And so it begins.....

Took Gandalf and Tari out for a hack today. So far, Tari has been very reasonable on the lead rope, following along happily, not really worrying about anything and only occasionally trying for a sneaky mouthful of grass.....but today, things changed. She discovered the Kinna manoeuvre.....

As we were happily trotting along, she stopped dead. I managed to get G to stop before the rope ran out, he's kind of used to it now (largely thanks to Kinna) and as soon as he feels me lean back, he slows down. I thought Tari might be having a poo, but no, she was just stopped, looking at me mutinously.

OK, I thought, we'll carry on, which she did, reluctantly. All went well until we were nearly home, when she did it again, right next to the verge of lush green grass......this time G was not so keen to stop, being fixed on getting home but I just about managed it without having to drop Tari's rope by doing a pretty good impression of Elastigirl from The Incredibles.....a passing motorist slowed right down in alarm (or maybe he was hoping to see me dragged out of the saddle) but I managed to get my ropes sorted and reel the little git back in.

She didn't actually get to scoff any grass (unlike Kinna the first time she tried it, as I had to drop the rope that time!) so maybe she'll get the idea that it doesn't work....or maybe next time out I'll get my arms lengthened again, we'll see. Probably doesn't help that she is having to be in the yard on hay only with Gandalf whose digestive system hasn't coped at all well with the abundant grass during my absence this summer. They would both far prefer to be out with the herd, but they won't be until the boy's gut is working properly again - and they will both have to be muzzled the whole time until the grass stops growing.

As for Sky, well before Ali could do anything with her yesterday, she had to let of a bit of steam!!

After that, she did start paying attention and we practised some cantering with the bow, no bogging off in alarm, she even got the hang of stopping just with a voice command at the end of each "run" :-)

 

Scorchio!!

So this is how the weather has been for the last week and it looks like there's at least another week of it on the way......

Great for holidaymakers, not so good for those of us wishing to actually do stuff with our horses :-/

So the other day we brought the girls back to the house so they could escape the heat in the barn. Elentari's first experience of being on a road went rather well, she spooked at the first car that went past, then decided as Sky hadn't reacted, these things weren't really worth worrying about :-)

Those white lines on the floor were definitely suspicious though.....

Then today, having brought Gandalf home too, she did her first ride and lead. Unfortunately, he has decided he doesn't like her much, and tries to bite her if she gets too near his head (I guess he's had enough after all these years of Sky and Kinna biting his neck) so she was a bit hesitant to follow along at first and kept trying to get back to Sky. Maybe I'll have to do a R&L with just the two girls, that could be, um, interesting!! But for a first time out, she wasn't half bad.....

She even went under the railway bridge......

....and jumped the ditch :-)

We had to go early to beat the heat, got out at about 7am, would have been earlier but we had to wait for the SNO to decide which shoes to wear. Apparently pink flowery sandals are just the thing on a bicycle....

Talking of footwear, Ali and I found some shoes to go with the black studded dress, how about these?

Half price too :-)

In other news this week we have been to see Kinna again and she's looking a whole lot better. In fact, she's showing signs of wanting to break out of the "invalid" paddock and rejoin the others. She was happy to have a headcollar on this time so she must be less sore.  Her skin is all falling off though, it's really weird, the stuff coming off is as stiff as a board and there's new skin growing underneath it.

The vet called with Squaw's blood test results whilst I was there, her liver has been affected by something which is why she's so photosensitive (couldn't get a needle anywhere near Kinns to take blood, but it's got to be the same, the symptoms are identical). Vet reckons it was millepertuis (new bit of vocab for me) - St John's Wort. But why would they eat that with all the grass in that huge field? Or is it just the pollen as there is so much more of it around this year due to the wet weather and it's flowering later than usual?

That donkey again....

Remember Rossy boy? The young donkey who was too much of a handful for his old owner? I originally blogged about him here
Anyway the elderly Appy I rehomed him with has since died so his owner found him somewhere else to live with a friend's horse. Only problem was getting him there. As she said it was only in St Michel de Montaigne which is only a few kms away I said no problem, I'll pony him there........
How hard can it be?

Well, remind me never to complain about Kinna's antics ever again. He was bucking, kicking, rearing, leaping about with all 4 feet off the floor before we'd even got to the end of the road. Not really his fault, he has been on his own for a while and not been out anywhere for ages. Gandalf was so not impressed, he hasn't been this pissed off with another equine since we ponied Coquinette to Naulet last year. He even aimed a kick at him a couple of times, he's never done that before!

