Wednesday 31 August 2011

Barefoot boy.....

When we got back from our hack the other day, one of Gandalf's shoes was hanging off, he'd pretty much removed it all by himself with one of his hinds......so as Tess's farrier was coming that evening but didn't haave time to re shoe him, I asked him to take them both off.

Today we went for a little hack, here's the map. He was fine on the grass and in the stubble field, a little bit footy on the road and absolutely hated the gravel. Mind you, he hated gravel when he had the shoes on, too......

Took some pics of his feet for reference

Near fore:

off fore:



We'll just have to see how he gets on. Going to research some hoof boots now.

Thursday 25 August 2011

Beaumont Bivouac day 2

Day 2
I wake early in my comfy bed at Jo’s, grab some breakfast and we load Socianda to get to the stables nice and early as we want to get going in good time. Needless to say, the French are all faffing again. Our 3 horses are soon all tacked up and ready to go and we stand around waiting for the others.....

They finally get going at 9.15. We are apparently doing 42 km today, and will be back at Beaumont by 5.30. No way is this happening at this rate, I think. We set off along the road to Limeuil, where the two rivers, the Dordogne and the Vézère, meet. We troop along the bridge admiring the view.

We troop through the town and get photographed by the tourists. Then we head up into the hills.

Normally this would not be a problem, we have hills round us too. But the ground here is all really stony and Gandalf and Seraphina struggle with this and try to walk up the grassy sides of the track shoving Ali and I into trees and gorse bushes as they go. The arabs have all gone ahead tripping along like mountain goats but we lag behind as we don’t want to push our two.
We get to the top and go into some woods. Down another very stony track. Then the call comes from the front “Demi-tour!”, we’ve gone the wrong way, we all turn around and I find myself at the front of the column for once and Gandalf is not obliged to trot every two minutes to catch up. We like this.

 Down another track in the woods, another wrong move and another demi tour. We start to get annoyed, I get my map out and for the first time consider striking out on our own.

Eventually they find the right path and we go down the hill. And straight back up another very stony track, this time in full sun which is starting to heat things up a bit. I start wondering why we haven’t had a water stop for the horses, I expect G & S are wondering the same thing! A difficult (and for us, slow) climb to the top reveals a stunning view across the Dordogne valley but also leaves Gandalf breathing heavily.

I go marching up to Luc and ask how much more of this there is as our two shod hooves out of eight can’t deal with the stones. He agrees that the terrain isn’t great and we veer away from the intended trail and take the road.

I look at the map and see the lunch stop is still a few km away. We trudge on all the way back down the hill, past a nice looking restaurant with happy people emerging from air conditioned cars in the car park looking forward to a gourmet lunch. I take out our emergency cake bars and grimly ask myself why I’m doing this again......

Eventually we arrive at Mauzac, a very pretty little place by the river. We’ve been on the trail for nearly 5 hours thanks to the wrong turns in the woods and the horses have had enough. We unsaddle and water them and even cadge some hard feed from Isabelle’s lot as they need the energy. I hear Luc telling Stewart he can get some footage of them cantering on the next stretch by the canal to Lalinde and take my map over and get him to mark the route back on it as no way will ours be up to doing that. We eat lunch, watch a couple of the other horses try to kick each other, they obviously haven’t run out of energy, then saddle up and head out on our own, just me & Ali. We ride down the right of the canal, where the trees are for shade.

A little while later, after presumably a load more faffing, the others come charging past on the other side of the canal in the sun. We wave, and amble on.

They all come to a sudden stop as Luc’s horse has a massive spook at some water sprinklers and he has to get off and lead it past! We continue to follow them as they walk down the other side of the canal, then they cross to our side and canter off and we lose them round a bend in the track.

We amble on towards Lalinde, the horses manage a little trot but we don’t do much as they are so tired. We arrive in Lalinde and see a lorry across the river which looks familiar. It’s Isabelle come to give us a lift back!

We cross the bridge, unsaddle the horses and Gandalf, who knows a lift home when he sees one,  goes straight up the ramp (of the same lorry he didn’t want to go in at the Label Loisir) like he’d been doing it all his life.....

Seraphina, however, had other ideas.....

It’s quite a steep ramp and she didn’t want to go up it. Gandalf called her from inside, she refused to put a foot on the ramp. I tried all the usual tricks, backing up, putting pressure on with the headcollar, nothing. Isabelle found a lunge line to put round her back end, she pulled back against it. By this time, we’d attracted quite an audience of tourists to watch the pretty pony being uncooperative. The temperature was in the mid 30s and I am seriously considering tying her to a tree and leaving her there when I try one last trick of lifting her front feet up on to the ramp. She seems to realise that she won’t win this argument and stops pulling and simply steps up the ramp. We all wish she’d had this revelation half an hour ago........

