TCJp47 Holiday Edition:

HOLIDAY: WE USUALLY DIG HOLES BUT THIS YEAR WE DID HAWAII.

WE WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO ENTERTAIN LEAVING THE COUNTRY AT ALL UNLESS WE HAD THE APPROPRIATE GROWN-UP AT HOME LOOKING  AFTER OUR CREATURES...namely Jenny.

If you ever have to leave your horse, even if it's for the trip of a lifetime, with the man you love, and the person you're leaving them with is brilliant....and knows more about horses than you do...and you still worry....you are not alone!

John and I have been in Hawaii, the Big Island for 9 wonderful days.  9 amazing days in paradise, an exotic location with everything you could possibly dream of, or want to do, or eat.  Some time together, just us.  Time to relax and enjoy ourselves, and we did.

But, that meant leaving Tom & Henry, and Coco, Lemmy and Min...and someone had to feed the birds...

Jenny. Thank you Jenny.

Before we left I had sent Jenny 10 texts and had her over for a consultation, with a written document as always.  I told her all the usual things, left her all the important numbers.  I know it's silly, Tom & Henry love Jenny, she is good with them they are good with her.  But I can never shake that feeling that if something happened and I wasn't around to manage the situation, would everything be OK?  Would I ever be able to relax knowing someone else is looking after them...and the cats too?  The simple answer is: I try very hard to be, and that's where John comes in, because he has helped in a profound way - with cameras.

We have CCTV covering every inch of our land, yard and stables.  John has designed a website with password only access which I can use anywhere in the world.  I can log on on a computer and of course my phone.  I get a snapshot of 9 selected cameras and in 1 of them, I will get an image of Tom & Henry, usually eating grass, since that's what they seem to spend most of their time doing.  If they're in the yard at their haybars I get a real close-up and can almost count the hairs in their manes!

I am not checking up on Jenny to be clear, I have every confidence in her, and her relationship with my boys.  Rather, it's to relieve my extreme paranoia where those horses are concerned, and John has set this all up to accommodate that. 

It works too, I log in every day to get my horse fix, and sleep soundly knowing they are still fine, and if I'm very lucky, I might catch a glimpse of a cat too!!

I can refresh the page, and depending where in the world I am, whether data roaming has to be switched on or I can link into a WIFI network, the only downside is the cost. It's not cheap, but it's cheaper than therapy for a neurotic horse-lover!!

Cameras also have another use, you can watch your horses in private, at work even like I do, and have a window into their worlds without you around.  Which can be quite revealing.  Watching them go quietly about their day, doing horsey things, communicating with each other, it is truly amazing the views on their lives you can see if you care to look.  I wholy recommend a similar system if you can.

Of course, home now it all seems so silly to ever to have worried, when will we holiday again?  in 10 years or so, there'll be more holes to dig soon!!!

phew!