Rear view

The Upgrade has had an upgrade. And so has Bert. He’s getting too big to be on the front seat next to me. Bless him, I keep hitting him in the head when I change gear. The Upgrade has a much bigger boot than the Comedy Car, so it’s time for Bert to graduate to the rear.

In order to do that, I had to get a dog guard fitted. Ordered a posh boot liner too. The dog guard said it was easy to fit. No tools needed. 10 mins max. My arse!! Whoever wrote that was very optimistic to say the least.

I started last night. After much huffing and puffing, I got the boot liner to fit, so I started on the dog guard. It took me 20 mins and a screwdriver to do step 1. So before I threw the bloody thing on the floor, I quit.

Today saw Round 2. I looked liked I’ve been in a wrestling match by the time I’d finished. Honestly, I needed about 5 hands to sort it. And a hammer! There may have been a bit more huffing and puffing. There was definitely a lot of swearing!

Still I got it secured in the end. Let’s see if Bert actually goes in there now. Thankfully I have years loading horses, there must be similarities. Right?! Fingers crossed he enjoys the rear view…

Boot of shame

You’ve heard of the ‘cone of shame’ well I think this is the equine equivalent – the ‘boot of shame’. Poor Buddy.

He’s trotted up lame today. Not hopping but definitely uncomfortable. Slight heat in his off fore. Messaged my farrier, Zak and luckily he was in the area, so popped in to see us.

Nothing obvious showed up. So looks like it’s either an abscess or he’s bruised his soul. He’ll keep the shoe off for now. And poulticing for the next few days.

Repair shop

Today has been an odd sort of day. The repair man came to look at my horsey washing machine this morning. Sadly it’s beyond repair. Several metal bits sheared so proper job. 😔 He was amazed it had lasted as long as it had.

So the hunt is on for a replacement. And form a cunning plan to get the old one out of my utility room without the need to remove the door or fridge / freezer. It’s rather compact you see. The utility room, not the washing machine.

This afternoon, I picked up my riding boot as the zip had gone on it. Cracking job done and a bargain too!

So not all bad. The kittens were boycotting the outside world today. Obviously the rain stopped play. Hugo really does make me laugh. He does like to sheep in the weirdest positions.