well I phoned her over the road last night, once i had her number and we chatted for a bit before i asked her who was looking after the animals. From there we went on and it was agreed I was perfectly OK to go about what I was doing, and it was  greatly appreciated and so on and so forth, and I told her in future to just leave the animals in my care. Apparently there are three people responsible, which may be contributing to the problem, as perhaps one is assuming the other two are doing it and so forth. But I doubt it, as this morning when him next door went over there, he was at pains to secure the side gate on his way home.

When I popped over this afternoon (taking Seb with me as they have also stopped leaving their dog in with Judy's dog to keep him company during the day), the stable door was closed (thus preventing the sun's access to dry and sterilise the area), the feed bin was outside on the ground, the gate to the feed store was tied shut and various other actions had been taken that were fairly 'keep out' in their nature.

Naturally I ignored the lot, mucked out the stall, collected the poo from the ground outside as that too seems to have been neglected for several days if the dungbeetle activity levels are anything to go by, and gave her some hay. I have also found out what mix of additional feed the horse is supposed to be getting, and we agreed it would not hurt her to give her a bit extra (as long as I skip the grain, which I would have done anyway).

Tomorrow I will get the washing done at mine, take Seb over for a play (well, actually all they do is follow each other around, and Seb goes into the stall to eat horse poo at any opportunity), cut some more grass (ie find the base of another fruit tree so I have somewhere to put the next lot of stable waste), and generally catch up with myself. Since her next door now has my phone number I will expect her to call me if she wants me to do her job for her, but tomorrow I am afraid the answer will be No. If she is too lazy, then Brad can do it for himself since it is the weekend.