been sold to Laura Barbour, who lives near Arington and keeps ponies to work with autistic children. Stardust and Beckham have both gone to a family in Wales, where they are assured a home for life. Unfortunately Jenny and Swallow can't be registered as pure Exmoors, so they're for sale. Please see the Exmoor pony page of the West Ilkerton website http://www.westilkerton.co.uk/ for details. We've let them out to run with the herd for the winter:

2007-11-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

The Exmoor pony handling course was a great success. Five students took part in the course, which was run by Philip and Vanessa Bee of Positive Horsemanship http://www.positivehorsemanship.co.uk/ . Each student had an unhandled, newly-weaned Exmoor pony to handle and teach the 'five foundation skills'.

Two places are already booked for the course in 2008, which will be a long weekend of three days from Friday 31st October, with full board at West Ilkerton. There are four places left, so book now to avoid disappointment.

2007-11-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

It was my turn to be 'home alone' while Chris, Sarah and Nick (Chris' brother) went to Scotland for a long weekend to see George at Ardmaddy. They went salmon fishing the first day (and caught one) and hind stalking the next day (and shot one). On the third day they took the boat out onto Loch Etive. Poor Sarah did all this with her foot broken in two places (she'd been kicked by an Exmoor pony during branding the week before. We thought her foot was just badly bruised, until she took herself to casualty in Exeter because her foot swelled up painfully after she'd been to Scotland!). Here are a few photos of the Scottish trip:

2007-10-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

Here's an update on the Exmoor ponies, by popular request:

The DNA test results have come back. As I feared, the first three fillies born this year are by Swift, not Ziggy. This means that they will be registered as cross-bred foals because Swift was a registered Exmoor but not a registered stallion. Ziggy's only daughter is Christmas Pudding's foal, and his only son is Loving Cup's foal. Unfortunately, the colt damaged his near foreleg when he was young, and it looks as if he'll never be entirely sound on it. So not much luck with the foals this year, but that's ponies for you!

Jack and Harry are proving to be a bit of a long-term project. They have become very friendly, and they're now good at long-reining, but Harry is still frightened of things (like carts and wagons!) behind him. We've gone back to basic training to try to build up their confidence, and we may send them away to be broken to ride this winter.

Ilkerton Shindig, Loving Cup's foal from 2005, was bought by Adele Gregory for showing. Adele sent me a photo of him (below). The other photo is of him at two months old. It seems he still likes to advertise!

2007-09-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

SOLD

FOR SALE: BOWTOP GYPSY CARAVAN

1930s and of Irish origin. Restored and painted in 2005/6 by Nick Dow of Ingham and Fallon

A particularly pretty wagon. I bought it intending to use it to rent out with the self-catering cottage, but it's too special for that, with many unique features like the lovely stained glass windows above the bedspot.

It is in very good order for its age, and is totally weather-proof. The canvas roof is in good condition. The stove is in good working order and draws very well. The top lid can be raised for cooking.

There is a bird-print three-part mattress on the bed (which is unusually large and can be used as a single bed or pulled out to make a double)

We feel privileged to have had the use of the wagon for a couple of years, but we can't justify keeping it for a bit of camping in the summer. The wagon was stored in a dry shed all last winter (October 06 to July 07!) and, if the wagon isn't sold within the next few weeks, it will be stored again this winter and put up for sale next spring at an increased price. The price for buying now is £6,000 plus VAT. Please telephone (01598) 752310 or e-mail eveleigh@westilkerton.co.uk for further information or to arrange a viewing.

2007-09-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

Haymaking in Square Piece
As promised, here are some photos of haymaking this August. Many thanks to Victor, Michele, Natasha and Genevieve Mallet, who thought they were coming on holiday! Victor e-mailed from his usual (paid!) job as Asian editor for the Financial Times to say that he's now muscle-bound and super-fit, which made me think perhaps we're missing a marketing trick here. Could West Ilkerton be the perfect open-air fitness gym? Worth a thought. Haymaking tea in Marleycombe

Anyway, thanks to all the Mallet family, Sam Smyth, James Holtom, Richard Leworthy and Jack Chapman-Walker for their help. Sarah was also a great help throughout.

The final load in Church Close

Sarah has just passed her driving test with full marks. Perhaps it pays to be incredibly nervous beforehand!

