Seraphina's training

Went down to Rochelle's today to see Seraphina having a lesson with the trainer, Odile. Predictably we were a bit late as the kids couldn't be arsed to get up early (if we hadn't been going anywhere, Éowyn would've been up at 6 obviously....). Equally predictably, Éowyn wouldn't be quiet during the lesson so I had to go and shut her in the car, along with Chocolate who thought Seraphina would like to play with her like Sky and Kinna do........

Anyway, I eventually got to watch some of her session. Mademoiselle is rather "tetue" and has her own ideas about stopping (or not) when asked.

Odile just asked her quietly again and again until she decided to cooperate. She called me into the round pen to walk alongside and ask her to stop using the lunge line attached to the headcollar at the same time as Odile gave her the signal with the reins, and she picked it up pretty quickly - Seraphina is very good with everything on the ground but has yet to translate it to what goes on under saddle. We then had a session of dismounting and remounting (Odile, not me, obviously, wouldn't want to squash the poor pony!) without her moving, again, she got that after a few attempts.

She looks pretty good when she's paying attention and cooperating!

After a fantastic lunch, we took the girl for a walk to find a bit of nice grass. Seraphina tried to stop a few times for a munch when I didn't want her to, Freya used to try that too, doesn't work with me! She was fine with the dogs and the Small Naughty One running around, she's very laid back in hand. Just need to get her totally laid back under saddle too!

 She's a very pretty girl......

Pony rides......

We went on the annual "randonnée", or ramble in Bonneville on Friday, it's a six km walk followed by the inevitable meal. As I'd been helping to prepare the meal for two days (they wanted an "English" meal so we did roast turkey with sage & onion stuffing followed by trifle for 170 people) I was a bit knackered so decided to bring Gandalf with me and have a sit down.

Well, that lasted all of five minutes, Ali immediately decided she wanted to ride.

After a while, they both wanted to get off, great, I thought, but then Jane's grandchildren wanted a sit on him

They didn't like the idea of him actuall moving though, so they got off again. Then we got some random French kids on board, then Éowyn wanted to get back on......

So I ended up walking anyway. Chocolate came too and was very well behaved, the kids loved her. She put up will all the manhandling very well......

When it started to get dark I took Gandalf home, they light flaming torches at that point and he wasn't too keen on them!! Maverick, who had been left behind in the stable, being unable to cope with crowds, dogs, small people running around etc., was so pleased to see him he gave him a nice big bite, as if to say "where have you been til this time?!"

Yet another waif & stray......

This is Caramel, a female ginger kitten who turned up this week at the Barnes-Short Animal Sanctuary. One of Ali's little admirers from school arrived on the doorstep with her, she was wet and terrified, apparently he'd found her stuck up a tree......after a bath and some food, she has made herself at home and now rules the roost, teh dog is scared to get too near her!

Ali's admirers call round every day to see her and carry her around and they've made her a little house in Ali's room. Sweet......

Admirer no. 2 is going to ask his dad if she (the cat, that is, not Ali) can go and live at his house so maybe I won't have to keep this one and spend loads of money on her. Yeah, right.

Dusting the girls!

I was reading a magazine today with an article about Sarah Weston, who has written a book called  No Fear, No Force, all about how to handle semi feral foals. One of the techniques she uses involves stroking them with a feather duster, so I dug ours out (which, let's face it, sees very little action in the house) and took it out to the girls.

Predicably, Sky was not bothered by it at all, and after sniffing it a bit allowed me to stroke her with it whilst she carried on munching hay.

And equally predictably, Kinna was a whole lot less cool with it, she sniffed it then decided she didn't like it and moved away every time I got it close to her.

Then Ali came out to see what I was doing, so I let her take over with Kinna, at first Kinna was having none of it but once she realized it didn't actually hurt, she was fine.......

Will have to think of more unusual stuff to introduce them to, it's all good education..........

The Saga of Seraphina

Well, today was interesting......

Got a phone call before 9am, immediately thought 'the bloody horses are out again' but it wasn't mine, it was Seraphina!! Started rushing the troops out the door to get straight down there, but then got another call to say she'd been found. Interestingly, the pony belonging to the neighbours had also got loose during the night, so did something scare them, like a sanglier?

Anyway, made our leisurely way down to Rochelle's. Had a fantastic Mexican lunch. Got Seraphina in, groomed her, tacked her up, took her out to the round pen for some free lungeing. She was as good as gold, despite the Small Naughty One being noisy and trying to get under her feet all the time.

