Skýfaxa

A jumping competition

2012-02-26T16:27:00.000+01:00

Just got back from our first experience of a CSO (SJ) comp here, Hollie was entered in the 50cm clear round class and we took Fina along for the experience.They travelled in style, and we could keep an eye on them the whole way! As we arrived early, I asked the organisers if Ali could take Fina in the collecting ring before the competitors and they said no problem, so Ali popped her over

A day off!

2012-02-25T19:41:00.001+01:00

The OH made it home this weekend for one of his rare visits so I got the day away from the SNO, a absolute luxury...... Went out this morning with Ali and Fina, rode Chester in his Western saddle which is possibly the most uncomfortable saddle I have ever sat in. Nice little amble (for me, gotta watch the back) by the river, Ali and Fina (and Choccy) did some hooleying and jumping Then

Jumping lesson....

2012-02-24T18:16:00.002+01:00

Tanya and I took the girls for a jumping lesson up at Louise's yesterday, first trip in the new big trailer! Seraphina was a bit unsure about loading but she eventually figured it out, they load from the side and the ramp is quite steep....... The ponies behaved very well and were soon unloaded and warming up nicely First they tackled a cross pole, no problems with that ...but when

A horsey day in the sun.....

2012-02-21T21:00:00.000+01:00

Spent the day messing about with horses, great stuff! Built my first ever jumping course for the girls: tried out Tanya's posh new trailer.... .......and poor Sky got put through her paces by the SNO..... .....not too many confidence problems there!

A couple of days away.....

2012-02-21T19:22:00.000+01:00

Went down to Sarah's for a couple of days Sunday and yesterday and had a fine old horsey time. Tess and Caitlin came too. Cait rode Squaw, who didn't want to be cooperative at first, particularly when it came to cantering and jumping, but Cait wasn't having any of it and Squaw soon realised she would get away with nothing! She did some decent jumping in the end..... Izzy was a bit hyped up

A black horse for a change.....

2012-02-17T16:20:00.000+01:00

My next project looks like being Tess's Merens mare, Organza. She has had a bit of a difficult journey with her horse, because Tess isn't a particularly strict person and Organza is a bossy, dominant control freak.....As Chester has gone back home I have a bit of time to help out with Organza now and I went up to ride her today. The eventual aim is to get her hacking out alone, which she hates.

Riding lessons....

2012-02-15T20:55:00.000+01:00

Continuing the quest to find a decent place for the girls to have lessons here that is less than an hour's drive away, we tried a new riding school today, run by an English friend of a friend. Very small, only 10 or so horses, no sand school, nothing clever, but run by a BHSAI called Louise who is very nice, teaches well and has endless patience for the SNO "Can I trot now, can I, can I?" Ali

Too clever by half......

2012-02-14T18:37:00.002+01:00

Today the girls have disgraced themselves and I found out that the Naughty Nordic Princess can open doors...... When we had the barn rebuilt, we had a door put in between the garage bit and the horse shelter bit for ease of feeding etc. It's a proper aluminium door with a handle, and usually there's a gate in front of it that cuts the shelter in half and I used to put big bales of hay

Kinna does some long reining.....

2012-02-12T19:32:00.001+01:00

The snow is showing no signs of leaving, so I have decided to carry on trying to work the horses regardless. We got out the proper grown up horse stuff today (well alright, the felt saddle we used to have for the pony) and tacked Kinna up. No problems with that, she's had a saddle on before. Then we added some long lines and went for it..... And she did really well, I had Ali at her head

OK, that's enough of the white stuff.....

2012-02-10T18:13:00.000+01:00

So we still have snow. It doesn't usually last more than a day here, but seriously sub zero temperatures all week have meant it's all still with us. This in turn means I've had the kids at home all week as the buses aren't running and the schools are closed. They have now had enough of bracing walks in the cold and snowball fights etc. Worst of all though, we haven't had any water in the

Snow!

2012-02-06T16:53:00.000+01:00

It very rarely snows here in the Dordogne. But yesterday it did, big time!! Seraphina looked right at home...... It froze overnight so was all still there today, but the sun came out. No school for the girls so we went for a walk. Seraphina was in fine form...... ......Sky was a bit unsettled to start with, she was especially concerned about this snowman: But he didn't try anything, so

A haircut and a hack....

