Tony Blair won’t give up his holidays to save the environment.....apparently.

Well I don’t think anyone can deny that the weather has gone a bit mad at the moment: Here we are in the second week of January and the temperature is 13 degrees……….about right for late March, we are still officially in a drought, yet the fields at the stable look like the Somme. Essex mud clings to everything, the poor lads come in from the ‘winter paddock’ with muddy stockings to the hocks, mud dreadlocks in their manes, and colourful turnout rugs reduced to a uniform Essex clay colour.
Grooming has become a nightmare, we hose off what we can from the lower legs (defying the hosepipe ban which is still I believe in place), and allow the remainder to dry, then we attack it the next day after it’s had a chance to turn into pottery.

It’s so mild and wet that poor confused Daffodils are trying to pop up, but is this just part of the natural cycle of temperature variation, or the thin end of the wedge of global warming doom? Well when it’s this warm this late in the year, one is tempted to warn of tears before bedtime.

His Royal Tonyness has said this week that it’s a bit unrealistic to expect us all to refrain from our long haul holiday flights to save the world, and anyway it’s up to bigger consumers like the USA and China to save all our arses as we Brits only account for a measly 2% of the world carbon thingy. Well Tony, you could get a couple of nice ecologically sound horses, then you would not be able to afford a holiday abroad, we can’t.

It would be my guess that politicians will do what we pay them for: that is not make decisions that will be too uncomfortable for us (bless them): so nothing effective will be done until it is far too late. Global warming probably is coming because we’d all rather have jam today wouldn’t we?
I mean I’m no different, except perhaps in that I don’t like hypocrisy, and will freely admit to coveting my neighbours four by four and leaving electrical stuff on standby simply because I’m lazy. Anyway I know I’m going to die and go to hell because I drink, smoke (I am trying to give up before they make it criminal offence) and have done many naughty things (some with ladies) of which our lovely nanny state disapproves. I doubt if any amount of penitent recycling can save my immortal soul.

Here are a few purely selfish thoughts though………Not enough rain at the right time of year can equal a poor haymaking, there will be hay shortages and price rises: This will in turn lead to price hikes on other feed stuffs, so keeping horses will become more expensive, a no-brainer. The constant flooding of our paddocks and their being churned to brown porridge, will also damage the soil structure, and ultimately spoil them for good grazing: So global warming, no matter if naturally occurring or because of all my hairspray in the eighties, is going to affect our life with the horses anyway.
If I don’t get skin cancer in the summer my feet will rot off in their wellies in the winter……….I won’t be able to win!