Just got back from 3 weeks in France (where we no longer have wifi at the house, which is my excuse for not blogging for ages), supposedly on holiday but actually ended up on a kind of extended horse archery training course.....as you do!
This is a new FFE discipline and John at our old club has taken it up big time. As they had a competition planned for the final weekend of our stay, we decided it'd be fun to have a go. Ali of course got to ride Kinna, and as she's been doing field archery for a few years, turned out to be some good at it.
I on the other hand, got totally thrashed by everyone in Club 3 (the easiest level, all at the walk), even the kids on a lead rein. But it really was a lot of fun :-)
We went for several training sessions, including one where I managed to fall off Nanou, she only has 2 speeds, plodding along like a donkey or full speed racehorse and I ended up swearing (and laughing) a lot as she tanked off up the run.....
Needless to say, I can only actually hit the target when she's in donkey mode ;-)
John has done a really good job with Kinns, she totally gets what you have to do and doesn't bat an eyelid at any of it.....
Went to see my favourite one, at Alton Barnes in Wiltshire, when on our way to Portsmouth to get the boat to France. Guess what, it was raining again.....
This horse was created by a Mr Robert Pile in 1812. Apparently Mr Pile paid twenty pounds to a journeyman painter, John Thorne, also known as Jack the Painter, to design the white horse and have the work of cutting it carried out. But before the work was finished Thorne took off with the money, and Mr Pile was left to pay out again........
We went to the nearby village of Alton Prior to find the big stone which has a carving of the horse on it, the lichen is starting to take over though.....
There is a tradition of lighting the white horses to mark special occasions, and in recent times the horse has been lit with candles such as on 30th June 2012, marking its 200th anniversary. Which looked very cool.....(photo courtesy of Terry Waldron)
And here's a pic taken from the air by those Last Refuge people again......on a sunny day!
