We are finally back from our holiday. We went up to Farmer Rowe's brother's property for a family visit with Jessica's horse "Bubs". Believe me it was an adventure, part of it we want to repeat again and again - the other part is still giving me nightmares (literally) and I would hope no one ever will experience the same. But first the good news ...
We only had the chance to practice floating the horse about 1 week before we left, she is an experienced floater having attended many Pony Club events, we on the other hand did not have any experience (I missed the 2 classes on floating when I did Horse School late in 2007). So it was a great adventure to load Bubs into the float and set off on our very long journey. She was very good, even had a drive through a petrol station late in the night, nothing fazed her - she ocassionally whinnied(?) out to let us know she was there, unfortunately just near the end of our trip she got a bit tired and decided to lean on the side of the float - Farmer Rowe was not impressed as the whole car started to lean to the right side.
She got to experience extreme drought country, no yummy grass to graze on, we had to hand feed her the whole time. Each morning she was awoken by a couple of hundred Angus Cows (and a few VERY BIG BULLS) mooing at her in the next paddock, waiting impatiently to be fed - she would occasionally call out to us to come feed her too, but all in all we were very happy to bring her along.
Jessica's cousin Kate is 14 and has been riding since she was a bubs herself. Every day she set up a course for Jessica and Bubs in the arena and was so patient with the 2 of them - she agrees we've bought a very good horse, and it was obvious that Bubs has a lot of experience. Jessica did her first bit of jumping on her own horse and by the end of her first lesson she was cantering around and around the arena calling out "yeeha" with the biggest grin on her face (apparently she's not allowed to call out yeeha at her normal lessons so this was a treat). On the last day the 2 girls went off on a bush hack off the property and practiced some jumping over fallen logs ......... ever the nervous Mother, I of course had walked behind them and hid behind trees to watch, the tinder dry ground gave me away and then the girls delighted in showing off what they could do - it's very hard to hold your breath and bite your lip and smile all at the same time.
On the day we were to return home there was the Annual Country Show in the next town. Kate took 2 horses and competed in the advanced jumping circuit - she was competing against experienced adult riders and still came home with 2 first place ribbons - that girl is amazing!
Jessica competed in the Games Circuit, Kate had been training her for many of the events, unfortunately being 10 years old she fell into the largest group (with many of these kids competing every weekend), there were more than 30 in every event. I'm pleased to say she tried everything, even got through a couple of heats, and she stayed on her horse for more than 3 hours in the hot sun. All those horses, many played up, not our Bubs, she was a very well behaved girl - Jessica is to start Pony Club in July so we have no worries about either of them after their great performance.
And then our day turned sour. We decided not to hang around the show, just grabbed a quick sausage in bread for lunch and hit the road for the long drive home. After 2 hours of driving, Jessica was fast asleep in the back seat, Bubs was gazing out her float window watching the world pass by on a major highway, in quite a bit of holiday traffic, when all of a sudden our car (a 4WD) started shuddering, Farmer Rowe carefully pulled over (not easy to do with a float and no real side of the road to pull into quickly) I immediately thought we had blown a tyre - not good at all - but we couldn't find anything, so Farmer Rowe thought that Bubs must have kicked out in her float,so I opened the door and told her off, she just looked at me with slightly glazed over eyes as if to say "what's your problem?". We got back in and started to move forward when the whole car and float started shuddering - a quick inspection and I was told "we've broken the horse float". Now this is not something you really want to hear on the side of a road in the country, nothing for miles and miles around, and you know you have to get the horse off the float and you're barely off the road and there is a heap of traffic passing you (I'm getting chills jut reliving it all). A horse has to back out, our float has a divider in it and Bubs travels on the right side (the side closest to the traffic) and she doesn't necessarily come off in a straight line.