2012-02-04T15:26:00.001+01:00

The other day on Facebook, someone shared this photo..... And ever since then Ali has been on at me to try that with Seraphina's mane. I finally gave in and we did this: Not great really. So I chopped off the top bit and she'll have to live with the zigzags til it grows out. Not that she cares, obviously! Lots of sunshine today so I dragged the kids out for a little walk. Ali took Fina

Practising.....

2012-02-01T21:18:00.001+01:00

....what we learned at the weekend. As Sky and Kinna are currently down at Tanya's where there's a round pen. Ali got Kinna in, and worked on getting her attention, which was OK to start with: But Kinna is hard work, even Eric said that the other day, and this next bit clearly shows what happens if the horse realises you don't MEAN what you're doing, and they always do know!! (it also

Training Day Part Two.....

2012-01-30T15:47:00.000+01:00

After lunch, Eric changed from doing groundwork to ridden work. So the horses were tacked up. But before mounting, he did some work on getting them to flex and disengage their quarters. Then he showed the riders how to do it, first from the ground, then from the saddle. You can see him working with Ali and Seraphina in this video: And here with Sheila and Gandalf, in just the bitless bridle

A new trainer......

2012-01-29T08:00:00.000+01:00

Today we spent the day at Tess's doing a "stage" with French "ethologue" (horse whisperer) Eric Trelut. He's a great teacher, very patient and with a sense of humour! I really like his approach with the kids too, he pitches it just right. Basically the morning session was with each horse at liberty in the round pen, he showed people how to get the horse's attention and how to move them around

Freya....

2012-01-27T15:09:00.000+01:00

Whilst looking through the pics for Aliénor's post the other day, I got sidetracked looking at Freya's photos and I realised she had been sold before I started this blog, so here is her story. I bought Freya (or Nancie de la Lande as she is known by the Haras) as a ride for me once Ali was big enough to ride Gandalf. She was an Anglo Arab x Percheron, seven years old at the time, had been bred

Plastic bags......

2012-01-22T19:04:00.000+01:00

As it was pretty soggy this weekend, instead of riding we did some bag-on-a-stick practise. Something I do with all of my horses....... Hollie's little Polo is very nervous of sticks and unusual things in general (he was terrified of the measuring stick the other week) so I showed her some stuff to do with him. He was prepared to sniff it but it wasn't allowed to get out of his field of

Quite unbelievable trip to the vet....

2012-01-22T16:30:00.000+01:00

Our rescue ponies, Ruby and Ebony, needed a trip to the vet yesterday, Ebony has an abscess in her foot, the vet came out on Monday to see it and gave us poultices to put on and said to bring her up to him for a check up in a few days. We took Ruby too as she's developed a lump on her neck and we wanted to get it checked out. So the girls loaded fine and off we went. When we arrived they were a

Aliénor's equine story so far......

2012-01-18T20:44:00.000+01:00

I was watching Aliénor ride today and thinking how good she looked, she certainly rides better than I did at eleven, indeed some would say better than I do now. So I decided to do the proud mother thing and look out some photos that chart her equine progress.......I really wish there were some photos of me riding as a child, but my father used to abandon me at the stables gate without ever

Busy day

2012-01-17T18:45:00.000+01:00

The trimmer came for his second visit today. He says all of their feet have improved, Ches and Kinna's are particularly good, and an 8 week interval is fine for them all as they do so much exercise. People have tried to tell me that unshod horses can't do lots of roadwork as their feet will wear away, but Chester and Gandalf have shown otherwise!!! Sky's feet still have some flares but they are

Equestrian Social Media Awards

2012-01-16T20:57:00.003+01:00

Ever heard of them? Me neither, until just before Christmas when nominations opened, so of course I nominated our forum, Horsetales. Seein' as it's me who does our Twitter feed and Facebook page........And guess what, I have just discovered that we are a finalist in category 22, South West Europe. So please vote for us here. Lots of other great horsey sites/people/blogs to vote for too........

Interdressage without the dressage

2012-01-15T09:25:00.001+01:00

More Interdressage videos done this week. Continuing the non dressage theme after the Christmas competiton which involved handy horse, practical horsemanship and a performing goat....... This month there is a Happy Hacker class. Last time we did this, I was the only one not filming in a sand school, we actually went for a little tour round the village. We came 6th, the winner basically filmed a

Chilly day at Beaumont

2012-01-14T21:46:00.000+01:00

Took Ali up for her first session of the year at Beaumont today, very chilly!! Didn't hang around long at the stables, took the SNO and dog for a walk to warm up...... By the time we got back, the faffing to get the horses ready and out had just about finished.... ...so we watched the lesson for a bit, but didn't get too close to the rail as the wet sand and mud was flying everywhere!!!

