Whats Going On?

We had vet Dafydd out today to microchip/passport our most recently arrived  horses. .Mei is unhappy about microchipping the horses though has no problems with cats and dogs.This passport system is a bureaucratic time and money waster for all concerned. Every equine has to have one and each time it costs us £25 ,thats on top of all the other expenses we have for the horses, farrier, dentist etc. it is not legal to transport a horse without this  and  a couple of years ago we  had Trading Standards here checking all our horse passports.As nobody else I know has ever had  a check up like that I can only assume it was  a visit prompted by a complaint from someone.I wonder who? Some may remember that when we complied with this ruling when it first as put into place, we were conned by a person registered on the Defra  website to do this and we lost over £300. The whole Passport issue is a fiasco and policing it was always going to be nigh imposssible.Most of the horses and ponies we admit have never had one but as a sanctuary we have to be seen to be acting within the law so there is no escaping  this added and totally unnecessary  expense  for us.

Pictured here is Vanessa putting a headcollar on Caradog ready for the Vets arrival. watching intently (in the top picture)are shetland Heather and her son Paddy.They look as though they are wondering whats going on don't they?
 though I doubt if they would have been so keen to hang around if they had known it was all about nasty things being done to them by the Vet! Isn't Caradog a handsome horse? I still think Rocky is the best though I am slightly biased about him.

There have been roadworks in Lon Pant - y- gog for what seems like forever and  so many people have found themselves heading in the  wrong direction due to the diversion signs regularly blowing over on their sides. It is quite a diversion too and we are all pretty fed up with it.Thank goodness it will be finished by next Tuesday . Last weekend 3 carloads of people arrived together after driving round and round the village trying to find us, its such a nuisance and it isn't an easy place to find at the best of times. I wish the Council would allow us to put up a sign but I have asked and they wont allow it because
we are not a tourist attraction.Apparently that would be the only way it would be allowed. Several of the neighbours are regularly bothered by unwanted carloads of people trying  to locate the shelter so it seems very unfair that we receive complaints(not nasty ones)a nd have our hands tied to prevent it happening.
Yippee, the work is due to start on the stable yard tomorrow, I  was starting to think it would never be done in time for the Open Day but I can breathe a sigh of relief now. The track up to the shelter is on the agenda also to have a make over - wish I could have one, I have always fancied being on one of those programmes where someone is given a complete make over and then all the friends and family gather together and ooh and ahh over  the new and improved
Jane Smith (or Lesley Tarleton!!) and the lucky woman having glided down the staircase like a supermodel complete with new designer outfit blubs a little and
says how much it is going to change her life.
Oh well I can Dream.

f anyone would like to put my name foreward for such a project I will be more than happy, in fact I may just put  forward my own name !