the fencepost tortoise

While stitching up the hand of a 75 year old Somerset farmer, who cut it on
a gate while watching horses charging about , the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually, the topic got around to Gordon Brown, his appointment as Prime Minister and his delusion that he commanded the armed forces.

"Well, you know," drawled the old farmer, "this Brown fella is what they
call a fencepost tortoise."

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a fencepost
tortoise was.

The old farmer said, "When you're driving along a country road and you
come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's called
a fencepost tortoise."

The old farmer saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued
to explain:

"You know he didn't get up there by himself, he definitely doesn't belong
up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just
have to wonder what kind of idiot put him up there in the first place."

Thursday - Chilli comes home :)

Sarah is bringing back ring-bearer extraordinaire Chilli later today.
Jenny and Georgie are arriving form the heart of the West Country - well Cornwall anyway. Show entries are coming in.

Hannah's Ren is definitely back :)

A hogged Riker looks awesome.

Puppies are running riot


Thought for the day

'Every path has a few puddles.'

and the sign


Hotel, Zurich:
BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE.

Bin day............

Wednesday - Bin day and farrier day and rainy day apparently.

Tuesday - Hazel - vet student has settled in very well - the two armed Tora was on fine form - Hannah was power dressed and looked good on it. It was Lou and my 7th anniversary. Chris from Canada sounded chippa. Ren seemed fine - JC a little less three -legged.

big day today with horses in and out for Nigel.

thought for the day

'The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every morning'.

and the sign

Tokyo hotel's rules and regulations:
GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIOURS IN BED.

Good news form Canada that Boyd Leslie is on the mend.

Good luck to Cat and Emma today on their Alpaca training day. To Wills on his strimming and mountain climbing quest. To Tora on her 'I've now got use of both arms - officially day'. To Ren on a quick recovery.

Busy day at the Stud today with lots of comings and goings............

Enjoyable evening spent last night digesting curry - learning about the latest alternative approaches to swine flu cures - peg breaking and ruffling about - you had to be there.

More to report later.

Thought for the day:

'Always drink upstream from the herd.'

And the sign.

Doctors office, Rome:
SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES.

And then it was Monday

The weekend flew by........


And it's day off day.

But for the lovers of thoughts and sings here are a couple to keep you going.

'Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in.'

and

In a cemetery:
PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY BUT THEIR OWN GRAVES.

Too late now Johnny :)

Sarah turned up and on time !

What a great day - glorious weather, great company , awesome setting, handsome groom, stunning ring bearer. good speeches, sumptuous hog roast and a room of desserts. just the perfect day.

the great chilli did his ring bearing wonderfully ably assisted by Kate his handler and was the best dressed and turned out man there.

Thanks to everyone for making Lou and I so welcome.....looking forward to seeing you all either at our BBQ and band bash or on Mabel day.

Not much more to add really. don't think I've forgotten anything.
oohppssssss

Oh yes, the woman in white. Beautiful, happy, scarily on time and dare I say it totally in charge. Sarah was the belle of the ball, the princess of the party and loving it :) Johnny did good too :)

Thanks to Hannah and Tora and anyone else who recaptured the escapees, fed the masses and kept TMS going yesterday. Very much appreciated.

adieu mes amis.

Thought for the day:


Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.


And the sign......

A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest:
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON OUR BLACK FOREST CAMPING SITE THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, FOR INSTANCE, MEN AND WOMEN, LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE.

Ding dong the bells are going to chime.........

"They're getting married in the morning. "

Have a wonderful day Sarah and Johnny from all of us here both two and four-legged.

PS - good luck to Chilli too

Fingers crossed for Lady A

Everything crossed for Lady A this morning. Lets have a positive scan our kid ...............:)

Thought for the day.

It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.*

.....and the sign.


Hotel, Yugoslavia:
THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID.

Dinner in Devon

Today was meant to be spent driving to Bodium to watch the CRI and then heading back West to Devon for dinner with Heather Moffat.

