Have spent so much time banging on about the new girl I haven't had time to blog about last weekend - our riding club's first competition of the year. Being a generally helpful sort of person I immediately volunteered my services (and Mike's, whether he wanted them volunteered or not) to help out in whatever way I could. Clearly having no idea just how much there would be to do........
So I spent the weekend (and the Friday before) marking out arenas, getting rained on, carrying showjumps around (turns out they are rather heavy), running about putting poles back up the inconsiderate competitors had allowed their horses to knock down, rallying various small girls to get their act together, saddling horses and ponies, consoling small tearful girls who had hit the dirt, photographing and videoing rounds, helping to catch runaway horses and, most annoyingly of all, hanging around during OFAT (Obligatory Faffing About Time) which seems to be inherent to any kind of equestrian event here in France.
Was bloody knackered by Sunday evening!
High points included Ali winning a class on Ches who was an absolute star, catching up with some mates and seeing them have fun on their neds, the sun coming out to play on the Sunday oh, and we found time for the odd glass of wine :-)
Ali and I have spent ages thinking about a name for
the new girl. Céline means "heavenly" so we have been looking at
astrological names. We came up with a few from various baby name websites,
quite liked Seren which is star in Welsh, or Izarra, star in Basque and
Synnove, which is Anglo Saxon for gift of the sun.We looked at the names of actual stars, there
are a few like Chara, Merope or Heka that are nice. But none of these was quite
right.
So we went back to the old favourite, Tolkien. Quite
like the word Isil or Ithil, which means moon in Elvish. But in the end we
settled for Elentári, one of the names of Varda, a Middle Earth deity. It means
"Star Queen" in Elvish, Tolkien wrote that Vardacreated the stars before the Valar descended
into the world, and later with the dews from the vats of Telperion she made the
constellations......
Been a bit busy this week. On Thursday, we took Kinns down to my friend Sarah's near Montauban as she is going to spend the summer there getting an introduction to classical dressage. As we were driving all that way (huge thanks to my chauffeur, Tanya), I thought it might be worth checking out this little cutie whose ad I'd seen on the internet
Turns out she was worth it, not just because she looks like she should be in a L'Oréal ad (and one of my friends thinks she looks like Pamela Anderson) but because she is an unspoilt baby who was a bit apprehensive but was nonetheless prepared to let us take her away from all that she knew and stick her in a trailer (twice).
So she is here now, settling in with Sky at the new field down the road we've been offered the use of, it's clear she's not been handled much, has never had to give her feet, Howard is coming to trim tomorrow, I suspect we won't get much done. She's also had a headcollar on for too long and has a scab under her chin due to it rubbing. And she still has a lot of foal coat, needs a bit of a grooming session.
But we'll get there. She doesn't even know what a carrot is, just like Kinns didn't at first.....she's a yearling, Comtois x Mérens, will definitely get big and chunky enough to carry me around one day, her legs are nearly as wide as Sky's already :-/
Oh, and her "official" name is......Céline. Which I hate. So we are currently brainstorming a better one....
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I have just been made aware of the existence of this book. About a Fjord called Seraphina. Concidence? No.......
The author did indeed used to own a "a lovely Norwegian Fjord mare named Seraphina, the inspiration for this book." And then she moved to America and Seraphina couldn't go too, so I got her. And as those of you who regularly read this blog will know, that's when the hard work really started.......
So the blurb on Amazon says: "All the family's animals - the dog and cat, the chickens and ducks, and her
mother's big grey horse - are awaiting this joyous arrival."
If only fact had followed fiction! Hardly a joyous arrival....and my "big grey horse" wasn't to chuffed with her behaviour, I can tell you. She wasn't too nice to the chickens and ducks either, or the dog......
Had a quick look at some of the book and I'm afraid that, apart from being fairly unimaginative, given that it's basically a Disney Princess version of what actually happened (without any of the nasty tiresome, real life, dealing with a pony who needed to know that yes, humans can be some use at looking after you and no, you don't need to try and take over, and yes they can be trusted.......), it's also badly written with some truly dreadful twee illustrations so I won't be rushing out to buy it any time soon for my kids, even if it is about my horse!
I shall probably invest in this instead, a far more favourable review.....
