Sunny Saturday

Lovely afternoon, rode to the river, splashed about.....

...jumped some stuff.....

......Ali read the map.....

......Kinna had a bit in for the first time and was  a good girl......

......very successful day :-)

Hydrotherapy

As it was ridiculously hot this morning, having finished the poo picking by 9.30 we decided to take the horses for a dip in the river.

Hollie and Ali wanted to really go for it and had their swimming kit on, I didn't bother as G is not generally a fan of the wet stuff. Turns out this was a bit of a mistake, as he went much further in than I expected and I got bootfuls of water......

Polo was OK in the water up to a certain point, but Seraphina the water baby really went for it! Think they all had fun....

Choccy enjoyed it too!

Kinna goes solo

Took Kinna out on her own today. Was expecting some shenanigans as she hasn't been away from other horses for months and months, but she surprised me!
We went over the bridge, she had a good look at everything but happily followed me over.....

She didn't mind any of the traffic, we went through the little town and she was OK with that and we went down the path by the river.

She was unworried enough to graze, we went right down to the water, she didn't go as far as getting her feet wet but she was quite happy to stand there whilst Choccy hoolied in and out of the water.....

Then after a bit more grazing we went back along the river to the quai. She was more concerned about going under the bridge, she spooked at a rattly tractor going over it when she was about to go under, but in the end she was OK. The other side of the bridge is a flight of stone steps that go back up to the top, I was going to carry on along to the road that goes up, but Kinna had other ideas - she saw Choccy go up the steps and she started following her! She skipped gracefully right up to the top with me rushing along behind her, then stopped dead as if to say "how did I get up here?!"......

She's a funny little character. Apparently she's been investigating the toilet blocks on the campsite when let out to graze so she's obviously been practising her stairs technique

Mind you, she isn't so little any more, she's really growing now, must get the stick out and measure her.

First river ride of the year......

Nearly 20 degrees out there today so we took the kids and horses down to the river. Rode over to Tanya's with my small noisy burden in front of the saddle, she kept wanting to trot and worked out that Gandalf will trot just from a click of the tongue, had to tell her to stop it!!!

As we rode past the Percheron breeder's farm he was out with a couple of his mares so we stopped for a chat.

This is not as simple as it sounds, him being deaf as a post and needing to lip read!! And he's not kneeling down in that pic, he really is that short.......

Then it was on to Tanya's where the SNO decided she wanted to ride Fina instead, which the NNP took remarkably well really, especially as she and her sister immediately started arguing check out Ali's expression, the SNO is being a tart for the camera......

We found a cool path down to the water and of course the girls (and the dog) got wet......

Even Gandalf had a splash in the water.......

We had a nice picnic (Gandalf was very interested in that!)

Then it was back to the campsite for a spot of jumping then we turned the horses out so they had a roll, a hooley and Ches & G started playing!

For some reason, it's always the boys that play like this, he never does with Sky and Fina......

Ride n drive

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 horse and bring my OWN lunch

Soddez cela pour un jeu de soldats, as they say.......

So, having gone to all this trouble to get a day off, we go to plan B. Took the horses to Tess's, went out from there this morning, Tess on Organza, me & G and Tanya on Ches with Ali and Caitlin in the buggy with Coquinette and assorted dogs......

And we had a great time! For some reason, Gandalf was really on his toes, he wanted to canter all the time, we did a lot of piaffe and at one point trotted up a hill mostly sideways not like the boy at all! We did manage a few canters, he's great at going from a standstill like the western horses, not so good at the stops yet.......Coquinette was on form too, she can go really fast when she wants to. Only slight problem was Choccy had to be on the lead because Organza doesn't like her and at one point Gandalf stepped on her. From the noise she made, you would have thought she was being murdered!!! Luckily we were in a muddy field at the time so there was no serious damage, I dread to think of the vet bills if it'd been on the road.......After that, she hitched a lift....

We got to Tanya's, put the horses in the paddock, had a spot of lunch. Then we decided to go down to the river......uncharacteristically Gandalf went in the water!!!

So did Tanya, when Ches thought a roll might be a good idea.....

Caitlin went swimming....at one point Coquinette disappeared completely under the water and resurfaced festooned in weed, like something from Pirates of the Caribbean......
Excellent fun, we left the horses to dry out a bit whilst we had tea and cake, then saddled up and went back up to Tess's.

Loads more pics here, and a map of the route here.