More baby training

So anyway, back to the horses. Have been out and about with all three despite last weekend's Arctic conditions. On Saturday we went out with G and Kinna and met the owners of two rather gorgeous Appaloosas we've been quietly admiring for weeks. They were curious about Kinna, as people usually are. We talked for a while (until we got too cold to stay still) and the whole time Kinns was good as gold, stood still even when one of the spotty boys got a bit excited and started hooleying round the field.....

Sunday I long lined Sky alongside Ali on Kinna. Think I kept warmer on foot! Sky was pretty good, we practised one going ahead of the other and that didn't pose to many problems.....

Today I was messing about with using a neckstrap on Sky, she was a bit confused at first but she got the reinback straight away. It works so much better this way that hauling on the horse's mouth; I have ridden more than one horse who has learned to brace against the reins and hollow their back instead of going back. So something to work on there......

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

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 house since yesterday morning, all the pipes out the back are frozen solid and not responding to the hairdryer treatment either.....So I've been melting snow to water the animals, which is hard work, you need a lot of snow just for one bucketful!

Today, after one more of those bracing walks, during which Sky did some skating.....

...but was otherwise happy to get out and about...

...we piled into the car and did a very careful 20kms an hour over to Tanya's, so we could all have a shower and I could fill up some bidons of water for the horses! Then we helped with sledding some water down to her horses....

....and when the farmer arrived with new hay we spent rather a long time stretching the new big bale haynet over it to hopefully slow down consumption a bit! Horses none too impressed with it.....

A haircut and a hack....

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 as she needs to get used to being out on her own. She was pretty good, only tried to turn round and go home a couple of times, but Ali used the one rein flexions that we did last weekend and that seemed to work pretty well......

She did a bit of cantering OK......

....and at the top of the hill, the girls had to play on the big frozen puddle!

Practised some laterals......

......and some TREC!

Hopefully that's worn the kids out so there'll be less bickering now.......!

Chilly day at Beaumont

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!!!

Then we headed off for lunch and when we came back to pick Ali up, Isabelle said she should be OK to do some jumping competitions this year. One very happy daughter......

A chilly hack!

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 was thankfully one of those electric mesh fences so she couldn't get through and try to "play" with them until the owner turned up with a shotgun), then they turned round and rushed back towards us, Fina spooked at them, Ches just did his strange "looking at them by twisting his head around trying to work out what they are" thing......

We saw a lovely couple of spotties who came bowling over to say hello, unfortunately they got a zap from the fence touching noses with Ches and took off at high speed!

Then we got in a bit of TREC practise going up a new path in the woods which obviously hasn't been maintained, at least not since the latest storm, lots of trees down to go round or under and slippery slopes up.....

Found a nice jumping log too!

Very foggy at the top of the hill which meant that the locals were driving around at high speed and in some cases without any lights on whatsoever so we thought it best to stick to the edge of the vines.

We (and Choccy) made it back down the hill unscathed however and had to trot a bit on the way back to warm our feet up. 14kms in all, here's the map

A chilly hack.....

Finally got the kids off to school/childminder this morning so went off to ride. Not sure what's happened to the weather this week but it was COLD!!! Had to go on our own because Jane had put so many layers on she could hardly get her leg across the saddle, during the subsequent tricky mounting manouevre Maverick moved at a cruicial moment and she fell flat on her arse......I'm sure she'll appreciate me sharing that with the world.



Went past a rather lovely Applaoosa mare who came up to investigate Gandalf.......

She wasn't too impressed with him though, did a lot of snorting and squealing, all he wanted to do was say hello cos he hates going out on his own but she wasn't having any of it.......

Today we decided to do a "trial run" of our sponsored ride that's planned for March 13th in aid of Equine Rescue France. We rode from Bonneville to the Lac de Gurcon, about 10 kms each way, to check that the paths through the woods were passable. It started out sunny, but then it clouded over and it was cold! Mike met us at the Lac with the girls and a picnic, but it was a rather hasty affair due to the temperature.......

Still, we now know our route is fine, mostly through the woods with a bit of vineyard, hopefully it'll be warmer next month!!