She's back!

My last post was very sad, but in many ways due to us losing the old boy, this post is very much happier. Because shortly after his death, Kinna ended up on the market. Remember Kinna? The little odd coloured Appaloosa with the fluffy teddy bear ears and gangly legs. We had to leave her behind when we left France because we just couldn't afford to bring all four of them with us, let alone pay UK livery prices for four. She went to our friends John and Carole when we relocated back to the UK.

But now she was for sale, along with many of their other horses, as they were having to sell the business. and we now had a spare livery space. So with the financial backing of our friend Emma, we hatched a plan to get her back. There was a fair amount of paperwork involved, things have changed since we brought the others back, but yesterday it all finally happened and she stepped off the huge lorry (we used LOC International again, another excellent job), cool as a cucumber......

I think she was pretty happy to see Sky again, but the feeling doesn't seem to be reciprocated so for the moment we have put her in with Tari, who has chased her about a bit but basically doesn't let things like new horses arriving get in the way of important things like eating. For all her chasing, Kinna can easily outpace her and dances away with a contemptuous flick of her hindlegs.....

We're very happy to have he back, and are looking forward to having lots of fun with her again :-)

Vive la différence...?

We've been back in the UK for about a year and a half now, and there are some things I've really noticed are different over here when it comes to horses. Before we moved to France I never owned a horse, keeping one was too expensive basically. I rode a lot though, worked at a local stables when I was younger, learned the "traditional" way of doing things, saw people out and about on horses all the time, it all seemed normal to me.

But after 12 years in France, my perspective has definitely changed. I got my first horse, realised how much I didn't know, started questioning things, learning new things, going to clinics, riding with lots of different people and gradually things evolved from me having a horse because I wanted to ride to having a horse (or two, or three) because I also like being with them and working with them, and wanted to understand them better and make their lives as pleasant and stress-free as possible as domestic horses.

Ali and Seraphina competing at Porte Ste Foy

In France, Ali and I hacked out on hairy, muddy horses. We rode in rope headcollars or bitless bridles, we showed up at TREC or endurance competitions in hi viz gear with never a thought of plaiting, or turnout. Yes, you were expected to put a jacket (if it wasn't too hot!) and light jodhs on for jumping, but that was about it. Never even saw a sign of  hairnets or tweed......apart from on the ex-pats ;-)

Gandalf and I at a TREC competition in Cleyrac

Over here, we continue to hack out on hairy, muddy horses. No one else seems to though! We meet many shiny, clean horses, often sporting a collection of exercise sheets, boots and bandages that make it hard to see the horse underneath it all. They often quite literally look down on us from the lofty height of their TB/WB/sports horse types and very few of them say as much as hello. If you met someone out hacking in France, you'd stop for a chat, even if you'd never met them before. Only one other rider has done that to us since we got here (and she was riding a barefoot horse in a headcollar).

In France, no one mentioned the fact that you were riding a draft cross, cos often they were too. No one saw the need to comment that your horse didn't have shoes on, cos often theirs didn't either. And in all the years of riding over there no one ever felt the need to tell me that riding in a headcollar on the road is dangerous because I don't have control over my horse without a bit. Here on the other hand.........

I miss France!

A lot has changed....

So it's new Year's Eve, traditionally time to look back over the last year, a lot has changed for us in the last year. In January, we said goodbye to our lovely Fina as she went to her new home with Sheila in the Lot. When we went to visit a few months later, it was clear she'd settled in well and was happy with her new life.

She'd grown her hair too, suits her......

 

Ali and I then started the sometimes hazardous job of teaching Kinna how to behave, she began the year with many tantrums and arguments.....

Slowly she started to realise that some cooperation would result in an easier life, although she continued to express her opinions........

Sky too began her ridden career, and she also had her moments......!

Mr G was as ever, the perfect gent and took the girls' antics in his stride.

He may or may not have been impressed when after Kinna departed to Sarah's for summer school, she was replaced with another baby, the Blonde Bombshell.....

Towards the second half of the year, we made the decision to relocate back to the UK so some decisions needed to be made. As it was apparent that Kinna wasn't going to grow as much as we'd hoped, we asked Carole up at the riding club if she'd be interested in taking her on, and so off she went. She's now having to work for a living, being schooled by Carole and hacked out by her husband, John, who has his eye on her for a bit of endurance.

And so after 8 years of having horses in France, Gandalf, Sky and Tari moved with us to the UK in December.

And here we are, in Gloucestershire, the horses seem to like their new digs (although they still have some reservations about the cows). The hacking here is.....different, I miss the ease of riding through the vines and the hacks to the river or the lake, but the countryside here is just as scenic and we're looking forward to discovering more of it.

So here's to a good year in 2014, well, it should be, after all, it is the Chinese Year of the Horse!

En Angleterre......

Well, here we are on the other side of the channel and so far so good. Got a text on Tuesday from Loraine, the new YO, saying the horses were expected to arrive at around midnight, then another one to say they'd actually arrived at 3am! But were fine and calm and not too stiff :-)

We came over on Thursday, arriving at about 1am, so first thing Friday morning we went down to see them. Predictably they were right down the far end of the 16 acre field.....
Sky was limping a bit and it looked like she's been kicked, why am I not surprised that she'd be the one to try and get bolshy? Hopefully she's learned her lesson.....

Been going down to check Sky's leg every day. Fun and games getting her out of the field with loads of other horses running about, G gallantly trying to fend them off and Tari thinking it's a huge game and charging around with her tail in the air. Think they'll settle down slowly. Sky is very interested in the resident stallion and calls to him every time she's up in the yard......

She's still limping and not too keen on me cleaning her wound (probably because I'm using TCP and it stings) but apart from that she's her usual self and eating fine etc so I'm not too worried. 

(On the hill in the background is the Tyndale Monument in North Nibley, the village we lived in when I was a kid. William Tyndale was a 16th century reformer who translated the Bible into English and got burned at the stake for his pains and the Victorians decided to build him a monument......)

The rest of the herd is still largely ignoring them, apart from telling them to get lost, although the little coloured cob, Murphy, is sort of hanging out with them and another horse is starting to look interested so bit by bit they'll integrate.

Gandalf REALLY likes the local mud and only has a few white bits left......