Richard's Lent

Not farrier Richard doing his Lent penance by doing his work on his knees but rather taking great consideration of our old man Asyr and his somewhat stiff bones and muscles. Sorry Richard, not the best picture! Flash & Luna were again there to get in the way, grabbing the best bits of hoof trimmings, Luna disappearing with hers only to return 10 minutes later with a soil covered nose and mouth - snacks now stored in the garden to get her through the time until Richard's next visit.

It was taken at exactly 18:00, the start of a particularly respected time in this very catholic area. On Maundy Thursday, the crucifixes and holy pictures are covered as a sign of "visual fasting". In the evening the church bells "fly to Rome" and the church tower clock no longer signals the time every 15 minutes. Until Easter Sunday, the bells are replaced by the village children using things like ratchets to call the inhabitants to prayer.

Richard is a long-standing friend & farrier who used to do the horses but due to circumstances hasn't been able to. Great to have him back for Asyr & Sultan. Rosie is now probably fit enough for us to discuss with Lothar, how we progress. He has done a remarkable job in getting her sorted and this is exactly what he enjoys - problem hooves. There is the problem that when she loses a shoe, Lothar lives 500km away! Two weeks ago Richard luckily popped by and replaced a shoe she had lost but it's not an ideal situation. Richard, being the gentleman he is, again said today he had no problem.

Sultan has gone barefoot over the last few months but today got shoes so maybe we might get to do some carriage driving soon.

Angie had a busy day. In the morning, she took off to Ottobeuren, walking the dogs there before visiting the butcher to collect the bones from a lamb/sheep. Lamb is seldom eaten in Bavaria, not sure why. The butcher normally has to specially dispose of the bones and so has been telling Angie for weeks that he would be very happy if she would take the bones - he must know we have BC's! My daughter Kate, a vegetarian, keeps a few sheep and has just been doing lambing including triplets. She's also heavily involved in animal rescue but she is also very pragmatic and I'm sure will forgive the dogs. Knowing her, when she's next over, I will take the blame, get a brief wave and "Hi" as she dashes past to cuddle the dogs.  

Then at 16:00 she went to the vets in Memmingen to have Flash checked over and dressing changed. The vet was very pleased with his progress. Can now stop all tablets (pain & antibiotics) especially as Flash has vomited the last 3 days, only in the morning and just once, a watery slime. Could be the tablets are causing a build up of acidy fluid overnight.

My highlight was packing up work early at around 19:00 and taking a long bath. A break with tradition (only on birthday & Christmas) but felt good. Richard was still there when I reappeared so was able to show off my "cleansed" personage and wish him a good Easter weekend.