We've moved again :-)

Last Friday saw myself and my mate Alick hitting the road with the horses to take them to a new home. Remember the French couple I met t the Western clinic a couple of months ago? Well they keep their two horses at a yard literally down the road from us which I never knew existed. I called the owner and she had just lost 4 horses so actually had space for us. Not only that, but in a huge field on the side of a hill that hasn't been fertilised for cattle for years and, the best bit, they don't have to come in at night. Ever. Not even in the winter.

So I made plans and we moved them at the earliest opportunity. 'Twas a nice 6 or 7 mile hack over there, through the woods I used to ride in as a kid......

Rather nice view on the track overlooking Wotton too....

...and when we arrived, some of the other liveries were around and they were very welcoming, including the French couple, Cécile and Julien. Nice to have someone to practise my French with :-)

Took the horses up to their new field and they seemed to settle in very quickly. They are sharing with a TB, a 20 year old cob, and a cheeky chestnut fluffy-footed cob called Blaze who took an immediate liking to Gandalf and herded him away from the girls!

He doesn't seem to mind, and the bromance is still going strong. Blaze reminds me of Chester, the same curiosity and occasional attempts to take over, but responds well to being told "no". Also has an impressive moustache!

Gorgeous views from the top of the field, not that the horses care, but we love spending time up there

And everyone else there has been very friendly and seem very relaxed and laid back. I have even been given the go ahead to do some horseback archery :-)

Happy days.......

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.

One less kitty.....

The kittens are 8 weeks old today and one of them has already gone to his new home:

the little grey and white boy. He's gone to live with a friend of my neighbour, they are calling him Réglisse (liquorice in French). Éowyn didn't want them to take him, she kept saying "it's my mum's cat!" I am taking his grey & white sister to her new home on Thursday, she's been christened Betty, she's going to an English family up near Ribérac. So then it will just be Velcro left......