At our May meitheal, we helped with some fencing along the boundary of a rough and rocky field, and Henry took a central role again, as he was the one carrying all the fence posts up the hill. We were given the loan of a pack saddle which worked very well, as it fixed the posts securely onto the sides of the horse. It would have been a lot of hard work to carry these posts with human power. Henry didn't really start to sweat. And after all the work he did for us, he even helped us carrying our tools back home again.
The asddle was bought in France, and it looks like it could have been used in the army. It looks quite old and is incredibly heavy, but it does the job!

See here for more photos from the day.

This morning, finally, Winnie's 4th foal was born. She was as secretive as ever, and gave no clue to me, and of course I missed the event...But once out and about it was difficult to overlook him, even from the distance of our upstairs window, with his wonderfully bright white patches shining in the grey drizzly morning light. He is all well and stalking around clumsily, sometimes following the dog or a stray hen instead of his mum, but he'll work it out! By the looks of it, he'll have at least one blue eye, plenty of white, and the same fluffy velvety brown patches like his mum. Unfortunately, he will not be able to stay after weaning in October, and he will have to move to a new home...But first of all, we'll have a few months ahead of us to enjoy him looking as lovely as foals do...

It's about time for the new foal! All going well, we should have a new arrival in the next few days. Winnie finally started her maternity leave, but not really enjoying the time and space on her own - too boring! She'd better make the most of the peace, soon she'll be busy enough.

And it's about time I reported that the triticale is up and growing! Despite the wet and cold and the rabbits, the field is definitely turning green. We had to put up a rabbit fence though, as they really loved the sweet tender blades of green...