Freya....

Whilst looking through the pics for Aliénor's post the other day, I got sidetracked looking at Freya's photos and I realised she had been sold before I started this blog, so here is her story.

I bought Freya (or Nancie de la Lande as she is known by the Haras) as a ride for me once Ali was big enough to ride Gandalf. She was an Anglo Arab x Percheron, seven years old at the time, had been bred by the chap who sold me Gandalf for someone to use as a hunter but the chap had sold her back to him as she was too slow. Here she is at her breeder's place, she's on the far left, her dam is on the far right

I shouldn't have bought her because I knew that "too slow" probably meant "difficult" and also at the time she was in foal. But I did, but obviously couldn't really get started until little Merlin put in an appearance in 2008. I just missed him being born, when I got there she still hadn't expelled the afterbirth and he was still a bit wet, but already on his feet:

He was a lovely little chap, but as he was by an Arab stallion I knew he probably wouldn't be chunky enough for me in the future so he was sold to the owner of the place they were at livery at the time. I got to help with his first few weeks and months though, it was a fantastic experience.......

Anyway, after he was weaned and Freya came home, the real fun started. I had already had a few issues with her to iron out, she had learned for instance that swinging her impressively large posterior at people usually got them to move out of her way and stopped them making her do stuff she didn't want to do. Like having fly spray/masks on and suchlike. But it didn't take her long to realise that I wouldn't be intimidated by her and she got used to these things. Turned out that there were a load more things she objected to once she came home though. Like wearing a saddle and going out into the big scarey wide world.......

It was like having a newly backed youngster. She spooked at everything, she didn't like dogs, cars, tractors, white lines on the road, level crossings, bicycles, speed bumps and babies. This last one was overcome fairly quickly as the SNO was tiny at the time! The first time we cantered, on the first hack I did with Ali, she had a serious go at bucking me off. She didn't manage it though.......I realised that "too slow" for hunting probably meant "left him eating dirt".......

But I continued to hack her out when I could. And sometimes she was great.....

.....but her shenanigans were worrying Ali,although Gandalf never attempted to copy her, and as I didn't have the time to devote to her training having had the SNO, I reluctantly sold her (to the people who had bought Merlin, as it turned out). She was a real character and I miss her......

And she taught me a lot, and it stood me in good stead for dealing with another mare with attitude and certain ideas of her own in the future.......

Baby photos

Was showing a friend some of Sky's photos today, I'd forgotten how cute she was as a baby, she's growing so fast......

I even found a little video clip of her with mum.......

A new project....

In June, I sold my second horse and decided that the next one would be a baby because I don't want to spend all my time correcting other people's mistakes (OK, so that's exactly what I'm doing with a donkey right now, but that's another story.....). I went to see several youngsters here in France, but even these yearlings and two year olds have problems, merely because they've generally never been handled, some of them we couldn't even get near, so no way could we imagine getting them in a trailer! I have always wanted an Appaloosa horse, a "Spotty Botty", but they are very expensive here, so I started looking back in the UK. And I found this:




An Appaloosa x cob filly who actually looked like she might grow up strong enough to carry me around!! Also, the price wasn't outrageous......

So I blagged the price of a flight to the UK, turned up on mum's doorstep and set off to not so sunny Herefordshire the next morning to see this baby. What a treat! A field full of beautiful coloured horses, mares and foals running with a magnificent Appaloosa stallion, it was an amazing sight......the mares were all big gentle cobs, reminding me of my current horse, the lovely Gandalf, chunky and well mannered. I decided pretty much right away I would have her and paid my deposit that morning, took a ton of photos and rushed back to the airport for my flight home.

Now all I have to do is wait for her to arrive in November after weaning.........