With a slight lull in the traffic we got her off and I took her onto the patch of dry ground on the side of the road. I'll fast forward here because the next stage lasted 12 hours. We eventually got the Automobile Club to arrange a large truck to take us to a nearby town that had a welder. We accidentally found a house hidden behind some trees up the road, there we met 2 of the nicest people you could ever find. They offered to keep our horse in one of their paddocks, filled an old bath with water for her, even locked up their pet pig (because we now know Bubs HATES pigs), offered us drinks and lots of comforting words, and the name of the welder in the nearby town that they knew well. After following the big truck with the float to it's drop off point (now getting dark) we rang a few people and one of our amazing friends offered to lend us their float to bring Bubs home that night (we were just worried that she was in a strange place alongside a major highway and it would be a long drive back to get her another day). We started the long drive home to meet our friend, he rang when we were half way home and said he would meet us along the road to save us some time (Jessica now calls him our Guardian Angel), after a quick meet and attachment of the float we headed back to our Good Samaritan's farm. On arrival we discovered that Bubs had been enjoying lots of lush green grass, and she couldn't see the point in eating an apple or some yummy chalf (our encouragement to get her on this strange float, with no center divider, in the dark). Four adults and one very tired 10 year old did all we could, eventually we put her in "time out", tied up tight to the float so she couldn't eat anything around her. Our new friends invited us in for coffee and a chat - I also got to see their magnificent quilt hanging above their bed, then after about half an hour Jessica and her Dad went out quietly to see if Bubs had decided to co-operate - 5 minutes later they were back, she was all loaded and we could finally begin our trip home. With extreme gratitude and the promise to meet for dinner and a proper catch up we farewelled our new friends and quietly drove the few hours home.
The next morning I rang the welder to tell him why there was a badly damaged float outside his front gate. He wanted to know if we were okay and what about the horse? When the float went on the big truck to be transported, the bars that hold the trailer to our tow-ball snapped off, but he had no idea when that had happened. He then quietly hold me that looking at the 2 metal bars, 3 of the 4 sides of each bar had snapped and we were probably only a few feet away from us all being killed. We had already thought that if they had snapped with Bubs in it (either driving fast or even with the float still) she would have been killed - and maybe someone would drive into the back of us and there be a bad accident. But now we were told that if that had happened, we were still connected to the float with chains and a few bits and pieces and the float would have pulled us all off the road crashing to the side, with the float possibly landing on top of the car. I'm just glad that I was told that part when we were all safe back in our home.
I'm one of those people who has to find something positive, or good when a bad thing happens. We were fortunate to find a lot of people who wanted to help us, a great friend went out of his way to help us with the float, and 2 strangers welcomed us onto their farm and showed us the kind of hospitality we would give to someone else who found themselves in a terrible circumstance. Farmer Rowe is the first to offer help to any neighbours and friends. He will help others on their farms, even pick up hay or feed cows when people are away - but he'll never ask for help himself, even when he desperately could do with a hand. So it was me who pushed him to ask this stranger for help, all he can remember saying is "Hi Mate, I've got a bit of a problem", after that it's a bit of a blur - our new friend Mark just swung into "help mode" and was our Guardian Angel when we really really needed it. Then we met his bubbly, friendly wife Liz, who came outside to find out if the horse was a surprise present - and she offered such comfort to Jessica and I, we talked like we'd known each other for years. In fact the next night the 2 of us talked for more than 2 hours on the phone, and we will definitely stay in touch.
So maybe Farmer Rowe has finally learnt that there are people as wonderful as he is out there, he only needs to say "Hi Mate, I've got a problem".
So I'm still a little numb about it all. I just wanted to let you know what's been going on. And then today there was a treat in the post ...
The new Country Threads magazine arrived in our mailbox, and look what's inside .....
It is a chance to start decorating your car with stitcheries! This is for your sun visor, there are 2 elastic strips at the back, you hook it over your visor and insert your family's favorite music CDs - easy to slip out when needed, protected from plastic sleeves that can melt in the car, you can even make an extra one for the passenger side. There is also a give-away inside of some of my boxes of wooden spools, plus I designed a gift voucher that you can photocopy and write up personalised vouchers for your Mum, like breakfast in bed, wash the car, ownership of the remote control for a day ... anything you like. I've also mentioned in the magazine that you can easily make the Visor CD up in check fabrics for your Dad's car, or a great chance to use up some of that themed fabric you have no idea what to do with (in our case I might make one up in all the horse fabric I've collected over the years). Once you've done the stitchery they are really quick and easy to make up. I think subscribers got their magazine in the post this week, and it goes on sale next week in Australia.
Speaking of magazine projects, have you checked out the Irish Quilting site yet (there is a button on the right side of my blog which will show you what's in the latest issue), I have just started a Secret Stitchery, over 7 issues. If you have a bit of a love of the Irish, this Stitched Quilt is themed with Friendship Sayings & Traditional (and not so traditional) Knotwork designs. I'm making up 2 versions, one in traditional Irish Green and the other in a redwork - there is a kit for both available through the magazine. Here's a sneak peak of one of the stitcheries in the first issue
And here is the knotwork in red ...
It is my constant goal to come up with original and unique designs and projects, I hope readers of these magazines enjoy the novelty factor of what I've come up with, they were a lot of fun to create.
"I would rather strive to be an original, than a poor copy of somebody else" - something we should all try to do always - Have A Spectacular Day, Hugs Janet xxx
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