A chilly hack!

2012-01-13T19:45:00.001+01:00

Took Chester out for a last hack before he goes home on Sunday. Tess came with us on Fina. Not very warm today!! We went somewhere different, Chester of course started looking at things funny as soon as we were off familiar routes, white signs, wheelie bins, puddles (that's a new one), sheep......The sheep were very worrying apparently, they all ran off when Choccy bounded up to the fence (which

A strange lump!!

2012-01-12T18:26:00.000+01:00

Gandalf has had a lump on his back for a while. It doesn't seem to bother him much but as it wasn't going away we took him up to the vet's to get it checked out. They did an ultrasound, he wasn't too keen on the machine but didn't make too much fuss and didn't seem bothered about the clippers to shave him either...... The lump looked a lot bigger without his hair on it.... Anyway, the good

Stairs? No problem......

2012-01-08T17:24:00.000+01:00

Took Sky out for a little walk again today. This time we went right through the middle of the village and across the main road, she didn't seem to be bothered by fast cars rushing past..... ....nor a rattly tractor in the woods, she was more concerned about keeping out of the puddles, she's not worried about them like Gandalf but prefers not to get her feet wet! Éowyn and Choccy had no such

Skýfaxa's little outing.....

2012-01-07T12:55:00.000+01:00

Ali has been having a sit on Sky for a while now so this morning we decided to go for a little tour round the village. Sky was very good but is still a bit confused by stuff going on on top of her!

Ebony......

2012-01-04T22:30:00.000+01:00

Did a bit of work with Ebony today, introduced her to a few things, like a saddle cloth.... ....and a saddle.... ....and some weight! She took it all in her stride, really, think she's got the idea that she can trust us....... :-)

More TREC

2011-12-27T21:46:00.000+01:00

Took Team Horsetales Junior and the pones to Naulet for a day of TREC training today. Realised our mistake almost immediately when Aude announced that as they were all under 16 we'd have to accompany them on the POR....on foot. Note to self, next time, bring horse. Lovely day for it though...... Some of it was a bit hilly......they had to wait for us to catch up!! Map thingy here After

Messing about bareback.....

2011-12-23T19:33:00.000+01:00

The girls had a little play with Chester and Seraphina this afternoon, I rarely watch anyone else ride Ches, I think he's carrying himself a bit better than he used to, the nose isn't in the air all the time any more....... A little video:

A little outing.....

2011-12-19T08:42:00.000+01:00

Well the holidays are here which means more time to do stuff with Ali.....today we took her and Fina up to Beaumont to do a 2 day stage for her Galop de Pleine Nature, which is like the usual Galop exams but with less boring schooling stuff and more TREC like things, it's all about the everyday out and about leisure rider. Seraphina had a nice new set of travel gear (early Xmas present for Ali)

The farrier came

2011-12-16T13:12:00.000+01:00

Farrier came this morning (eventually, over an hour late). Got the ponies in from the field, it's a wild wet and windy day here so they were a bit skittish but settled down with a haynet by the stables. Took some pics of Ebony's feet before the trim Bit of a mess....... She was a good girl for him mostly only tried to rear a couple of times......! Her feet are a lot

Getting to know the girls

2011-12-14T18:32:00.000+01:00

Spent a bit of time with the pones today. They weren't too sure about my dog at first, but then she was running round like a loony growling for no readily apparent reason......once they realised she was actually more scared of them than they were of her they stopped worrying! Ebony is starting to trust us already, Ali spent ages grooming and scratching her and generally being nice to her. We

Ruby and Ebony.....

2011-12-13T18:08:00.000+01:00

....are two Equine Rescue France ponies who are coming to stay for a bit! Tanya and I went to do their annual home check a couple of weeks ago, only to discover that their guardian has moved to Spain and left a friend to check on them "every couple of days"!!!They are too fat, their feet, particularly Ebony's are overgrown they are behind on worming and vaccinations and one of them hasn't

What Sundays are for......

