April - the Royal Kiss

Well April is drawing to a close with a rather quick Royal Wedding Kiss - and with that now over we can focus again on all the work that is in progress at Fairview

Nature Updates:  The swallows have arrived and not just one or two but a whole tribe. The barn is full a- twitter with their news and tales from South Africa and their plans for the summer!  We have left one of the barn windows open so they have better access to their nests and can aviod the occasional cat perched surreptitiously on the stable doors!

The ladybirds are also out and about which is lovely to see and the fields are full of all kinds of birds. Unfortunately my “twitching” skills are limited to just a few obvious birds and my camera skills are not good enough for me to catch them so I can identify them - any I do catch on camera I will post up on here and would hugely appreciate if anyone can help us identify who/what we have on the land.
we continue to improve the fauna at Fairview and are delighted with our baby Ash trees, Ginko Biloba, James Grieve / Maris Pipin apple trees and the two beautiful ornamental cherry blossom trees.  Alas the cherrys only blossom for a short period. We have also discovered a couple of baby horse chestnut and several sycamore's so will be replanting them in spaces along the fence line where they can continue to establish themselves to bloom and blossom.  The war on nettles feels never ending but we are convinced there is hope and light at the end of the tunnel that we can make an impact on reducing the amount of space that the nettles that take over on Darlings Lane

STABLES :  we have two stables free for DIY, Part of Full livery

EVENTING NEWS – Watch this space for update of our Open Day in June where Captain Richard Waygood will be here for a day of coaching.  Individual and group sessions available.  Contact us at fairviewstables@yahoo.com or call 0774 777 0987 for more info

MANURE!  - getting some great reviews from the gardeners for our “mature manure” we have been composting for the last year and have manure that is 12 months and 6 months old so ideal for planting and improving soil quality.  If you are interested please call ahead and we can bag up according to your needs!   

HORSE NEWS : Duke jumped amazingly on his trip over to Swindon, WunderStrike is still recovering from him abcesses.  Just one bad trim and 12 weeks off work, two vets visists and a fortune spent on poultices, pain relief and countless nappies!! but it is looking like his feet are healing.  hoorah.  Connor continues to charm everyone he meets having given Olivia a great ride through the thicket!  

Farewell Caspa ....

After 31 years on this earth 20 of which as Dawn's trusty steed and companion it was with much sadness that Capsa went to sleep for the last time on sunny Monday 22nd March .  The outpouring of love, support and sadness from all his and Dawns friends show how much this special fellow touched people's hearts along his journey!   Although Caspa was not at Fairview for very long he made a huge impact here and we all loved him.  He will be missed by us all. He settled in with the Fairview racing gang as if he'd been here forever and I am sure they spent their time chatting about the good old days.  No doubt Caspa told them a tale or two of his adventures! .....  Duke, Connor and Pantaloons respectfully all lined up to say their goodbyes as he left the yard for the final time.  They knew they were saying goodbye to a great horse who has had a full and fun life made most special by his very own person Dawn, whose life has been inextricably interwoven with him since she was a young girl and has stuck with him through thick and thin!  Caspa thankyou for coming to Fairview and showing us your sparkle.  You may be gone from our world but you will never be forgotten RIP ....

Composted Horse Manure for Sale - Pinkneys Green

Compost from Horse Manure contains nutrients that are great for plants and soil.

Some good ways to use your horse manure compost are:

• as mulch for garden plants and around landscaping
• as a soil improvement component for sandy soil
• as a soil improvement for clay soil
• and as a material to help control erosion.

It takes about six months for the manure and any other materials added to the compost pile to completely break down and become what people call "black gold."

We have two vintages of composted manure

12 months

6 months

£5 a bag – we can provide the bags and bag up the manure for you

We are located @ Fairview Stables, Darlings Lane, Pinkeys Green, Maidenhead, SL6 6PB  

Call us to arrange pickup / delivery : 0774 777 0987

Vacancies

We currently have one stable free for part / full or DIY livery - contact Minnie on 0774 777 0987

The war on Nettles - new tractor and trees

With spring on the way we have tried to catch all the yukky nettles along the road and kill 'em orf before they take over again -

We have just bought our first bit of farm machinery : a tractor - which will help us keep the place tidy, the school level and for doing work around the yard ... 

Since we have now been here a year - managed to have a good feel for the place we have started our efforts to re-place all the dead trees along the roadside so watch this space ...

Sprrrrrrrrring??

After a bit of rain yesterday and frost last night (random) sunny day - bits of grass are starting to show.  After a winter of near despair when we re-seeded and ploughed the fields I'd forgotten how good they look.  Farmer reckons we will have more grass then ever this year so excited to see the seedlings come through.  Wagtails out on the barn roof - ponies out in the fields playing and the cats are sunbathing of course.

Had hoped Wunderstriker-pants was getting better but now another setback a couple of days ago means we are having to do two poultices a day... the original one is STILL pussing after almost two weeks but hopefully we are doing all the right things - but buying his pain relief is getting quite costly now - poor little monkey

Duke continues to truck on - despite his disintegrating pedal bones he seems completely disinterested in flatwork or hacking but when jumping or galloping is on the menu we have a different horse.  So I still have to be careful but it seems like he wants to kick-on with the work and that he'd rather burn out than fade away... He has been wonderful with Olivia who I am giving lessons to weekly - he doesn't make it easy for her but she is learning quickly and he responds to her requests ...

Con-Air - will be missing his mum Steph this week as she goes snowboarding (no one here is jealous of course especially as it has been snowing out in Austria - great timing chick)  but if the weather works out he will get some lovely sun on his back and can start working on his summer coat which is bursting to come out


Poor Dawn has had a tough week - Dawn especially with a couple days being really unwell but her Little girl Lilly has been an amazing little star helping keep Caspa in his luxury hotel room ... and Caspa has been good and responded well to the physio work from Sara lets hope this sun and spring grass will help him get some weight back on!  but despite being a skinny Jim he is quite happy, bright and perky and doest mind pulling you along when it comes to being turned out in the mornings or being brought in for dinner at night ...