Hula was scanned and pronounced ready to breed which meant we had to stay on to collect Riker which sadly put the trip to Bodium out of the question. But we were able to get ourselves off to dinner.

Heather and her colleague Laura were great company, hold very similar views to our on on horse management and care and are to promote our range of feeds. This is a significant step for the feed company and we are delighted to have the support of leading figures in the industry.

Thanks to Hannah and T for looking after the yard.

Entries for the show are coming in and lessons for the clinicians are beginning to get some momentum.

Thoughts for the day.

'The best sermons are lived, not preached.'

&

'If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.'

and a sign .............

A laundry in Rome:
LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON HAVING A GOOD TIME

Good luck to all at Bodium

CRI today - good luck to all taking part.

Lou is now a fully qualified micro chipper - dogs, horses, saddles and any other moving object including boyfriends and husbands.

Splash is back giving lessons .............

Tora had a really good lesson yesterday .....didn't lose too many chocolate biscuits.

Charlotte is getting ready for pony club camp and Sarah is getting the divorce papers finally sorted :)

Many congratulations to Kate and Leon who tied the knot last weekend - apologies for not getting to the reception but our day was scuppered by a traffic jam on the M5

Robert missed the nod in the photo finish at Beverley and I didn't get my stake back :)

Ah well such is Mendip life

Clinics and lessons in western week are filling up at a good pace.

A couple of thoughts for the day

'If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging'

'Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment'

and a sign or two ..............

In a Bangkok temple:
IT IS FORBIDDEN TO ENTER A WOMAN, EVEN A FOREIGNER, IF DRESSED AS A MAN.

In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery:
YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY

Intelligent Horsemanship in the deluge

Sunday was full of rain and sun - mostly rain when it mattered. But being very British we just got on with it. Monty and Kelly came over to do some filming in preparation for the 'Willing Partners' tour later this year. Katie from Intelligent Horsemanship was responsible for the filming and interviews. The rain was responsible for us all getting wet.....Monty did his stuff as only he can, Kelly hers, Pie and Copy too...... A great day was had by all.

Thanks to Becky and especially Tora for stepping in and helping us out so things went so smoothly. A one armed Tora is a pretty mean machine :) Thanks also to Ruben, Lady and Private B Riker for their efforts too. Bex you were a star :)

Sarah left here late last night to go home a single woman for the last time - Sarah is getting married to Johnny next weekend with the key bearer at the ceremony being Chilli - for those of you who don't know either Chilli or Sarah - one is tall, good looking and blonde the other is short, handsome,well built and a stallion :) We all send our best wishes to Johnny and Sarah in this important week.

Robert and Vicki came, saw and conquered. Much happiness to them - Good luck to Robert this afternoon at Beverly - (Robert is a professional jockey).

The show schedule and registration forms are now available from the website. Please don't delay in getting these back to us.

Monday is here, our day off .............yee ha.

Saturday nights the night for BBQing

Thanks to all at Wye Oak for making me so welcome..........bob for bacon butties , Chrissie for the hello smile - Dave and Nath for the coffee , Ann and the show team etc ..........had a great time.

Back to base for the Little Orchard BBQ - success in all all departments - Lou and Wills on the food front, Mike and the band on the music and the barman had a good time too. Really great group of folk :)

Busy day today - blog to follow :)

4.00 - are we there yet.

just getting ready to go to wye oak ...................

put the bacon on Bob :)

Western Week &
West of England Open Show
at The Mendip Stud
4th - 9th August

Clinics & lessons with Shane Borland, Lucy Adams, trail clinics with Terrie Heidbrazier, trail rides in the Mendips with Sarah Simmons, tented village, lorry park, go-karting, dog agility demonstration., groundwork evening demonstration.

The Show Featuring: the Lerwill West of England Halter Championships, the West of England Reining Championship, the Tailgator West of England Trail Championship, the Pure Feeds Versatility Challenge & the NFU West of England Pleasure Championship. 18 Classes affiliated to WES. 3 sets of walk and jog classes. Showmanship Classes, Horsemanship Classes.

