New toy :-)

Oops, I haven't posted for ages, life kinda got in the way......work, moving house, that kind of thing.....

Anyway, yesterday was my birthday and I finally got that digital SLR camera I have always craved. Obviously the damned thing is way beyond my humble capacities to understand, but there are plenty of idiotproof settings and today I took it out for a spin.

So here are some pics for you:

Horse and Hound

Another half term, another fun show at Tumpy Green. Sky was her usual unpredictable self, she went from this bit of fancy footwork to avoid going into the far corner of the arena which clearly contained a dragon....

.........to blasting round the jumps in the Horse and Hound class (they came second). Chox was a bit bemused by it all but is always up for a bit of running and jumping.

The NO couldn't ride her fave Fjord and parted company with her replacement pony, Jasper, during the mini jumping. After a brief bit of crying, she got back on, went and did the clear round jumping and got a rosette :-)

Much hanging around as usual and for some reason Bon Jovi's greatest hits on in the background (thought we'd left the crappy music at horse shows behind in France ) but excellent bacon butties and lashings of tea to keep us going. Didn't even get rained on......

Speed merchants....

My horse really seems to be enjoying this whole endurance speed lark, went for a hack with my friends who wanted to do  a slower ride yesterday and he was jogging about impatiently for a lot of the time, you can see from this pic I tried to take of them he wasn't very still!

So in the end I resorted to letting him bomb off ahead, then canter back to them, several times, so we ended up doing 9kms......they didn't!

We stopped to see the heavy horses, the babies are very cute, and curious...

The poor old dog is having a hard time keeping up with all this fast exercise, she's used to us ambling along gossiping and taking pics of the countryside, not hammering about at 10kms and hour, and she insists on coming with me when I'm cycling for the 5x50 Challenge,  (day 33 and I'm still going strong, no one is more surprised than me!) which isn't too bad at SNO speed, but when I'm on my own I have to wait for her to catch up, then when we get back she collapses in a heap puffing like a steam train!

Doesn't stop her looking at me like I've kicked her if I leave her behind on my longer cycles though ;-)

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.....

No horses, but lots of running....

Continuing the marathonning theme that seems to have taken over this year, today Mike ran the Marathon du Mont St Michel. So we drove all the way up here on Friday, scouted things out and went to the pasta party yesterday, then got up stupid early to take him to the start today. As usual with these things, they organise road closures for maximum disruption and put up helpful little "déviation" signs that abruptly run out when you are in the middle of nowhere. Not to be foiled by this, I joined the queue of bleary eyed long suffering people driving their brightly lycra clad spouse/offspring/friends to the start. And promptly lost them all as I was the only one observing the 50km/h speed limit in all the villages and they didn't seem to think this would apply at 7am on a Sunday morning.......

Caught them up in the end as the police had started directing traffic which had the usual effect of making everything slower. Dropped Mike off in a freezing cold car park, and armed with my shiny new map of the area, set off for our first rendez-vous, in a sleepy costal town. The marathon runs from Cancale all along the bay to Mont St Michel. Unlike the London experience, there wasn't a soul to be seen on the route to start with apart from some bored looking officials. I took Choccy for a walk along the beach whilst we waited and she promptly rolled in what smelled like rotting shellfish.

We went back to the route and found the few other spectators content to stand well away from us, they sure didn't want to be downwind of the dog. Watched most of the marathon go by before Mike appeared, then got the hell out of there as a Breton bagpiper had started up.......

On to the second rendez-vous. This would have been a whole lot easier if some woman hadn't decided to try and drive down a road which had been made one way for the duration of the marathon. She sat there refusing to reverse back up until an irate driver behind me got out to talk to her and it turns out she couldn't reverse her own car. So the other driver had to get his mate to do it!! Finally got to where I wanted to be in time to watch most of the marathon go past again.......

Not so hot on fancy dress at this one, although this chap was up for it

and this guy was running with his dog

Mike didn't want Choccy, can't think why.......

Then it was on to the Mont. It probably would have been quicker to walk the whole way. Sat in a traffic queue for about an hour and a half to get to the shiny new enourmous car park they've just built. Waited ages for a flagging Mike to arrive then ended up yomping about a kilometre of the course with him whilst he found some more energy from somewhere. Have to say it was a spectacular view.....

Got separated for the last km or so and Choccy and I did the fastest walk we've ever done to try to get to the finish when Mike did, but just missed him......