 So Ali hopped on, all OK, until I went to adjust the stirrups. Was it because Ali shifted her weight to one side, or did I inadvertently knock her with the stirrup? Whatever it was, she took off, initially at a trot but then she got faster as the weight on her back shifted more to one side. Then Ali screamed, which made it a whole lot worse. By the time I got to her to stop her (and bashed my face on her side, people keep asking me if I've been in a fight!), Ali was on the deck, but she was luckily just shaken, not really hurt.

So that's youngsters for you.....after that, I took her for a walk in the woods in hand, no probs. Took her into the paddock and tried her with a cooler rug, no problems. She didn't like the rustly winter rug though, we eventually got it on her back all folded up after she'd run away from it a few times but when she was OK with that we called it a day.

She's still a sweetheart. We're hoping to go down the next time the trainer comes so Ali can see how she goes....

Oh, and we measured her, she's only 13.2hh. She's got some growing to do if she's going to get as big as mum and dad!

Dressage and donkeys

Bit of a disappointing day today. Ali wanted to do this month's Interdressage class, which is basically the same as last month but with the addition of two small jumps. Gandalf however had other ideas......
The practise run went well....

but after we went to all the trouble of plaiting him and Ali got all her togs on, he did one decent jump, then decided he couldn't be bothered any more and demolished it at every attempt.

Looks like he was going to clear it in that pic - but no, he caught it with his hind leg. So we called it a day, he's never going to be a jumping horse. There's always next month......

We saw Rossy and Buffalo as well today, Buffy has dropped a bit of weight recently and is looking old (well, he is 36!) but he can still put the upstart donkey in his place!!

Another wet walk.....

It wasn't too hot this morning so we took the baby girls out for a walk. They were glad to get out and eat some actual grass......Skyfaxa has evidently decided she's not spotty enough and has redecorated herself accordingly. With her own poo, naturally.

We were accompanied by one of Ali's little admirers (who are always hanging out on their bikes and demanding her company), the girls are used to bikes now!

The sky took on a somewhat sombre aspect once we'd got too far from home to dash back.....

....and we got soaked. The French drove past us wearing expressions clearly conveying their opinion that we were mad.  Cue whingey children all the way home. Éowyn was like a talking doll that had got stuck saying "Mummy, I'm all wet". Aliénor helpfully pointed out that you could see my bra when my tshirt was wet.

Kids, doncha just love 'em?

Ride and drive!

Needed to move the big boys up to the field with grass in it, so we got up early and got on with the job, Gandalf did a great job babysitting!

Maverick was a bit stressed due to being out of his confort zone so spooked at everything, Gandalf just carried on regardless as usual. When we went in the woods, Éówyn wasn't too keen on having to duck under branches, he just ignored her noisy protests......

He did his usual PR job with the locals....

When we got there we put them in the stable for a while and helped to finish off the fences. Hopefully they won't be going walkabout now, we'll be putting the battery on the new fence!

As a reward for helping, Ali got her first driving lesson.......

Books.....

Have read two great books this week, the first one is Chosen By A Horse by Susan Richards

It's the story of a woman who takes in a rescue horse and how the relationship she has with the horse turns her life around and helps her come to terms with the loss of her mother when she was five and her alcoholic father and abusive marriage. Her site is here, she has written more books which I will have to get hold of.

The second book is The Horse Boy, by Rupert Isaacson. I bought it a while ago in an airport bookshop because of the photo on the cover really, the author is absolutely gorgeous!

I picked it up this afternoon and read the whole thing. The author describes his journey to take his autistic son to Mongolia to see if the shamens can help him after he realises the boy seems to have a real connection with horses. There's a film too, looking forward to seeing that. Right at the end they go to see some Takhi, Przewalski horses, the only true wild horses left. Who do they look like? A certain Fjord of my acquaintance, perhaps....

This picture comes from this site all about Mongolia. I would love to go and ride there one day......

Greedy fat horse......

 Had some new hay delivered yesterday. Gandalf marched straight up to it and started munching. Anyone would think the poor boy was wasting away......every time I went out to check on them, he was eating. He wouldn't let the girls anywhere near the stuff so in the end I shut him in the box for a while so they could get a look in.

Same thing this morning, he just doesn't seem to know when to stop! So now he's back inside (much to the disgust of the ducks who were happily going through the poo in there for choice morsels, my chooks and ducks just love horse poo!) and Mav is next to him with his head over the door, they're like an old married couple, have to be together all the time.

Hot here today and lots of flies so they've all got their "gas masks" on. Poor Kinna has such a sad excuse for a tail (that's Appys for you) that maybe I should get her some extensions so she could actually use it to move a fly or two......