Welcome Jed!

Today has been another day to welcome a visitor to Westhill.  We set off at  6am in order to catch the ferry from Southampton - a cruise was involved for this visitor!

We were heading to Warrenfield Alpacas on the Isle of White - home of Mike and Sandra, and their alpacas of course.  They had laid on rather a lot of spectacular entertainment for us - "wild ducks" that waddled along after Mike as if he was Mummy Duck, cameras linked to a bird box where a nest of Blue Tits had hatched, a group of female alpacas bearing down on a basking fox amidst much screeching, various mechanical things to captivate Carl, much fleece rummaging of lovely young girls, an exceedingly good fig tree (keep the roots contained to get a good crop) and, possibly my favourite (apart from the alpacas), a moving television - brilliant!

However, the real purpose of our visit to Warrenfield was Warrenfield Jed.  Jed was coming to stay for a while for one or two romantic interludes.  We have Harry, a black, but he is not ready to work quite yet and I have three young girls who are crying out for a young black boy - so Sandra has come to the rescue with Jed!  He is a gorgeous boy with a lovely temperament and walks very well on his halter - I have warned Sandra that Harry also walked beautifully on his halter when he arrived - not quite so good now!

Jed had to travel on his own and cope with a ferry trip but as soon as he was on the ferry he settled down and was great all the way back.  We had a 20 minute wait for the ferry - despite driving super slow back to the terminal and creating a superior traffic back log.  Once at the terminal Jed moaned a bit and peered wistfully out of the back which caused great amusement to the holiday makers who swiftly got their camera phones out!  Carl and I attempted to look nonchalant whilst leafing through the colour supplements and hoping he would lie down.

No problems after that and when we arrived he had his halter on and walked out of the trailer and off down the track very happily.  Then the girls spotted him and charged over with Prue and Emily leading the way.  Zara insisted on showing him her bottom and bucking and rearing around in circles in an exceedingly flighty way - but she has a different lover waiting in the wings!

 The young boys were also keen to say hello and were very disappointed when he didn't come to join them.  Dude, however, was definitely not best pleased.  He did much rearing, sniffing the air and posing - finally alternating retreating to the top of the hill where he could keep an eye on his every move and charging down the bottom to check he wasn't intruding on his space!.

I have been sitting in the Mule making sure he settles and, finally, after lots of air sniffing and pacing he is grazing - although he hits the deck pretty quick whenever it rains - which it has been, torrential, on and off since we returned.  The photos of him are not that good as he is a bit muddy and the trailer got drenched on the way there - I will do better when the sun comes out.


I was a bit worried, with all the rain, about the sheared alpacas but they are very sensible - at the first spots there is a mad dash - led by Cassie in the girls paddock and Spike in the boys paddock for the shelters and they all cram in - except Harry who hasn't been sheared!


Finally, whilst in the Mule, I photographed these two, no idea what they are but I include them as Geoff has a lot of pretty birds on his blog tonight!!