Horsey Valentines

Lots of interesting pictures on the internet today from the horse world. Chocolates and flowers? Nah....

And my favourite:

What's going on with the weather?

We've been here in south west France for ten years. Every year we have been able to do lots of great outdoors stuff in February becasue this is not the UK and we get good weather......right?

Not this year. This year is has been so wet we have been reduced to hacking on roads only so we don't end up skating on horseback :-/

We usually do a ride to a local lake in February, but it's far too wet to use the tracks in the woods. I had a quick look through my photos from the last ten years and here are some pics of previous February weather

So here we are, Feb 2003, our first full year in France, my two old dogs Paddy and Roisin in the sun:

Feb 2004, before I had my own horse, riding Gimy, my friend Marianne's Trotter, not actually sunny but look at the nice dry ground:

Feb 2005, with Gimy and Marianne's TB, Faco, in a not at all muddy field......

Feb 2006, my first year with Gandalf, he was having a hooley with Gimy, blue skies:

Feb 2007, Ali and her pony Flecha, more sun, nice dry ground:

Feb 2008, we rode the horses to the lake for a picnic, sun:

Feb 2009, back to the lake:

And again in Feb 2010, cold but sunny:

February last year, bit of a blip, we actually had snow, but the sun was still out!

This year? All I have are lots of photos of filthy, soggy ponies hacking out in the rain....

Ah well, it can't go on for ever, can it?

Kilometrage

So far this year we are doing quite well on the distances, 130km for Gandalf, pretty much all on the roads as it's so wet, so his hooves are getting a good workout. He's very footy on gravel and stones as his feet are softer than usual thanks to the lake in the field, but he's fine on the tarmac.

Have started using a new app to track rides, it gives you all sorts of interesting data but the calories burned bit seems to be wildly inaccurate (unless of course it means calories burned by the horse)!

You can check it out here.

This time last year we had only done about 30kms......

The girls are doing well too, Sky's done less than Kinna with 45kms....

 

....and the big eared one has clocked up 70 odd kms.

Yesterday she went off lead rein for the first time and was quite happy to bog off into the distance, she can move a lot faster than Gandalf!

So we're doing pretty well at keeping everone exercised in spite of the weather. I actually managed to ride six days out of seven last week, unusual for me.....

 

Not doing so well at keeping everyone clean, but they clearly don't want to be white horses, do they? ;-)

 

 

Grown up girls.....

Have done a bit of hacking with the girls this week. In the rain. And hail. And wind......and the odd bit of sun.

Kinna first, she was fine, never flinched when my hat blew off past her ear (twice),  we had an extra dog along (rumour has it that he's Choccy's dad), cyclists in rain ponchos, Ali in a long plastic mac that would have terrified Fina 2 years ago, a couple of canters and the only time she spooked was at the plastic fence flapping as we left our place - the one she sees every time she goes out the gate......

Then yesterday it was Sky's turn, she was silly about the grass too. Here's her vid from yesterday, displaying some fancy footwork to avoid leaving any grassy areas. Her methods of resistance are less spectacular than Kinns, she seems to favour the going backwards technique! As with Kinns we will do lots of repetition and she'll get the message. When she's walking nicely and not trying to get to the grass, that's when we stop and let them graze, she's not as hard done by as she thinks she is.....

The bridge is a handy TREC obstacle, to be tackled only on foot til it dries out a bit!

So pretty pleased with the two girls. As Ali was saying yesterday, it's far easier dealing with their little evasions than having to deal with a nervous wreck like Fina was when she first arrived. After that, even Kinna's rodeo doesn't bother her as it's predictable......

Memory lane.....

An old schoolfriend sent me some photos recently. When we were kids, she had ponies and kept them at the stables where I learned to ride. You may remember me lamenting the fact that my parents never took any photos of me on a pony, but hers sure did.

So no pics of me, but plenty of memories.....here's my friend Sarah on her Connemara, Seamus

Another friend, another Helen, with the two escapist ponies, Clocky and Tumbler

Sarah and Helen hacking in the woods, the pony in the middle is Fothergill, the reluctant jumper:

And finally, a pic in the school of Fothers, actually jumping something!

Can't remember who the girl is riding him, obviously she was better at it than me!
I think Chester might be a reincarnation of Fothers.... ;-)

 

Is this going to last.....?

So after Kinna's "entertainements" at the weekend, I decided to try and do something with her every day for a week to see if that would calm things down a bit. Monday I took her for a walk in hand, that was mostly calm, but when we got back to the grassy bit across the road and tried to do a couple of circles, she exploded again at not being allowed to eat. I eventually got a couple of vaguely calm cirlcles out of her and left it at that.

Tuesday we were out all day taking Fina to Sheila's but when we got back it was still light so I took her over the road for a graze for about 20 minutes. Just before going back I tried another circle or two, and she was actually OK with it, presumably because she'd been allowed to eat first......

Yesterday, she outdid herself. We went for a hack, there was a bit of bouncing around at the start but nothing serious and the rest of the time she was really good. She didn't turn a hair at the noisy dogs and didn't even spook at any birds  ;-)

When we came to a grassy slope I decided to try a little canter. Fearing another explosion, I got Ali off first......but she was good as gold!

And when we got back, we jumped the ditch, no problems and did some circles on the grass, no rearing, no bucking......

Good girl :-)

Pastures new.....

Almost two years ago, a yellow pony arrived with us, I wrote about it here. She was insecure, nervous and unpredictable and it quickly became evident that I needed to start again from scratch to gain her confidence.

Today, she had enough confidence in me to consent to leave the herd (wasn't over keen on leaving Sorcier, mind you), get into her least favourite trailer (mine) and travel to a new loan home. She is going to stay with my friend Sheila down in the Lot for a while to see if things work out there. Ali has sadly outgrown her to the point that she is finding it difficult to balance for jumping, at the rate she's growng I'll need something about 17hh soon!

Sheila however is the perfect size for her, knows her from coming up to ride with us and has the patience and skills to keep her on track, so I think  she will be happy there.

She certainly seemed happy earlier, when she met Sheila's pony Lucie for the first time there was none of the drama we had on her arrival with us!

I think they'll get on fine :-)

Hopefully I'll soon be reading about her progress on Sheila's  blog.