Then we had some proper donkey plants, I'm not going that way, tail swishing, the lot. After about 20 minutes of this, Mike, who had set out running with us, doubled back to check we were OK and couldn't believe how little progress we'd made.......he took this pic of the horror actually standing still for a bit....

So on we went, but by now Gandalf had evidently decided to get this over and done with as quickly as possible so broke into a trot. Cue Rossy doing a spectacular display of cantering on the spot, more leaping, an attempt to bite him and finally nearly hitting the deck scrabbling about on the wet tarmac......I really with I had a headcam for moments like that!

Gandalf trotted on unperturbed, and we arrived at St Michel. Birthplace of the philosopher and poet Michel de Montaigne, not that Rossy cared about that. He was more interested in trying to chase the dog.

Great I thought, we can get rid of the little horror. except a quick call to his owner reveals it's not actually St Michel itself, but further on down another road nearly in the next commune. So I followed more directions and eventually ended up at Rossy's new abode.

Predictably he wouldn't go in to the field til I'd led Gandalf in, then the other horses started having a go at G, so I had to get him out of there, he didn't want to leave, Ross was showing everyone his heels, finally got G out of the field and left Ross to his new pals.

Far too much grass in there for him, but at least he's got plenty of space to run round and exercise. One of the other horses is off to a new home soon so he'll be left with one horsey pal, which is much better than being on his own.

Got back on G, headed home, got caught in the most enormous thunderstorm, totally soaked, G not bothered much by it but poor Choccy was totally terrified. Mike took the sensible option of getting a lift back with Rossy's owner. Gandalf was only really bothered by the road we were on turning into a river which meant he had to get his feet wet......

Really pleased with him though, he felt like his old self, full of beans, the grass & senior feed is obviously having the desired effect :-)

Kinna the hooley-gan

As the naughty teenager has been a bit neglected of late, I took her out for a bit of ride and lead with Ches this morning, first thing before it got too hot. Thought we'd go along by the river under the trees in the shade. This turned out to be a bad move, a) because a lot of the path is still under water from all the rain we've had and b) because all that still water means the mozzies have been breeding like crazy....

Anyway, decided to stick with it as water is a TREC obstacle and we do have a comp lined up on Sunday....

So Ches stands there and looks at the water and decides he'd like to turn round and go back now, thanks.

No, I say, let's give it a go, you never know, it might be fun........Nope, says he, I want to go back up the path and eat this nice grass. No come on, Ches, back to the water.....and so on. After a few minutes of this Kinna obviously gets fed up with the whole going round in circles business and decides to investigate this strange wet stuff with a delicate foreleg. Oh, I can put both feet in, she thinks. And have a drink....

No problem! And look, I can splash it all over everyone if I scrape my hooves (had to put the camera away at this point as it's not waterproof.......). Given this example, and that of Choccy racing though the water over and over again and adding to the general wetness of my clothing, Ches decides it's not full of monsters waiting to eat him and wades gamely through the big lake of water to the dryer mudbank opposite. And carries on, not even hesitating at the next lake across out path.

Great, I think, nice hack shaping up after all. Then we come to the tree down across the path. No problem, another bit of TREC practise, Ches steps over it nicely. Not so the teenager, who soars effortlessly over the log and attempts to go hooleying off up the path.....I really need a helmetcam for moments such as this!!

I get her back under control, we carry on. Now the game is every time the dog comes up behind us, try to scoot forwards and take off. Every time the dog goes past us, try to chase after her, in between times, bite Ches on the neck and see if he'll play with me, you get the idea.......

We bounce along the river path in this manner until we come to a completely submerged area, so I backtrack and find a deer trail up into the vineyard next door. At the end of the path is another log, Ches steps over it, the kangaroo on the end of the leadrope takes to the air once more........

Then it's back to the dog baiting game......

Can I chase her? Go on, let me......

We eventually get to the road and turn for home, and a new trick comes out, let's stop dead and see if she'll let me stay here and eat all this grass. I manage to stop Ches before we run out of leadrope and we then have a short battle of wills until she starts moving again. After a while I find a shady spot and stop for some authorised grazing. And we head back, by now it's very hot, so Kinna reverts to dope on a rope mode.......does this look like a troublemaker to you?

Gotta love her, never a dull moment. She's brave though, and if we can get that energy channelled I reckon she'd be a good eventer. Now I just need to find someone mad enough to be her jockey.....

Gandalf's gone on his holidays.....

