Nantgwinau Magic & Nantgwinau Rebecca

The old saying about waiting hours for one bus and then two or three come along at once can sometimes apply to horses! Last week, on successive days, came news out of the blue about Nantgwinau Magic (Nebo Magic x Rhandir Farwel Haf) and Nantgwinau Rebecca (Derwen Desert Express x Nantgwinau Rosina) from their new owners. It is always a great pleasure to catch up with the lives of Cobs that we have bred and we look forward to hearing more about both of them in due course. Magic is now 15 yrs old, doubtless very different from the 6 month old foal who left here so long ago, and has only been at his new home in Bournemouth for a few days - we hope that he and Sharon will have a lot of fun together. Rebecca is now 7 yrs old, full sister to our beautiful black Rachel, and has apparently done very well at in-hand showing during 2009 - including 3rd in the barren mare class at the Welsh National Show. Ridden classes are the target for 2010 so we hope for even more success for her with Kelly.


February was quite busy with B&B guests but cold & dry so the signs of spring were very slow, no chance of daffodils out for St David on 1st March, and the ground like concrete! March very soon turned concrete into mud once more unfortunately and having now switched to Summer Time we are told to expect snow this week - Happy Easter everyone!!

Signs of Spring?

Fog and frost this morning - but yesterday the day started with the sight of the sun rising over the Cambrians before 8 a.m. which means that the days are really getting longer at last. Later on our way to the village we spotted snowdrops starting their annual display on the bank by Capel y Groes, and then some lambs in a nearby farm. Having already seen daffodil shoots and primrose plants on the move at home we are beginning to feel quite spring-like!

The Big Thaw

Very pleased to see the end of January, the last post finished rather too optimistically and we had to cope with 8 days of frozen water pipes! The problem proved to be under the road in front of the house, so we just had to wait for the thaw - it was a very great relief to see the fields turning green once more. Now of course we have mud instead of snow & frost but at least we are warmer!
February has brought quite a few B&B bookings including several house hunters so maybe there is an upturn in the market - last year unusually there were none at all.

One of the plus sides of winter horse feeding is being more aware of the bird life around, as well as the odd fox and many rabbits of course. Lately we have seen - and heard! - several large skeins of geese, I think the largest was nearly a hundred birds. Other regulars are ravens passing overhead with their dry "craaak" call, magpies and crows watching from the trees hoping for leftovers, and the much bolder blackbirds & robins hopping about quite close to the feed dishes! Other odd sightings have been: the moon setting in the west just as the sun was rising in the east; and one evening the western sky was a dirty yellow colour while in the east a green moon was rising - very spooky!

Shopping and the Big Freeze

Our first shopping expedition of the year was successful yesterday, albeit somewhat stressful because of the snowy conditions. We had to travel the first one and a half miles down our unsalted lane in first gear until we reached the relatively clear B4337 to Llanwnnen. The A470 into Lampeter was quite good but what a mess on the pavements in town - very pleased to have worn our wellies for this trip! Having restocked for ourselves and the animals we came cautiously home, heaved a big sigh of relief and felt much happier with life - big mistake! This morning we awoke to find that the coldest night of the year had done it's worst and that the mains water was frozen again (see Feb 09). Trying to keep 5 water tanks topped up for the horses is bad enough when constantly having to clear them of ice, but no water available is a real hassle. So tomorrow will hopefully bring 2 men and a machine to re-lay part of the water pipe in a deeper trench!

Still three weeks of January left and more snow and frost forecast - very pretty but the novelty has worn off!

Happy New Year!

Oops - more snow! 2010 started off well on Friday with frost but a cheerful sunny morning, however by about 4pm the snow was settling and carried on into the evening. Not a great depth but not in a hurry to thaw, and the roads treacherously icy. As the forecast is for more cold weather for the rest of the week it looks as though we shall be teetering over frozen fields carrying hay etc for some time to come - ah, the joys of horse-keeping in winter!

Best wishes for 2010 to all our readers!