We pile into the lorry, along with Isabelle’s lovely 3 legged Collie, and take the easy way back to the stables. I check out my iPhone app and we’ve still done 30 of the 42km planned for that day. Not a bad effort for a couple of unfit cobs......

But I prefer my own rides, which involve more water stops for the horses, beer stops for the riders and a whole lot less faffing......!

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Beaumont Bivouac day 1

“We’re doing a 2 day bivouac next week”, says Isabelle, the owner of the riding school in Beaumont “why don’t you bring Ali’s pony over and she can come with us?”

Right, OK, I think, how hard can it be?
As with the Naulet trip, it takes me over a week to organise everything. I reckon Seraphina would be much happier with Gandalf around, so I have to get a team of people roped in to look after the SNO and the other animals so I can go too. I get Tanya to drive the horses up to the stables the day before, I organise hay, camping gear, lunches & food for the evening barbie.

Wednesday morning, I wake at 5.30 as a huge thunderstorm is threatening the tiles on the roof. I get the last of the gear in the car, it’s lashing down with rain. Get the kids in, SNO not happy to be woken so early, then take her up to Tess’s, still lashing down rain, set off for Beaumont, in the rain & dark. It occurs to me that Isabelle might cancel due to the weather but in the absence of a phone call, carry on anyway.....
Once past Bergerac, the storm vanishes. Past Issegeac, the ground is bone dry, we have escaped the weather! Arrive at the stables, unload the kit, get the horses ready, leave at 9 was the plan, actually it’s more like 10, gotta allow for French faff time........

There are 14 of us in all, 2 leaders, 9 kids, us 2 & Jo on Socianda. We’re told to stay at the back, my usual position when riding with a group, problem with a group this size is that we’re trotting more or less all the time to keep up. Gandalf and Fina very excited, Ali asks to be on the lead rein for the first bit, Gandalf jogging about, does some nice piaffe and lateral work in his attempt to go and see the horses in front (who all pull faces at him).

Undeterred, he bounces on, Fina doesn’t even bother trying to keep up with him. After the first canter Ali relaxes so we forgo the lead rein.

We ride through some fantastic countryside but annoyingly I lose my hat silk on a tree in the woods somewhere. Some of the horses ahead of us are silly, one spooks at a water filled ditch, one doesn’t like an automatic waterer, G and S wait patiently until they get over it and we can carry on. During one canter, one of them tanks off and reduces its rather overhorsed rider to tears.......they are all arab types, some of whom do endurance, all of whom are mega fit as they work every day, ours look very short and fat in comparison.
We stop for lunch in some woods, the ground crew have provided ropes to tie up and buckets of water and our picnics, all very civilized. We are on part of the pilgrim’s route to Santago de Compostella, we will ride all the way there one day.....

Seraphina acquires a fan club, she seems quite happy with the attention.

We continue in the afternoon, catch a glimpse of the river before turning away from it again, ride through maize fields, up stony tracks in the woods, then we are back at the river again and we arrive at the stables where we will spend the night. A drink for the horses, then we ride down to the river and go for a paddle. Gandalf not keen as usual, but went in anyway. Seraphina not fazed at all, stuck her nose in the water and pulled faces like she does......

Back to the stables, put the horses in their little paddock, sit and watch the show as the owner fails to start his tractor and has to jump start it so the horses can have a delivery of hay. Ours stand by the gate looking at us hungrily, I have to send Ali to scrape the last bits of the old bale up to give them while they wait.

Horses fed and watered, we wait to be fed. And wait, as French faffing recommences and the barbie refuses to light. Someone goes off in search of firelighters, luckily we are more successful in the search for a bottle opener so we have aperos and eat all the crisps and olives while we wait. The kids put their tents up, one of them gets kicked by her horse and cries a lot,  Ali gets locked in the loo and I have to go and rescue her, still we wait. Finally after dark, the barbie is ready and we eat some barely scorched burgers in time honoured fashion. I have accepted Jo’s offer of a proper bed with alacrity, so she and I retire to civilisation for the night, leaving Isabelle & Luc in charge of the kids in the tents.......

Stewart's pics and videos of day 1 here

Sunday 21 August 2011

Éowyn's first dressage test

Last month there was a lead rein class in the Interdressage schedule and as Éowyn has been going on about getting rosettes like her sister for ages now, we decided to go for it. I was going to plonk her on Gandalf, but Tess offered us the use of Coquinette, so she went for it......
And she didn't even come last, scoring 60.24% put her 5th out of 7. Which luckily for me meant she got a rosette.....
....although she was a bit disappointed that it wasn't pink!

Thursday 18 August 2011

Ride n drive

Have had a great horsey day today. Originally we were due to go on a day ride with the people from a local riding school Got all set, Éowyn booked in to the holiday club for the day, trailer ready to take Gandalf and Ches up there the night before, took Seraphina to stay with Maverick.........all sorted until we discover the woman that runs the place wants €50 for me to go along on my OWN horse and bring my OWN lunch

Soddez cela pour un jeu de soldats, as they say.......

