Fires, floods and the plague

This last week has been pretty hectic. On the 31 January we went into a 5-day lockdown that lifted on Friday night after no further cases of Covid in the community. On Monday (the 1st of Feb) afternoon, a massive bushfire sprang up in the hills and took days to get under control. 86 Homes were destroyed, thousands of people were evacuated, and countless animals had to be moved.

We know several people who lost their homes and had close friends in immediate danger. We looked after a friend’s pony overnight and supplied information updates to another friend to keep her family in the loop about the fires progress. It was a horrible time, thankfully we were never in danger but worrying about friends still took a toll.

We had a tropical low blow through from Saturday dump a heap of rain on us over the weekend which was welcomed by everyone. It put the fire out, turned the weather cool and gave us some much needed rain. It’s a relief for us all down here in the south. Up north though this system has caused extensive flooding. Like I say, its been hectic!

Henry is still out of work, though his back feels much better. He has developed some sores where his saddles sit and while they are healing it is taking its sweet time. I’m not sure if the two issues are related, but I need to reschedule the physio and his saddles have been refitted so hopefully once the hair grows back we can get cracking again. For now I am lunging him a few times a week just to keep him moving and give him some attention. I am really missing riding him, and the smoocher can’t quite understand the time off but he’s a good boy and mostly chilling in the paddock.

Since I don’t want to take any time away from riding, Coolie has stepped into 4-5 days per week. Most of that is spent trail riding, and we have started jumping once a week. This seems to suit him very well, I don’t do any dedicated flatwork with him, but he is expected to do something in the bush and jumping, so he is still using himself correctly.

He has been enjoying himself, coming up to me first in the paddock and bouncing around everywhere. I am hoping to get to a few comps on him this year all things going well, though it’s hard to plan between how I might be feeling and covid restrictions. My plan is just to enter what I want and withdraw if I need to. I have booked a lesson on him this weekend, I am so ready to get out and about.

I really want to plan a few things with Henry, but I am being patient and giving him the time he needs to come good again. I have a feeling we have at least another 2 weeks out of the saddle at this rate. It sucks but this is the best time for it to happen, and the best year too. Hopefully we will pick up right where we left off and can be out and about in no time!