Fab background for the "look I made it" photo!

Then we sat on some rocks and ate the food he'd purloined from the ravataillement tent then went for a wander round the Mont and found a bar.......

Decided to get the navette back to the car park, which although shiny and new is about 4kms from the Mont itself. Got on, and Choccy and I promptly got chucked off again by some jobsworth in a suit "Les chiens ne sont pas permis, Madame.....". Guess he'd caught a whiff of her......

So Choccy and I yomped back to the car park, we drove back to the hotel, snuck her up to our room without a mamber of staff getting close enough to smell her and stuck her in the shower.....then had a shower and changed all my clothes which also smell of eau de fruits de mer pourris......

And there we were thinking a weekend without the kids along would be easier.......

A couple of days away.....

Went down to Sarah and Angus's place near Montauban to collect Choccy from her holiday with them. Think she'd have been quite happy to stay there though, she's had a fine old time with her mates....

Managed to get out on a hack on Monday, bit windy and wet but fun all the same. Rode Squaw for the first time, she's a lot like Gandalf in shape and like him, she certainly isn't a plod! Very forward going, a bit spooky, quite opinionated......and she can ski down muddy slopes!!!

Rode her in a bosal just like G's, no problems with the brakes.....

Did about 9kms in the end, map here

Then it was back to the ranch for a fun evening involving curry and wine and, erm, chickens......

As we've had a bit of a Silky population explosion recently, we took three of them down to Sarah's. They spent the day in her luxury henhouse and when it started getting dark, Sarah's chickens joined them.......all except for one who wasn't at all sure about these strange interlopers in her house. So we were then treated to the spectacle of first Felix then Angus trying to get her to go in. Felix tried the stalking technique

Angus went for the net approach (getting himself a belt from the electric fence in the progress which didn't make us laugh at all.......)

The chicken was totally unimpressed with all of this and refused to be coralled..........After nearly an hour of hilarity (we'd seen some wine by then) the chook eventually tired of giving them the runaround and just hopped up into bed.

The next day we awoke (quite late) to a bit of sunshine for the first time in weeks so we took the reluctant Maverick for a walk whilst Mike and Angus went for a run.

The Terrible Two were on form, the SNO had to be extracted from the bottom of a muddy ditch and Tally was away with the fairies picking flowers a lot of the time.....

Then after another fab lunch we had to head home. Weather still good, might actually get my horse out tomorrow!!

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.

Took Sky out on her own for a little walk yesterday. Another sunny afternoon, blue skies, nice for November!

We met a pony that galloped around like a loony, Sky got a bit agitated but didn't try to tank off

we found a wooden bridge, she didn't even hesitate

and Choccy found a new friend to play with!

the only thing that bothered her really was a goose making a noise.....good girl.

A new toy!

A friend of mine spotted a second hand jump for sale on Total France the other day (thanks, Jo!) so I snapped it up (as new they are a ridiculous price over here, as are so many equestrian related items). Went to fetch it today from a nice ex pat couple about an hour away, not far from where I got Kinna from. The poles were 12' long, far too big to fit in the Kangaroo, so the chap very kindly sawed them on half for me.

Needless to say, Ali was made up and had to try it out straight away.....

...and even Choccy got put through her paces!

Very pleased with that......

Chasing!

Seraphina obviously had some energy to burn today, first she chased poor Choccy out of the field.....

....then rounded up the boys and they all went for a gallop, not great photos as it was raining and I only had the phone with me......

A Sunday Hack.....

Having gone to all the trouble of organising babysitters etc do to a TREC today, only to be told we couldn't compete cos the horses weren't on the right list at the Haras, (French paperwork thwarts us again) we decided to get together and go out for a ride anyway......

Tess brought Organza and Coquinette over so there were six of us in all. Everything went very well, Seraphina was an angel, Tess brought Organza's old saddle over to try and it's a pretty good fit. We put Caitlin up on her and she was a little bit unsure for the first five minutes but after that she relaxed and just followed Gandalf nicely.

The only slight problem was Organza trying to attack Choccy, she obviously decided C was going to kill her, reared up and poor Tess fell off, so after that C had to go on the lead and for most of the way I had 2 lead lines to deal with........good job I can multitask.......

Went to Montpeyroux and stopped to have our picnic lunch, there was plenty of grass for the horses.....

....but Gandalf still tried to mug Tanya for her lunch!!