Checking out a route today.....

...for a trail ride/treasure hunt/trec I am organising next month. Dog very happy to go too, Éowyn not so.......

Lovely trails out in the woods

Weather could have been better though, hence the whingeing from smaller daughter......

Checked out another section of the ride on Gandalf last week:

We really do have some fabulous hacking round here.......

Doggy Dressage.....

Today Chocolate made her Interdressage début......there was a class for dogs on the December schedule so of course Ali wanted to do it!

There's a prize for the best fancy dress, out came this month's ensemble again......

....and here's the video
So far she's the only one in the junior class......she could win by default!

Playing football....

Pony club today was fun for Ali.They played pony football!

Yes, she is the tallest child on the smallest pony.....

....and the soggy sand school made it hard going!!

Her sister was cheering her on, as you can hear in this video!

Very casual atop her pony.....

Bareback dressage......

....is hard work!! There was a bareback challenge class in this month's Interdressage competition and as the entry fees go to charity, I decided to give it a bash......here's the video

Poor Gandalf wasn't too sure what was going on, I was far too heavy on his mouth, he's not used to that.....


Ali did her class in fancy dress too. Possibly the desert Bedouin outfit wasn't the best choice for this weather, we had to add a fleece and gloves!

Here's her video

Merry Christmas......

Christmas Day, got up, fed and mucked out, then Ali and I took Chester out for a little wander in the sunshine......

We took it in turns to ride him as Soso is on box rest so can't be ridden......

She suits him better, her feet aren't down by his knees!

Then it was time to put Choccy through her paces over the brand new showjump Malcolm made Ali for Christmas.....

....and we let Kinna in to eat a bit of the lawn and she decided to try a few canapés

Then it was time for lunch, the home reared duck was delicious.....aptly named bottle of bubby too!

Soggy Kinna.......

I don't know what the girls got up to last night in my neighbour's field in the snow, but poor Kinna was soaking wet this morning and actually shivering, she obviously didn't spend the night in the field shelter......Sky was a bit wet but absolutely fine.So I brought them both back to my place, much to Chester's delight, and dug out the cooler and rainsheet I'd bought for her when she first arrived.......

She looks very cute

and they're only a little bit too big for her now, not like when she first arrived!

And then there were five......

Well I now have five horses in the garden.......Tanya is going to the UK for Christmas so we rode her two over here on Monday.

Lovely sunny day, a nice ride except that Chester kept trying to pull my arms off getting his head down to graze........ponies, eh?

Then on Tuesday my friend Sue and I walked the girls over here, another lovely sunny winter's day....

Sky was very interersted in some horses in the field behind Sue's house, heavy horse mares, Gandalf lived with them for a bit a couple of years ago, they're nice girls.....

Then yesterday I went to fetch Gandalf as we were supposed to be going to do a Christmas fun ride today (annoyingly we had a load of snow last night so that had to be cancelled). On the way we stopped at my friend Jennie's and she gave us some mince pies, G seems quite fond of them.....

Jennie's little dog, however was NOT fond of Gandalf, when Jennie asked me to hold him for a photo, he was so scared of G that he weed all down my leg......

I'm not smiling, it's a grimace!!

So now I have 5 horses here, all eating hay like it's going out of fashion, but they seem to be getting on alright. Will have to wait til it thaws out a bit to take Gandalf back up to Jane's......