So, having gone to all this trouble to get a day off, we go to plan B. Took the horses to Tess's, went out from there this morning, Tess on Organza, me & G and Tanya on Ches with Ali and Caitlin in the buggy with Coquinette and assorted dogs......

And we had a great time! For some reason, Gandalf was really on his toes, he wanted to canter all the time, we did a lot of piaffe and at one point trotted up a hill mostly sideways not like the boy at all! We did manage a few canters, he's great at going from a standstill like the western horses, not so good at the stops yet.......Coquinette was on form too, she can go really fast when she wants to. Only slight problem was Choccy had to be on the lead because Organza doesn't like her and at one point Gandalf stepped on her. From the noise she made, you would have thought she was being murdered!!! Luckily we were in a muddy field at the time so there was no serious damage, I dread to think of the vet bills if it'd been on the road.......After that, she hitched a lift....

We got to Tanya's, put the horses in the paddock, had a spot of lunch. Then we decided to go down to the river......uncharacteristically Gandalf went in the water!!!
So did Tanya, when Ches thought a roll might be a good idea.....

Caitlin went swimming....at one point Coquinette disappeared completely under the water and resurfaced festooned in weed, like something from Pirates of the Caribbean......
Excellent fun, we left the horses to dry out a bit whilst we had tea and cake, then saddled up and went back up to Tess's.

Loads more pics here, and a map of the route here.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

More Interdressage

Actual dressage tests this time, with set movements and letters round the "school" and everything......

As there is a restricted walk and trot class this month for people who have never got above 68% (us!) we thought we'd give it a go. So here's Fina:

and here, complete with "Blairwitch" style filming and Seraphina and Violette having a very mareish discussion on the soundtrack, is Gandalf......

Saturday 13 August 2011

Yeeee Hawwwww.....!

Had a brilliant afternoon yesterday at the Western Horse Farm. Jo took Socianda and I rode one of their horses, a snowflake Appaloosa called Flashy. It was the first time I'd ridden a properly Western trained horse and he was fantastic.

They are trained to voice commands, neck reining and shifts in bodyweight so are incredibly light to ride. If I inadvertently put a slight contact on the bit, he started going backwards! He was being a bit lazy at first so Frédérick, the instructor, gave me his spurs, I have never , ever worn spurs of any sort before, and these were huge!!!
As soon as he felt the slightest touch (I was worried about hurting him!) off he went, so I didn't really need to use them......All you do for "go" is click your tongue, for canter you make a kissing noise, the first time, he shot off and took me by surprise!

We did a bit of "barrel racing" round cones and Flashy knows his job so well that I didn't have to tell him what to do, as soon as he saw them he came out of the corner running, and did the most incredibly tight turns....


Excellent fun, loads more pics here and a video here (thanks to Stewart)

And here's the link to Frédérick's place.

Definitely going back for another lesson......

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Handy Horse, not so Handy Pony....

Well we filmed our Handy Horse tests today. Gandalf, first take fine, as usual. But the NNP sure made a reappearance today!! She jumped a practise jump superbly:
and was not bothered about the flag either:
But when it came to filming........mademoiselle was not ready for her public!!!

Here's the outtakes video, she didn't want to jump, be near the flag, go into the maze, stop to let Ali pick up the sword or go past the hoop......

But we got there in the end, here's the finished videowithout the jump though, we decided it'd be easier to just take that out......

And here's Gandalf's video, complete with Ali's Blairwitch style videoing and extraneous dogs.......

Monday 8 August 2011

We have handy horses....

Had a bit of fun today practising for the Handy Horse class in this month's Interdressage competition. We had a load of plastic for them to walk over
a little maze
An arch with streamers

and best fun of all, jousting for a ring!!

Even Éowyn had to have a go at that.....

Thursday 4 August 2011

Seraphina goes solo

Seraphina was a star today, Ali wanted to ride but Gandalf has a nasty bite on his back so I don't want to ride him til it's gone. This meant that as Fina was with Mav over the weekend, we had to go and get her and bring her back to the others on her own.

Ali got on and headed down the hill......and off she went, without even a backwards glance at Mav! She seemed quite happy to follow the car, every now and then she'd come up alongside the door and poke her nose in the window to check I was still there!



She had a bit of a hesitant moment going past some cows, but didn't spook, just moved away from the fence a bit! The only spook we had was when a horse down the road unexpectedly stuck its head over a hedge, obviously took her by surprise. Very pleased with her, that's the first time she's been out alone since she arrived here.

Then we got to Marianne's and went into the carriere to do a bit of practise for the Interdressage Handy Horse class, she was a bit distracted by Marianne's horse, Gimy, who was racing round the paddock next to her, but soon settled down.





Then we turned her out with Gimy, who's currently on his own til Marianne can find a new horse, they had a fine old hooley round!