Ashdown Forest Riding Centre

Very sad times we are going through!! And I think this song says it all!!!

Sinkhole
Last Monday we moved some horses into fresh pasture and Gen found this, while she was looking for Q's shoe.
Thank God that Gen found it because as you can see , this hole was a definite leg breaker for any horses going in it and if a tractor or quad drove over it, it would most certainly cause severe injury to the driver and serious damage to the vehicle.
... I dont know what causes these sinkholes to appear out of nowhere, we have had 2 more showing up in the past😧😮😲
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Sadly it looks as the lockdown will continue till the end of April. But there is hope and some signs that the restrictions may ease a bit or to some extent at least. So lets be optimistic and hope for the best.
Now from the beginning of the lockdown measures on 23/3 , the UK government came out with totally extraordinary financial measures in order to help both business 's and individual households.
And give them credit considering they are facing an monumental task , the nat...ional and local authorities are already coming up with the goods !!! The AFRC , being a very small business , and as it did with the foot and mouth crisis , has been looking at what help is available , if and when we need it . Pretty much all business's , big or small , will only survive that long from its own resources , when facing a force majeure like the one we are facing now. Within 2 weeks of contacting the ESCC and WDC , the AFRC had firm written communications with options available to the AFRC .Personally and for what it is worth , i am hugely impressed from the response and above all willingness to help, from both the ESCC and WDC.
Now the other side of the coin is the totally and utterly shameful behaviour and lack of genuine effort from the high street banks. 8 times now since 23/3 , i have tried to contact our bankers , HSBC and Natwest. With HSBC i am still awaiting a call back , with Natwest the best i got was a contact with a call center in the Philippines , then i got transferred to another call center in India , only to be told that somebody from the lending team for SME's (small medium enterprise ) dpt in the UK will come back to me. I am still waiting !
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WILDLIFE
So far at the farm and on the forest, there is a lot of activity going on . Sadly only one pair of geese have arrived 🦆, 3 buzzards have been seen hovering around🦅 and the fish in the lakes are now coming up the surface which means the water temperature is rising. No fawns🦌 seen yet and so far not many rabbits about🐇. We are hoping to see adders soon as the very warm weather recently should bring them out basking in the fire breaks.🐍

RAIN ( or the lack of it ).
Well we have gone now 37 days without any rain at all and we are only in the middle of April. We went from having the most atrocious weather in Jan/Feb with one storm after another one to really fantastic weather for the last couple of weeks.
On the positive side nature is at its very best now. Where do i start !!! The first bluebells are out (early ),🌾, the fields are full of baby lambs jumping about🐑 wild birds are having a party, what a great ...time for mother nature. Many wild animals on the forest are either beginning to welcome their new babies or bonking like mad to create new babies !!! ( they say the UK will experience a human baby boom next year as well as a huge increase in divorce/separation ) !!!
On the negative side, no rain means the grass does not grow, already the flies and midges have appeared out of nowhere and very early, wasps are out already building nests and the ground on the forest and on the land is now rock hard.
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All our horses , once the lockdown measures were announced on 23/3, went on holiday. It happened that the measures came in force the day we opened the summer grazing fields so the timing was great.
Almost 3 weeks now and all our horses are looking great. The likes of Bertie, Gertie , Benny, Molly, Piglet (i dont mind ) are already looking on the very chunky side . So we are starting to ride them all , 2 or 3 times a week and they spend as much time as possible in, away from ...the grass which is only now starting to reach its maximum feeding value.
Laminitis is becoming a concern for some of them so we must be careful
We are taking a gamble now. at the AFRC. It looks most likely that the lockdown measures will last till the end of April and the best we can hope is a partial ease of the restrictions after that which may make it possible to reopen the AFRC is some limited form.Normally our school horses would be moving to fresh pasture every 2 months depending on the weather /ground conditions.. If it looks that we will be closed for even longer than end of May , there is no point in moving fields . It will only make the horses even fatter and then we could be dealing with potentially serious health and management problems. So we are now planning and hoping to make hay in that 20 acre field. For that purpose , we have harrowed the field and it is being rolled today.. If the gamble pays off , and for that we need some rain VERY SOON, then we will lower our annual hay expense by 75% or so which in these very,VERY challenging end difficult economic times would be fantastic If the gamble does not pay off, then i will be stuffed. What we hope for is some decent rain now and good hot weather for the period end of June to middle of July. .✌️🌞
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Sadly it looks that the lockdown measures in place from 23/3 will continue at least till the end of April and even then , the best i hope so is a partial easing of the restrictions. As we said before , this will be a life changing event for all of us in all aspects of life.
So very very sorry about the human losses thus far . A real tragedy.😞😔😪
And finally a HUGE, HUGE, ENORMOUS thanks to the amazing people working for the NHS 🥰🥰🥰