2011-12-11T17:16:00.001+01:00

Got loads done today, went out for a hack this morning with the Speed Twins, Gary and Hollie, here's the map and photos, we did a bit of ditch jumping practise, Gandalf and Polo, no problem, but Sorcier had to be persuaded over most of them!! Gandalf wore himself out again trying (and failing)to keep up with Sorcier..... Then this afternoon I went out with my girls, Skyfaxa was very good about

Kinna's turn

2011-12-10T20:06:00.001+01:00

Haven't had time to do much with Kinna recently so I spent a bit of time with her in the round pen today. She was a good girl..... ......so good, in fact, that we tried this: Not bovvered at all :-)

A not so quick walk.....

2011-12-09T12:07:00.001+01:00

Went for a walk this morning, a quick tour round the village turned into nearly 2 hours as people kept stopping to talk to me. Some workmen with a digger were very interested in Sky, she didn't worry about the digger at all as there was a nice green verge to eat......We practised jumping ditches..... ...and climbing up banks (the grass at the top was obviously better!) She's such a mud

Polo pony

2011-12-07T13:15:00.001+01:00

Did a lesson for Hollie and Polo today. He's a strange little chap, he really doesn't like big people. He'll let Éowyn march straight up to him..... .....but he'll run away from me. Spent a good couple of hours on Monday getting him to trust me enough to let me touch him. Then today we were back to square one. Hollie and Éowyn could go straight up to him and put his headcollar on no

It's that time of year again.....

2011-12-04T20:39:00.001+01:00

Time for the Beaumont Christmas TREC! Got up at stupid o' clock to load the boys in the dark and the rain, Gandalf won't load unless we put all the lights on in the car and open the doors at the front of the trailer. Ches doesn't care because he knows there's hay in there!Drove to Beaumont in the rain. Unloaded and tacked up in the rain, you get the idea. Lots of other nice dry clean horses

Sky is full of beans....

2011-12-02T09:22:00.001+01:00

Did a ride and lead yesterday morning, Chester was a total star, Sky......wasn't!!! She was a snorting idiot to start with, then when we started trotting she did a load of little bucks. She kept trying to get in front of him and when that failed she bit him!! We had a canter up the steep hill and she can cover the ground a lot faster than Ches on his little legs, wish I could have taken a

Bitless hack.....

2011-11-30T19:04:00.001+01:00

Well we hacked her out in the bitless bridle today, and for the most part she was fine. First canter though, she put in a couple of bucks, I suspect because Ali wanted me to go first just in case the brakes failed and Missy is used to going first and didn't want to be behind Chester!She is definitely harder to stop with no bit, and when she pulled too much, the bosal tightened so Ali had to

More bitless.....

2011-11-29T07:21:00.000+01:00

Chester's turn today: Dare I say he's actually getting a bit bendy? Bareback you can really feel him lifting his back for turning. He didn't even knock too many poles! I found this video of the first time I rode him, about this time last year, I think he's put on a bit of muscle since then......

Interdressage again

2011-11-27T08:43:00.001+01:00

Filmed a couple of classes yesterday, had to use Fina as the others are disgustingly filthy and there are marks for turnout. The Nordic Princess manages to stay very clean, she's obviously not a mud monster like Sky and Chester. Here's Ali doing Manners, Ability and Performance: And both of us doing the shared horse showing class, this was about take 4: .......because as usual with

Better bitless?

2011-11-25T07:55:00.001+01:00

I have decided to start Skyfaxa bitless, and ordered a type of bosal bridle for her. Yesterday I thought I'd try it on Seraphina, as she does seem to have issues with her bit, she pulls, chews it, and tries to evade by lifting her head and opening her mouth...... So this is what happened: She was really listening and you could see her thinking about it.......will have to try that some more.

Barefoot trimmer

2011-11-23T18:48:00.001+01:00

The trimmer came today to check out the troops, he says none of them really have any serious issues, they've all been tidied up, most of them were well behaved (apart from Sky). Took lots of pics..... Fina Sky, showing some flare (you shouldn't be able to see daylight between the rasp and the hoof!) One trimmed, one not: Gandalf, bit of flare.... ...but generally pretty good for a

When she was good she was very, very good......

2011-11-22T08:07:00.001+01:00

....and when she was bad, she was horrid!! Seraphina,of course. Took her out for a little amble round the village yesterday with Sky in tow on the lead rein. Well, Missy Hissy didn't think this was a good idea, so she ran through her repetoire of Stuff To Do So I Can Get My Own Way, Maverick must have given here some coaching.... Spooking, check. At some bin bags on the side of the road. We've

2011-11-18T09:40:00.001+01:00

Took Sky out on her own for a little walk yesterday. Another sunny afternoon, blue skies, nice for November! We met a pony that galloped around like a loony, Sky got a bit agitated but didn't try to tank off we found a wooden bridge, she didn't even hesitate and Choccy found a new friend to play with! the only thing that bothered her really was a goose making a noise.....good girl.

