POND FARM MAYFEST 24th May 2008 Bedford

 

I received an email asking if I could give a talk on Horsemanship at a Mayfest weekend at Pond Farm, Stevington Bedford by the owner Sheryl Macfarlane I explained that giving a talk often goes over people's heads and the best way to show horsemanship is with horses and a commentary. So it was agreed on a demo and the day was set. We arranged for Sunday but after seeing horrendous weather reports for that day it was changed to the Saturday.

On arrival I was surprised to see not one notice, banner or hint of a Mayfest. In my recollection a Mayfest is a May Festival but where was the festival? We were told there would be stalls inside the barn but the barn was cluttered with building materials and not one stall in sight. Maybe trade stands are late arriving which is strange.

On driving into the yard we veered round to the right past the barn building then veered left heading to where we were told to park. However on turning left we met a grid lock as three unattended ponies were tied up on the track which we needed to drive down. Someone finally came and .. Put the ponies in the arena we were using. That was interesting to say the least.

At the end of the track is an area of grass with a section to the left planted with saplings and named the orchard and beyond there a section of grass was fenced off with some sheep grazing on it. To the right of the trees was a section where we could put up a round pen (it was meant to have had the weeds cut down but it hadn't even been touched).

Jenny who had so kindly drove me and Kyle to Pond Farm with her 4x4 and trailer parked up and we got out of the car. Was someone going to come and say hello, tell us what had been arranged so far etc. Erm! I don't think so.

I glanced around and the yard which was looking to be something out of a comedy sketch, ponies tied up around the yard unattended, a large pig lying in a quad mire of mud in a pen which if the pig decided to make an exit would not have had a problem. It was a big pig.
Chickens meant to be in an area next to the arena made their debut by running in and out of the arena, Hmm! I wonder what the horses will make of those. Then the sheep are out of the field they are meant to be in, mind the fencing is so loose it is falling on the ground and it doesn't take an escape artist to be able to wander out. Suddenly out of nowhere a small pig and her 6 piglets are racing all around, oh lordy, I am expecting Monty Python to make an appearance, is the camera crew hiding some where.

I asked about the over grown weeds and Sheryl's husband who looked like he was trying to cope with a million and one jobs at the same time went to get the lawn mower. It was taking a while so I wandered over to find him trying to put the lawn mower together. I decided to go and have a look at the weeded area and managed to set up the round pen so that we missed most of the weeds which meant we didn't need the lawn mower which was just as well as it never appeared.

The next thing was saying hi to Carole Ryan who brought Rocky and Moira Dixon with Chance as they arrived. There faces said it all as they got out of their cars.

Trudi, Carol & Evelyn	Dawn Amour
Julia Bye & Lucy's Relatives	Lucy Curtis presenting a £100 Cheque

Can you see Dawn, she is looking at the fields thinking, they need poo picking, which they did. Dawn was even considering getting some people together to help tidy up the place on a voluntary basis. So onwasrds and forwards, I saw one of the farm helpers and asked about the ponies in the arena and the props we were told would be provided. The ponies were taken out and two barrels were brought for us but not the tarp or other things mentioned. We did have some poles and blocks though and luckily we brought our own tarp and props. What now.. time was around 11am and though the Mayfest was to start at 10,30am not one person had arrived. I decided to visit the ladies and found I had a conundrum to wade though to find them, luckily I realised the glass door was closed before I walked into it.. Oh dear.!!
I asked Sheryl who made a rare appearance for a mere few seconds about the PA system. The PA system turned out to be a CD player which did not reach the arena so we just did without it.

Finally all but one piglet had been caught which seemed to prefer to scarper across the horses paddocks, but was found later and rejoined with her siblings. The Sheep which had wandered out were put back and the chickens seemed happy to stay in their own pen out of the way of the horse's feet. I should have taken photo's as it was quite cute.

Dawn Amour, Julia Bye, Carole Bussey, Trudi Bament, Lucy Curtis, Dawn Moreton, Evelyn Essam and a couple of others who's names escape me just now came to watch, all of which are Parelli members and part of our group. A couple came for an hour who had heard of the Mayfest only because it was advertised on the Northants Naturally website. By 11.30am even though no other persons arrived we decided to just start playing with the horses. It ended up more of a buddy day rather than a demonstration purely because no members of the public turned up.

Chance & The Big Parelli Ball	Rocky at Liberty
Sideways to me over the Pole	Rocky just loves the Ball

Chance as big as he is showing his gentle side as he checks out the ball and there is Rocky who after deciding to go his own way came back to Carole with ears pricked as though to ask, "What we playing now" Kyle just getting the hang of going sideways to me and here is Rocky who decided the next game was "Cuddle the ball"

Weeeeeee	All Together
Dismounting	Lovely Photo of Moira & Chance

We fulfilled our obligation by staying for the time agreed and then packed up. In all time we were there I was surprised that Sheryl not once came and said hello to me or to the others and amazed that people were being charged to attend the none existing Mayfest. Mind on our way out we did see a small bouncy castle with a couple of kids on it, was that the festival? The good thing was the day stayed sunny for us and it was a good experience and really tested our emotional fitness, two members of the public tuned up and it was great to get together with the lasses and as predicted Sunday turned out to be very wet and the rain poured.

Lucy Curtis made a 100 donation from her yard and Dawn Amour donated Headcollar's etc. The main thing is we can always look back on this day as an experience and a half and laugh about it.

Mayfest....???

A few more photo's to finish

Hide & Seek	Words Escape Me