Sunny day pictures

Went up to see the girls today and they were being exceptionally cute so I took a few pictures:

....and another portrait

this time of Sky, done by my lovely friend Sarah

She does fabulous drawings, her blog is here

The ride to the lake

Had a greaty day today, all that preparation paid off, the sun came out, lunch was fabulous thanks to Harveys Restaurant and we raised  €100 for Equine Rescue France.

Some pictures:

More pictures here

More portraits

My artist friend has been at it again, she's done a couple of oils of Gandalf:

I like the second one best.......
More of her work here

Trial run....

...of the Lake Ride today, we did the whole thing. Lovely sunny frosty morning.....

....still sunny by the time we got to the lake nearly 3 hours later, met a nice English couple out walking their dogs, they stopped to admire Gandalf so I got them to take a pic:

However, by the time I'd got round the lake to the beach and stopped for my flask of tea and sandwiches, the clouds had arrived

So after lunch, time for a quick drink and splash in the lake then it was time to go home.

It took 3 hours to get to the lake, 12kms all at the walk, then 2 hours to do the 8km return journey. Not a bad day out.....

All together now.....

Took the boys and girls all up to Bonneville today, Mav was a bit excited but apart from that it went very well! The girls took it all in their stride and were curious about things but not really spooky.

When we went up a steep hill, Mav got a bit silly because he'd rather have cantered up it....

.... so I ended up with both girls for a while and they were very good.

And once we were at the top of the hill it was very windy but they didn't use that as an excuse for being too lively, in fact all they wanted to do was eat.....

We had to go through the woods too, no problem

And then we got to the boys' usual field, the girls couldn't believe their luck! Much running about ensued

It was actually quite fun taking them all out at once once they'd settled down, we're going to do it some more!

More ride and lead

Skyfaxa again today, lovely sunny day. She was a bit livelier than last time but still pretty good really. Only one spook at a loose dog running up behind her (Choccy was with us, she doesn't get a reaction, but this was a different matter, obviously!)

Couple of times she tried to get in front of Gandalf and dive for the grass on the verge so a sharp jerk on the leadrope was in order. Didn't have to do it more than twice, the girl learns fast........

Gandalf, as ever, was a star......take a bow, that boy!