Clondaw Robin Blog – August 2026
Greetings from Belgium. Don’t worry, I am still in a field at Shovelstrode. I just had the urge to make an in-joke that excludes people who failed to read the July blog. The helper monkey tells me that humans tend to like a running joke. Well funnily enough, so do horses. How else do you explain flat racing?
On the subject of humour that repeats itself beyond all tolerability, a few years ago humans were continually saying the phrase “winter is coming.” Actually, they did not say it all the time, but they did frequently post it as a meme on the internet. Well, I have news for you, my friends. Winter IS coming! I know this because Suzy Wood is back in the yard and that means that we are thinking about the winter sport. She goes away for the summer on holiday and although she claims that it involves a quite regimented health and fitness regime, horses can tell the difference between summer fitness camp and being molly-coddled something rotten. She is in the latter for certain. But we, the other horses, forgive her because we like her. In complete contrast to Suzy Wood, we now have in the field with us Backinforglory, along with a couple of kids, Jack and Winnie. The only possible reason for this nuisance is that we did something wrong. As I am infallible and Privatearing would never knowingly misbehave (although he does do things through ignorance), it is all of a mystery as to why this is a burden that we have to bear. It is a proper nightmare. Numquis liberabit me hac equa turbida, as Henry II would have said in the same circumstances, although he might have said it in medieval Norman French rather than Latin.
{However he said it, he probably should have kept quiet. – Ed.}
To be honest, I am not interested in the details of what happened. And it is not as if we are going to go all Richard III with the youngsters. I got a snappy quote out of it and that is all I need. You may be over-thinking this.
{If I don’t do the thinking, who will? Privatearing? – Ed.}
He will try. It’s just best to take the results with a pinch of salt. Or perhaps not at the moment, as making people more thirsty is not a good thing. Take it with a pinch of turnip.
Which reminds me that this month we have had a letter, well more of a post note with some jotted thoughts, from Andy Irvine of Shovelstrode Racing Stables, although he has probably got backing from others. The summary of it all is that he really wants it to rain, not too heavily in one blast but steadily over a longer period of time. The good news is that I have some handy ideas. The main one is the play a song called Let It Rain over and over again, until it does start raining, and keep playing it once the desired precipitation has arrived.
{Which one of the Let It Rains? – Ed.}
That is the beauty of my solution. There are so many to choose from that everyone should be able to find one that they can tolerate having endless rotation. You what is really spooky? I looked for a list on Wikipedia and there was nothing after 2011. When have all the dry, hot years been? That, my friend, cannot be a coincidence.