Back to France

So, Easter holidays are here and we've just been back to la maison en France for a week. Not exactly a holiday, mind you. Spent most of the week running around catching up with people. And drinking wine. Quite a lot of wine, as you do.......

Had lined up some riding lessons for Ali back at the club in Porte Ste Foy. Of course she wanted to ride Kinna. Pretty much as soon as we arrived, Carole was phoning to see if we wanted to come and see the horses getting fitted for their new hoof boots before their endurance comp at the weekend. So we went up there and got to catch up with Howard as he told me all about these new boots, Floating Boots, that he gets from Spain.

Like the look of them, even the sole is flexible......

Then it was down to see Tess and her horses who are in a new home and seem very happy and relaxed there. The yard owner has a Mérens mare who is fabulous, the SNO certainly thought so!

Back up to the stables for Ali to ride Kinna - and the little darling did her Tigger impression specially for us ;-)

Got actual sunburn up there standing by the school, having arrived looking like a pale English person. And that was just day 1......

Ali had another lesson on the Saturday on the lovely Nanou, who showed some really nice moments during the flatwork lesson

But the highlight of the week was going to Kinna's first endurance competition. After the usual crack of dawn start and endless drive, we arrived, unloaded, and she was like an overexcited kid, those funny-coloured ears were flicking at everything.....

She didn't want to stand still, pulled away from the trailer, stuck her head in the locker to get at the hay in there, reminded me of the SNO when she's on a mission to get into trouble......when we went for the vet check, she couldn't keep her feet still and even tried to eat the pot plant I thought all this excitement would mean a high heart rate......but no, it was only 28 bpm!!

Her winter coat is coming out in handfuls and where her skin fell off last year there's nothing left, she looks like a bit of a welfare case! They'll have to put suncream on her! But she is on good form, once she was saddled and wearing her new floating boots, she was impatient to be off.

John was intending to keep her at the back, but by the time they came back, she was out in front.....

.....and looking like she could go round again!

Then there was an argument about having water poured over her, she didn't seem to think that was necessary, although it was pretty hot by then (and I was well on the way to getting sunburned again) and more fidgeting and trying to go off and visit other horses or otherwise trying to get John's attention whilst he was trying to get his other horse ready for the 20k ride. Kinns seems to like him, she follows him about. The second vet check gave a heart rate of 48, not so good, but still not bad for a first time out. She came joint 7th with Carole and Valerie's horses both of whom have done this before a fair bit.

So a good day out, the two girls from Carole's on their ponies did very well for a first go, one of them came first as her pony had a returning heartbeat of 32. I miss those guys, can't wait to get back out there this summer.....

Our first endurance competition

Had an interesting day out yesterday, took Gandalf and Seraphina to their first endurance competition. We were only doing the baby class, just 10kms, but it was a good start.

We arrived in sunshine, despite the grim weather forecast and decided to get straight on with it. Except we had no idea really of what to do. So I tracked down Luc, the orgaiser and asked him for a quick beginner's guide to endurance.  He said we needed to get our number and vet card, so we did that. Was also reassured to be given a map, I always get a bit jumpy if I don't have one, it's all those TREC competitions, I suppose.....

Then we had to fetch the horses and take them for a pre race vetting. Having looked at the other horses there (and they were everywhere, tied up to trailers, being saddled, charging off down the field, being walked round in circles with rugs on....) we decided ours looked a bit out of place.......so did some of the other competitors, evidently, given the stares we were getting. Most of the other horses looked like this:

......ours are somewhat fatter and hairier :-)

Anyway, we saw the vets, they measured the horses' resting heart rate (Gandalf's was 32 beats per minute), checked their eyes etc and we had to trot them up. G wasn't too keen on this, and nor was I, good job they didn't need to measure my heart rate afterwards. My dear friend Jo was there to snap me actually running, not a pretty sight....

Anyway, after all that, and some lengthy discussions with Mr Face Like a Slapped Arse head vet because we don't have enough vet stamps on the horses' passports, it was decided we could run, but probably wouldn't get an official result, due to this incorrect paperwork. Fairly typical in this country really, they get very agitated about incorrect paperwork. We also failed to provide copies of our medical certificates. Because we didn't know we needed them. When I mentioned this, and also pointed out that as you have to have a medical certificate before you can have a competition licence, and that without a competition licence you cannot enter the damn competition in the first place, so producing another copy of that certificate is therefore superfluous to requirements, I got the gallic shrug and the "it's the rules" speech.......

So, suitably chastened,  off we went back to the trailer to saddle the horses. Then we went to the starting gate, gave them more bits of paper, got the bits of paper back, then we could finally set off.