I'm in the process of re-designing our website to include direct sales of beef and lamb to anywhere in the UK. Lamb is going to be sold in half lamb or whole lamb packs (cut and packaged to order) at £4.80 / kg plus p&p. Lamb orders can be taken now. There will be a delay of about two weeks between an order and delivery because lambs will be sent to the local abbatoir in Combe Martin and the meat will be hung in the traditional manner for about a week before being packed and dispatched by courier. Beef will be available from December onwards. Please contact me for further details:

Tortie Eveleigh, West Ilkerton farm, Lynton EX35 6QA. Tel (01598) 752310 e-mail eveleigh@westilkerton.co.uk

2007-09-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

The Exmoor Horn Sheep Colouring Book which Chris and I worked on last winter was published this summer, with the help of DEFRA and ENPA funding for the Exmoor Horn Sheep Breeders' Society.
The book follows the farming year of a fictitious Exmoor farmer called Mr Ridd of Worthy Farm, with a picture for each month and accompanying text on the opposite page. It's designed to be 'educational and fun'. Well, we had fun doing it, and several people (including farmers) have said they've been educated! Relations of all ages who stayed here during the summer spent hours colouring in the pictures, which probably only proves what terrible weather we had. Here is a sample of the book, from the month of October:

The colouring books can be bought from us for £3 each with free UK P&P (cheques or cash): West Ilkerton Farm, Lynton, North Devon EX35 6QA Tel: (01598) 752310 eveleigh@westilkerton.co.uk

Other news on the literary front is that we're going to be busy this year at the Porlock Arts Festival. We're speaking at a local authors' afternoon in Porlock Village Hall on Friday 21st September, and then on Sunday 23rd September we are hosting an afternoon for children at West Ilkerton. Full details of the Arts Festival can be seen on the website http://www.porlockfestival.org/ I've just realised that's not very far away now, so I'd better get to work composing the talk!

2007-09-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

West Ilkerton Farmhouse in sunshine!

It's official; the Met. Office has just announced that summer of '07 was the wettest since records began. We could have told them that using our sophisticated puddleometer called Beetle. Many thanks to all our guests for their unfailing good spirits! At least Exmoor was drier than the Midlands and we weren't flooded.

We've just managed to get the hay harvested. The last bales were carted on 31st August, so Chris is very smug because he won the bet that we'd get the harvest in by September. There'll be some photos of haymaking in the next news blog.

Sarah has been a great help on the farm this summer. She's re-built the back yard, done lots of walling and fencing and spent hours driving the tractor. (Yes, she's open to offers of marriage from farmers. However, they must be rich, good-looking and horse-friendly, which narrows down the field a bit!)

Mike, the bull, appeared to have a problem which could have been cured by a much-advertised blue pill. However, we were too embarrassed to order 'enough for a bull' from one of those annoying e-mailers who promise fireworks in the bedroom and similar terrifying experiences, so we took the easier (but more expensive) option of buying a new bull. He's a two-year-old called Lee Manor Winston, and he's got very good bloodlines. The cows seem to approve, which is the main thing.

Luckily, Winston arrived at West Ilkerton the day before foot and mouth disease was discovered in Surrey and all livestock movements were banned, but that's meant we've had two bulls on the farm for most of the summer because we haven't been able to move Mike.

On the subject of breeding, the Exmoor pony foals had a DNA test two weeks ago to see whether Ziggy or Swift fathered them. Here is a photo of the ponies running past the farmhouse to freedom afterwards.
I've decided to sell the gypsy caravan, if anyone is interested. It has been lovely to own it and enjoy it, but I can't afford to keep it. Originally, I bought it to let as an optional extra with the holiday cottage, but it's too nice to be used as a play-house by children. It was made in the 1930s and it's in very good condition inside and out, with lovely stained-glass windows. There will be a full advertisement for the vardo, with lots of photos, on our website http://www.westilkerton.co.uk/. Please e-mail eveleigh@westilkerton.co.uk for further details or ring 01598 752310.

2007-07-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

Sarah has proved to be such a good farm-sitter that we keep finding excuses to go away. This time, Chris and I went to Scotland to see George and deliver Moss, his puppy, to him. George is working as an under-stalker on the Glen Kinglass Estate, north of Oban. It was lovely to see him again, and also to see where he lives and works. The countryside is awesome, and makes Exmoor seem very tame. George has a cottage on the shores of Loch Etive, miles down a rough track from the nearest road, with no neighbours in sight. He has a beach nearby, and is considering buying a sea canoe for shopping expeditions. Ardmaddy is in this photo, but is difficult to spot! It's a small white dot at the edge of the trees in the centre-right of the photo.