To download schedule and all other details go to http://www.themendipstud.com/

Mable and Lil in foal.........

Great News on the pregnancy front - Mable and Lil today confirmed in foal.

Well done Chilli & Studley ably assisted by magic fingers Lou :)

Rotten weather ..............

The rain in Spain fell mainly on Somerset.

Its sad to say that the last few day shave been pretty awful. Let's hope the weekend brings a change.

Puppies are going thick and fast - all to a great bunch of folk which makes it so much easier.

Dog agility clubs BBQ and band on Saturday - fingers crossed for them.

Sarah is here working on the youngsters. Lots of lessons too.

Glad to see folk can comment again on my jottings.

to blog or not to blog ........

Apparently the server or something equally technical is stopping you good folk from commenting on the blog - Censorship by default.

Wills is on the case and will come back to you all later today with an update.

Meanwhile - final bits are being put together for the August show and the programme and schedule should be out later today.

Congratulations to Charlotte who yesterday took her fist stallion to the dummy - she did great :)

dogs are out and German B&Bers need feeding

aufwiedersehen

Adoption

On Sunday we were asked by Johanna Vardon of the National Foaling Bank to assist in an adoption. A foal had died at birth in Bridgwater and a mare in Cheltenham.

Mare and foal and respective owners arrived late on Sunday night and the process began. Cat and Sandie - two great vets in the making volunteered to be part of the team.

Sadly and after repeated attempts the mare decided she would not accept the foal as her own. This fostering had not succeeded. Despite our disappointment we all knew we had given it our best shot.

Foal went home yesterday evening and mare too.

Johanna Vardon was brilliant yet again - she is an exceptional person - if you are not a member of the National Foaling Bank I urge you to join - it is such a good cause and needed organisation - £20 a year that's all.

to join go to the NFB website ......

What a varied weekend

Well it was a weekend without a show but a weekend packed with lots of good goings on.

Sarah started here on Thursday night giving lessons to the Maria and her husband - it was Maria's birthday and she went home having had lessons and with 'Bluto' an apricot labradoodle. Great dog to a great home and great people.

And then there was Saturday - a well attended Shane Borland Clinic - the short version Sarah's demonstration on Loni. Lots of different visitors. Too many to name individually.

Brunch on Sunday was awesome especially as it was sandwiched between a starter of the German Grand Prix and a dessert of the first Ashes test.

blog is back :)

our first Deanogram .........

From Deano - live from the euro-tour

'Hey,
We arrived into Amsterdam on thurs night, just as i imagined it. Found a gr8 hostel called the Bulldog which doubles as a coffeshop. Soon as i get in start chattin 2 an austrian air hostest, beautifull i may add. We look round the the red light district which is an experiance in its own. very seedy but i was suprised 2 c familys n lots of women walking around 2. Stayed in a campsite last night jus of Vandersoort. a little beach town with a massive club. Didnt expect to find it but so chuffed i did. Looks quite from the road but what a party @ night! drink and girls a plenty. <
Missin you lots, lots of love x
p.s forward onto any1 you think mite want 2 hear.'

West Coast Shows 2009 - Cancelled.

West Coast Shows 2009 - Cancelled.

The management and organisers of the West Coast Shows for 2009 regret to announce that due to circumstances outside of our control including persistant misleading rumours that there has been insufficient uptake to warrant the continuation of these shows. We extended the cut off date till after last weekend in order to raise entry levels but these were not forthcoming. We have therefore had no choice but to take this action.

Our sincere apologies to those who have paid their entry fees, stable fees, etc. we are sorry to let you down but really have no alternative and hope you will understand our situation. You will all be reimbursed in full. The reimbursement procedure will commence today and should be completed by this time next week. The organisers will be contacting sponsors and other third parties directly.

The Mendip Stud will be announcing details of an alternative show to take place at the end of the Western Week planned for 5th — 9th August. Details of the Western Week and Open Show will be announced in the next few days.

Our thanks and apologies to all those who have given their support.

John, Lou, Jane and the West Coast Team.