Latest French update.....

Easter holidays are here, which means we could go back to France, sadly this time only for a few days but it was great. We made really good time down the motorway on Saturday so naturally went straight to the stables so Ali could have a quick lesson. When we arrived, the previous group was still in the school, including Diane-Claire riding Kinna.  Kinns turned and watched us walk over from the car, stared for a bit, then sauntered over to the gate to say hello! She had to be reminded that she was supposed to be working, and eventually did some jumping with Diane-Claire, she seems totally at ease with it all, not a Tigger bounce in sight....

Then it was Ali's lesson, and she was really good, none of last year's arguing, she clearly now knows her job and gets on with it. Maybe there's some hope for Sky after all.....?

Ali seemed pretty pleased anyway

Then a couple of days later, Ali and I went down to Sheila's to see Fina. She was on form, jumping her trademark huge jump, and not being too worried by the big green ball

Went for a nice walk/hack with Sheila and Lucie in the sun. Ali says Fina felt marvellously relaxed. So nice to see the ponies looking happy and fluffy in the sun. Miss them........

One year on......

Can't believe it's been a year already since I brought Tari home. This is what she looked like then

and here she is today

She was being a bit nosey bout Sky's tack, so I thought I'd see how she liked wearing it.....

....didn't seem too bothered!

Sky's extra wide cob saddle seems to be a good fit now so she's definitely going to need the treeless by the time she's old enough to ride!

Lovely day so we took her for a walk and jumped some ditches :-)

Skysie goes to school.......

This week there was a stage up at the stables which Ali wanted to do. As Polo was going up there anyway, we blagged a lift in the trailer for Sky to see how she'd get on in a new environment.

Rather well, as it turns out :-)

Here's what she did.....

That last one is the jeu d'éperviers, a bit like British Bulldog on horseback. She also did a bit of dressage, a bit of TREC, jumped the odd pole, went for a gallop, wasn't too happy about being shut in a box to be saddled and fell in love with Carole's Arab, Idaa.......and all without a bit.

She's come home now for a rest. Love her......

Snow? What snow?

So it's been snowing in a lot of places, apparently. People keep posting pics of themselves doing cool stuff in it, like this from some friends ooop north in Normandy:

But here? A light dusting of snow overnight on Thursday. Already melting by the morning. But elsewhere in the Dordogne apparently they had a good amount of the stuff, which meant that naturally all the school buses had to be cancelled in the whole department.....then we had lots of rain. Lots and lots of rain. Enough to flood the concrete in front of the stable. And the stable itself (luckily the hay in there is on pallets). Still, the ducks are happy at least.....

Anyway, last night we had a load more rain, followed by a bit more snow. But again, the roads were clear, so Ali and I decided to go up to the stables and get the horses out. The sun even came out :-)

Found a nice fallen tree in the woods for the girls (and dogs!)

By the time we got back, most of the snow had melted though and now we're back to mud, mud and more mud (and flooding). Ah well.......such is winter.

So far this year.....

Kinna has done a whole 28kms, most of them under saddle. Bearing in mind last year she did a mere 70kms (recorded) out and about in 12 months, she should be seeing a whole lot more of the world in 2013.

Have been taking her out with Ali on board but still on the lead rope, just in case. Most of the time she is fine, a bit bouncy to start with usually and prone to the odd bucking fit if her feet touch grass and she's not allowed to eat it, but generally she is getting the idea that she needs to take some notice of the person on her back!

The aim for me is to get the whole going for a hack thing to be so ordinary she takes it for granted. Already she is better with a lot of the things that used to freak Seraphina out - like Ali shifting her weight on her back:

 

....and going in front sometimes (makes the rope juggling for me a bit tricky, mind you!)

 

The only thing that bothered her on today's hack was a couple of deer bursting out of the woods and bounding across the road in front of us, even big G was startled by that! But he just stood and stared, whereas Kinns was prancing around snorting with her little excuse for a tail in the air, wish I'd had a helmet cam as she looked rather stylish.......

When we got back to the village, we jumped the ditch where she'd had her little hissy fits before at not being able to eat, and she did it perfectly, without even a head shake. So she got some grass :-)

And Ali tried her standing dismount back home, not bovvered one bit!

I've lost my ride....

The SNO declared that she didn't want to ride up front of me today (and it hurts my back at the moment to have her there) so guess who got to walk?

And not just walk, oh no, "mummy can we trot?" started as soon as we'd left the drive.......

After the first attempt, when she nearly ran down an unfortunate passerby (and his dog!) I had to do a fair bit of running alongside her to be ready with the brakes.......

....and when her sister wanted to jump a ditch, yes you guessed it, we had to do that too

I need a sit down now!!!