Moss (the Cocker Spaniel puppy) settled in very quickly. It's doggy paradise there, with miles of countryside and lots of wildlife. These are photos of Moss exploring her new home, and George with Moss outside Ardmaddy:

George also has a Jack Russel terrier called Midge, who was a bit jealous of Moss to begin with. However, they soon became friends:

2007-06-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

May was holiday time! Chris and I were very lucky to be invited to stay on Lundy Island with Diana Keast, whose father (Martin Coles Harman) owned Lundy from 1925 until 1954. Diana, her sister (Ruth) and her brother (Albion) were then joint owners until 1968, when Albion died. In 1969 the island was sold to the National Trust. It is leased to the Landmark Trust.Chris with Diana Keast on Lundy
The idea was that we could do some research for the story I'm writing based on Lundy. It was a fascinating trip, and we had a great time with Diana and her friend, Bridget. Of course, we did some in-depth research into the Marisco Tavern. Sarah (who looked after the farm very efficiently while we were away) did some follow-up research in the Tavern when she went camping on Lundy with Bicton College a few weeks later.
The weather was fine and sunny on the first day, damp and misty on the second and gale force on the third, so we were air-lifted off by helicopter. Ideal! The only slight problem was that someone (who shall remain nameless) pressed the black & white setting on the camera, which was a great pity because the spring flowers were especially colourful!

I'd better write the book now!

For further information about Lundy, see the website www.lundyisland.co.uk . If you want to book a day trip, don't leave it until the last minute because numbers are limited and the boat gets booked up weeks in advance during the main holiday period.

'I'm just a travellin' fool' (to quote my good friend Marcia) . Four days after returning from Lundy, I went on holiday to Norway with my Mum, Anne. She had always wanted to see the Norwegian fjords, and I now know why. The scenery was truly spectacular. We went on a post boat/small cruise ship called the MS Richard With, run by Hurtigruten www.hurtigruten.com Here is a very small sample of photos:

It's back to work now, with lots to do around the farm, a book to write, loads of farm paperwork to catch up with, two Exmoor ponies to break to harness and a cocker spaniel puppy called Moss to look after until we can get her up to George in Scotland (she's a birthday present for George).

I'm tempted to keep her!
We're hoping that Sarah will be around for a bit during the summer so she can help train Jack and Harry. Here is a photo of Sarah with Harry and Chris with Jack in the yard. Sophie Perks is the groom. One bit of sad news is that Rosie, my lovely old hunter mare, had to be put down last week. She had a bad sarcoid problem which was no longer treatable. Winaway, her foal (who is nearly two) is best of friends with Basil the Shire, so parting from her mum was not at all traumatic, thank goodness. Sophie took this photo of Rosie last spring:

2007-04-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

On Good Friday the first Exmoor foal was born. She's a filly foal. Amanda Howlett (Goldsmith), a good friend from my schooldays at Benenden, was staying in our holiday cottage with her family. Her husband, Mike, took these photos:

The foal's dam is called Claret, and her sire is called ?!

Here is a brief explanation: we had a two-year-old colt called Knightoncombe Swift who ran with the mares until the end of April 2006. He failed his stallion inspection in spectacular fashion when it was discovered he had an undescended testicle, but he could have sired some foals before he was sent to Northumberland to be transformed into a riding pony. Our current stallion, Acreswild Zeitgeist (Ziggy) arrived at the beginning of June 2006. The average gestation period for horses and ponies is eleven months, so either this foal was one week overdue or three weeks premature. A DNA test will probably confirm my suspicion that she's by Swift but, whatever the outcome, she's very beautiful. Yesterday, Ivy also had a filly foal. If the sire is Swift, he obviously made the most of his last days with the mares!

Bernie, our 'Number One Shepherd', left West Ilkerton yesterday after his annual holiday helping with lambing (yes, he is insane, and luckily it's incurable because we couldn't do without him). Other helpers during lambing were Lawrence & Sophie Perks and Alex & Charlotte Howlett. Sarah was really ill with tonsillitis and a ear infection for a couple of weeks, but she's better now and working hard in between driving lessons.