Fast ride

2011-11-13T12:12:00.001+01:00

As the weather is still ridiculously good, I have managed to go riding every day for a week, which is a bit of a first for me!!Today Gandalf and I went out with Gary and Soso. We had a bit of a hooley, lots of nice places to canter in the vines, Gandalf at one point was flat out galloping to stop Soso overtaking him, Soso just cruised past at a canter.......poor G just can't do the speed!!

Lake ride

2011-11-11T18:41:00.001+01:00

Well today Chester and Seraphina have been total stars. As it was a sunny bank holiday, Ali & I went out for the day, we rode all the way from here to the lake, which is 14kms each way. We have been cantering all over the place, Ches has pretty much got the hang of going straight into canter from a walk, not even a hint of a buck (presumably because it's too much like hard work with me on

All change.......

2011-11-09T20:00:00.000+01:00

All change here, have swapped Gandalf for Chester who needs some boot camp. Today, Ali & I rode to Tanya's with Kinna on the lead rein. Gandalf is going to stay with Tanya so she can ride him out with Hollie on Polo and Kinna will be staying to keep Soso company as he can't really cope with being alone. For some reason, Gandalf was in a hurry and trotted most of the way there. At one point

A new toy!

2011-11-08T17:52:00.001+01:00

A friend of mine spotted a second hand jump for sale on Total France the other day (thanks, Jo!) so I snapped it up (as new they are a ridiculous price over here, as are so many equestrian related items). Went to fetch it today from a nice ex pat couple about an hour away, not far from where I got Kinna from. The poles were 12' long, far too big to fit in the Kangaroo, so the chap very kindly

Soggy day!

2011-11-06T09:01:00.000+01:00

Too Ali up to Beaumont yesterday for the day, one of the great things about Isabelle is that she doesn't cancel if it's wet unlike many of the stables we've been to, the French seem to generally hold the belief that they'll dissolve in the rain....... So she did some jumping practise, with a ready made water jump! She rode one of the smaller horses, Mikado, who was a bit opinionated to begin

Riding somewhere different....

2011-11-02T21:32:00.000+01:00

We went to Derbyshire for our annual holiday this half term and I booked the usual hack out with friends. I got to ride the usual draft cross, this one was called Prince and was 17hh but was lovely and forward going...... We rode through some stunning scenery, but it was a bit chilly up on the hillside. Got to go for a little canter, Prince's legs were so long it was like cantering in slow

A lively ride!

2011-10-16T21:00:00.000+02:00

Rode Gandalf and Fina down to Tanya's today as they'll be staying with her whilst we're away. Had to take the Small Naughty One with us, and she wanted to do everything that Ali did..... Cantering...... ....jumping ditches but she did draw the line at jumping the log on the TREC course from the other week. Fina tackled it somewhat faster than Ali was expecting, hence the expression!!

Horse Agility

2011-10-15T17:35:00.000+02:00

Have been investigating doing some online agility competitions, the International Horse Agility Club runs them on their site here: http://www.thehorseagilityclub.com/page ... ility.htmlLots of it is what we do for TREC and Label Loisir anyway, and as an added bonus there are no turnout marks!!! Bit disappointed to only finish 6th in the Interdressage Happy Hacker class,

Cowgirl Ali

2011-10-13T08:31:00.000+02:00

As Ali didn't want Kinna to be left out, we did her photo for the calendar yesterday. She was very good, didn't mind the (rather heavy) Western saddle at all. I even dug out an old hackamore bridle to finish the look. Kinna looked very small under all that.... Inevitably, Éowyn wanted a ride...... So that's both babies backed then, what shall we do next?

Spotty Indian Pony

2011-10-09T19:22:00.000+02:00

Éowyn's turn for the calendar shoot today, thought Sky would look the part as an Indian pony. So she's an unbacked two year old, but that didn't matter! Sky was better behaved than the child, unsurprisingly.......

Anarchy in the.....south west of France?

