Waste of a Day!

John saw an advert for a horse for sale and rang up about it yesterday, so we went to see it this morning.  We drive for ages around Derbyshire (still my least favourite county, I wonder why that is?)  until eventually we come to a nursing home and ring the woman up and she comes out to meet us.
The mare (Bella) is standing on the yard, with her friend next to her.  We go and greet her and get all the sniffing out of the way.  John has a good feel of her legs (never going down that route again) and then we pause.
Nothing happens.
So in the end I ask the woman if we can see her ridden.
"Oh!" she says, "I didn't bring any tack!"
We start to say we'll leave it then and she says something about perhaps we'd like to come back tomorrow.  I am thinking to myself, 'there's no way I'm coming all this way again,' and hoping John is thinking the same when suddenly she says, "My friend's tack is in the back of the car.  I suppose we could try that and see if it fits." And bugger me if it wasn't a perfect fit!
So then, John gets on the mare, with her friend going ballistic, and sets off up the drive on her.  I pray and pray and pray.  And God says nothing, which I find quite disconcerting.  The woman has brought the gelding down to watch the mare go, but he broncs and gallops back off up to the stables.  'Struth!
Eventually John comes back and looks quite okay on her.  I am trying to see if the mare is dishing but she is swerving from side to side on the track so it's hard to tell.  Then suddenly the horse goes mental, backwards, forwards, sideways, up to the fence, trying to take John's leg off, broncing, all four feet off the floor, until in the end I get hold of her and lead her in.
Eventually we are back on the yard and John gets off and we tell the woman we'll go away and think about it.
Oh, my flipping God!

In other news:  We've been to R and R horsey shop and I've been trying on boots.  I have, to my astonishment, ended up with the most beautiful boots I actually went in for, the Ariat Bromont boots.  They are stunning and the most expensive boots I've ever owned, but they were so comfortable.  I can't wait for Christmas now!

Yummy, yummy!

I've been for a fab hack when we got back.  I went down KL road and met a horse coming the other way.  Barnaby suddenly woke up, as if to say, "Blimey, there's another horse there mummy!"  It turned out to be Chloe on Indie.  We stopped for a chin-wag.  Barnaby's quite fond of Indie actually.

Then we carried on into the village and went up G road to the roundabout.  Barnaby was only too willing to go all the way round the roundabout and come back the way we'd gone, but I insisted we carry on past the senior school.  I'd reasoned that, being a Saturday, it would be nice and quiet up there, so we set off at full tilt past the playing field... where there was a hockey match in full flow.  "Smash!" went the ball against the fence, "Hooray!" shouts the crowd at the top of its voice.  Barnaby, bless him, doesn't bat an eyelid.  I am so proud of him.

We came home through the brook, which was slightly deeper than usual, after all the rain, and carried on home.  Superb hack on a superb horse. 

I love you, Bardy bear.

Jane xx