Ask and you shall receive........

We have been giving some thought to having solar panels installed so that we can feed energy back to the grid. Our thoughts are now changing into actions as we go through the process of contacting different suppliers and installers. One thing we have noticed is the differences in price and service. At the moment we are told what we can have and how much, DH feels we need to change this around and approach it with a different outlook, after all they need our business and that of others to survive. I'll let you know how we go. In the meantime if there is anyone who has already done this, could you please share your thoughts and experiences with us!

On a different note, for the past couple of months we have been deciding its about time DD has a horse. I mean really, its a natural progression from a goat to a horse right? hehehe. The saying "ask and you shall receive" certainly rings true for us in this instance.

No longer had we made the actual decision then a posting offering five horses to give away was seen by DH. After a few hurried whispers (DD was in hearing at the time) he email the person offering them only to discover they already had homes but they would keep us in mind. Taking the view of "if we were meant to have a horse, then one will come", we didn't think anymore of it, until a few weeks later when we were contacted and told the lady who was going to take the two mares can no longer do so, are we still interested?

INTERESTED! You betcha! At this stage the only information we had was that the horses offered to us were mares and hadn't been ridden for about three years but were broken in. Good thing DH has broken in the odd horse or two and that we both can ride. So anyway arrangements were made to go see them. At this point in time we let DD in on the secret, of course her first choice was a motorbike but she willingly came along anyway.

"Suprised" would be the word to describe our reaction to seeing the horses for the first time, most certainly not what we had invisioned! Nope when we walked away from that meeting, the new owners of two horses, we felt like we had won the lottery.

Lucky for us our neighbour is into horses and had a float so that we could bring them home. Pictured our neighbour and DH getting the horses ready to go on the float, this did take a couple of hours as DH had to teach one to lead first. It soon became clear that they were going to need a lot of work before they would be ready for DD to learn to ride on.

After a few days "Abby" is quiet enough for DD to lead around and handle. She is super keen to work with the horses, after finishing the afternoon bus run, poor dad's foot hardly gets a chance to touch the ground before DD is leading him down to the yards.

Now I could end here giving the impression that its all been peaches and cream but reality tells a different story, you see last weekend "Abby" was bridled and saddled up, all went well. DH mounted up and discovered that his stirrup irons had been adjusted to a different length about the same time "Abby" decided to start crow hopping around the yard............. end result DH had a close encounter with the top rail with the horse now looking on from the other side of the yards wondering what the fuss is about.

No sooner had DH dragged himself to his feet, declared his new aches and pains did DD ask if she could have ago......?

Alls well and ends well. DH although very sore by this point, did hop back on in the race and even DD hopped in the saddle, and "Abby"? well she was very well behaved. Turns out she was just a bit girth proud.