I was hoping to have a great action shot to post here of us charging along from the start but sadly my photographer was somewhat occupied helping a poor girl who had fallen off and landed face down on the peak of her helmet which had given her a nasty head wound and a broken nose to boot. And there were entirely no medical staff available whatsoever. Nor was there any urgency to summon them, and until they did finally arrive, some two hours later, my poor friends Tanya and Jo were left to look after the girl......

They probably didn't have the right paperwork to deal with that kind of situation.....

Anyway, Ali and I had a great run, Gandalf was a bit unhappy with some of the stony tracks and had to take it steady, but he made up for it on the better ground and we managed to get to the 5km mark in exactly 30 minutes. We needed to aim for 10/12km/h, and I knew they'd go quicker on the way back so was feeling quite pleased with our efforts when a couple of serious endurance types came charging past us on skinny Arabs wearing enough Lycra to enter the Tour de France. By the time I'd got the camera out, they were mere dots on the horizon....

Undeterred (they were probably doing the 40 or 60km ride anyway), we carried on and the horses did indeed speed up on the way back to the start, so we finished in 55 minutes.

Then it was more papers to hand in at the end and back to the trailer (no photos of us heroically cantering to the finish either due to the continued non arrival of the Pompiers to deal with the faller) to take their tack off and walk them round for half an hour before the final vet check. Gandalf was not impressed with this, being used to coming back from TREC rides and being allowed to stand still and eat hay. This, however, apparently does not help with the optimum heart rate so walking round in circles with a (too small) rug on it was.

By this point the rain had decided to arrive, as had finally the Pompiers, who then proceeded to empty out everything in the trailer to be able to finally get to the poor girl for some medical treatment. So we trudged round in the rain to cool the horses off, let them have some water, then 25 mins after our arrival it was back to the vets for more checks. Gandalf's heart rate was down to 40 bpm, which is quite good, apparently. It was lower than Seraphina's, you can't underestimate these old boys......

So it was a bit of a steep learning curve, we got wet, got told off and didn't get an official result, but I think I might like to try that again sometime.......

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 ;-)

Another busy weekend

On Saturday we did a bit more endurance training, managed about 7 kms at 10km/h, G didn't seem too distressed by that. He was sweating buckets as usual, mind you, and Sorcier, as usual, wasn't.....

Later on, we got the Gazebo of Doom set up properly and did a bit of work with that. Sorcier may be able to outpace G at endurance, but he was not at all keen to get near the white, horse eating monster, even when his mate was not bothered about standing right underneath it......but we got him near it at least......

Then yesterday, the last dry day forecast here for a week, we decided to do some Interdressage, so here is Gandalf's Handy Horse video:

And Fina's Working Hunter Pony one:

Even found a bit of time afterwards to get the Umbrella of Doom out to further scare the ginger one, Fina helped us this time:

He'll get there in the end; she used to be scared of brollies when she first came, look at her now!

Endurance training day 1......

My dear daughter has decided she wants to do some endurance competitions. As she is only 12, and can't go out on her own, this means that on top of the unaccustomed cycling I am doing for the 5x50 Challenge it looks like there will be a further shock to my couch potato system, involving actually riding faster than our habitual gentle amble.....

So I thought I'd see how well Gandalf and I can cope with faster work. Apparently, we need to do 10-12km/h for a 10k endurance comp. The annoyingly fit other half averages 10km/h on the run so I thought, let's go out with him and see if we can keep up!

All was going well, as soon as G saw him run off, he went into trot by himself to stay with him. Ali was behind on Fina (she doesn't start school til 12 on a Thursday, part timer ) and Tan on Ches. G felt really up for it and so I let him go into canter past the Marathon Man. This was fine, until I heard a shout from behind and pulled up to see poor Tanya hanging on to Ches's side, it appeared he'd got over excited and put in a few bucks, she did well to stay on!

Anyway, Mike offered to go back with them as understandably she didn't feel up to carrying on at speed. We did though, and the boy trotted and cantered pretty much the whole way, with a couple of walk breaks after each canter. I didn't need to ask him, he just did his own thing really. My energy must be different from our usual amble around and he picks up on that of course. We did the 5k loop in 30 minutes which is about right. Map here.

Didn't do it a second time as this is only day 1 and also Ali needed to be back for school. Going to try again on Saturday.....and tomorrow I will take Ches out with Mike just in case he gets any ideas about having a bucking session = going home and not doing any more work......

Cycled to Tan's and back too, the old thigh muscles are complaining a bit........

Sorry, no pics, this riding at speed thing means there's not time to take any!!