Rode the boy down to Tanya's today as we're off to Paris then London to watch the other half run marathons so he's going to have a couple of weeks off from the bullying girlies and can chill out with Ches and Polo without getting pushed around (as much).

Took Sky along for the exercise, by the end of the ride she'd finally got the message that I wanted her to canter sensibly alongside Gandalf rather than bucking, biting and trying to blat off ahead of him.....

Gandalf was full of beans and did an average of 7.8 km/h, trotting and cantering the whole way. Not sure if that was because he wanted to keep up with Marathon Man or whether he knew he was going to Tanya's where there's lots of grass and no one to annoy him.

Took us ages to cross the main road in the village, the horses were both very patiently waiting to cross and ignoring all the large lorries rattling past when a bloke in a car parked (in the way) on the pavement called Mike over and told him horses had no business being near such a busy road! Tant pis, monsieur.......

Here's the map.

Then we walked back with Sky on her own, along the main road with its big rattly lorries and she didn't worry about them at all. Kept trying to deafen us neighing for the others though.......

The girls will be going into my neighbour's paddock tonight which has lots of grass, so they'll be happy........

Got lots done today

Exercised 4 horses today on 2 hacks. Took G and Sky out this morning, and Sky was a total hooligan, prancing, snorting, exploding whenever we tried to canter, wish I had a helmet cam, she was so funny........

Map and pics  here

Then this afternoon I took Ches and Kinna out, wanted to check out a ride I'd meant to do a while back but forgot the map last time, this time I remembered it and we did a lot of new tracks and ended up doing 12kms. Kinna kept trying to stop dead and eat grass, when this didn't have the desired effect, she kept trying to get in front of Ches and bite him. Still, we had a nice ride on the whole.......here's another map

Teenagers, eh?

Taking Kinna for a spin

Haven't taken Kinna out for ages, not since the Eric Trelut weekend, so today I saddled up Chester and took her out for a stroll. Was expecting some shenanigans, but she wasn't too bad at all, having a good look round at everything, but staying pretty calm really.

We met a tractor, bicycles, a rattly lorry (3 times, think he was lost) and various dogs, sheep and goats and she didn't seem to think any of these were going to eat her. Ches thought they were all very interesting and kept calling to things, like crowing roosters.... :-/

We went past the fruit trees, these were OK

and we found a new track, nice canter track.......

 but unfortunately, Kinna's stride is significantly longer than Ches's, she being rather well endowed in the leg department, and him, um, well, not.......so after one disastrous attempt (picture a pygmy goat trying to keep pace with a baby giraffe) we had to confine ourselves to trotting and even then she kept trying to get ahead of him and biting him. She looks all timid and worried, but she's shaping up to be a right bossy mare, she had a go at poor old Gandalf the other day, he is definitely not in charge of her any more!!

When we saw another horse, she wanted to go and make her mark, exactly the same as Fina does, I had to reel her back in to carry on with us!

The only spook was caused by some horse eating flappy green plastic on a fence, there was a bit of a breeze today, so she skittered about somewhat until she clocked Ches, head down and munching right in front of it and decided it was safe after all......

We did about 8kms today, must try and get her out on a more regular basis, for her feet as much as anything.....

Sky is full of beans....

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 photo of my girl cantering along with the sun in her mane.....but didn't want to risk dropping the phone!
Some pics at a more sedate pace:

As you can see, she's taller than him now!
Just as well we went yesterday, it's chucking it down today.......

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

....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 done bin bags, she's walked on them, worn them, had them thrown at her, eaten carrots out of them no problem......

Planting, check. Because a dog barked. Well, we've done dogs......everybody and his, erm, dog has a dog round here! She even tried to be jumpy about Choccy running up behind her, which happens on pretty much every hack we do, usually with no reaction whatsoever. The little old lady owner of the barking dog watched avidly as I did a complete lower body workout to get the little horror going forward. Note to self: bring a stick next time. Luckily all this activity (on my part at least) distracted said owner from the fact that Choccy had sneaked into her garden and was helping herself to the noisy dog's food!

Napping, check. Didn't like the look of some white paint on a speed bump, and yes, you've guessed it, we've been over that same lump of concrete many times.

Just for good measure, she threw in a kick aimed at poor Sky (who behaved brilliantly throughout all these tantrums) and bit her a few times too.

Sadly for her, all these shenanigans just mean that I will be taking her out a lot more often on her own (don't see why poor Sky should have to put up with her, she can do ride & lead with Chezza instead) until she gives up her "cinéma". Stubborn as she is, I am even more so and want her to be a safe hack out on her own like the others are so she'll just have to get used to it.