2011-10-05T16:00:00.000+02:00

So it's that time of year again, time to think about photos for our annual Horsetales Charity calendar. Some of us want to do the fancy dress theme again and for the Naughty Nordic Princess there is really only one look to go with her mane and her non conformist attitude: All that work with fly spray desensitisation meant she didn't even mind being graffitied - unlike Aliénor who hated having

Interdressage out and about

2011-09-29T16:34:00.000+02:00

Just had time to film this month's Interdressage entry today before the closing date tomorrow. We are entering the Happy Hacker class so I thought it would be appropriate to do the class out and about rather than in the school.......not that we've got a school anyway! It is judged on "turnout- no need to plait (may use ‘high vis’ or traditional showing clothes), condition, manners, ability and

Our own TREC "Truc"

2011-09-24T20:12:00.000+02:00

Having been to a couple of TREC competitions here in SW France and had a lot of fun, some friends and I decided to organise our own, nothing official, just to give our friends an idea of what it’s all about. So what is it all about? Invented in France in the 70s, le TREC ('Technique de Randonnée Equestre de Competition') was designed to test how good a horse and rider are at going anywhere

2011-09-18T22:00:00.000+02:00

Fun day today, got up at stupid o' clock to get to Beaumont by 8.30 as we were first on the PTV course at 9.30. For once it started on time, Ali nearly missed her turn having been sent back to the stables as she'd forgotton to put her horse's boots on G and I were first on the course, it was all going swimmingly until we got to the log that we had to go over in hand. I jump over it, land in

Ride and run....

2011-09-13T21:26:00.000+02:00

My husband ran the Médoc marathon on Saturday. Like you do. It's billed as the longest marathon in the world as you run through 24 chateaux, some of which sell wine for hundreds of euros a bottle, and you can taste the wine at each and every one. And most of the French leapt at the chance to taste the wine.....and to dress up in bizarre outfits.......especially involving posing pouches,

The girls are back!

2011-09-08T21:17:00.000+02:00

Went to pick Sky and Kinna up from their summer holidays at Sarah's today. They loaded really well, were fine travelling and very calm coming out, could show missy Seraphina a thing or two about behaviour!!! They started eating straight away, it's like they'd never left..... They'll be here for a couple of weeks til we can get some new paddocks sorted out up where the others are. I love being

Barefoot boy.....

2011-08-31T15:39:00.002+02:00

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

Beaumont Bivouac day 2

2011-08-25T08:54:00.000+02:00

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

Beaumont Bivouac day 1

2011-08-24T13:00:00.000+02:00

“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

Éowyn's first dressage test

2011-08-21T20:29:00.001+02:00

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

Ride n drive

2011-08-18T08:28:00.000+02:00

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

More Interdressage

2011-08-16T18:26:00.000+02:00

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.

Yeeee Hawwwww.....!

2011-08-13T08:46:00.001+02:00

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

Handy Horse, not so Handy Pony....

2011-08-09T20:56:00.001+02:00

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

We have handy horses....

2011-08-08T21:19:00.000+02:00

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.....

Seraphina goes solo

2011-08-04T11:54:00.000+02:00

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

Medieval Day....

2011-07-31T22:45:00.000+02:00

We went along to Beaumont du Périgourd for their Medieval day today as Isabelle where we do our TREC stuff wanted a couple of steady horses to lead the parade. Step forward Gandalf and Chester. Good excuse for me to mess around making a few new costumes....... The sun shone, there were lots of people, ponies, falcons, even a couple of giant donkeys on wheels.....Gandalf wasn't too sure about

A very long ride, day 4

2011-07-18T16:32:00.000+02:00

Monday morning dawned windy and wet, just what we needed for the long ride home. So we saddled up, put on the waterproofs, well all apart from Ali as Seraphina took exception to her long orange mac, and set off early, with the saddlebags stuffed with the last of the birthday cake and some beer. We went back down the hill to St Pierre de Bat but it was miserable so we didn’t get in the

A very long ride - day 3

2011-07-17T22:26:00.000+02:00

Sunday morning dawned wet and windy. Just like camping in the UK really..... We toyed with the idea of abandoning the rest of the weekend but decided to soldier on regardless. Especially after breakfast involving proper English bacon courtesy of Gary. So we saddled up again to tackle the TREC course. Aude has built most of the things you’ll meet for the Parcours de Terrain Varié bit of a TREC

