Jan, hero of the sheep!

We have had a lovely exiting and at times very scary ride today! Mostly because our gentlemen sniffed the air this morning and realised, it is Spring!
It really is Spring. The air smells different, there is birdsong in the morning, the first spring flowers, like snowdrops and crocusses are flaunting their delicate colours… Everything proclaims: Spring has come.
And our gentlemen were loaded with high-explosives today! Even the sedate Billy pranced like a Grand-Prix dressage horse and couldn’t keep from trying to take off in a beautiful trot.

So why is this post called ”Jan, hero of the sheep”?
because my riding-buddie Jan has rescued another sheep today, bringing his total number of rescued sheep up to 3!

If a sheep for some reason rolls on it’s back, and there happens to be a small indentation, it’s stuck, and will die! Believe it or not, a lot of sheep die this way! Last year, Jan jumped a pretty broad ditch and rescued a sheep which was stuck on it’s back. Today, we noticed what we thought was a dead sheep, on it’s back, pretty far away, but then we saw it’s legs moving!

We decided that Jan would have to rescue it, and rode back to find a gate. The hero jumped the gate,

Walked across the field to the down sheep…

And started photographing it!

Meanwhile the sheep was getting pretty fed up about not getting saved, but eventually Jan managed to get himself to do the actual rescue, and rolled the sheep on her feet.

She gave Jan a long grateful look and said goodbye before going on to her business.

So as this rescuing of sheep seems to be a regular returning pasttime, we have decided to celebrate it every year by organising a special ”Sheep-picknick-ride”!

The hero returns!