So there.

Seraphina's first ride and lead

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 this dreadful baying noise......she tried to get away, came to the end of the rope, decided to go and hide behind Gandalf instead......thetn I could see her thinking about it, G is so used to them he didn't turn a hair and she rapidly came to the conclusion that they weren't going to eat her.

So we went up to the carriere marked out in my friend Marianne's field, I thought it'd be nice and quiet up there to do a bit of practise, all went well, she wan't bothered by the plastic (I have infected Marianne, she's bringing all sorts of potentially scary stuff up for her horses to look at too!), had a sniff at it and at the plastic bidons in there.

We did a couple of laps of the carriere then suddenly the most enormous salvage truck arrives, presumably to remove some of the junkyard Marianne's neighbour has accumulated in true French style.

Gandalf said "am I bovvered?" and Seraphina again followed his lead. So I rode them past the truck (and the junkyard!) and decided we'd go out for a little walk. Cars, no problem, nor was a man carrying a child on his shoulders (I once had a dog that freaked out at that "A man with two heads!! Help!!"), the only things that occasioned any real concern were the dreaded cattle.....

They started moving towards us, Seraphina actually snorted, just like Maverick does when he sees a donkey, shortly before he bogs off, but they got to the fence and could come no further. So we just stood and watched them for a bit til she relaxed a little, munched a bit of the verge, then we went home.

So a very good first outing with Uncle Gandalf, just goes to show that like Mark Rashid says, "the best teachers aren't always those on two legs"

And when we got back, Ches wasn't even pacing around by the gate, didn't notice us til we were right on top of him, I am very impressed with his confidence these days, what a star!

Ride and lead gets faster.....

More ride and lead today, took Kinna out with Gandalf. Took them down to the stable, Kinna tried to follow me into the barn to get the tack rather than being left with Gandalf...... Think he has done some disciplining of the girls recently (like the other day when Sky tried to get her head in his bucket, he went for the back of her neck and they both galloped off down the hill and he wouldn't leave her alone til she was on the other side of the field, then he galloped back up to his dinner - obviously recovered from Sunday's ride )

She was very unsure to start with and kept her head pressed against my leg, but after a while she relaxed and seemed to be happy enough. The only thing that spooked her was some cows running up to the fence, she was quite interested in the donkeys of doom, here's a little video:

We did quite a bit of trotting, Gandalf was full of beans today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6VqsmilBBY

And even a little canter going up the hill to the village although she can run faster than Gandalf with his little legs, she got a bit ahead of us, good job I always take them out on a long line!

Must get someone to video us doing that one day.....

Very good little girly

All together now.....

Took the boys and girls all up to Bonneville today, Mav was a bit excited but apart from that it went very well! The girls took it all in their stride and were curious about things but not really spooky.

When we went up a steep hill, Mav got a bit silly because he'd rather have cantered up it....

.... so I ended up with both girls for a while and they were very good.

And once we were at the top of the hill it was very windy but they didn't use that as an excuse for being too lively, in fact all they wanted to do was eat.....

We had to go through the woods too, no problem

And then we got to the boys' usual field, the girls couldn't believe their luck! Much running about ensued

It was actually quite fun taking them all out at once once they'd settled down, we're going to do it some more!

More ride and lead

Skyfaxa again today, lovely sunny day. She was a bit livelier than last time but still pretty good really. Only one spook at a loose dog running up behind her (Choccy was with us, she doesn't get a reaction, but this was a different matter, obviously!)

Couple of times she tried to get in front of Gandalf and dive for the grass on the verge so a sharp jerk on the leadrope was in order. Didn't have to do it more than twice, the girl learns fast........

Gandalf, as ever, was a star......take a bow, that boy!

Kinna's turn.....

....to go out on a hack. Poor Gandalf had an extra passenger today:

but he didn't seem to mind! Kinna started out well, but then decided she objected to not being allowed to graze the whole time and pulled lots of faces and showed poor Gandalf her teeth a few times!

Apart from that, she seemed to take the world in general in her stride, at one point a huge dog came rushing out to play with Choccy, Kinna had a good look but seemed to be OK about it, even when it was right under her!

So she went right back to annoying Gandalf......When the teeth came too close to SNO's leg, that was enough and she got off, which left me better able to deal with mademoiselle's shenanigans!

Lots of cars went past, even a moped and Kinna was fine.

After a while, SNO started whining about having to walk, so I put her back on Gandalf and led Kinna home.
Nice afternoon out with my girls!