A very long ride, day 2

2011-07-16T17:58:00.000+02:00

Saturday morning we woke up ridiculously early as you do when camping. Didn’t even get woken by the SNO, she was still snoring. First thing first, check the horses. They were mostly flat out after their exertions.......! Lovely breakfast of barbecued bacon (well, the nearest you can get from Lidl) and Tess’s chook eggs. She knows which bird laid which egg so the SNO was able to choose

A very long ride......day one

2011-07-15T21:14:00.000+02:00

When Tess said it’d be great to ride the horses from her place to the gite étape at Naulet for a weekend camping and doing a night ride, I thought it’d be great too. She reckoned it’d be about 25km from her place.......wrong!! On Friday it took us 12 hours to get there and we covered about 45km, due to some detours caused by marked chemins no longer existing or having been fenced off. We had a

Seraphina and Maverick go out.....

2011-07-07T16:14:00.000+02:00

Took Seraphina out again yesterday, Jane rode her and I rode Maverick. She was fine, didn't even mind a cyclist (unlike Mav ) which is good as some of our route to Naulet is along a cycle track. We found a muddy puddle and she liked that!! And when we got back she gave Jane's friend's little girl a pony ride!

Trip to Beaumont

2011-06-25T21:59:00.000+02:00

Today we took Seraphina up to Beaumont with us for our driving lesson to see what she would think of the carriages. She took everything in her stride and was very curious, especially about the donkey! We followed along behind the carriages absolutely fine..... ...and we even had a peek at the TREC PTV course

We won a TREC!

2011-06-20T09:27:00.000+02:00

Well yesterday we did our first official TREC competition, just at club level which is the lowest level......and we won! And no, we weren't the only team in the competition..... First up in the morning was the PTV, the Parcours en Terrain Varié or obstacle course as we know it. We had to do a slalom, a maniabilité test which was a pretty narrow s shape to negociate between poles, Gandalf

Riding lesson for the girls.....

2011-06-13T22:12:00.000+02:00

As it was a Bank Holiday here today, I took the girls up to the carriere (well OK, school marked out in a field) with the pones. And ended up doing a bit of lesson for them..... We did a warm up at the walk, going over some of our Trec training course which is still there, then did some riding apart and doing things at opposite ends of the school, getting them to keep the same distance

We went wine tasting.......

2011-06-09T18:34:00.000+02:00

Sarah came up today to ride Seraphina, and we all went out for a nice hack. Seraphina was as good as gold (apart from a little argument about having to go across a ditch!) and we had some nice canters. Along the way we went past the Cave Coop so we stopped in so Sarah could try some of the local vino...... The horses were great, just stood there dozing off and didn't even leave any "presents"

Chasing!

2011-06-07T18:59:00.000+02:00

Seraphina obviously had some energy to burn today, first she chased poor Choccy out of the field..... ....then rounded up the boys and they all went for a gallop, not great photos as it was raining and I only had the phone with me......

Aliénor gets on with it!

2011-06-01T17:04:00.001+02:00

Today Ali rode Seraphina for the first time since she fell off her last year. She was a bit apprehensive to start with but once she realised Missy wasn't going to do anything dreadful, she soon relaxed and started enjoying herself! She even got a bit adventurous...... So after the hack out on the lead rein, we let her loose in the school, and it went very well. Going to get her working on

Mother's Day Hack.....

2011-05-29T18:51:00.000+02:00

Took full advantage of the MIL having the SNO for the day and went riding, naturally. With Tess and Caitlin, Jane & Aliénor. We had brilliant fun, and lots of laughs. Stopped off at some friends' for a quick drink, beer for us, water for the horses......We did several runs up our favourite gallop track (took the third go before the NNP got the message that trying to get in front of Gandalf

Funny faces.....

2011-05-26T17:40:00.000+02:00

Spent a bit of time in the field with the horses today and there was much yawning going on.......made for some great photos!

"Handy Pony" class

2011-05-25T17:09:00.000+02:00

That's what class 8 on this month's Interdressage schedule is called, so we did a bit of practise for that today, just like our Label Loisir stuff...... Seraphina had no problems with most of it, bit reluctant to do the jump, fair enough really, I mean why jump over it when it's less effort to go round it? Got there in the end though.... Gandalf couldn't work this one out at first, til I showed

We visited the girls

2011-05-22T18:55:00.000+02:00

Went down to Sarah's to see the girls again this weekend, they are doing really well at Sarah's. They have grown a bit and filled out, and acquired more spots! They are getting on fine with Sarah's horses, in fact, Sky is getting on a bit too well with Maverick the mini mule...... Sarah has a new horse, Squaw, she is lovely, the three of them make a pretty picture! Kinna is definitely getting

A Sunday Hack.....

