Last week we were over in lovely Lincolnshire visiting my mum. She did a bit of research on activities that might suit a dog and a 9 year old girl and suggested that we could go for a day out to Bransby Horses, which is a rescue centre for horses and donkeys.
After a drive through the villages of Lincolnshire we arrived at Bransby at 11 o’clock, which happens to be my morning coffee time (I am a creature of habit).
Bransby is dog friendly in that you can take your dog, on a lead, everywhere, except in the cafe. However, there’s an outdoor seating area, part of which is undercover, and it wasn’t a cold day so we were happy out there.
Bransby Horses is a charity and doesn’t charge to go in, but obviously encourages donations. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes horses as there are lots to see – from Shetland ponies to big cart horses. They are spread around the whole village, some stabled but many out in the fields, with walkways between.
As I’d anticipated that my mum might only be able to find somewhere where dogs must stay on their leads, I had bought a new extendable/retractable lead. The one I already had was left from when Pippy was quite a young puppy and we were wary about letting her off her lead, and I wasn’t sure it would now hold a 20+ kg setter.
I’m not a fan of retractable leads. I’m particularly not a fan of retractable leads combined with a 9 year old and a 74 year old, both of whom seemed intent on getting themselves tangled up in it! Also, as a novice, I hadn’t worked out how to retract the lead when I needed to, so spent quite a bit of time getting rope burns from just grabbing it and pulling it in. Which I needed to, as Pippy was intent on getting under the fences to eat horse poo.
I remember before we got Pippy, going out for a walk in Wales with my friend and her chocolate lab, Katie, who spent the whole day trying to eat sheep poo. At the time I thought my friend was probably being a bit neurotic in her attempts to prevent this, but now I understand the issue!
According to numerous websites, dogs love eating horse poo and I can now attest to this. Pippy wasn’t just going and having a little sniff, she was taking great mouthfuls of the stuff and I then had the lovely job of sticking my fingers in her mouth to get it out. Clearly as a human the attraction of eating horse poo passes me by. Is it the taste? Or something more instinctive such as the nutrients in it?
Having Googled why you shouldn’t let your dog eat horse poo, the main reasons seem to be because of parasites that might be in it, and also medication (particularly wormers) that the horse might have eaten. So although Pippy does seem to actually like horses as well as eating their poo, I can add this to my list – mainly for my dauighter’s benefit – of why we won’t be getting a horse anytime soon!
Pippy's Farmhouse Bakery 