combine harvesters, dusty air and a haircut

August 2nd..what happened to the 1st? Since the last entry I've been running and cycling and of course working with the resident horses or more to the point weight watching the fatties. I'm pleased with Willow...his COPD apart he's the most slim he's been for years and full of his little rotund hippo-like self as a bonus! Maria took him out for a short ride and said he almost scurried up the lane and was pulling like a train.This is more like the Willow we know. So here's a huge thanks to all at NAF for their help and wonderful products, helping Willow through the annual laminitis season.
So what else? Well the combines are out and about which means we're not! bloody great gargantuan metal monsters grinding and crunching and rumbling from field to field so we can have our daily bread/ sack of horse nosh...okay thanks where it's due and I know the days of gentle idilic horse drawn threashing machines are long gone...but meet one the big modern machines when you are either riding, horse or cycle, or worse on foot and it's dive for the ditch mate! I know when I'm beaten and these monsters are my worse nightmare as a cowardly non-traffic proofed rider.

With the combines comes the air that is almost gritty. The ever present gloomy cloud holding all this dust low down to the ground. Poor old Willow - yes him again - and others with COPD including us longer in the tooth humans - all with raspy throats and voices a 20 -a-day man would be proud to own. Roll on the end of harvest but please can we have some decent warm summer first.

I spent 3 and half days up at the 3 counties showground  from Wednesday last week. I was there as a spectator on my 'busmans holiday' dreaming and glorying in the National Arab Horse Show...
Such bliss to see these exquisite horses but it was so cold there! We had our little caravan on site so were considerably better off than many who were in tents. The wind was wickedly chill and the evenings and mornings gloomy. When the sun came out it was glorious but it didn't grace us with it's presence for long on any of the days. While there we rubbed shoulders with some very well known celebs including Rolf Harris, Susan George and Simon McCorkindale and  Anthony Head - it's rapidly becoming a who's who of the show biz world! My own mundane life seems flat on return and I've come back with a cold to make things worse. So it's back to daily running and core exercises to keep fitness levels up for future fundraising events and back to poo picking at the sanctuary with  the thought that autumn is only a few weeks away now.
I've had a bit of a make over - not before time as little kid were running to hide behind their mothers on sight of me lumbering towards them! The once almost white barnet is now multi coloured and I think I look like I'm wearing a small skunk on my head, a tad Cruella DeVille-ish - come to think of it small children may still run and hide !
My footnote is the usual plea for funds. HELP The situation as I write is that we are almost broke. I'm all out of ideas how to get funds behind this charity and all out of energy. If you can donate follow the website link http://www.emwuk.org.uk and then go the donate.