Bernie and Sarah with two newborn lambs: little and large(above)

Chris, Bernie & Sarah (left) Sophie Perks having a ride on Tempo (right)

2007-03-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

The daffodils at West Ilkerton are now in full bloom. I took this photo today because snow is forecast tonight, so tomorrow they'll have frostbite!
It is a very busy week on the farm. The cows and calves have been turned out into the fields, and all the sheds are being mucked out and disinfected ready for lambing. The ewes are heavily in lamb. They are being fed ewe nuts in the fields twice a day, and they will be housed by the beginning of next week.
We are also completing a hedgebank restoration project in Lane Meadow with the help of Michael, Mark and Andrew from Lyn Valley Contractors.
Here are some photos:

2007-03-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

The stags are back at West Ilkerton. Chris has counted 12 in our fields every day this week. Today, he took this photo:

Calving has been fairly sucessful in that all the calves born so far are alive and well. However, to date there have been eight bull calves and four heifer calves. Heifer calves are typically worth about three times as much as bull calves, unless a bull's good enough to keep entire for breeding.

Breeding is now not an option for Beetle (sorry to break the hearts of all those adoring bitches out there!) because he had a trip to the vet to make him 'two stone lighter'. It was a case of being cruel to be kind because he'd started going off courting and the alternative was to keep him locked up most of the time.

The daffodils are out already, and will be over by the time lambing starts on 5th April. I don't know if I can cope with a lambing at West Ilkerton without daffodils to cheer me up!

Talking of cheering people up, I took this photo at Blackmoor Gate Market last Monday, when Chris was selling some sheep. It proves that farmers are a jolly lot who love to get together and have a good time:

2007-02-10T15:18:00.000-08:00

Mike the bull is getting a bit fed up with being confined to his pen. when Chris and Sarah let him out into the yard today so they could clean out his pen, he charged around the yard, dashed into the hay shed and nearly caused an avalanche of hay bales. Perhaps he was just celebrating the birth of his first daughter at West Ilkerton.

She was born on 1st February and she's called Ilkerton Pimpernel. Her mum is Ilkerton Lovage.

We name our cows after British flowers, working one letter down the alphabet every year. This year ought to be O, but (apart from endless different types of orchid) there are hardly any wild flowers beginning with O, so we've cheated and gone on to P.

We've been pretty busy during January and February. The holiday cottage has three new windows: the two large end windows which look over the farm and one side window have been replaced with hardwood double-glazed units which open easily! Hurray!

The kitchen, living room, stair wells and master bedroom have all been repainted, AND we have installed satellite TV at West Ilkerton, with all the free channels plus BBC 3 and 4. Double hurray! Chris has found a channel called movies4men (endless westerns and war films) so he's happy. For the first time ever, we can get BBC south west. This means we now know about all the redundancies, rapes and muggings in our immediate vicinity, rather than getting all the same news about Wales. An added bonus is that we get a good picture even when it's high pressure. Before, good weather used to come at a price: a fuzzy TV. All in all, we wonder why we waited so long to get digital TV (NB it's in the self-catering cottage too.)

The weather has been most peculiar. For a couple of weeks it was incredibly dry and pretty hot (up to 14 degrees centigrade) and then it snowed. The snow lasted about a day, and now it's raining hard.

We hope the weather decides to stop in sunny mode during lambing in April.

2006-12-31T03:20:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!
Love from Chris, Tortie, George and Sarah.
And Anne, in The Tallat.
This was my favourite Christmas card of 2006. It was given to us by Sally and Ian from Barbrook Post Office:

2006-12-30T10:27:00.000-08:00

We all had a good Christmas, and hope you did too.

Chris and Sarah went to the Boxing Day meet at The Station Inn, Blackmoor Gate. Here is a photo of Chris on Bella and Sarah on Tempo. Sarah sprayed the horses' manes and tails with glitter, but that doesn't show up very well.

Three weeks ago a section of roof was blown off the hay barn, and it's taking ages for a replacement section to arrive. Stormy weather is forecast again for tomorrow night (New Year's Eve), so we're hoping the rest of the roof won't be blown off.

The cattle and the yearlings are housed for the winter. Touch wood, their roof is OK. Here is a photo of some of our Devon yearlings.

Jack and Harry (Exmoor ponies) look very wild and wooly at the moment. We hope that a magical spell will transform them into a sleek, well-behaved driving pair by next summer.

Their real names are Dunkery Coaltit and Dunkery Shrike, which is why we call them Jack and Harry!
Jack is four and Harry is three. They are full brothers. So far, we've just been leading them around and long-reining them.

Chris has nearly finished making a wagon for them to pull (it looks a bit like a Meccano wagon at the moment). When it's finished, we'll have to hitch them up, so he's taking as long as possible over it!