Took Kinns up to the club yesterday as Polo was going anyway and there was a space in the trailer. She was pretty good really, had a look at a lot of things but wasn't spooked or silly
- apart from when she decided she'd rather eat the grass than ride over it (as per usual) and had a Tigger moment
Ali took her into the sand school after the lesson and again there was another boing as she didn't fancy going round in there when there was grass to be had outside, but eventually she got the message, did a bit of nice canter and we left it at that.
She liked Carole's Arab, Idaa.....
and the new foalie, Crack
Then during the second hour of lessons we had to leave her in a stable next to Idaa who was objecting to being left in on his own, she didn't turn a hair :-)
Don't think we'll have to many problems if Ali wants to have the odd lesson on her up there.....
Went to visit Seraphina on Thursday, as it's the school holidays and Ali wanted to go and see her. Tess and Caitlin came along for the ride and we had a nice fun day with lots of laughing and gossiping....
When we got there the girls were calmly grazing together. This is a good thing since when I was there a couple of weeks ago to pick my trailer up, the new girl, Tayenne, was systematically breaking out through the fence and disappearing into the woods. Probably "encouraged" by Fina who has decided she is once again in charge. Tayenne is a seven year old Camargue mare who has spent her life so far in a herd and hasn't really seen much of the world. Easy victim for little miss bossy, really.....
Sheila's older mare, Lucie, has gone to the stallion and Tayenne has come to keep Fina company whilst she's away. Lucie is definitely in charge of Fina, so it will all change again when she comes back. And next year there will be a foalie for her to contend with!
We went for a nice walk, Ali rode Fina and we walked Tayenne the spook monster who did a lot of snorting at stuff, but is starting to get the idea that the whole world is not out to get her.
So yesterday it was cross country day, Carole is in the process of building a course so we had a few fences to play with. Again, Nahiade was a star and really seemed to enjoy doing something other than going round in circles in the sand school.
As she still hasn't got a bitless bridle for her, we tried Gandalf's new Micklem and she really seemed to appreciate it, maybe it was the bridle, maybe the Myler comfort snaffle, maybe the two, and maybe Ali's soft hands but there was far less head-in-the-air-taking-off......
She was the only one who was prepared to go in the water at first, Ali soon had her cantering through it, but all the others went in eventually, some more readily than others!
Caitlin was riding Sun, a big trotter who is very enthusiastic but is a big baby about things sometimes. Think he enjoyed the jumping too though :-)
Very pleasant day out, although I ended up doing 6kms on foot following them around the course, so no need to do any cycling for the 5x50! Chox enjoyed it too, I reckon......
Little bit of video here:
Really fancy a go at some XC myself now, wonder if Gandalf would mind?
It's the school holidays so that means Ali's doing a stage at the riding club. Yesterday was all about TREC and as I've apparently done more of it than Carole, she asked me to stay and help.
The girls didn't even get their bum in the saddle all morning, they had a lesson on how to read a map then they took the horses into the sand school for some practise at the in hand elements of the PTV bit. Have to say the horses were a bit nonplussed by this, I suppose they have been conditioned only to be ridden in the school......
Nahiade was great about the tarp and the polework, but getting her to understand we wanted her to trot in had took a while, she had no idea how to do that! I really do take my horses for granted when it comes to groundwork......but she got there in the end and Ali managed to jump in hand without ending up on the floor like I did once at a competition :-/
And for a long old beastie, she can do the maniabilité surprisingly well
We even took them up the track a ways to find some slopes to use for the up and down hill bits. Think they appreciated the change of scene and the chance for a snack :-)
Then after lunch it was up to the big field for ridden practise. Again, Naihade, being a creature of habit, got a bit revved up as she thought she was going to do a round of showjumping but instead she had to do some things at speed (slalom, tree trunk, L bend) and slow down again for others (immobility, S bend). You could see her thinking about it. Will do her good.......
As we didn't have a long, light pole to make a gate like the one we're used to, we opted for the rope version which you do get at some comps. So Carole says, "right, how do you do this, Helen?". Er, as it turns out I have no idea!!! So we had a lot of fun trying but the main problem was the horses being wary of the rope cos it could be an electric fence after all.......
Ali's face pretty much sums it up here!
Carole wants me to help her organise a TREC comp up there in the autumn and the first thing I'm going to suggest is that we make a proper gate with a pole!!!
But of course I had to figure it out so today I got on the boy and gave it a go. If you have to keep the rope in the same hand like you do with the barrier, then it's jolly tricky......
Must check the rules on that!!
Cross country day tomorrow, obviously not going along to teach but to learn....... :-)