ASKADORA
Askadora is doing great, starting to go out in the field now so she is very happy .With the uncertainty of when equestrian events can resume , Gaspar is very careful in maintaining a certain fitness with the mare without getting her too fit with no shows coming up. So a combination of flat work, bits of jumping and hacking out is just about right for now.( videos to follow ).

PICASSO
I am very sad to say that Picasso is no longer with us.
Picasso was a great horse, a exciting and fun ride, always trying to please his rider. He came as a young horse from Duckhurst farm, and very soon joined the riding school doing lessons and hacks .Great looking coloured horse, he was at almost 16hh the biggest gypsy cob i have ever had. Over the years , he had a few very nice loan riders and was very happy.... He soon became the leader of the herd taking over from Oscar.
However about 3 years ago he started showing signs of lameness which was due to arthritis. I must say that as the biggest cob in the herd, he did for a long time carry most of our portly riders which certainly did not do him any favours.
The decision to put Picasso to sleep was a very difficult one but the correct one .Arthritis in horses only gets worse and recently he was very far down the pecking order in the herd. The ongoing virus situation creates potentially very serious negative commercial implications for the AFRC as well as so many other business's out there. And very sadly , if the virus outbreak results in all/most high season being lost, then more difficult decisions may have to be made.😥😪
So long Picasso , i hope you had a good life at the AFRC and thank you for being such a loyal, hard working , kind and nice horse.😞😔😢
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What a difference in the weather !!!
We went from one storm into another one , swimming into a sea of mud and now at the farm there is not a puddle in sight and the ground is bone dry !!!
We havent had a drop of rain in more than 3 weeks now, could that be related to the VIRUS ????

Almost 2 weeks into this lockdown now and the yard and the AFRC feels like we have gone into hibernation.
All our horses are out now , they are all very happy oblivious to what is going on in our human world. They are all enjoying a holiday in what should be the 2nd busiest time of the year ( easter holidays )..
End of next week we are going to start riding a few of the younger horses as they still need to be mentally fit and obedient and also laminitis could become an issue... as the weather warms up and the grass reaches its best nutritional value.
We took advantage of the very dry weather conditions of the last 3 weeks or so and managed all our winter paddocks, muck spreading was done in optimum ground conditions so we are well ahead in our farm maintenance schedule.
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We are so lucky to have an abundance of grazing so the majority of the horses can be turned out and have a well-earned break during this crisis. We were getting the fields ready last week and the horses knew what was coming - here is little Geronimo saying 'can we come in yet?' and here they are happily grazing a day later 😋

Well done Tilly and Coco observing the social distancing rules 😍🥰😂

We are now into the first week of this terrible lockdown business due to this dreaded virus and who knows what the future holds . Sadly we all know that matters will get a lot worse before they get better in every aspect of our lives.
Now to start with, it would be great if the radio stations stop playing utterly depressing songs like 'if the world was ending now' and instead keep playing jolly, cheerful and yes silly tunes like the monkey song !!!
Now horse wise i am afrai...d the news are very bleak .We have heard that the local horse rescue center is getting more and more inquiries from horse owners who now know that this situation could last a very long time and may not be able to look after their horses .Yes the weather is in our favour now as for the next few months mother nature will provide enough grass to keep these horses, but come August /September with the prospect of fall /winter coming .................... !
At the AFRC , thanks to our correct land management , we will be fine but we are also hoping and keeping our fingers crossed that none of our older horses sustain an injury or ill health. Otherwise very difficult decisions will be made.😞😔😪
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How cute - Piggy and Jaffa share a feed