Yesterday the sun came out, which was a novelty, so I took the camera on my morning dog walk. I started off going up the back track towards the moor, where I said good morning to Rosie, Winaway, Basil and Tinks.

The ewe lambs were in Marley Combe, and Beetle couldn't resist trying to convince me he really is a blue-blooded Border Collie (right).

I walked up the hill to Cow Field (the photo of Baldrick and Sam was taken there) and then back to our lane and down the hill to the house. I expect it's the standard quick dog walk for many of our visitors, so I hope it's interesting to see what it looks like in winter.

2006-11-26T10:16:00.000-08:00

The Exmoor ponies (Ziggy, Fanta, Sunny and Fizz) had to go out with the mares today because the cows have been brought in for the winter. All the foals had reached the stage where I could catch each of them in the big barn and lead them around or groom them. Their education will continue next summer. In the meantime they'll enjoy running as a herd again. Here are some pictures of their release!

I smell freedom!

Follow me, girls!

Nearly there!

All together again

2006-11-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

This photo was taken at the end of day two of our pony handling course with Vanessa Bee. The three foals were previously completely unhandled, and Ziggy (the stallion) had been handled but was very nervous.
A lot has happened during the past six weeks:

Chris and I celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary with a party in Lynton Town Hall. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and hope everyone else did too. George made a speech and proposed a toast (left) and Chris and I made silly faces whenever we saw a camera (right)

I went to a commercial fiction writing and self-editing workshop run by Cornerstones, which was excellent. If anyone is interested, their website is www.cornerstones.co.uk

George and Sarah came home for half term, with empty tummies and full bin liners of washing. The house is now empty again, and so is the fridge. The washing machine has a headache.

We had our pony branding, and all five foals passed their inspection. The two colts (Cracker and Mungo) have gone to Ann Crowe in Derbyshire. I have kept the three fillies, which are called Fanta, Bucks Fizz and Sunny Delight (because their dad was called Orange Juice).
A week ago, Vanessa Bee came to the farm for two days to teach Chris and me how to handle unhandled ponies. It was an incredibly interesting, and exhausting, two days. We learnt a huge amount, and so did the ponies. Here is a photo of Vanessa showing us how to teach a pony (in this case Bucks Fizz) to tie up without pulling back.

All the ponies are different characters. Fanta is small and very quick. Her first instinct when frightened is to run away, and she finds it very difficult to keep her feet still. Fizz is a fighter. If she feels threatened, she'll defend herself with teeth and hooves. Both these ponies are still very nervous, but with calm handling they're improving daily.

Sunny is very different. Her first reaction when scared is to "plant" her feet and refuse to move. In general, she is much more calm and friendly, and lives up to her name of Sunny Delight. Here she is:

Vanessa has suggested running horse and pony handling courses from West Ilkerton next autumn. If you would be interested in this, do get in touch with us www.westilkerton.co.uk or Vanessa Bee www.positivehorsemanship.co.uk

This is the time of year for livestock sales. Today (6th November) Chris took thirty lambs to Blackmoor Gate market. He took these photos:

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Beetle is a great hit with all our guests. He is VERY friendly and loves to play. We bought him as a Border Collie pup last year, but it quickly became apparent that he's a Bordeline Collie, with quite a bit of (? Jack Russel Terrier? Beagle?) thrown in! He's a good sheepdog (well, good enough for us) but can also turn his paws to ratting, moleing and hunting rabbits. Multi-functional - a sort of doggy Swiss army knife.
Here is a photo of Susan Monkton and her friend, Lauren , with Beetle a few weeks ago. Beetle loved playing with them, and also with Katherine and Molly Stokes who stayed with us for a fortnight after the Monktons.
Katherine and Molly were very fond of the horses, too. Here they are with Sherman.

Katherine has adopted a pony at the Moorland Mousie Trust, www.moorlandmousietrust.org.uk . She and her family went to the MMT centre to see her adopted pony and go for a ride. She sent these pictures:

Wednesday 6th September was a very sad day for us because we took Sherman and Spec to their new home at Mullacott Equestrian Centre. we've heard that they've settled in very well there. We will keep in touch with them and let you know how they're getting on.
Here are some photos of our last trip with them:

Basil is now sharing a field (well, three fields) with Tinks, Winaway and Rosie. Soon they may be joined by two Exmoor ponies, but that's another story. Keep visiting www.westilkerton.co.uk to find out!