Morning stables was a quiet uneventful day today as was the morning excersise. No-one was squashed, bitten, trampled, eaten, scratched or shouted at. Days like this make me nervous!
Let me expand on this. The possible reason why everybody (animal and human) behaved themselves is that last night we had an intruder on the stables. Yes. The poor ba***rd tried to break in and met the ultimate in deterrants... Billy The Gander.
This 24lb Gander is a one goose army. He has an attitude problem towards humans (except his feeders) and a large agressive bird with a 6 foot wingspan and a hiss like a pissed off cobra makes everyone round here constantly look over their shoulder when they hear that sound. the poor burglar found himself caught in the act, lit up likea football stadium by motion detectors with floodlights attatched and backed into a corner by a very large agressive white upset bird! The alarm went off and buy the time the police put in an apperance and let into the stables they saw the entire stables staff wrapped in dressing gowns, coats, and rubber boots sat on chairs with cans of beer cheering the goose on and a poor would be burglar backed into a corner pleading for help. it took six of us to bring Billy to heel with a brush, large plastic lidded box and a scarf. The burglar was taken away in handcuffs between two laughing policemen and Billy was given a treat of some bread soaked in pouring cream.
I can see the burglar trying to sue us for damages now! the defence will be that nobody owns the bird.... he owns himself and if the man wants to break in and disturb the bird well....! sue the goose!
Late morning saw Lucy and Donna on horses practicing with lances at the quintaine. They are coming on very well and are getting used to wearing armour on horsback slowly.
Afternoon saw foot combat practice with pole arms. Quarterstaffs were handed out and after a brief discussion on how they should be held and used I showed them why you must always wear thick gloves and within seconds both were sucking knuckles with their quarterstaffs on the floor. Traditionally the stables are quiet in the afternoon as the horses work hard in the morning and then rest in the afternoon apart from Tournaments this gives some free time in the afternoon for the staff and they usually watch any training going on and quite often take part themselves. A free-for-all rapidly developed between Donna, Lucy and myself with the rest of the girls cheering them on.
All I did was give myself room and let themselves crowd each other. Like it says in the tack room..... bruises heal! Tomorrow I'll look at combat co-ordination with them. Donna said during tack cleaning that it's nothing like the movies. The reply was short and to the point and the truth. Nope.... this is real!
Tonight... another movie and a beer..... just the one while I concentrate on the 1000 piece jigsaw of the White house.