A nice peaceful day, thank you very much but now it is “the calm before the storm” which arrives tomorrow and will last for three days.  Ugh.  I am not looking forward to this one bit.

And so I am trying to get everything organised for easy feeding but thinking about safety too.  The unused sheds, henhouses and container doors are shut up so the wind can’t catch anything.

While the Shetland ponies will remain in their shed, the big ones will stay outside.  In their field, there is plenty shelter from every angle (huge high walls) and loads of grass.  They know the drill and they know how to get through this.  I think they would be more upset if they were inside but we will still get out to their field to check them and give them a large bucket of food daily. If the horses are not coping, we can open the gate and they will run for home and I will find a place for them.   I just know they would prefer to be outside to make their own decisions in weather like this.

And the little ones?  Well, they can rot in their stalls in the shed oblivious of anything but eating hay and complaining about their incarceration.

The wind will be full on onto the big door, so we will have to go in and out via the back to muck out and sort everything out.

I might store the dried food in the back of the van too where it will be safe and small ponies cannot get it even if they escaped.  Getting to the feed container could be dangerous.

So, that’s the plan. It is work-in-progress as I think about the best way to tackle this for everyone.