Pony rides......

We went on the annual "randonnée", or ramble in Bonneville on Friday, it's a six km walk followed by the inevitable meal. As I'd been helping to prepare the meal for two days (they wanted an "English" meal so we did roast turkey with sage & onion stuffing followed by trifle for 170 people) I was a bit knackered so decided to bring Gandalf with me and have a sit down.

Well, that lasted all of five minutes, Ali immediately decided she wanted to ride.

After a while, they both wanted to get off, great, I thought, but then Jane's grandchildren wanted a sit on him

They didn't like the idea of him actuall moving though, so they got off again. Then we got some random French kids on board, then Éowyn wanted to get back on......

So I ended up walking anyway. Chocolate came too and was very well behaved, the kids loved her. She put up will all the manhandling very well......

When it started to get dark I took Gandalf home, they light flaming torches at that point and he wasn't too keen on them!! Maverick, who had been left behind in the stable, being unable to cope with crowds, dogs, small people running around etc., was so pleased to see him he gave him a nice big bite, as if to say "where have you been til this time?!"

Yet another waif & stray......

This is Caramel, a female ginger kitten who turned up this week at the Barnes-Short Animal Sanctuary. One of Ali's little admirers from school arrived on the doorstep with her, she was wet and terrified, apparently he'd found her stuck up a tree......after a bath and some food, she has made herself at home and now rules the roost, teh dog is scared to get too near her!

Ali's admirers call round every day to see her and carry her around and they've made her a little house in Ali's room. Sweet......

Admirer no. 2 is going to ask his dad if she (the cat, that is, not Ali) can go and live at his house so maybe I won't have to keep this one and spend loads of money on her. Yeah, right.

Dusting the girls!

I was reading a magazine today with an article about Sarah Weston, who has written a book called  No Fear, No Force, all about how to handle semi feral foals. One of the techniques she uses involves stroking them with a feather duster, so I dug ours out (which, let's face it, sees very little action in the house) and took it out to the girls.

Predicably, Sky was not bothered by it at all, and after sniffing it a bit allowed me to stroke her with it whilst she carried on munching hay.

And equally predictably, Kinna was a whole lot less cool with it, she sniffed it then decided she didn't like it and moved away every time I got it close to her.

Then Ali came out to see what I was doing, so I let her take over with Kinna, at first Kinna was having none of it but once she realized it didn't actually hurt, she was fine.......

Will have to think of more unusual stuff to introduce them to, it's all good education..........

The Saga of Seraphina

Well, today was interesting......

Got a phone call before 9am, immediately thought 'the bloody horses are out again' but it wasn't mine, it was Seraphina!! Started rushing the troops out the door to get straight down there, but then got another call to say she'd been found. Interestingly, the pony belonging to the neighbours had also got loose during the night, so did something scare them, like a sanglier?

Anyway, made our leisurely way down to Rochelle's. Had a fantastic Mexican lunch. Got Seraphina in, groomed her, tacked her up, took her out to the round pen for some free lungeing. She was as good as gold, despite the Small Naughty One being noisy and trying to get under her feet all the time.

 So Ali hopped on, all OK, until I went to adjust the stirrups. Was it because Ali shifted her weight to one side, or did I inadvertently knock her with the stirrup? Whatever it was, she took off, initially at a trot but then she got faster as the weight on her back shifted more to one side. Then Ali screamed, which made it a whole lot worse. By the time I got to her to stop her (and bashed my face on her side, people keep asking me if I've been in a fight!), Ali was on the deck, but she was luckily just shaken, not really hurt.

So that's youngsters for you.....after that, I took her for a walk in the woods in hand, no probs. Took her into the paddock and tried her with a cooler rug, no problems. She didn't like the rustly winter rug though, we eventually got it on her back all folded up after she'd run away from it a few times but when she was OK with that we called it a day.

She's still a sweetheart. We're hoping to go down the next time the trainer comes so Ali can see how she goes....

Oh, and we measured her, she's only 13.2hh. She's got some growing to do if she's going to get as big as mum and dad!

Dressage and donkeys

Bit of a disappointing day today. Ali wanted to do this month's Interdressage class, which is basically the same as last month but with the addition of two small jumps. Gandalf however had other ideas......
The practise run went well....

but after we went to all the trouble of plaiting him and Ali got all her togs on, he did one decent jump, then decided he couldn't be bothered any more and demolished it at every attempt.

Looks like he was going to clear it in that pic - but no, he caught it with his hind leg. So we called it a day, he's never going to be a jumping horse. There's always next month......

We saw Rossy and Buffalo as well today, Buffy has dropped a bit of weight recently and is looking old (well, he is 36!) but he can still put the upstart donkey in his place!!

Another wet walk.....

It wasn't too hot this morning so we took the baby girls out for a walk. They were glad to get out and eat some actual grass......Skyfaxa has evidently decided she's not spotty enough and has redecorated herself accordingly. With her own poo, naturally.

We were accompanied by one of Ali's little admirers (who are always hanging out on their bikes and demanding her company), the girls are used to bikes now!

The sky took on a somewhat sombre aspect once we'd got too far from home to dash back.....

....and we got soaked. The French drove past us wearing expressions clearly conveying their opinion that we were mad.  Cue whingey children all the way home. Éowyn was like a talking doll that had got stuck saying "Mummy, I'm all wet". Aliénor helpfully pointed out that you could see my bra when my tshirt was wet.

Kids, doncha just love 'em?

Ride and drive!

Needed to move the big boys up to the field with grass in it, so we got up early and got on with the job, Gandalf did a great job babysitting!

Maverick was a bit stressed due to being out of his confort zone so spooked at everything, Gandalf just carried on regardless as usual. When we went in the woods, Éówyn wasn't too keen on having to duck under branches, he just ignored her noisy protests......

He did his usual PR job with the locals....

When we got there we put them in the stable for a while and helped to finish off the fences. Hopefully they won't be going walkabout now, we'll be putting the battery on the new fence!

As a reward for helping, Ali got her first driving lesson.......