2011-05-15T20:13:00.000+02:00

Having gone to all the trouble of organising babysitters etc do to a TREC today, only to be told we couldn't compete cos the horses weren't on the right list at the Haras, (French paperwork thwarts us again) we decided to get together and go out for a ride anyway...... Tess brought Organza and Coquinette over so there were six of us in all. Everything went very well, Seraphina was an angel

Nice long ride today....

2011-05-09T19:07:00.000+02:00

Magali at pony club wants to do a day ride with the kids to my friend Marianne's house, which just happens to be next to the horses' current field so I said I'd go and investigate a route for her. Tanya came with me and we found a lovely route mostly through the woods (just as well as it was really hot today!). We found some stuff that was good practise for TREC (although the stream was very

Seraphina's first ride and lead

2011-05-06T16:36:00.000+02:00

Went up this morning to have a go at ride and lead with the NNP. Got her and Gandalf out of the field, Chester neighed a bit at being left behind but obviously wasn't distressed enough to attempt to come with us! Got Gandalf saddled, Seraphina was having a good look round at everything but didn't seem too concerned, when the neighbour's hunting dogs arrived on the scene at full speed making

All change again.....

2011-05-02T15:42:00.002+02:00

Took Maverick home today as Jane is back from holiday. Not so well behaved at ride and lead as the babies, you'd think he would be at the ripe old age of 17!! Anyway, brought Gandalf back and put him in with Chester and Seraphina. Very calm situation, not even a squeal from the NNP, just a bit of trotting around and sniffing. Here's a little video. I love the way that at one point Gandalf showed

Bag on a stick......

2011-05-01T19:56:00.000+02:00

Tried this last week with Seraphina, she wasn't too sure at first but she soon decided it wasn't going to eat her...... And some video here

Horse transporters r us

2011-04-29T07:42:00.001+02:00

Yesterday we spent the day moving horses around! First we had to take Soso up to the stables where he'll be at livery all summer. He didn't want to load. We spent nearly an hour getting him in the trailer, he eventually went in but as soon as the ramp went up he panicked big time and we were worried he'd do himself an injury so I fetched Seraphina and loaded her next to him, which calmed him down

The dentist came.....

2011-04-26T17:30:00.000+02:00

...and everyone was pretty well behaved, really. The dentist is a lovely chap, very calm and unworried and the horses sensed this and were at ease with him. Chester was his usual laid back self, even had a bit of nose wobbling going on which he usually does when he's getting a scratch so he must have been feeling good about it! I brought Seraphina over whilst he was being done so she could have

Haras du Pin

2011-04-20T20:37:00.000+02:00

On the way back from a little trip to Normandy yesterday, we took a detour to the Haras du Pin. Another impressive building just to keep a bunch of horses in, like at Chantilly....... It's full of breeding stallions, lots of lovely Percherons: Cob Normands Anglo Arabs Selle francais even a rather gorgeous Barb Well worth a visit.......

Visiting the girls

2011-04-13T20:53:00.000+02:00

Went down to Sarah's today to visit Sky and Kinna. Lovely sunny day. Kinna was still in bed when we arrived..... ...but she soon got up and came out to play: We practised ponying her from Sarah's horse Isba, did a bit of jumping, went for a walk with Sky and washed her tail. there's a little video here Both girls are very good, getting fatter and losing their winter coat finally. Miss them

The Label Loisir tests

2011-04-10T22:26:00.001+02:00

Just got back, both the boys did really well and are now qualified for the Label Loisir! There are 3 levels, qualifié, Selectionné and Élite. Unfortunately for us it seems that half the marks go for the looks and movement of the horse and only half on doing the course of obstacles so it was a bit disheartening to see people on pretty fully papered horses who spooked at all sorts of things getting

Nice hacking this time of year.....

2011-04-08T13:45:00.001+02:00

As we've got the Label Loisir coming up, I've taken both the boys out for long hacks this week. First Ches, with the other half jogging with us (!) we saw a few things along the way that may come up in the tests: Then Gandalf's turn, at one point we came across a tree across the path, had to get off and jump up and down on it til it was low enough to step over..... Lovely day for it!